In the recent history of Australia Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have only had widespread access to a university education for approximately 20 years. Before this, Indigenous graduates from Australian universities were relatively few. Universities were seen as complex, often alien places in Indigenous cultural terms; institutions of European Australian social empowerment and credentialling from which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students were virtually excluded.

These are the views on the current position of Aboriginal disempowerment in Australian society, expressed by Lois O'Donoghue (1995: 5).

The word culture is defined by Singer, 1988: 6) as:

It is obvious from this definition that each one of us belongs to one culture or another, each culture encapsulating a totality of a way of living, expectation and behaviour that is specifically unique to that group. Culture is constituted in our daily lives, in our negotiations and adjustments to experience day-to-day existence.

This article is based on an interview conducted with four of the central figures in the development and operation of the Arrernte Early Childhood Project. The project works with Aboriginal families in the centre of Australia and is developing culturally appropriate curricula for children aged from three to six years, in the Arrernte language.

The project stresses the need to involve grandparents, aunts, uncles and elders in the development of curricula so that the Arrernte culture can stay alive alongside other Australian cultures.

The Strelley Community School is an Aboriginal Independent Community School — the first one established in Western Australia in 1976 and remains the oldest continually operational school of its kind in Australia. The Nomads Charitable and Educational Foundation is the school authority responsible for articulating school policy and administration.

There are now 13 Aboriginal Independent Community Schools in Western Australia and twenty three nationally (Mack,1995). They share a common philosophy of being non-government school systems created and administered by the community. Parents and students have a proactive role in determining school policies.

Firstly let me introduce myself to you. My name is Irene Calgaret. I am an Aboriginal of the Nyungar people from Bunbury, Western Australia. I attend Edith Cowan University, Bunbury as a first-year student, studying English as my major.

I am the mother of three lovely daughters and the grand-mother of four wonderful grand-sons. I have been a nurse for 25 years, employed at local Government and private hospitals, and at various other small, country town hospitals in our very large state of Western Australia.

According to this teacher, assimilation is inevitable, therefore the school should assist that process. This paper examines and presents a perspective on the extent and effect of assimilation and suggests that the negative outcomes of the education of Nyungars is a result of assimilationist teaching practices and school culture. Further, it recommends that Nyungar education be underpinned by Nyungar control of Nyungar education, which consists of the followingprinciples: Nyungar decision-makers, Nyungar teachers, Nyungar parent involvement in educational implementation and decision-making and culturally appropriate teaching methods and teaching spaces.

This report looked at the important, but contentious issue of alternative assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people studying at the tertiary level. Presented below, its findings give expression to the views of 47 respondents, chosen from Indigenous communities, Commonwealth and State Government departments, the tertiary education sector and business.