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The Aboriginal practitioner as communication mediator in intercultural bureaucratic encounters

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/166465

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Title: The Aboriginal practitioner as communication mediator in intercultural bureaucratic encounters
Related: The Linguistics journal, Vol. 5, Issue 1, (2011), p.71-124
Related: http://www.linguistics-journal.com/June-2011.pdf
Publisher: TESOL Asia
Date: 2011
Author/Creator: Firkins, Arthur S
Description: Governments in Australia have deployed Aboriginal specific positions within government departments which focus on health, education and welfare services. This small-scale study uses a qualitative interpretive interview approach to explore the relative value of these targeted positions to service provision. The paper reveals that Aboriginal practitioners use a range of communication strategies that enable them to act as mediators and to traverse cultural distance between the bureaucracy and Aboriginal communities. The paper points out that Aboriginal practitioners experience unique types of professional pressures, which may not be evident in the wider public service. The paper concludes that the uses of particular communication strategies have the affect of creating distance and building solidarity between the practitioners and the communities they engage with. Although focused on Australia, the findings may have implications for other intercultural communication contexts that involve interaction between indigenous people and government bureaucracies. Adapted from the source document
Description: 54 page(s)
Subject Keyword: intercultural communication
Subject Keyword: Aboriginal English
Subject Keyword: identity
Subject Keyword: code-switching
Subject Keyword: Aboriginal practitioners
Subject Keyword: bureaucracy
Subject Keyword: communication strategy
Subject Keyword: social policy
Resource Type: journal article
Organisation: Macquarie University. Dept. of Linguistics

Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/166465
Identifier: ISSN:1718-2298
Identifier: mq_res-ext-pro919962625
Language: eng
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