Mentoring as a tool to engage Aboriginal youth in remote Australian communities: a qualitative investigation of community members, mentees, teachers, and mentors’ perspectives

Abstract

Sport-based mentoring programs have been used across many contexts to engage young people in education. In this research, we explored the influence that an Aboriginal controlled organisation’s youth mentoring program has on three remote Aboriginal communities in Northern Territory, Australia. We used a composite set of culturally sensitive methods by including artefacts from the community members and mentees, informal interviews with community, and semi-structured conversations with mentors and schoolteachers. The findings demonstrate the positive feelings, many benefits, and relationships that had been established between mentors and mentees, the organisation and community over time. However, participants also suggested that it would be beneficial to engage mentors in activities with students not in the school system, and adults in the broader community. Despite some identified challenges, the mentoring program was perceived to be successful in engaging remote Aboriginal children in school and developing future career aspirations.

Keywords:

• Mentoring
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
• Indigenous
• remote communities
• qualitative research

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the remote Aboriginal communities, their Elders, youth and teachers, as well as the Aboriginal controlled community organisation and mentors, for their cooperation, enthusiasm and support.

Notes

1. We respectfully acknowledge the distinct elements of the many and varied Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; however, from this point onwards, we utilise the term Aboriginal Australians as the participants in our research primarily identify with Country on mainland Australia.