This thesis reports on aspects of an intervention program in literacy and language development implemented for Aboriginal children at Traeger Park School in Alice Springs. The study proposes that the provision of access to academic/literate discourses for Aboriginal children is an issue that has been either avoided or devalued generally in Australian linguistic research. This negative orientation has been particularly prevalent in mainstream linguistic studies which have followed Labovian (ie. Labov 1969) perspectives on notions of difference/deficit since the 1970's.