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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australians are significantly and substantially less likely to be attending school on a given day than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This has been shown to have long-term consequences for the development of the mainstream literacy and numeracy skills associated with formal schooling, as well as later school and employment outcomes. Reducing this gap is a key focus of government education policy within Australia. Hampering the design of effective policy, however, is the lack of a robust empirical and theoretical framework to explain school (non-)attendance that not only builds on existing research, but also reflects the specific circumstances and aspirations of Indigenous students and their families. This article applies mixed-methods quantitative and qualitative techniques to explore what Indigenous student (non-)attendance in Australia might tell us regarding the relationship between highly marginalised student groups and formal education systems. A robust understanding of these geographically and socio-culturally situated school (non-)attendance patterns and processes allows us to build on and contribute to human capital, critical, resistance, and other behavioural theories of formal education and draw parallels for other population sub-groups globally, especially those that display ongoing patterns of high geographic mobility. Our analysis suggests that absenteeism amongst marginalised and/or highly mobile populations, may be most usefully conceived of as a manifestation of structural incompatibilities between formal schooling systems and the life projects and circumstances of these school-aged children and their families.

In recent years, social scientists have turned increasing scholarly focus to the ‘post-colonial city’, as it relates to the lived experiences and socio-cultural worlds of urban-dwelling Indigenous peoples. In Australia, this literature is concerned primarily with issues of identity, power and representation in big cities. More conventional geographic analyses regarding socio-spatial, economic and demographic aspects of urban Indigenous experience have been mostly absent from this discourse. In this paper, we begin to address this gap within the literature by identifying notable socio-spatial, economic, and demographic features of urban Indigenous experience in regional Australian cities. We draw on census and administrative data to empirically examine Indigenous residency, presence, and uneven housing market access in regional urban centres. The analysis builds a national comparative picture regarding population change, tenure type, crowding and housing affordability in these localities. At the same time, it ‘drills down’ to explore some of the drivers and implications of change against these indicators in one case study locality: Geraldton Western Australian. This case study analysis, based on recent fieldwork, grounds the broad identified trends in a localised narrative, illuminating some of general and specific socio-economic and socio-spatial dynamics that shape urban life for Indigenous peoples in regional Australia and the implications of these dynamics for broader questions of co-existence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The intercensal period (2006-2011) was a time of significant policy and population change in Indigenous affairs. The aim of this paper is to document the changing distribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and housing geographies over that period. We use the Indigenous Region structure developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to show that Indigenous Australians grew at a rate that significantly outstrips the non-Indigenous population with an increasing concentration of the Indigenous population on the urban eastern seaboard and particularly among older people. We present results that show that for certain measures, the housing situation of the Indigenous population in 2011 had improved relative to the Indigenous population in 2006. A smaller proportion of Indigenous households were estimated to live in an overcrowded dwelling compared with Indigenous households in 2006. There were also significant increases in the per cent of Indigenous households that owned or were purchasing their own home. Other results might be seen as less positive with community housing (a tenure type identified as having benefits in both qualitative and quantitative analysis) declining in importance. In net terms though, Indigenous households continue to experience a high degree of housing need. Compared with other households, they were 3.7 times as likely to live in an overcrowded dwelling.

Focusing on the coexistence of competing and contested interests in intercultural natural resource management (NRM) systems in Australia and Malaysia, this paper explores the ways in which ontological pluralism and the interplay of socio-cultural, political-economic and biophysical influences shape NRM systems. We aim to foster a discursive space in which to reframe the challenges of capacity building in the rapidly changing spaces of intercultural NRM systems. The paper synthesizes the conceptual arguments of field research to conclude that capacity deficits of dominant institutions, processes and knowledge systems drive many systemic failures in land and sea management affecting Indigenous peoples. We advocate urgent action to build intercultural competence and new capacities and competencies in those institutions. The paper reframes intercultural NRM in terms of coexistence and invites wider debate about these ` new geographies of coexistence' in intercultural NRM systems.

