Jessica Staines, Australia involving children in “theByAboriginal community
and linking them to local Aboriginal elders, by doing that at an early age and by it becoming the norm: that’s the way to move forward. That’s reconciliation. I hope when they come up against prejudice or racism or bias they can turn around and say: Well, you know what? I remember Aunty Jess and Aunty Tracey and they weren’t like that. They spent time with us and they shared with us. I hope they do remember that.
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Jessica is happy playing with Estelle and Bianca at Addison Road Children’s Centre, but is also focused on completing her studies in early childhood education.
t the age of 21, while most of her friends are still studying and dabbling in part-time work, Jessica Staines has committed herself, head and heart, to the care of children. She’d grown up in a household with her mother, an early childhood education teacher, her father, a descendent of the Wiradjuri people from around Dubbo, two brothers and two cousins, but while happy and loved at home she’d drifted out of school and into unemployment by her late teens. Then her mother pushed her to get casual work at a childcare centre and there, to her complete surprise, Jessica discovered her vocation. “I liked working with vulnerable families,” she says. “It put things into perspective for me, about my life.” For most of 2010, Jessica has been working as an educator at the Addison Road Children’s Centre in Marrickville. She talks now about working not just with children and parents but with the community to strengthen connections between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal local people. She talks about the sensitivity needed to welcome Koori families into mainstream childcare without spotlighting their presence. And she talks about how all the “black dolls” and “dreamtime storybooks” in the resource catalogues can’t match the transformative power of having Aboriginal elders come into the centre to sit down and play with the kids. “What we do with the children now will give them a foundation that takes them through the rest of their lives,” says Jessica. “But it’s also about the parents, especially parents in socially vulnerable circumstances, whatever they might be. It’s about giving them the support they need to enable them to give the best to their children. And they all want to. All of our parents do.” TAKI NG CARE
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