Communicating with First Nations Peoples

Communicating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

 Students need to develop appropriate and competent communication skills for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They need to

• be aware of differences in verbal and non-verbal communication
• appreciate the variations in linguistic and cultural aspects of interactions
• recognise miscommunication
• understand the serious consequences of communication breakdown

These skills and understanding will require time and experience to develop. However, a number of valuable resources can support students as they develop their communicative competence:

• Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) 
• Queensland Health Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Division 
• Edith Cowan University - Creating cultural empathy and challenging attitudes through Indigenous narratives
• Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health - Sharing the True Stories:  improving communication in Indigenous health care
• The Value of Deep Listening - The Aboriginal Gift to the Nation - Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson. TedX

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Written Communication

Students also need to develop effective written communication that is appropriately adapted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Allowing students to spend some time reading reports and letters you have written is important. It might also be useful to provide them with some simple guidelines.

For example, the University of Queensland Interprofesssional Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology Clinic at the Murri School in Brisbane provides students with Documentation Guidelines :

Documentation Guidelines

Writing professional documentation for different audiences is a clinical skill. All health professionals need to learn to effectively communicate with their clients and colleagues. We write reports in positive language and use simple words and phrases in conversational language so it is much less formal than other reports you may write. However, documentation still needs to be professional, specific and measurable.

Positive language: Where possible, use “needs support with” or “is still learning how to…” rather than “has difficulty with”. This is especially true for the whole class skill development program. In the targeted therapy sessions for children with known difficulties, you may need to use the language of “difficulty with”.

Simple informal language: use the following substitutions:

Specific and Measurable: Avoid using “poor”, “fine” or “good” as these are subjective terms which we can’t measure. Instead, describe the child’s performance - what they could or could not do. When writing the final report, make sure you use examples to illustrate the “cut and paste” statements where relevant. These examples need to be child-specific and drawn from your progress notes or other observations so it is important that you record this information throughout the program. If you make a statement that a client is ‘sometimes able to ....’ or ‘not able to ......’, then you need to note what the client does in these instances.

All client related assessments, progress notes and reports are legal documents.

Additional Communication Resources

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s language development and use

Education Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Statement provides the basis to assist Queensland educators and school communities to support the languages and cultures of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students within the school context.

'My Language Matters' is a useful audiovisual resource that aims to provide  understanding that many Indigenous students are ‘invisible’ language learners and outlines the processes required to ensure that every Indigenous student is provided the support they need to access the curriculum.