Indigenous Australians have often been described as highly mobile people—particularly in historical and remote ‘wilderness’ contexts. The literature paints a picture of regular, short-term population movement within and between desert, hinterland, and tropic regions of Australia, with significant implications for targeting and delivering a range of health, housing, and education services in these regions. To date though, very little research has examined the nature of Indigenous temporary mobility in and through urban environments. Scant scholarly consideration has been given to how cities and large regional centres feature in the mobility networks of Indigenous peoples. This paper examines the relationship between Indigenous temporary mobility and service delivery in the town of Broome, Western Australia. It explores various kinds of data—both qualitative and quantitative—that can be drawn upon to better characterise, explain and engage with Indigenous temporary mobilities through regional centres such as Broome. In particular, it focuses on experience in the formal primary school sector as a window onto the relationship between temporary mobility and service delivery in the town. Administrative education data generally supported the existing local narratives: that most Indigenous temporary movement through Broome is the product of service-related in- and out-moves amongst Indigenous people whose primary connections lie outside the town; and that Indigenous Broome locals were generally less mobile than many Indigenous groups in other parts of the Kimberley. While these administrative data are limited in their capacity to render statistically visible the full spectrum of temporary population dynamics, they can be used to develop a clearer picture of the frequency, duration, direction and scale of temporary movement through regional centres. Because these locales play a particularly critical role in shaping Indigenous mobility practices and networks across the settle

In the present era of evidence-based policy making in Indigenous affairs, where the monitoring and closure of socioeconomic gaps dominates the federal agenda, data have become paramount. Yet with regard to one of the cornerstones of the Labor government’s ‘Closing the Gaps’ initiative—Indigenous education—the reliability of the evidence base has been repeatedly called into question. Further, existing educational administrative data, as they are conventionally reported, fail to elucidate some of the key structural drivers of Indigenous educational disadvantage. For example, reported enrolment and attendance data often present an incomplete picture of Indigenous engagement with the formal education sector because they are not collected or reported in ways that adequately illuminate the realities of Indigenous temporary mobility practices. Drawing upon textual analysis and interviews with relevant public servants, this paper summarises administrative data management systems in five State and Territory public education departments, as the basis for evaluating the relationship between existing data and the realities of student mobility. It argues that both enrolment and attendance collections have the potential to render these movements more visible to, and instructive for, educators and policy makers responsible for designing, implementing and evaluating the delivery of formal education programs to highly mobile Indigenous students. To this end, it canvasses a range of potential reforms. The paper concludes by calling for significant reconceptualising and adaptation from both practitioners and policy makers in order to leverage enrolment and attendance data as more meaningful evidence when evaluating Indigenous engagement with formal education systems.

Local area population counts and estimates are crucial inputs into policy planning and processes. However, population mobility in general, as well as large numbers of visitors to particular areas, place additional demands on resources and those providing

Since British colonisation of Australia began, Aboriginal mobility practices have been poorly understood within the Anglo-Australian consciousnesses. This paper examines current discourses and conceptualisations of Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country, Western Australia. Finding none of these explanations and interpretations singularly sufficient to encompass the diverse spatial practices of Aboriginal people in the region, the paper proposes an alternative framework for interpreting and understanding these population dynamics. The central tenet of this reconceptualisation is that contemporary Aboriginal spatialities - including spatial distribution, movements, and immobility - are iteratively shaped by the processes of procuring, contesting, and cultivating security and belonging. In a conscious shift away from generalised and pejorative interpretations of Aboriginal mobility, this more holistic framework considers historical and geographical context, cultural identity, and individual aspirations.

Local area population counts and estimates are crucial inputs into policy planning and processes. However, population mobility in general, as well as large numbers of visitors to particular areas, place additional demands on resources and those providing essential services. The literature identifies a pressing need for standardised quantitative measures of the volume, frequency and flows of Indigenous temporary mobility and comparable spatial scales. In this paper we present an analysis of census data as it relates to Indigenous temporary mobility and analyse the spatial and demographic complexities that underwrite them. While the census remains the only consistent and nationally comprehensive data set on Indigenous temporary mobility that provides important insights, the overall findings from this analysis suggest that it remains a relatively blunt instrument in the task of identifying the full range of factors that drive and shape Indigenous temporary movement. We conclude that researchers, policy makers and Indigenous populations must seek and develop additional data sources from which the drivers and dynamics of Indigenous temporary mobility and residency patterns might be identified.

