Learning and Teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education sample

BEGINNING TEACHERS IN ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMUNITIES

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OVERVIEW

This chapter is about what to expect as a beginning teacher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. Neil Harrison discusses his first experiences as a teacher at Numbulwar school, Northern Territory, and this is presented as a personal insight into the first few months on the job. His story is combined with the experiences of Emily Menz. Emily discusses her first three years of teaching at Lightning Ridge Central School. Juanita Sellwood also shares her experience of her final professional practicum

TOPICS COVERED

• What is a Welcome to Country ? What is an Acknowledgment of Country ?

- Activity

• Case study: Emily Menz, Stage 3 teacher, Lightning Ridge Central School

• Neil Harrison’s first appointment

- Neil’s first class

- An excursion to Cairns

- Learning from the community

- Moving to New South Wales

• Power relationships

• The power of language

• What can teachers do about deficit discourse?

• Using appropriate language

• Using appropriate terms

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations

• Juanita Sellwood’s final practicum

• Torres Strait Island communities: Remote and mainland contexts

• Racism in sport and school

• Take-home points

• Questions and activities

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What is a Welcome to Country? W hat is an Acknowledgment of Country?

A Welcome to Country is delivered by an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community member from the Country upon which the school is located. It is all about listening to Country and paying careful attention to Country and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live there, past and present.

An Acknowledgment of Country can be done by a non-Indigenous person or by an Indigenous person who is not from that Country. An Acknowledgment pays attention to Country too, but as an ‘outsider’.

Country refers to the land, the sky, the clouds, the lightning, the rainbow, the morning star, the wind, the sea. Think of Country as family. It is an Aboriginal English term and is about the interplay of flora and fauna.

VIDEO:  WELCOME TO COUNTRY

• Leanne Tobin, Welcome to Country <http://learndarug.com>

• Storytime with Sally Morgan and Blaze Kwaymullina <www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYrms4qjCk>

I love using the book My Country by Sally Morgan and Blaze Kwaymullina (2012) with the little ones. This reading from the famous author herself, Sally Morgan, will give you some excellent ideas for using the book with young children.

Activity

For the younger students:

1 What is a Welcome to Country (e.g. see Leanne Tobin’s Welcome to Country :  https://learndarug.com)?

2 What is an Acknowledgment of Country?

What is the difference between a Welcome and an Acknowledgment? Who are the right people to do each of these?

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For Stage 1 or 2, ask students to perform or write or record their own Acknowledgment of Country (if they are non-Indigenous). If they can’t write it, the teacher could record students on their phone while they present it. If the above is too difficult or theoretical, start with the questions:

Why are Indigenous people important to me? (You are looking for some heartfelt and sincere response.)

Or

Who are the Traditional Custodians of the Country here? And what is a Traditional Custodian?

Students can present to their class—say, one presentation per day—and then to the whole school at assembly (if the conditions are appropriate).

The rationale for this activity is getting students to make the Acknowledgment their own (and think about what it means) through using their own words, rather than merely reading from the script, which most people no longer hear.

Case study: Emily Menz, Stage 3 teacher, Lightning Ridge Central School

Lightning Ridge Central School is a Kindergarten to Year 12 school located in the opal-mining centre of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. The school has about 450 students. Forty-four per cent of the students identify as Aboriginal, with more than 28 nationalities represented across the school.

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I began my career in the NSW Western Region as a primary teacher who completed a practicum placement through the NSW Department of Education and Training’s Beyond the Line program. Through this program I gained temporary employment with the NSW Department of Education and Communities from 2011 to 2014 and was then permanently appointed from 2014 to 2018 at Lightning Ridge Central School. The students who attended this school mainly came from families involved in the opalmining, tourism or agricultural industries. Some students lived within the township of Lightning Ridge, but approximately two-thirds lived on mining camps or rural properties surrounding the Lightning Ridge area.

