Education | Indigenous Education
‘Starting at strengths’ with strong Indigenous cultures The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous literacy remains alarmingly wide. A consultative approach, with a focus on culturally appropriate pedagogy and policy is advised. I have written this first article for our Indigenous education section, however Indigenous issues are best discussed by Indigenous voices, some of whom I have quoted. School News welcomes submissions from Indigenous educators, program providers and community stakeholders for future editions. The 2016 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) Preliminary Report was released at the beginning of August 2016, and the significant decrease in writing results for years seven and nine since 2011 is alarming in the context of the following findings
20
from Indigenous education portal www.CreativeSpirits.info. “The National Report on Schooling in Australia 2005 found falling literacy rates the longer [Indigenous] children stay in school.” Standardised test scores reveal a gap of one year between Indigenous and non-Indigenous pre-schoolers, but this gap widens as Indigenous children reach the middle years. So how do we stop that gap from widening? And why are schools not working as well for Indigenous students? While that question might be asked often enough, we are probably asking the wrong people. While we might feel drawn to start at the problems, those working with Indigenous communities would be advised to engage in
Cherbourg children creating artwork for the book Budburra’s Alphabet
what Dr Chelsea Bond, Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman, and senior lecturer at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, referred to as “country mapping” in her award winning essay ‘Starting at strengths . . . an Indigenous early years intervention’. Dr Bond wrote that, while it was called “asset mapping” by “white fellas”, “mapping country is about taking the time to explore and identify the existing energies, strengths, and skills of the community, its members and the service sector.” Waverley Stanley, a Wakka Wakka man, who was a founding director of not-for-profit Indigenous education scholarship provider, Yalari, told SBS in December 2015 that for Indigenous education to move forward, Indigenous Australians must play a big part. While Mr Stanley emphasised the communities’ own responsibility, saying “no more excuses” and “we have to get the kids to school”, a welcome trend in education is to focus on how pedagogical adjustments, and greater adaptation for cultural differences can support those aims.
Ratartat artist Geoff Bonney and young Cherbourg artist with artwork for Budburra’s Alphabet
school news
Term 3 - 2016
A resource was published on www.creativespirits.info called, ‘Teaching Aboriginal students’. The article encouraged educators to consider characteristics of the Australian Aboriginal experience, including intergenerational trauma caused by the “pain of the Stolen
Generations”; an awareness of the greater sense of autonomy and independence that Indigenous children have been raised to embody; and my personal favourite, the fact that an Aboriginal cultural context means students may be more comfortable with “working for the collective good, rather than focussing on individual achievement”. A 2015 NITV panel discussion called Square Peg, Round Hole: The shape of education explored how flexibility in education is needed to engage Indigenous students and improve learning outcomes. This message is echoed by Amelia Kunoth-Monks from the Utopia homelands north of Alice Springs. “More kids would go, and parents would be encouraging them to go to school, if the lessons were more relevant, taught in both languages with a strong focus on our culture”. Ms Kunoth-Monks completed year 12 at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, which offers bilingual education. “Having both-ways and the two cultures there, is absolutely amazing, rather than being at school and feeling like you’re not really wanted in society,” she told The Epoch Times. The determinants of success are there, it seems, if you ask the right people the right questions. As Dr Chelsea Bond wrote in her essay referring to community programs for early education in Brisbane