A range of Indigenous population dynamics play out underneath the demographic picture that can be constructed from official statistics. Primary among these are temporary mobility practices. Although temporary movements are largely 'uncaptured' by conventional statistical measures, they are pervasive in public life and thought. Words like 'walkabout' and 'nomadic' are commonly used in public discourse to characterise Indigenous people as highly mobile over the short-term, and such movement is regularly constructed as problematic for mainstream health, education and housing providers. This paper draws together the disparate body of existing research regarding Indigenous temporary mobilities to build a more comprehensive picture of these population dynamics and their policy implications. It describes the temporal, spatial and demographic dimensions of Indigenous temporary mobilities, analyses the key contextual factors that shape them, and outlines how these population dynamics relate to the governing state. The paper concludes with an exploratory discussion of the policy options and implications relating to Indigenous temporary mobility. It outlines a number of areas that require further research and proposes productive ways forward as policy makers and service providers seek to more actively and intentionally engage with Indigenous temporary mobility practices.

The delivery of basic government services to remotely living and frequently mobile Indigenous populations is a highly contentious issue; one which has recently received considerable focus at a Federal policy level. Because of distinct motivations, frequencies, and spatialisation, Indigenous mobility practices in many rural and remote areas unsettle conventional Western frameworks of government service delivery, which assume relative sedentarisation. Many services are provided chiefly through fixed, permanent infrastructure such as hospital clinics and schools that promote and cater to single-locale, stationary lifestyles. In addition, neo-liberal cost pressures are reshaping service delivery models into more acute ‘hub and spoke’ configurations: services are increasingly withdrawn from rural and remote areas and concentrated in regional and metropolitan centres. Consequently, Indigenous people living in regional and remote areas and/or who continue to engage in frequent movements often have more sporadic and contested interactions with government service agencies. This paper contends that understanding Indigenous spatiality is critical to redressing the inequitable and often inefficient nature of service delivery that has lingered in rural and remote Australia since colonisation began. Whilst the related literature acknowledges the effectual relationship between Indigenous mobility and service delivery, few published studies examine the substance of this relationship in any detail. Drawing on research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, this paper provides a thorough and focused examination of the relationship between Indigenous spatiality and the delivery of State housing, health and education services. The analysis is based on a careful engagement with the lived experiences of a group of Indigenous people in the region, and the service providers with whom they interact. By examining localised Indigenous mobility processes, and the challenges of servicing popula

In the present era of evidence-based policy making in Indigenous affairs, where the monitoring and closure of socioeconomic gaps dominates the federal agenda, data have become paramount. Yet with regard to one of the cornerstones of the Labor government’s ‘Closing the Gaps’ initiative—Indigenous education—the reliability of the evidence base has been repeatedly called into question. Further, existing educational administrative data, as they are conventionally reported, fail to elucidate some of the key structural drivers of Indigenous educational disadvantage. For example, reported enrolment and attendance data often present an incomplete picture of Indigenous engagement with the formal education sector because they are not collected or reported in ways that adequately illuminate the realities of Indigenous temporary mobility practices. Drawing upon textual analysis and interviews with relevant public servants, this paper summarises administrative data management systems in five State and Territory public education departments, as the basis for evaluating the relationship between existing data and the realities of student mobility. It argues that both enrolment and attendance collections have the potential to render these movements more visible to, and instructive for, educators and policy makers responsible for designing, implementing and evaluating the delivery of formal education programs to highly mobile Indigenous students. To this end, it canvasses a range of potential reforms. The paper concludes by calling for significant reconceptualising and adaptation from both practitioners and policy makers in order to leverage enrolment and attendance data as more meaningful evidence when evaluating Indigenous engagement with formal education systems.

Local area population counts and estimates are crucial inputs into policy planning and processes. However, population mobility in general, as well as large numbers of visitors to particular areas, place additional demands on resources and those providing essential services. The literature identifies a pressing need for standardised quantitative measures of the volume, frequency and flows of Indigenous temporary mobility and comparable spatial scales. In this paper we present an analysis of census data as it relates to Indigenous temporary mobility and analyse the spatial and demographic complexities that underwrite them. While the census remains the only consistent and nationally comprehensive data set on Indigenous temporary mobility that provides important insights, the overall findings from this analysis suggest that it remains a relatively blunt instrument in the task of identifying the full range of factors that drive and shape Indigenous temporary movement. We conclude that researchers, policy makers and Indigenous populations must seek and develop additional data sources from which the drivers and dynamics of Indigenous temporary mobility and residency patterns might be identified.