My first three years of teaching at Lightning Ridge Central School were both rewarding and challenging. As a beginning teacher, I found that the most significant challenge was to gain my students’ trust. This was a consequence of past teachers often being quite transient and, in addition, many of my students had difficulty forming relationships with teachers because they had experiences of trauma (see Chapter 6 for more on trauma-aware schooling practices). For me, to achieve successful teaching and

Figure 1.1 Lightning Ridge Centr al School

learning in my classroom I first and foremost needed to gain trust and build relationships with my students. Teaching only really commenced after this trust was built, which took nearly a whole year with some students. This length of time required to build trust was one of the things that surprised me most in my beginning years as a teacher.

Many of my students exhibited a strong degree of resilience, whether it was in the classroom or the playground. They could swing from the highest monkey bar or climb a tree to the top branch and then jump off. Minor injuries were not often mentioned or reported by the students, which both astounded and concerned me. When conflict arose in social settings, the students’ lack of ability to articulate themselves was very obvious and these situations often became challenging for me to resolve. To create a positive behavioural environment within my classroom and in the playground, it was imperative to learn to use conflict-resolution strategies, to ensure both parties were heard. It was significantly important to follow the Positive Behaviour for Learning goals for Lightning Ridge School, to teach students what was expected of them in the school environment.

Behavioural challenges, welfare issues and learning how to best cater for Aboriginal students, often with diverse learning needs, were perhaps the biggest challenges. As I gained more experience, combined with multiple years of teaching in this environment, this enabled the development of better teaching practice. These experiences not only allowed me to grow and develop from a beginning teacher, but also helped me to become a leader in behavioural management within my stage team. My strongest advice to beginning teachers is to gain an understanding of the cultural contexts of Indigenous Australians, especially those living in rural and remote areas, if you aim to achieve success in teaching and learning.

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Living and teaching in a small community have enabled me to better understand and appreciate those students I teach; however, it does present challenges as in a small community, a teacher is expected to play a significantly respectful role and this is also the expectation of the community when you are not at school. I’ve learnt, during my experience as a teacher of Aboriginal students, that having a strong connection to the local community is very important. Taking the initiative to get to know the families of my students by saying hello at the local shop if I saw them and waving when walking past them in the street allowed me to be viewed as a person and not just as their child’s teacher. It also enabled me to communicate more effectively with parents when difficult situations arose with their child. Understanding your students both in and out of the classroom allows the development of positive rapport and trust between you and families and especially the students in your class.

Involving the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG), Aboriginal education officers and tutors, and inviting local Elders to participate in planning for future educational events such as school initiatives are very influential in creating inclusivity with all stakeholders in the local community. If I was planning an event or initiative, I would always consult these parties to assist in planning.

Understanding your students both in and out of the classroom allows the development of trust between families, students and yourself as the teacher.

Involving the AECG, Aboriginal education officers, tutors and local Elders to participate in planning creates inclusivity with all stakeholders

As a teacher in Lightning Ridge, I involved myself in many local community groups by becoming a member of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) and volunteering at and attending community events. I also started an after-school dance school—Opal Dance School. Participating and becoming involved in local community events enable you to develop deeper relationships with students and families, and become part of the wider school community.

Personal Learning Pathways were introduced by the NSW Department of Education to allow all stakeholders—teacher, parents and student—to be involved in the planning of learning goals for the year ahead. I found the process of implementing this teaching and learning tool assisted in identifying learning outcomes for Aboriginal students at the beginning of the school year. It also allowed for continual suggestions and ongoing feedback for my teaching from parents and students. This tool allowed me to give and gain honest and productive feedback to/from parents about their child’s learning and engagement, which consequently led to improvement in students’ self-esteem and motivation.

Personal Learning

Pathways involve teacher, parents and student in planning learning goals

When planning my teaching and learning program for the year, I always utilised the NSW Quality Teaching Framework alongside the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning framework. My lessons always incorporated an Indigenous perspective, whether it was storytelling, connecting the topic with community issues, using visuals or creating lessons that incorporated hands-on and engaging activities rather than just studying facts and theory. I found that if I didn’t plan and teach my lessons this way, I would not achieve successful learning outcomes or engagement among my students.

I would like to encourage and recommend beginning teachers to consider spending some time teaching in an outback regional school. My time here in Lightning Ridge has enabled me to develop skills that would have taken many years to achieve in other locations. I have made lifelong friends among the local community and also with many of the teachers who, like myself, have moved back to urban living.

