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Trendy Experimentation or Cultural Enrichment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Paul Buschenhofen
Paul Buschenhofen*
Affiliation:
Yuendumu School, YUENDUMU, N.T.
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Extract

An evaluation of the principles and aims of bi-lingual education, with special reference to Yuendumu School, Northern Territory.

Having sat himself down excitedly, Johnny, a little European pre-schooler, waits expectantly yet somewhat apprehensively for his teacher to appear. It is the first day of school, and Johnny has not met his teacher yet, but he knows she is a Warlpiri.

Here she comes –

“Ngurrju mayinkili jalanguju! Wardinyi jarri kamanyarra. Ngajurna Nangala, ngaka marda kapurna nyarra yirdiji miliapinyi nyurrurlaju. Ngaka marda kapunkulu pinarri jarrimi nyampuku walyaku kijankulurla palkajarrija.

Kala kanpa marda kanyirni wita turaki manyu karrinjaku, kala kapunpa yijardu pinarrijarri nyampurlaju warrki yijardu.

Thus little Johnny is confronted and bombarded with an unknown, incomprehensible language which only receives a vestige of meaning through the teacher’s reassuring gestures and prompting voice inflections.

How is it that Johnny finds himself in this position? Some years ago, when the view was still widely accepted that Johnny, being English (European), belonged to a race of such low intelligence that he was impossible to educate, he would not have been here at all.

Type
Across Australia …… From Teacher to Teacher
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 7 , Issue 5 , November 1979 , pp. 3 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1.Translation: “Good morning, children! It is so good to see you. My skin name is Nangala, and I hope before too long I will know all of you by name. All of you, I’m sure, will have a very interesting time learning the ways and customs of this peaceful country that has adopted you. You may sometimes bring a little toy to school, but not too often, because you will be taught things that are far more important to what you have been used to.”Google Scholar
2.O’Grady, G. and Hale, K.: Recommendations Concerning Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory. Australian Department of Education, Darwin, July 1974.Google Scholar
3.The eight aims expounded in this article are taken from the Handbook for Teachers in Bilingual Schools in the northern Territory of Australia. Australian Department of Education, revised edition. Darwin, 1975.Google Scholar
4.Murtagh, E. and Harris, S.: Bilingual education and pre-literate societies: research re-visited. Developing Education, Vol.6, No.5, April 1979, Darwin, pp. 8–13.Google Scholar
5.The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child.Google Scholar