Aboriginal Community Profile - Essay Example

Aboriginal Community Profile This semester, the lecturer for my course module has lectured us about profiling of communities and how this profiling can be conducted. She also taught us concerning the ethical guidelines and values that should be followed when interacting with the community, as well as getting information about the community from secondary sources. The lecturer also discussed with the class about the common issues facing students when they attempt to conduct a community profile. In this case, the class was to conduct a community profile of the Aboriginal people of Pingelly, the Noongar. For the specific group, we were supposed to carry out a community profile of the people. Here, the requirements were that we researched on who the Aborigines of Pingelly were related to, what groups they belonged to, the languages that they spoke, their histories, and their leaders and how leadership roles were assigned. To carry out the community profile, we started by relying on the definition given in class about a community, which was that communities are groups of people who live in one locality. In addition, these people are also interconnected with one another in more than one way, rather than just living in the same locality (Walchuk et al, 2013). Therefore, in conducting the community profile, one of the most important interconnections looked for was the similarity of languages, in this case Nyungar language. Conducting the community profile was also reliant on the lecturer’s discussion on what a community profile was, as well as the different types of community profiles. For example, community profiles were defined as structured and comprehensive sets of information that describe a community’s characteristics. Therefore, in making the community profile for the Aborigines of Pingelly, we sought to conduct an inventory of their key resources, needs, and features, while also providing baseline information about their community (Walchuk et al, 2013). There are various types of community profiles, including the Barangay or Community Profile, the Minimum Basic Needs Report, the Physical and Socio-Economic Profile, the Demographic and Socio-Economic Profile, and the Area Ecological Profile (Walchuk et al, 2013). A community profile is also useful for community organizers, students and researchers, business inventors, policy makers and legislators, planners, national agencies, local government units, and community leaders. The community profile produced has various uses, such as taking stock of information in order to manage the community, providing information for other groups conducting similar research, and providing information that would be useful in planning interventions and projects. We also carried out a discussion about methods of data collection that could be used in conducting the community profile. This involved discussions about the merits and demerits of conducting convenience interviews, key informants interviews, focus group discussions, rapid appraisals, focused conversations, interview surveys, surveys, and census (Walchuk et al, 2013). For our case, we decided on conducting a key informant’s interview, in which we interviewed important Aborigines living in Pingelly. During the lectures, we were also given hints about the common issues that we would come across when conducting a profiling activity on communities. With regards to our community profiling activity, some of the most common issues included uncooperative respondent attitudes, distractions and noise, issues concerning privacy, and lack of relevant data about the community (Walchuk et al, 2013). This latter point was especially salient because most of the Aborigines in Pingelly have become urbanized and do not know much about their community. In addition, even secondary sources had scant information about the Aborigines of Pingelly. However, to get around these issues, we used some of the solutions proposed in class, such as the establishment of a conducive environment, establishment of a rapport with the individuals being profiled, and generation of data to make up for lack of direct and relevant data on the community. Another important aspect of the community profiling activity was ethical issues. Some of these issues as discussed in class and encountered during the profiling included some of the people and data protecting self-incriminating and incriminating information, withholding information and sharing other information, and the requirement to obtain consent of the subject participants through informing them about the community profiling activity’s intention and how the information collected would be used (Walchuk et al, 2013). In addition, we were also required to protect the identity of various key informants after we had promised them confidentiality, while we were also ethically obligated to withhold release of information that the group was not sure about. To be honest, I thought at first that conducting a community profile would be easy, especially because the information received could be used later to help them and protect their heritage. This is particularly so for the Aborigines in Pingelly whose language and relationships with each other are being eroded. However, we came to the realization that it was more difficult than anticipated. It was important to first gather as much correct information about the Pingelly Aborigines as we could about the community before we could profile the community. It was also important for us to verify with members of the community that the information and data we were planning to use for profiling was correct, as well as reflective of their identity as a people (Walchuk et al, 2013). In addition, it was also important to thoroughly examine out limitations in drafting a reflective community profile. I also realized that it is important to carefully gather data on the community by getting the community to collaborate and cooperate with the collection of data. It is essential to establish resident rapport for them to cooperate and trust us as data collectors, particularly because it will help to protect the community’s heritage. I was really excited about the community profiling activity, especially with regards to interacting with members of the community, from which I learnt many things about them, including that their name is loosely translated to “human being” in English, as well as the fact that they are part of more than 200 original Australian Aboriginal peoples. Moreover, I also learnt that the Aborigines of Pingelly are part of the larger Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal group, which is the most widespread group of indigenous Aboriginals in Australia From this activity, I hope to maximize my experiences and learning about the Aborigines of Pingelly. References Walchuk, W., Harding, K. & Walchuk, J. (2013). Community profile. Vegreville, Alta: Vegreville Health Unit. Read More