Australia’s lockdown rules ease for boarders but Indigenous students still face barriers

The pandemic has only made worse the sense of isolation felt by boarding students from remote communities

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Tallen Robinson's 14th birthday fell the first weekend of the school holidays but he spent it away from his family in Wee Waa, in the north-west area of NSW, and away from his Indigenous community.

Robinson is one of 3,744 Indigenous students attending boarding schools in Australia, according to the Australian Boarding Schools Association's 2021 census, many of whom have found the pandemic has created barriers of access to educational opportunities and to their families.