KEY REFERENCE: BEGINNING TEACHERS

Aussie Educator (2020 a), Beginning teachers, retrieved 16 December from <www. aussieeducator.org.au/teachers/teacherbeginning.html>. This site covers everything from how to apply for a position, placement, induction, benefits, conferences and school support in all states and territories.

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Neil Harrison’s first appointment

I started teaching in the Northern Territory in 1978 and I have been teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels ever since. I come from a farming background in western Victoria. I did my degree in Melbourne and then worked on the trams for six months until I decided what I wanted

to do. Teaching hadn’t entered my mind, even though I had completed my Diploma in Education. I saw an advertisement for a teaching job in the Northern Territory and, since I was bored with the club scene in Melbourne, decided to apply. I had an interview with the Education Department and was offered a job in a place that I had never heard of, Numbulwar.

Numbulwar is an Aboriginal school in western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. It is around 600 kilometres south-east of Darwin and has both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers.

I arrived in Darwin on the Wednesday before Easter and went to the Department of Education office in town. I explained to the woman behind the counter that I had been appointed to Numbulwar School and wanted to know if there was a plane ticket waiting for me. She found my file and asked me when I was going out and I replied that I would be leaving the following day. She said that Easter started on Friday and I told her that I was aware of that. She then looked at me as if I couldn’t put two and two together and she decided to be blunt: ‘Why are you going out there for Easter?’ I said I wanted to spend a few days in the community before I started teaching, although I wasn’t to know that I would be teaching a couple of hours after I arrived. The woman finished by telling me that I was mad to go out there when I could stay in Darwin and have a good time! But she added that there was a ticket waiting for me at the airport.

Of course, the Department had not told the Principal that I would be arriving on the Thursday before Easter, so when my flight landed—on a gravel airstrip—no one from the school was there to meet me. I had to hitch a ride into town and find the Principal. He had no idea who I was but soon found a place for me, since the two teachers I was replacing had left two weeks before my arrival. I was in the classroom two hours later. I managed to get through those two days before Easter with only chalk and talk, but the following weeks were going to be far more difficult. I knew nothing about Aboriginal

BOX 1.1 I NCENTIVES FOR TEACHERS WORKING IN ISOLATED SCHOOLS

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There are many incentives available for teachers working in isolated schools across Australia. See your own state or territory Department of Education website for information about incentives like rental subsidies, retention benefits, additional annual leave, travel expenses, tax incentives and removal expenses. For example, in New South Wales teachers in the most remote areas receive a rental subsidy of 90 per cent, a location/car/heating allowance and an extra week of summer holidays. Travel and medical expenses are paid four times per year and teachers in remote areas receive four days’ paid Personal Incentive Leave to be taken whenever the need arises.

See NSW Government <https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/careers-at-education/salary-andbenefits/subsidies-allowances-and-bonuses#Rental0>.

people and nothing about the students. I quickly found out that their learning strategies were very different to what I knew (these learning strategies are explored in Chapter 5). I had trained as a secondary teacher, but during my four years in Arnhem Land I taught both primary and post-primary students (12 to 18 years old) and most of my teaching involved early literacy and numeracy. Moreover, I had to learn how to teach students to read and write, since English was usually their third or fourth language.

Neil’s first class

I started off with a post-primary class of around twenty 12- to 18-year-old students who were accomplished speakers of the vernacular (their mother tongues), but experienced difficulties with reading and writing Standard Australian English (SAE). Some of the students had been coming to school for 10 years or more and they still couldn’t read and write. What was the problem? I thought they needed a teacher who was vitally interested in them, who wouldn’t give up and who would eventually discover how to teach Aboriginal children. I hoped that my passion as a teacher would motivate the students. I tried intensive one-on-ones, positive reinforcement, rewards and punishments, and I spent a lot of my own money on new readers, cameras and videos. Yet I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor outcomes and with my inability to change things. I had always fancied myself as a hard worker who could get things done, yet it wasn’t happening for the students or for me. I wasn’t alone. Other teachers who were new to the scene were also getting poor results, while the more experienced ones seemed content with what they were doing.

