title: Speaking up and speaking back to high school and post-school transition experiences:
title: An Indigenised narratology exploring education for the life success of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on Darumbal Country
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Mann, Melinda
Publisher: name: Central Queensland University
Year: 2019
Subjects: Education
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Darumbal Country
School experiences
Belonging
Becoming
Learning

description: This thesis tells a story of the lands belonging to the Darumbal people located in the coastal region of Central Queensland, Australia, through the lives of a select number of young people connected to the Country as either Traditional Custodians or as members of other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups who have relocated to this area. In particular, the research examines how ten young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced school and how they leveraged those experiencesto transition into family and community roles as young adults. An Indigenist framework, as developed by Martin and Mirraboopa in 2003, is used in this study to explore the experiences of this very specific group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as students of secondary and tertiary educational institutions and as staff of workplaces in the local area. This research sought to understand what is happening to, for and amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in high schools and how these experiences impact firstly, their transition out of formal schooling into further study and employment and secondly, the roles they assume within their families and community as young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander professionals. A highly selective literature review focused on relevant published studies concerning a “strengths‐based” approach informed the methods used to understand the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderstudents in the school environment. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, General Managers and Chief Executive Officers of local organisations recommended the ten young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living and working on Darumbal country, who in turn participated in two semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews. Four of the ten participants were involved in a series of two focus groups, referred to as Yarning Circles in this study. The transcribed data was analysed through a process of coding and categorising in order to identify themes based on similarities, likeness and homogeneity, identifying six majorthemes: students acting as cultural ambassadors; simultaneously creating and being created as cultural ambassadors for the future; creating intricate webs of relationships; creating and acquiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural capital; exercising their autonomy and interdependence; and navigating cultural obligations with school expectations. Profiles of each participant were developed to identify each personal narrative. The thesis concludes that participants actively pursued a process of ‘belonging and becoming’. School spaces were appropriated to facilitate their desire for ‘belongingness’ and skills, abilities and aspirations were developed consistent with the goal of ‘becoming’ the future of their families and communities. Their recent experiences of completing Year 12, working and studying on Darumbal country informed post‐school pathways that are simultaneously professional and cultural by necessity. The findings illustrate the environment which young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people studying and working on Darumbal country have identified as valuable in their pursuit of belonging and becoming at the core of their identities. Whilst this research examines a very specific group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a particular location the learnings from this study could offer an insight into other groups of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on other Aboriginal and Torres Strait lands; and potentially extended to other First Nations’ people elsewhere.