Self-determination of Indigenous education policies in Australia: the case of the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people

For centuries, education has been used as a tool of assimilation, and this has been the Indigenous experience in Australian education system. Nevertheless, for those who has successfully negotiated it, education provides the key to self-determination, active and equal participation in the society. Since 2007, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is relevant to the Australia's Indigenous people. It has provided several guidelines, such as self-determination, rights and equity, which should be given to them. The UNDRIP should be not just an acceptance of a symbolic gesture but a more active 'recognition of rights'. Therefore, this paper reviews the current and the past reports that reflect the shifts in government policy of Indigenous education in Australia during the important key period when government policy relating to the Indigenous people shifted between 1974 and 2014. Several themes are identified as outcomes from the document analysis including: assimilation; equity and equality; participation and self-determination; and rights and recognition. The findings suggest that the Australian government still lack in their efforts to recognize and acknowledge the equity, the rights, and the self-determination of the Aboriginal people and Torres Straits Islander as 'the first people' in the country. It can be concluded that, Australia is yet to achieve at a substantive level the implementation of the UNDRIP. As a suggestion, alteration to the current curriculum framework needs to be done to improve the rights and equity of education development and cultivation of relationships between schools and Indigenous communities to ensure a successful outcome in the Indigenous education policy. Besides that, government of Australia should take an important and positive step approach towards the recognition of Indigenous Education rights through the adoption of the UNDRIP in their practice and constitution to recognize Indigenous languages, cultures and Indigenous knowledge in the education system in line with mainstream society

What matters to travel bloggers before the trip? the Malaysian travel blogger and tourist perspective

Social media, particularly travel blog are increasingly relevant in tourism practices affecting destination and business. With the growth of internet-based social media technologies, tourists are able to communicate, interact and establish relationship with destinations, business and other tourists. Pre-visit stage of tourist experience involves activities that focused on travel planning, in which travel blogs is considered as a rich sources of travel information. Through interviewing 19 travel bloggers, this study aims to understand travel bloggers behavior and strategies at the pre-visit stage of tourist experience. The findings show that, travel bloggers engage with travel blogs with different behavior which influenced by different motivations. It is also highlighted that interaction in blogosphere serves an important role in influencing travel bloggers engagement with travel blogs before the travel. The implication of the study and suggestion for future research are explained