Many teachers become frustrated with their lack of progress in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander classrooms, but they often don’t realise that they have plenty of time to learn. Indeed, there is much to know about working with Indigenous children and teaching non-Indigenous students about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia. Working in Aboriginal education is one of the most rewarding jobs if you remain in the area long enough to learn the ‘right ways’ and to meet many interesting people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

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BOX 1.2 B ECOMING FRUSTRATED

New teachers working in schools with significant numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students must ensure that they do not become frustrated with any apparent lack of progress in the classroom. I hear some teachers in these schools saying, ‘They don’t want to learn, so what can I do?’ Of course the students want to learn—otherwise they wouldn’t be there! Trial a variety of reading strategies and work on different ways of communicating with the children. You need to find a way of making learning and teaching work for you in your classroom. This book has been written to help you do this.

An excursion to Cairns

The Principal asked me at the end of first term if I would take my students on an excursion to Cairns. The trip had been arranged long before I arrived and I had replaced the teacher who was meant to go with the group. I would be going with two Aboriginal teachers and 30 children.

There was a famous story going around Arnhem Land at the time about a teacher from a nearby school who had taken a class to Sydney and visited the Gap. A terrible tragedy occurred where one of the children fell to his death and the teacher was threatened with the same end if he returned to the community. This did not give me any confidence. Nevertheless, we set off with great anticipation and excitement. We visited the Great Barrier Reef, animal sanctuaries and various workplaces around Cairns to give the students an insight into the range of employment opportunities available. They were so good at looking after themselves that I didn’t have to worry and they always knew which way was home.

Learning from the community

There is always enormous pressure to get things done, to show results and to demonstrate that you are doing your job. But don’t be distracted from the broader goal of getting to know people in the community with whom you can talk and feel comfortable. If you are in the community for a few years, then there is no hurry and you will have plenty of opportunity to watch and listen without making mistakes all the time.

I was fortunate enough to meet a great man in Aboriginal education when I first arrived in the Territory and he gave me sound advice on the plane to Numbulwar: ‘Don’t rush in there and try to do everything at once; just take your time.’

Listen carefully when you first arrive. The children will not be ready to learn until they get to know you (and feel more comfortable with you).

Taking time out to watch and learn is not an easy task, because when we see that things are not working, we want to try new approaches. However, it is worthwhile to wait and see what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want, what they think about the school and what other teachers have done. Don’t reinvent the wheel!

Moving to New South Wales

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When I moved to Armidale in New South Wales to teach at the University, I was told ‘things are very different down here’. Yet I am constantly aware of the similarities: the town politics, the relationships between the families who have lived in the area forever and those who are new, and the division in the town between those who live on the old mission and those who live in the new part of town. Similarities also exist in the way students bring their disputes from home to school and in the clear distinction between the language spoken at home and that spoken at school.

Teachers are faced with the same issues in southern Australia as they are in the north: low outcomes in literacy and numeracy, attendance, suspensions and, above all, frustration over how to teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. In my

visits to schools, teachers want to know two things: ‘How should I teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students?’ and ‘How can I include contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives for non-Indigenous children?’ We explore the first question in detail in:

• Chapter 2 (our shared Australian story)

• Chapter 4 (teaching strategies)

• Chapter 5 (languages)

• Chapter 6 (working with intergenerational trauma)

• Chapter 7 (ways of teaching Traditional Knowledges)

We also provide a range of strategies for embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in:

• Chapter 2 (our shared Australian story)

• Chapter 3 (the Stolen Generations)

• Chapter 8 (working with communities)

• Chapter 9 (learning from Country)

Power relationships

There has been an unequal power relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia over the last 240 years. Two key events in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history that have significantly contributed to this relationship are the forced removals from their parents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children— the Stolen Generations—and the relocation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from their homes to reserves. Other events that illustrate this unequal power relationship include the requirement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people to wear ‘dog tags’ (identification tags) and the massacres of Aboriginal people (e.g. the Myall Creek Massacre in 1838 and the Coniston Massacre in 1928—see Chapter 2).

