The students and their families

Their families range from:

• people who live mostly within Indigenous traditions and laws;
  
  
• to those who live in both an Indigenous world and a contemporary Australian world;
  
  
• and those that live in urban Australian contexts and remain connected in varying degrees with their Indigenous heritage.

Most students have been enrolled in a variety of schools and their historical patterns of attendance and participation in education through the primary years range widely.

English Literacy levels range from ESL beginning readers and writers to ESL Profile Level 5. Approximately two-thirds of our Indigenous students read and write in English at levels expected in grades 1-4. Numeracy levels match literacy levels.

At any one time, approximately 25% of our Indigenous students are suffering from some degree of hearing difficulty and many have a range of other health issues associated with poverty. They are at the same time grappling with emotional and social issues such as grieving and histories of various forms of abuse (physical and emotional as well as substance abuse).

Our students have varying experiences with their own Indigenous cultures - some go through initiation, some live by skin group laws and relationships, some are promised in marriage, and some can no longer talk with the old people because they 'speak a different language'. Our students have varying experiences with dominant Australian culture. They watch American movies, play Sony PlayStation Games, want to wear Nike runners, are passionate about Australian Rules football, and develop relationships with 'wrong skin' or across community groups. There is no one way to describe our Indigenous student population.

Most of our students access Kormilda College through ABSTUDY.