www.firstnationstelegraph.com
Warren Mundine the ‘New Human Headline’ by Frank Pearce 19 March 2014
D
erryn Hinch the famous journalist and TV personality has always held the title of the human headline. But he now has a contender for his title, Warren Mundine. Difference is Derryn wrote his own scripts. In Warren’s case I see his lips moving but it is Abbott’s and Pyne’s words that are coming
out. I am also rapidly getting the impression there is only one member of the National Indigenous Advisory Committee, Warren Mundine. The silence from the other members is deafening. Since becoming Chair of this committee Warren has made one headline grabbing statement after another most with the same flaws. Firstly, No back up research or statements from well-credentialed researchers, academics, educationalists etc etc. Secondly most really don’t show a great deal of thought, logic or even good old common sense .Thirdly and most importantly few if any of these grand statements have any well thought out, well researched and funded solutions to go with them. For this article I have only
selected three from many statements to comment on because I believe that I have the credibility and experience to do so because I have spent many years working at all levels in Aboriginal Education and employment and was also a Juvenile Justice convenor in Western Sydney. Warren Mundine: indigenous culture in math’s nonsense THE head of the Prime Minister’s indigenous council, Warren Mundine, has criticised the embedding of indigenous culture in all subjects, arguing that science, math’s and physics should be taught without any cultural perspectives. This without a doubt is one of the most uneducated harmful Frank Pearce says Warren Mundine has taken over from Derryn Hinch as the Human Headline. UWS Image
Page 1
www.firstnationstelegraph.com
statements I have ever read. It completely denigrates the work of thousands of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people including me across Australia who have fought so hard for many years to have Indigenous perspectives imbedded in all KLAs. When the new National curriculum came into being all the members of the Indigenous Advisory Committee to the NSW Board of Studies were unanimous that Indigenous perspectives be imbedded in all KLAs. Comments from a very wellcredentialed WA Aboriginal academic The aim is to have children understanding and applying maths, of course, but the approach in utilising Aboriginal perspectives is to turn children onto maths and to also find ways to make maths and other forms of knowledge of value to young kids. Anyone who has studied sciences and mathematics knows that it is a progression of ideas with very defined cultural values in its early stages. It then develops into its own language and culture all its own. These approaches of applying the common denominator approach, to use a mathematical concept, don’t work, and when applied, they produce varying results. Turning kids on utilising a range of approaches and perspectives they value is just good teaching. Comments from trainee teachers I lectured in 2013 * The main issue is, the education system seems to be striving to assimilate Aboriginal students to help them achieve better. News flash: Assimilation was abandoned in the 1970’s!! * The modern day educator has a responsibility to ensure that
Page 2
Aboriginal perspectives are taught not in isolation but rather ingrained at all levels of the classroom curriculum (Price, 2011). * Many Indigenous students are confronted with an irrelevant curriculum, which does not meet their needs * Many Western concepts and practices are not relevant to Indigenous students. This limits their understanding * Curriculum should reflect Australian Aboriginal history and Aboriginal viewpoints on social, cultural and historical matters. * Students should be allowed to and the curriculum reflects the viewpoints, interests, perceptions and expectations of Aboriginal people. Seems like all my trainee teachers got the message in 13 weeks that Warren Mundine has not got in his lifetime. I would suggest Warren that the following article is compulsory reading. http://goo.gl/1snHPe Mundine says he’s ‘not a supporter of Aboriginal English’ – SBS Firstly denigrating a language that you are fluent in is unusual to say the least. I should imagine as Warren tours around the country he uses Aboriginal English frequently to communicate with many Aboriginal groups and individuals on a regular basis. Now that he is not a supporter of Aboriginal English will he use Standard English in all circumstances? Secondly it is my belief and experience that various forms of Aboriginal English are the most widely spoken Aboriginal language in Australia. If this is the case does it not make sense that you need to be able to understand what the children are
saying to you in order to teach them how to also speak Standard English. The NT bilingual programs were running very successfully until the politicians decided otherwise Youth missing from system, says Warren Mundine THE head of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, believes there are up to 40,000 young Aboriginal adults who are missing from the system, not claiming the dole and living off crime and by ‘humbugging’. The only comment I have to make on this particularly misguided statement is? Show me the hard evidence to back up this statement. I am also very disappointed that Warren has this opinion of Aboriginal youth in general. Certainly gives me very little faith in any positive policies and programs emerging from the current Indigenous Advisory Committee. Perceptions are in fact our own individual realities and if these 3 headliner grabbers are Warrens perceptions the next 3 years of Aboriginal anything is starting to look terminal. Another puzzling factor for me particularly in the Aboriginal Education area is the lack of comment on any of this from Andrew Penfold. Andrew was elected to this committee on the back of his expertise and experience in the Aboriginal Education areas? I would be very interested to read anywhere? His thoughts on Warren’s theories on the value of both Aboriginal perspectives and Aboriginal English. A lot of this is starting to look like political pressure where individual MPs are frightened to voice their real opinions versus the party line.