It is therefore understandable that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people resent the ways in which they have been treated by successive (White) governments and individuals. This resentment has been built up and passed on through the generations. Chapter  6 also highlights the extent to which intergenerational trauma and violence are passed on through the generations to impact on children’s engagement at school. We highlight too how many Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have strong positive relationships and collaborations. These people are doing the work of mending the relationship.

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Can you think of examples where Indigenous and nonIndigenous people are working together to mend this relationship?

The power of language

Most of the thought and talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education falls into a deficit model; it is assumed that Indigenous students lack something and hence are deficient. This is similar to talking about a friend who has been going through hard

times and feeling that you are better off than they are. If you talk about others like that for long enough, they really do become deficient in the eyes of the people with whom you talk. Your choice of language rubs off on others and creates an impression for anybody who listens. This is the power of discourse to position people in a negative place.

Teachers sometimes sit around in the staffroom talking about the failure of Aboriginal and Torres Strait students at school and this conversation can leave an impression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait students as being deficient. This way of thinking can become ingrained and, if you’re not careful, you can end up repeating these negative thoughts when you talk about students.

Many reviews and articles about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education represent Indigenous students as being behind non-Indigenous students at school and needing to be brought up to their standard. This creates an external benchmark against which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are compared. This is a way of maintaining power over others: to think about them as deficient, not as well off as you. The current government policy of Closing the Gap (Australian Government, 2020b) is a case in point here because it positions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as deficient in health, education and housing compared with non-Indigenous people. An alternative would be to assess the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in housing, health and education, rather than setting non-Indigenous benchmarks to be attained.

What can teachers do about deficit discourse?

Teachers can deal with this problem in multiple ways. Ask:

1 ‘How can I avoid framing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as victims of history?’ Think about the resources you choose to use in your classroom and how you talk about Indigenous peoples. For example, avoid pictures that show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in negative ways.

A lot of children do not want ‘special support’ and there is often a stigma or shame attached to asking for extra help. Sometimes students say that they don’t need help when in fact they do; they just don’t want to be seen by their peers as not understanding.

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2 ‘Do I have low expectations of Aboriginal people generally—in health, education, living standards or employment?’ If you have low expectations of someone, what picture forms in your mind about that person? I am not suggesting here that high expectations are the answer, but I am stating that low expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will keep them in a position of disempowerment (and you in a position of power). This point is discussed further in Chapters 3 and 4. The issue of teacher expectations is explored in detail in Chapter 4.

3 ‘How do I talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children?’ Be aware that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their parents are highly sensitive to teachers talking about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as lacking knowledge and skills, as the following story from a teacher shows:

Kerry [the non-Aboriginal mentor] would ring and get 90 per cent of parents involved. The Aboriginal Support Teacher Learning Assistant [STLA] would ring and not get so many parents. Students and parents are wary of the STLA and say ‘I don’t need that support’.

For these parents and their children, it is not about who rings them at home to discuss their child’s progress, it is more about perceptions; that is, how the parents and children interpret the teachers to be perceiving them (in this case, being perceived in negative ways and requiring special support).

Using appropriate language

Many beginning teachers are worried about saying the wrong thing or using incorrect language when talking about or with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The portrayal of community politics in social media makes some teachers nervous about engaging with Indigenous matters. In talking and writing about others, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is easy to reproduce stereotypes and generalisations about them. Through our own discourse, we can easily move from talking about some people to talking about all the people in that group and hence these people all become the same. A useful solution to this problem is to begin with a school’s local community, consulting Elders and local community people to find out about the Traditional Owners of the land upon which the school stands. The children will learn to talk about one group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Keep the learning and the teaching local. Another suggestion is to be very careful about the language that you use to talk about others. Teacher language creates images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the minds of students. It is helpful with children to use specific names to teach about people from a particular area or region.

• Miriam Le from the eastern islands

• Gudamalugal from the top western islands

• Maluigal from the western islands

Source: Harrison & Greenfield (2011)

Keep content local! Teach your students about local people.

