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Galiwin’ku links school attendance to culture
supplied by Office of Senator Scullion 22 January 2014
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remote Arnhem Land Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory has taken the bold step of linking school attendance to culture, in a move Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion, sets a strong example to communities across Australia.
The Minister last week met with senior Yolngu Elder and clan leader, Rev. Dr. Gondarra, who expressed his strong support for the Australian Government’s efforts to get children in remote communities to school. “The Minister is in Galiwin’ku to meet with Dr Gondarra and other community leaders. “Dr Gondarra, on behalf of the Elders of the Yolngu Nations
Assembly, has taken the significant step of declaring that parents’ cultural responsibilities should extend to sending their children to school,” the Minister said. “This is a shining example of how one community is helping its children live in two cultures and how the Coalition Government’s school attendance strategy targeting remote communities is being embraced and led by communities.”
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion met with Elders and community leaders of the Yolngu Nations. Image supplied
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Dr Gondarra has been for many decades an outspoken and highly influential advocate for Indigenous rights as well as an experienced cross-cultural mediator. “The very important issue that we talked about is that the Yolngu Nations Assembly will support the Ministers push to encourage children and parents to get their kids to school. The Minister has decided to change the approach from using outside attendance officers to a method of employing people from the community to work through the issues with parents and their kids to get them to school,” Dr Gondarra said. “It’s really important as education is the key for the kids to be able to engage with mainstream society, to become qualified and to take seriously their academics, so they can find good jobs within Australian society. “There does need to be special recognition for schools in Aboriginal communities regarding bilingual education. It is vital that language is not taken away from these kids, and this is one of the issues the Assembly will continue to work with the Minister about. “The Assembly is also concerned with housing in the communities,
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this is something that has never been resolved by the NT Government, with health, there is a greater proportion of people dying across communities in Arnhem Land, with developing an economic base for people in Arnhem Land to get away from welfare mentality, to start creating small and commercial businesses to employ themselves and their people. “The Assembly will keep working with the Minister to address these concerns and to plan for the future of the Yolngu Nations. “Education is the key to building bridges in society and a crucial part of addressing these concerns. Every Yolngu child must be educated. “We, the Elders of the Yolngu Nations Assembly want to send a message to the Yolngu people, young and old, that attendance at school is vitally important and parents’ cultural responsibilities should extend to ensuring their children attend school. “In the same way that Yolngu parents have the motivation, expectation and obligation to ensure their children are initiated and educated in the Yolngu system, we now live in two worlds and this obligation needs to extend to ensuring their children are initiated
and educated in both systems.” Minister Scullion said school resumes in most of the 40 remote communities targeted under the Coalition Government’s school attendance strategy over the next two weeks. “About 400 School Attendance Officers and Supervisors have been or are being recruited across these communities through the Remote Jobs and Communities Programme to help break the cycle of nonattendance and ensure parents take on responsibility for the education of children,” the Minister said. “In Gunbalanya attendance has gone from about 50 per cent to well above 90 per cent over the first two weeks of school. “I am hopeful that this can be repeated across all the communities we are targeting. “It’s absolutely vital that children are at school. Without a good education, all the plans in the world to create economic opportunities in Indigenous communities will amount to nothing. “I congratulate Dr Gondarra on his leadership in this area and encourage other communities around Australia to look to the example set by the Yolngu Nations Assembly.”