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IntroductionOtitis media (OM) starts within weeks of birth in almost all Indigenous infants living in remote areas of the Northern Territory (NT). OM and associated hearing loss persist from infancy throughout childhood and often into adulthood. Educational and social opportunities are greatly compromised. Pneumococcus and non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) are major OM pathogens that densely colonise the nasopharynx and infect the middle ear from very early in life. Our hypothesis is that compared to current single vaccine schedules, a combination of vaccines starting at 1 month of age, may provide earlier, broadened protection.Methods and analysesThis randomised outcome assessor, blinded controlled trial will recruit 425 infants between 28 and 38 days of age and randomly allocate them (1:1:1) to one of three pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) schedules: Synflorix at 2, 4, 6 months of age, Prevenar13 at 2, 4 and 6 months of age, or an investigational schedule of Synflorix at 1, 2 and 4 months plus Prevenar13 at 6 months of age. The blinded primary outcomes at 7 months of age are immunogenicity of specific vaccine antigens (geometric mean concentration (GMC) and proportion of participants with above threshold GMC of 0.35 µg/L). Secondary outcomes at all timepoints are additional immunogenicity measures and proportion of participants with nasopharyngeal carriage of vaccine-type pneumococci and NTHi, and any OM, including any tympanic membrane perforation. Parental interviews will provide data on common risk factors for OM.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from NT Department of Health and Menzies HREC (EC00153), Central Australian HREC (EC00155) and West Australian Aboriginal Health Ethics Committee (WAAHEC- 377-12/2011). Final trial results, data analyses, interpretation and conclusions will be presented in appropriate written and oral formats to parents and guardians, participating communities, local, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed open access journals.Trial registration numbersACTRN12610000544077 and NCT01174849.

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Informal carers provide an important role in supporting people with cancer. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience higher cancer mortality than other Australians. To date, very little is known about the support needs of carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults with cancer. This article explored these needs through a qualitative study. Twenty-two semi-structured qualitative interviews and one focus group were conducted with carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults with cancer (n = 12) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer survivors (n = 15) from Queensland, Australia. Half of the carers interviewed were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians. Interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed following an interpretive phenomenological approach. Thematic analysis of carer and survivor interviews revealed four key themes relating to carers’ needs: managing multiple responsibilities; maintaining the carer’s own health and wellbeing; accessing practical support and information; and engaging with the health system. Within these overarching themes, multiple needs were identified including specific needs relevant for carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, such as advocating for the patient; accessing Indigenous support services and health workers; and ensuring that the cultural needs of the person are recognised and respected. Identifying the needs of informal carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer patients will enable greater understanding of the support that carers require and inform the development of strategies to meet these areas of need.

This chapter explores how museums, as educational and cultural institutions, can become agents of socioecological transformation. The ideas of critical museum studies and environmental adult education are reviewed, and three examples of environmental adult education in museums are discussed.

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Canadian author and poet Marlene Nourbese-Philip once argued that culture was not an insignificant site of struggle, but that its power lay in masking that very fact. There are perhaps no better masters of this disguise, none better at carrying off a complex masquerade, than our public museums (including art galleries), the focus of this special edition of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. Museums and art galleries present a fac¸ade of motionlessness and dispassion, yet they shape actively 'our most basic assumptions about the past and about ourselves' (Marstine, 2006, p. 1). These institutions look to be impartial, objective and 'detached from real world politics' (Phillips, 2011, p. 17), when in fact 'politics has always been a constant interruption to their imagined sanctity' (Macdonald, 1998, p. 177). Museums and art galleries appear solely to legitimise and maintain the status quo through selective stories or representational practices, yet there has been near constant questioning of their problematic assumptions about 'cultural production and knowledge' (Macdonald, 1998, p. 176; see also Marstine, 2006). 'Patriarchal barriers of power and control traditionally characterise museums' (Golding, 2013, p. 81) yet women have been present since their inception, and have contested acts of marginalisation (Levin, 2010; McTavish, 2008). And although preservation and conservation seem their most important mandates, these institutions are, by their own admission, first and foremost, pedagogical institutions (Bedford, 2014; UNESCO, 1997). This perplexing camouflage is perhaps one reason why museums and their exhibitionary practices have, for the most part, evaded the torchlights of adult educators searching for hopeful possibilities within the disorientating array of society's contemporary problems. But these societal problems are central to the studies and