Terms for peoples from the Torres Strait region:

• Kaiwalagal and Kaurareg from the inner islands

• Kulkalgal from the central islands

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Terms for peoples from mainland Australia:

• Murri from south and central Queensland and northern New South Wales

• Koori/e from parts of New South Wales and Victoria

• Palawa from Tasmania

• Nyoongar from the south-west of Western Australia

• Nunga from the south of South Australia

• Anangu from the north of South Australia and Central Australia

I use the interactive whiteboard (IWB) to work with students to locate these various groups on a map of Australia. They need to do research first. Use outcomes from the Australian Curriculum Geography syllabus, which is available at <www. australiancurriculum. edu.au/f-10curriculum/humanitiesand-social-sciences/ geography>.

An understanding of these terms reinforces the concept that there are many different groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in various parts of Australia.

Try to keep your teaching locally based, involving local Elders and community people in your classroom. The ways in which you talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in your classroom will govern how the students think (and talk) about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. If you talk about Indigenous people in romanticised ways, the students will learn to do the same. If you speak negatively about Indigenous peoples, then the students will follow your lead and think negatively about Indigenous peoples. Teachers often have more influence over children’s languages practices than they imagine!

KEY REFERENCE

Flinders University (nd), Appropriate terminology: Speaking about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia <www.deadlystory.com/icms_ docs/282232_appropriate-terminology-indigenous-australian-peoples.pdf>.

Using appropriate terms

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Indigenous refers to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are original to the land. This term is often used in federal and state government policy.

Aboriginal refers to peoples who live all over Australia and does not include Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Torres Strait Islander refers to peoples living in the Torres Strait (see Figure 1.3). This term also refers to Torres Strait Islander people who live in other locations such as on the Australian mainland. A large proportion of Islander people live in urban coastal locations throughout Queensland.

Figure 1.2 Some local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group names throughout Australia

Palawa

Koori Nunga

Murri Anangu

Yolŋu Nyoongar

Terms like half-caste and part-Aboriginal grew out of the Protection era and are offensive to most Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Do not use these terms. There are two key points to remember about using appropriate language. First, teach your students to respect and acknowledge the rights and expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is best achieved through how you model appropriate language for students. They will imitate what you do in the classroom. Second, you will learn best through speaking from experience and just giving it a go. Be sure to learn from your mistakes.

Consult with your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to assist with appropriate terminology regarding cultural knowledge, history and identities. It is ideal to respect the preferences of the local community, as terms vary widely and specific terms may cause offence in other contexts.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations

Many school students assume that Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples live in the north of Australia. You can easily show students that such an assumption is incorrect. See:

• AIHW <www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/profile-of-indigenousaustralians>

Figure 1.3 The Torres Strait Islands and the Australian mainland Christmas Island

• ABS < www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3238.0.55.001June%20 2016?OpenDocument>

There are approximately 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. New South Wales has the largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population (approx. 266,000), followed by Queensland (222,000) and Western Australia (100,000). About three-quarters of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in these three states (ABS, 2016).

Juanita Sellwood’s final practicum

Towards the end of my degree, I decided to complete my 4th-year practicum (‘prac’) at a school on my grandmother’s family island, Masig in the Torres Strait. I organised this placement with a view to teaching in the Torres Strait after graduation the following year. It was with much anticipation and excitement that I arrived on my family island, a beautiful coral cay shaped in a tear drop, surrounded by the most vibrant reef and turquoise waters. I was greeted at the airstrip by my uncle, who was a local policeman at the time. Masig Island then had a small population of 340 with about 50 families. In such a small island community, everybody knows who is coming to the island, who is leaving and the nature of their visit, so of course everyone knew that I had arrived at Yorke Island State School for my 8-week practicum.

I was assigned a composite Year 5, 6, 7 class. The behaviour in the class seemed almost uncontrollable and I couldn’t keep the kids on task. I was trying all sorts of strategies to get them engaged. I tried speaking Yumplatok with them, but a couple of the older girls said my accent was not a Masig accent (and they were right). I tried talking about my father being a fisherman and me working with him, but still the kids seemed to be testing me with challenging behaviour. It didn’t even matter that my uncle was one of the policemen on the island. By the end of the first week, I was exasperated and I still had 7 weeks of teaching ahead of me. I decided to observe the other two teachers in their classes and to my surprise everything was fine. I went back to my class and found my supervising teacher effortlessly teaching and the students working contentedly. Even though this was my family island, I was still considered an outsider by the younger generation (who I had never met before) and I was shocked!

