Aboriginal women and higher education : a pilot study of what drives and sustains mature-age Aboriginal women to study at University

Purpose: This research project was an inquiry into the experiences of Aboriginal women who have undertaken higher education degrees as mature-age students. The main focus of this research was to gain an insight as to why mature-age Aboriginal women enrolled in a higher education degrees and why they did not undertake this study straight from school or at a younger age. Methodology: This chapter is based around the method of narrative inquiry of auto-ethnographical and autobiographical methods. Findings: This research has found that although there were many differences in the lives of these women. They had different educations, family lives and financial situations. There was, however, one key component and that was their communities and families as well as their responsibilities to those communities and future generations. Implications: The implications of this review suggest that the future benefits of this research will be that the participants will be able to assist their communities to ensure that all women who wish to attend higher education have the support they need. The participants are now in a position due to their education to develop a further network of mature-age Aboriginal women who they can call on for assistance in their communities by way of information sessions and contacts within the university setting. The more we, as Aboriginal women, are involved in education, the better our families and communities will be in regards to health. It is my belief that, if we as Aboriginal women can gain a good education we can provide a much better environment for our families and communities. In providing educational opportunities we then provide better employment prospects leading to the advancement of health and wellbeing for our families and communities