Indigenous boarding schools 'tragedy'

An Indigenous research fellow at Sydney University says the Federal Government's commitment of almost $12 million to upgrade Indigenous boarding schools is a tragedy.

Vicki Grieves from the Department of Anthropology says governments keep looking for a quick fix when it comes to Aboriginal affairs and tend to adopt a one size fits all approach to Indigenous people.

Ms Grieves says boarding school is not a viable option for remote Indigenous education in central Australia.

She says a more culturally appropriate curriculum is needed.

"How is it that you can shift this Western curriculum into Aboriginal communities and expect it to work?" she said.

"Children need to be able to build on what they already know.

"If you've got an assumption that children are going to know the same kinds of things as kids in suburban Sydney or Melbourne then you're not going to be successful as a teacher."

She says there needs to be a lot more research into remote Indigenous education to develop a more culturally appropriate curriculum.

"If you go there and you find out where they're actually coming from, [if you] actually incorporate their language and Aboriginal English into the classroom, incorporate what they think is important," she said.

"People are now using, for example, the very complicated kinship systems in communities to teach mathematics. How come people haven't thought of this before?"

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Porn ban in Indigenous communities 'racist'

The Australian National Adult Retail Association (Eros) says the Federal Government's ban on X-rated pornography in Aboriginal communities is pointless, racist and should be revoked.

As part of the Government's intervention, X-rated films were banned from Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Eros's chief executive Fiona Patten says there is no proof that the ban has reduced the level of sexual assault in the Territory.

She says it would be better to educate Aborigines about film classifications and what they mean for children.

"It's inherently racist and inherently patronising and it goes back to the times of the 30s and 40s when you would say its all right for me to read Lady Chatterly's Lover but I wouldn't want my servants to read it," she said.

"The absolute hypocrisy of this is that sexually violent R-rated material that may depict sexual assault and even child sexual assault is absolutely legal to possess and view in and display in the remote communities.

"It is very negative towards Indigenous Australians."

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Intervention 'a smokescreen for land grab'

A delegate at an anti-intervention conference being held in Sydney this weekend says the general feeling is that the intervention is all about taking land away from Indigenous people.

Greg Eatock from the Aboriginal Rights Coalition says about 150 people have come from Aboriginal communities from around Australia, including the Northern Territory, to call for an immediate halt to the intervention.

He says one topic that has been discussed is the exodus of Aboriginal people from communities into towns.

He says people at the conference believe that is a deliberate strategy by the Federal Government, which wants to take Aboriginal land and use it for mining.

"If you talk to many Aboriginal people you find they don't support the intervention, they're aware that when it was brought down this whole thing about child sexual assault was a smokescreen and they do support this campaign," he said.

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A delegation leaves today for the annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

Delegation Leader Les Malezer says parts of the intervention, like income management, breach United Nations charters on racial discrimination and human rights.

"What we hope to do is at least make people aware internationally of the extent of racial discrimination that occurs only against Aboriginal people in Australia and that continues despite changes of government," he said.

"Despite decades of supposed reforms in Australia, it's still the most discriminatory place in the world."

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