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On reflection, I was so keen to get into the teaching that I hadn’t stopped to think about the expectations and assumptions that I was taking into the prac. My grandmother’s family, the Mosbys, are one of the largest and most long-standing on the island and I still have many close and extended family living there. I assumed that I would easily engage the children due to this family connection and I expected that being an Aunty would give me automatic rapport with some of the children. These expectations were not met and I became aware that my assumptions were inaccurate. The three teachers in the school at the time were non-Indigenous and they were experienced. Two teachers had been on Masig for a year and the senior teacher had been there for three years. All of them had good relationships with the children and their families.

My role as teacher had a certain kind of status that superceded my role as Aunty to some of the children in the school. It meant the children positioned me in a more formal way. On weekends when I saw the children out in the community, they always addressed me as ‘Miss’. I did not expect to be viewed in such a formal way, even as a pre-service teacher. It took some time for the children to get used to me and for me to get to know them. I went to the public events in the community and to the local church every Sunday, and I made sure I always chatted to parents, taking a genuine interest in their family and life on the island (and I made sure the children saw me doing this). In addition, I always offered my help in the community. This improved my relationship with the children and showed them I had ‘good pasin’ (‘sharing our good ways’) by being courteous and caring outside of the school context.

In the subsequent weeks, things became smoother in the classroom as I started to establish a stronger relationship with the students. I knew that I had started building a good rapport with the children when they began to follow me along the beach as I went for my daily run in the afternoon. By the finish of my prac, I had nearly the whole class running with me every afternoon like the pied piper (and they still always called me ‘Miss’).

The biggest lesson I learnt from this experience was that being a Torres Strait Islander did not give me an instant connection with the children. Having insider knowledge is one thing, but we all need to work on building relationships with the children we teach and with their families, and this takes time, patience and effort.

Helen McCarthy’s chapter in the following reference is an extremely insightful explanation of daily life in an Aboriginal community on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. This reading is not to be missed.

KEY REFERENCES: THE EXPERIENCES OF BEGINNING TEACHERS IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES

McCarthy, H (2012), ‘Beginnings…living and learning in remote Aboriginal schools’, in Q Beresford, G Partington & G Gower, Reform and resistance in Aboriginal education (pp. 1–34). Perth, WA: University of Western Australia Press. Shaw, P (2009), Seven seasons in Aurukun, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. This book is an honest and open memoir of Paula Shaw’s time as a beginning teacher at Aurukun on the tip of Cape York, Queensland.

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Torres Strait Island communities:  Remote and mainland contexts

The 2016 census revealed the Torres Strait Islander population across Australia was approximately 38,700 (ABS, 2016). Over half of this population (64%) resided in Queensland (ABS, 2016). In the Torres Strait there are approximately 100 islands spread

across the region. Only 15 of these islands are inhabited. This region consists of three main island communities: the western, central and eastern groups (see Figure 1.4). In 2006 the ABS census data showed there were approximately 7000 Torres Strait Islander people living in the Torres Strait region. Interesting ly, 10 years on the 2016 census has revealed a population decrease in the islands to approximately 5000. While Torres Strait Islanders began migrating to the Australian mainland from the 1940s, one in five of Torres Strait Islanders had migrated to the mainland by 2016 (ABS, 2016).

There are about 100 islands in the Torres Strait; 15 of these islands are inhabited. There are approximately 38,700 Torres Strait Islanders living in Australia (ABS, 2016).

Papua New Guinea

Boigu Island

Dauan Island

North Western

Saibai Island

TORRES STRAIT

Mabuiag Island

Badu Island

St. Pauls

Kubin Moa Island

Hammond Island

Yam Island

CENTRAL

Ugar (Stephen) Island

EASTERN

Masig (Yorke) Isand

Poruma (Coconut) Island

Warraber (Sue) Island

Waiben (Thursday) Island

WESTERN (Port Kennedy, Tahnway)

Narupai (Horn) Island Muralag (Prince of Wales)

Seisia

Erub (Darnley) Island

Mer (Murray) Island)

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Island

Bamaga

CAPE YORK

QUEENSLAND

Figure 1.4 The Torres Strait Islander flag

Figure 1.5 Western, central and eastern Torres Strait Island communities

Racism in sport and school

VIDEO:  THE FINAL QUARTER

Adam Goodes is a dual Brownlow medallist (voted by the umpires as the fairest and best footballer of the year in the AFL) and 2014 Australian of the Year. Many of us will remember the shameful and humiliating treatment that drove Adam Goodes from the game. The final quarter is a documentary about Adam Goodes’s experience with racism:

• The final quarter <https://thefinalquarterfilm.com.au/watch>

See follow-up lessons at coolaustralia.org <www.coolaustralia.org/the-final-quarter-curriculumresources>.

VIDEOS: TALKING ABOUT RACISM

V ideos talking about racism:

• Beyond Blue: The invisible discriminator < www.beyondblue.org.au/who-does-it-affect/the-invisiblediscriminator>

• Beyond Blue: Staying strong: Responding to racism <www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH2uGncTYD8>

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• Human Rights Commission (2020): ‘Intervene as a bystander’: racism: it stops with me <https:// itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/ >

More recently, the Collingwood Football Club released an independent review into the AFL’s oldest club’s response to racist incidents to highlight how racism continues to be widespread and systematic at the club despite the continued reports of racism from its players over the past 10 years:

Figure 1.6 Adam Goodes

• Do Better—Independent review into Collingwood Football Club’s responses to incidents of racism and cultural safety in the workplace <https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2021/02/01/0bd7a62e-7508-4a7e9cb0-37c375507415/Do_Better.pdf>

KEY REFERENCE

RacismNoWay (2020), Anti-racism education for Australian schools <www.racismnoway.com.au>.

Take-home points

• There are always reasons that help explain a child’s behaviour. Try to ‘read’ your students before they enter the classroom. (See Emily Menz’s case study, this chapter.)

• Arrive at your first appointment with the idea of staying there for a few years.

• Listen carefully when you first start teaching—take 6 months to get established.

• How you talk with people will govern how they come to think about you. Tone of voice counts for a lot!

• B e yourself, speak naturally and respectfully, and avoid getting involved in community politics.

• Practice will help you to become more confident with your language use, but do not get stressed about making mistakes. Your honest attempts to learn from Indigenous people will usually be accepted.

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• Don’t start teaching about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from a place of loss and disadvantage. For example, don’t start a topic in Professional Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) with a discussion of poor Indigenous health or overconsumption of alcohol. There is already enough negativity without adding to it!

• The students at Juanita Sellwood’s final prac on Masig Island thought in terms of relationships, rather than racial Black and White.

Questions and activities

1 Read Helen McCarthy’s chapter: ‘Beginnings…living and learning in remote Aboriginal schools’. What is different about life in this type of community compared to your own? How could you reach out across these differences? How did Helen McCarthy reach out to develop a ‘new way of seeing her own world’?

2 Referring to Helen McCarthy’s chapter again, in which community did she live and work? What is the fundamental belief system in that community?

3 Find out what incentives are available for teachers appointed to remote schools in your state or territory.

4 How many Indigenous languages are currently spoken by Indigenous children and adults in Australia?

5 W hat can be done to support the first languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?

6 How would you use the videos on page 19 with your students? What year level would they be appropriate for? Are role-plays appropriate for the issues contained in these videos? Do students learn from role-plays?

7 O ver a period of one week, note down in a journal how you talk about other people, including your friends. As you talk, do you paint realistic and positive images of other people? Or do your words position them as deficient in some way?

8 W hy are relationships a key factor in educational success? What can you do to foster positive relationships with students and their families?

9 W hat were Juanita Sellwood’s underlying beliefs and assumptions about the students she taught? How did these beliefs and assumptions set her up to feel frustrated? How will you examine your assumptions and beliefs about the students you teach?

10 How are you going to deal with racism in your classroom?

11 How will you deal with racism from other teachers and peers?

12 Discussion point for older students: Racism never seems to abate, despite education. Why do we keep doing and saying racist things to others? Think about your own attitudes—would you classify yourself as racist? What can you do about it? How could teachers do better?

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