Indigenous Australians have often been described as highly mobile people—particularly in historical and remote ‘wilderness’ contexts. The literature paints a picture of regular, short-term population movement within and between desert, hinterland, and tropic regions of Australia, with significant implications for targeting and delivering a range of health, housing, and education services in these regions. To date though, very little research has examined the nature of Indigenous temporary mobility in and through urban environments. Scant scholarly consideration has been given to how cities and large regional centres feature in the mobility networks of Indigenous peoples. This paper examines the relationship between Indigenous temporary mobility and service delivery in the town of Broome, Western Australia. It explores various kinds of data—both qualitative and quantitative—that can be drawn upon to better characterise, explain and engage with Indigenous temporary mobilities through regional centres such as Broome. In particular, it focuses on experience in the formal primary school sector as a window onto the relationship between temporary mobility and service delivery in the town. Administrative education data generally supported the existing local narratives: that most Indigenous temporary movement through Broome is the product of service-related in- and out-moves amongst Indigenous people whose primary connections lie outside the town; and that Indigenous Broome locals were generally less mobile than many Indigenous groups in other parts of the Kimberley. While these administrative data are limited in their capacity to render statistically visible the full spectrum of temporary population dynamics, they can be used to develop a clearer picture of the frequency, duration, direction and scale of temporary movement through regional centres. Because these locales play a particularly critical role in shaping Indigenous mobility practices and networks across the settle

The delivery of basic government services to remotely living and frequently mobile Indigenous populations is a highly contentious issue; one which has recently received considerable focus at a Federal policy level. Because of distinct motivations, frequencies, and spatialisation, Indigenous mobility practices in many rural and remote areas unsettle conventional Western frameworks of government service delivery, which assume relative sedentarisation. Many services are provided chiefly through fixed, permanent infrastructure such as hospital clinics and schools that promote and cater to single-locale, stationary lifestyles. In addition, neo-liberal cost pressures are reshaping service delivery models into more acute ‘hub and spoke’ configurations: services are increasingly withdrawn from rural and remote areas and concentrated in regional and metropolitan centres. Consequently, Indigenous people living in regional and remote areas and/or who continue to engage in frequent movements often have more sporadic and contested interactions with government service agencies. This paper contends that understanding Indigenous spatiality is critical to redressing the inequitable and often inefficient nature of service delivery that has lingered in rural and remote Australia since colonisation began. Whilst the related literature acknowledges the effectual relationship between Indigenous mobility and service delivery, few published studies examine the substance of this relationship in any detail. Drawing on research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, this paper provides a thorough and focused examination of the relationship between Indigenous spatiality and the delivery of State housing, health and education services. The analysis is based on a careful engagement with the lived experiences of a group of Indigenous people in the region, and the service providers with whom they interact. By examining localised Indigenous mobility processes, and the challenges of servicing popula

A range of Indigenous population dynamics play out underneath the demographic picture that can be constructed from official statistics. Primary among these are temporary mobility practices. Although temporary movements are largely 'uncaptured' by conventional statistical measures, they are pervasive in public life and thought. Words like 'walkabout' and 'nomadic' are commonly used in public discourse to characterise Indigenous people as highly mobile over the short-term, and such movement is regularly constructed as problematic for mainstream health, education and housing providers. This paper draws together the disparate body of existing research regarding Indigenous temporary mobilities to build a more comprehensive picture of these population dynamics and their policy implications. It describes the temporal, spatial and demographic dimensions of Indigenous temporary mobilities, analyses the key contextual factors that shape them, and outlines how these population dynamics relate to the governing state. The paper concludes with an exploratory discussion of the policy options and implications relating to Indigenous temporary mobility. It outlines a number of areas that require further research and proposes productive ways forward as policy makers and service providers seek to more actively and intentionally engage with Indigenous temporary mobility practices.