This paper attempts to develop an intelligence-fair assessment tool to explore the intelligence profiles of 15 second grade Amis pupils. This study was conducted in an elementary school in Taiwan with a largely Amis population of lower socioeconomic status. The results illustrate that the most developed intelligence for eight pupils was musical intelligence and that most pupils in this class are also skilled at bodily-kinesthetic and linguistic intelligence. However, these second grade pupils did not have very highly developed interpersonal intelligences which traditionally stereotyped the capabilities of indigenous pupils. Furthermore, each student had his/her own unique intelligence profile. Do Amis pupils have a particular intelligence profile as a group? Or are their individual differences greater than their group similarities? It is recommended that future studies observe both the whole ethnic group and individual pupil's intelligence profile to help each pupil develop to their full potential.

Learnscapes are places where learning has been designed in ways that enhance the interaction with an environment (Tyas-Tunggal, 1997). A small rural primary school has creatively adopted a Learnscape as a significant focus to engage with its community. Within the school the Learnscapes Program works from the classroom to the playground and from there to the broader community to create a new place for learning. The Learnscapes Program allows cross curriculum boundaries to emerge and in the case of this school facilitates active participation with the school community, in ways that reengage culture, the community and curriculum. The experiences of this rural school as it promotes learning across the whole community through the exploration of Indigenous culture using Learnscapes are documented.

The focus of this paper is adult literacy, and the impact this has on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individual and community health. It directs attention to those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and adults who have not benefited from the formal school education system, and who, as a consequence, have very low levels of basic English language literacy. Analysing data from a range of sources, I suggest that these people comprise as much as 35% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult population nationally, and a much bigger proportion in some communities and regions. Moreover, they are key to improving overall health outcomes in the population as a whole, because they are among the people most at risk. Drawing on research in countries of the global South over recent decades, the paper then suggests that one of the most effective ways to improve health outcomes and foster health development is through a popular mass adult literacy campaign. Popular education is not formal education, of the kind provided by schools, TAFEs and universities. It is “non-formal” education, provided on a mass scale, to people in marginalised and disadvantaged communities, as part of wider social and political movements for equality. The paper concludes that this is the most appropriate form of education to deal with the massive social and economic inequality at the heart of the social determinants of Indigenous health.