Education

Aboriginal Stories of Country welcome all visitors, ask people to listen and learn from them, to respect their country and in particular respect their sacred sites

After his latest 6 month trip around remote communities, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Indigenous affairs has handed down his recommendations.

The appointment of Tony Abbott as the Indigenous Envoy, who claimed his key focus would be on Indigenous education, adds yet another barrier of Indigenous people asserting their rights.

How did the Dyirabal People learn to detoxify cycads? How did the Mithaka People learn to detoxify nardoo?

What ACARA has actually done, in short, is they have included elaborations and practical examples as suggestions to help teachers and educators include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture into the classroom.

The denial of Indigenous science, philosophy, sovereignty, nationhood, and basic humanity – these too all have their roots in scientific racism.

"Do you think Aboriginal people have been helped to survive to this point because of white people?"

I was the first in my family to attend University and I remember my father being less than impressed at my decision to study rather than do real work. “Places like that weren’t meant for people like us”, he stated.

I like to talk about astronomy a lot. No, scratch that, I love to talk about astronomy. All. The. Time. Thank goodness I do just that for a living.

January is increasingly becoming a time for fierce debate about Indigenous identities and Australian nationhood. And each year the debate is gathering more attention. Indigenous voices, especially on social media, are getting louder.

 As the government continues to talk about Closing the Gap, it is up to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to instil extra support and create pathways for young Indigenous people.

This year marks the bicentennial of John Oxley’s 1818 reconnaissance mission to the so-called ‘New England Tableland’ in New South Wales, which lay the foundation for two hundred years (and counting) of violent and stifling colonialism. The first squatter reached New England in 1832, and an intense period of frontier conflict accompanied the ensuing invasion and occupation.

‘Indigenous despair is not a matter of good fortune or bad; it is an enabling apparatus to the colonial project, cleverly disguised behind an agenda of benevolence and good intentions.’

For years there has been a disparity between Indigenous and non-indigenous students at high school and tertiary education in the area of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM.

‘Most Australians, and our international visitors, first learn about Indigenous people through conversations that are often grounded in disadvantage’ 

I grew up mainly in three different towns: Darwin, Katherine and Jabiru. Jabiru was the smallest of the three and it was definitely the most challenging.

New South Wales will soon be the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce Aboriginal languages legislation. The draft bill contains statements recognising Aboriginal peoples’ right to “learn and maintain” our languages, and acknowledging “the need to take action…to ensure the survival of Aboriginal languages”.

Over three years ago, I began a PhD in Indigenous women’s leadership in Australia, specifically looking at the current era we are in. What an era it is: not a day goes by without a story coming up on my Twitter feed about yet another issue that directly affects us as Indigenous people (with our voices largely ignored).