For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, poverty is rarely experienced alone.
It is shaped by historical, geographic, and systemic factors, including colonisation, displacement, and ongoing inequities in access to housing, education, and services
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There is no single Aboriginal experience of poverty. Experiences differ across urban, regional, and remote contexts. Assumptions based on deficit or homogeneity can cause harm.
Remoteness
Remoteness limits access to services and schooling continuity
Households
Housing stress contributes to ongoing stress and instability
Systematic Issues
Achievement-focused systems may misinterpret structural disadvantage as individual underperformance
Research shows Aboriginal students are:
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Disproportionately suspended and excluded
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Disciplined from early primary years
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Most often disciplined for disengagement or disruption
For many Aboriginal children, poverty is connected to:
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Intergenerational trauma
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Loss and displacement
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Systemic mistrust of institutions
Rather than improving behaviour, exclusion often deepens disengagement and undermines a sense of belonging.
Learning cannot occur before safety, trust, and connection are established.