The economics of Aboriginal education
This paper analyses broad patterns in Australian Aboriginal affairs and indigenous education since colonisation. The influence of these patterns on educational initiatives over the last 20 years is explored in some detail. Discussion highlights the level of systemic bias and structural violence which continue to influence Aboriginal life chances and, by extension, educational achievement among indigenous Australians despite state and federal policies designed to enhance educational access and equity. Of particular concern is that such policies are not closely integrated with community development and appear to continue to press for assimilation rather than self‐determination. As such, indigenous education appears to intensify levels of systemic frustration in Aboriginal communities. These issues are illustrated by an analysis of educational attainments among Aboriginal students in relation to those of other Australians and government expenditure.
There was movement at the station: western education at Moola Bulla, 1910-1955

Purpose
The focus of this paper is to centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla Native Cattle Station (Moola Bulla) in Western Australia, between 1910 and 1955. Of interest is an investigation into how government legislations and policies influenced these experiences and perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to promote the powerful narrative that simultaneously acknowledges injustice and honours Aboriginal agency.


Design/methodology/approach
The research from which this paper is drawn moves away from colonial, paternalistic and racist interpretations of history; it is designed to decolonise the narrative of Aboriginal education in remote Western Australia. The research uses the wide and deep angle lens of qualitative historical research, filtered by decolonising methodologies and standpoint theory. Simultaneously, the paper valorises the contributions Indigenous academics are making to the decolonisation of historical research.


Findings
Preliminary findings suggest the narrative told by the residents who were educated at Moola Bulla support a reframing of previous deficit misrepresentations of indigeneity into strength-based narratives. These narratives, or “counter stories”, articulate resistance to colonial master narratives.


Social implications
This paper argues that listening to Aboriginal lived experiences and perceptions of western education from the past will better inform our engagement with the delivery of equitable educational opportunities for Aboriginal students in remote contexts in the future.


Originality/value
This paper will contribute to the wider academic community by addressing accountability in Aboriginal education. Most important to the study is the honouring of the participants and families of those who once lived on Moola Bulla, many who are speaking back through the telling of their story.

Structural and Direct Violence
In comparing these two types of violence only one aspect of structural violence will be discussed here: that which kills, although slowly, and undramatically from the point of view of direct violence. It should be kept in mind that there are very many other very different types of structural violence. In order to compare violence that kills slowly and violence that kills quickly, violence that is anonymous and violence that has an author, there has to be a common unit. Direct violence is usually measured in number of deaths. One could approach structural violence in the same way, looking at e.g. the number of avoidable deaths that occur because medical and sanitary resources are concentrated in the upper classes. One problem of deaths, however, is that they occur at different ages, and we feel that the loss involved is greater in (he death of a child than in that of an adult. A more appropriate measure would therefore be the numnber of years lost, which we shall use to measure both direct and structural violence. In evaluating the amount of direct or structural violence we compare the real world not with an ideal world in an abstract sense, but with a potential world. Death as such is unavoidable, but we would consider all war-deaths as potentially avoidable, and a great number of deaths from illnesses and accidents as caused by the existing distribution of wealth and power. In most countries, that is, the average level of health could be raised through a redistribution of present resources. There is an avoidable deprivation of life, measured in lost man-years. If a society has the resources medical, organizational, financial to give an average life expectancy of c years to its members, then the question is whether the average life expectancy of social groups is correlated with social position, so dilat the lower the social position, the lower thelife expectancy. In other words, we assume that life expectancy, L, is a function of social position, S, the latter defined as ranging from O to 1: