(In this contribution by Mrs Barbara Coolwell to a recent issue of Bora, the sharing of news and ideas about educative procedures, and the sharing too of a sense of the worthwhileness of the job, may suggest new avenues of communication to readers in other schools elsewhere in Australia)

The following article by Mr Harris discusses in detail the history of Aboriginal education in New South Wales. Readers from New South Wales will certainly find this extremely interesting and, indeed, the perspective that Mr Harris offers will deepen their insights into the educational status of Aboriginals today. Readers from other states will, I am sure, also find it very illuminating; in many ways the New South Wales scene was similar to that in other parts of Australia. (Ed.)

Beyond the usual educational goals, the main objective of Murgon High continues to be a constant working towards the harmonious integration of students from various communities in a way that is beneficial to all students.

This article stems from several requests by teachers and librarians, following our April article (Vol. 6 No. 2) for information about books that are popular with Aboriginal children who use the facilities of the Oodnadatta School library.

In our two and a half years of operating this library, we have gained a reasonably clear insight into the likes and dislikes of our readers. While the supply of lists is useful because, obviously, books successful in one libarary are usually popular in another library, the librarian must take into account the local factors which will probably influence the type of book the borrower will favour. While I don’t wish to labour this point for the readers who may be well aware of these factors, there are several people who have written to me, who would be interested.

Most factors are inter-related and readily fit the socioeconomic situation of the borrower. For example, the Aboriginal people of Oodnadatta are very much fringe dwellers with respect to western society, although they easily outnumber the non-Aboriginal members of the community. Their mother tongue is a version of Pitjantjatjara (Yankuntjatjara), though most speak sufficient English to be able to communicate with Europeans. The school teaches only in English with an emphasis, in the lower classes, on standardizing grammar, using the Queensland Van Leer Foundation Language Project.

Six Aboriginal girls participated in this program in 1977. The girls board at Kirinari Girls Hostel, Allambie Heights.

Mr Landy, the Headmaster of the Far West Hospital School, agreed to have the girls work in the school. I also sought permission for two of the girls to work in the hospital; this was granted by the sister-in-charge of the hospital.

The girls spent each Monday working with the teachers in the school and in the hospital.

For the first three weeks I collected the girls each day from the hostel, took them to the school and then home again. They then travelled independently to and from the hostel and school. This they did with no mishaps. As the girls were from isolated country areas, I was concerned about the travelling, even though it involved catching one bus for a relatively short distance.

Most teachers of Aboriginal children are well aware of the difficulties they have in identifying with the characters of most classroom readers. Obviously, publishing companies have to consider their market when preparing series of readers on a viable commercial basis, and hence the characters and their situations reflect the life-styles of the bulk of Australian citizens who live in large urban sprawls, and enjoy a reasonable standard of living which is reflected in their material possessions.

A different language background also makes the task of using the conventional classroom reader difficult. Children with an Aboriginal language, or even Aboriginal English as their first language, need greater emphasis placed on certain patterns found in standard English. I feel this is especially important, as the bulk of material any person can read will inevitably be in standard English form.

At Oodnadatta School we are overcoming these problems by the development of our own sets of readers. Some are purely experiential and have a limited life equal to the need to relate to that experience, while others are based on certain language patterns we feel need specific development in our program. To work out these patterns, we have used ideas formulated by the Van Leer Foundation Experimental Reading Project in Queensland.

At the 1977 Small Schools Conference in the Northern Territory a great deal of concern was expressed by representatives from all over the Territory about the lack of continuity in small schools. One manifestation of this was the absence, in many cases, of meaningful student records that allow a new teacher to immediately make some valid assessment of the attainment levels of his students that he is about to meet for the first time. Allied to this problem is the lack of old programs to show the new teacher what has been done in the past. Teachers coming into such a situation are therefore likely to suffer drastically from the “what am I doing here” syndrome. And in the middle of the bush, 400km from one’s immediate superior, help is NOT as close as the telephone.

It was, I think, the concensus of the Conference that the Department should stipulate a minimum standard for the keeping of educational records (as distinct from stock records, stamp records, maintenance and repair records, and other types of administrivia too numerous to mention which are the bane of the small school teacher’s existence, and are probably one of the reasons adequate educational records are not kept anyway) to ensure that new teachers coming into the area do not have to spend the first six months trying to determine what the children know or don’t know, what tools are available to fill the lamentable gaps, and devising methods to put these into operation. And if the teacher is only at the schools for one year, it doesn’t leave much time for teaching anything new to the children.

Today, as never before, the teacher has access to an extremely wide array of materials claiming to foster language development. The language in this context can mean anything from oral language learning to appraisal skills for English literature.

This paper, however, will deal specifically with the acquisition of oral language and can be applied either to a first or second language learning context.

As teachers, we will have a personal expectation of the level of competence to be achieved by our students. Our expectations may decrease or increase according to the responses of our students over a period of time.

In an earlier issue (Vol.4 No.2) Michael Christie told us about the reading program he was using at Mi lingimbi. In this issue he outlines “a number of teaching techniques which are both simple to implement and congruent with what (little) we know about learning styles in Aboriginal children.”

Nothing is more depressing for a teacher than to hear about other teachers’ fabulous successes while feeling incapable of replicating them. Enthusiasm for other people’s programs begins to wear thin in the cold light of your own circumstances. What exactly can be done to achieve reading without tears at your school? There are so many ideas and theories in the teaching of reading, we are at a loss as to which of them to choose. And teaching Aboriginal children to read is an even more difficult task for two main reasons. Firstly, they come from a culture where reading is not a part of everyday life, so there is a lot of reading which we take for granted and which they don’t understand. Secondly, we know only a very little about the ways in which Aboriginal children learn. If we think carefully, we can see that our past failures have only taught us that white teaching methods are by and large simply unsuitable for Aboriginal children. This paper is essentially an attempt to rectify this in the field of reading.

I came to Australia in 1972 after teaching Nigerian boys in West Africa for thirteen years. My first experiences suggested to me that many slow learners and children with different cultural backgrounds from the majority were inadequately catered for at the standard Queensland high school.

When a scheme was proposed to aid such children (mainly Aboriginal) in our school, I volunteered to be one of the teachers. The scheme involved creating two small classes for the beginning Grade 8 students, with each class having a home room, and spending core time each week on English, Maths and Social Studies with one teacher. The core subjects took up about 25 periods each week. I was initially thrilled by the thought that at last I could begin tackling problems which had previously aroused in me feelings of defeat.

In January 1976, a course was started in Manual Training and Technical Drawing for Grade 8 students at Yarrabah. Our aim was to introduce all the basic tools and instruct students in the skills of carpentry to a degree where products would be strong, functional, and have some quality in their finish.

During the first six months we worked from simple to more involved projects, items being made alternately for the school and the student. These included squares, bench clamps, T-squares, tool carry-alls, student ports and drawing tables. Girls were also involved but to a lesser degree.

Oodnadatta Aboriginal School has for a considerable time involved the community in its activities. From this liaison has grown several services to the community by the school which have become an indispensable part of the way of life in this most northern town in South Australia. Apart from comprehensive self-improvement and recreational courses offered through the Department of Further Education, the school offers a library service to the town and district.

Early in 1976, I, an avid reader myself, set about to overcome the void created by a total lack of community library facilities other than the Country Lending service. The school already had a comprehensive library available and the obvious move was to establish a community library. A committee was formed, representing the school staff, the school council and the local Progress Association. However, it was felt that to establish a library along the guidelines set out, would not suit this community, mainly because of its very small size (about 300) and the short length of residence of most citizens. An alternative scheme was adopted, whereby the school takes out bulk loans from the Schools Library Board, the State Library and the Port Augusta Public Library. These stocks are periodically rotated so that there is always a new range of material available. (An important factor that could not be achieved if we purchased our own book stock, or even followed the guidelines of a 10% turnover per annum, as indicated in the School Community Library plan.)

The tour was undertaken to take advantage of the $200 per head travel allowance allotted each Aboriginal and Islander student as a part of their yearly Federal Grant. As the majority of Weipa North Grade 8 Aboriginal and Islander students are in a special class, we felt we were not going against the aims of the grants system, which is to ensure the Aboriginal and Islander students the same chance to join school tours as other students.

In technical studies at Yalata we are trying to cater for two worlds, that of the traditional Aboriginal and that of the present-day Aboriginal.

Incorporated into the technical studies course is a section taught by the Aboriginal teaching assistants, in which the students learn to perfect their own artifact making skills and learn new skills. These new skills are taught by men from the Community. The most frequently made artifacts are wombats, kangaroos, snakes, emus, lizards and the more traditional woomeras, spears and boomerangs. Lessons are held in the shade of a tree, using local myall wood. Artifacts find a ready sale through the Kalinguratja Co-operative and the boys make pocket money as well as raising money for excursions and other class projects.

Another side of the technical studies class includes training for employment. This includes such skills as submitting tenders for local work, keeping timesheets and calculating payments, welding, flame cutting, thread-cutting, mechanics, carpentry, joinery and painting. Numerous minor repairs are carried out for both the school and the community. Some of these include broken window and door replacement, making reinforced septic tank lids, shed construction, demolition of old buildings, fencing and construction of an Adventure Playground.

In March 1977, an Aboriginal Studies Curriculum Committee was officially established by the South Australian Education Department. The committee has representatives from primary and secondary schools, colleges of advanced education, Aboriginal and Historic Relics Section of the Department of Environment, Libraries Branch, and Principal Education Officers. Although meetings of the full committee are held on a regualr basis to plan on-going tasks and to review material being produced, the main impetus comes from the five sub-committees that have been formed :-

Primary sub-committee

Secondary sub-committee

In-Service sub-committee

Materials and resources review sub-committee

Aboriginal liaison sub-committee

The co-ordinators of the sub-committees also meet on a regular basis for planning and progress reporting so that the on-going program is continually under review and viable.

Myths express what is significant during man’s experience, and so communicate at a deeper level than other stories. They should never be treated as pre-scientific attempts to explain how things began. The creation of myths met a much more profound and basic need.

In presenting myths to children, there are many methods that can be used. Rather than just presenting one or two myths and leaving it at that, significance is gained by presenting children with a collection of myths on one topic, for example, creation or fire, from a variety of places around the world. Children will find the values of literary objectives that the myths have in common. With guidance from the teacher, they will see that the myths are true to man’s experience.

Programs should allow for as much involvement of the pupils as possible during their study of myths. Integration with as many subject disciplines as possible, particularly the expressive arts, should come naturally. This gives the pupils a chance to convey thoughts of what the myth tells them or their group. The working out of a ritual dance, the making of music to accompany it, the writing of poetry, and the numerous art activities can be effective ways of saying what cannot be expressed through ordinary language. It is man’s imagination that has to be stirred and not his rationality. The celebration and the performance of these student fashioned rituals are the culmination of this study and can impregnate a very deep unconscious movement in the performers and witnesses.

After spending five terms working in the library at Oodnadatta Special Aboriginal School, I can now say I have achieved something. However, this achievement cannot be measured by an up-to-date catalogue and an extensive picture file, for example. What I have created is a library and library borrowing scheme which works for the children in this school.

In the first instance I set about to structure the physical layout of the library so that each section was very clearly separated. Basically,we have an Easy Fiction, Fiction and Non-fiction section. Because reading achievement in this school is limited and reading ages low, I have played up the Easy Fiction section. We have used more shelves than in any other section and each shelf is backed with brightly coloured material. We display, with covers showing, as many books as possible, and only use the very bottom shelves for storing our books. These displays are changed daily by our aides, who are now an integral part of library functioning, as I am the pre-school teacher here and I have accepted the library merely as an area of responsibility.

Because our more mature students are unsophisticated, there is little need to buy much material specifically for them, for they will read picture books with enthusiasm provided they are attractively displayed. At this time, we are cashing in on a gimmicky approach to encourage use of the library, rather than just the desire to read. The library is carpeted and curtained. We have removed a blackboard and replaced it with backed hessian, which we use for art display. We manufactured a listening-post from a high jump stand. We have removed tables and chairs and now have only a charge desk and chair and one low table for specific displays. We read on the floor. Because we have a storeroom for large audio-visual equipment, and our film projector and video are on moveable trolleys, (service trolleys) we do not use the library for these activities. This has helped us to channel the emphasis towards reading and books rather than use of the library as a general activities area.

The Aboriginal consultative group to the Schools Commission in their report, Education for Aborigines, made the following statement about the involvement of parents in the education of their children:

These thoughts resound the sentiments of the Queensland Department of Education. We appreciate the need for parents to become more involved in education, in providing guidelines of what they feel should be taught to cater for the needs of the Aboriginal/Islander child.

In areas where children’s first language is an Aboriginal language, the very nature of the Aboriginal language itself poses complex problems, not only for the child learning English but also for the teacher whose basic first step in solving these problems is to understand what the problems are. Except for a few fortunate teachers who were given some linguistics in college, (a rather recent innovation) and a few conscientious people who have taken courses later, most of us who teach in Aboriginal schools know far too little about linguistics. We therefore don’t know how to approach some language problems in the classroom or, even worse, we don’t recognize that the problems exist. Some teachers who have tried to do something about their lack of knowledge have been put off by technical linguistic terminology, phonetic script and so on.

This small article is an attempt by a teacher who is NOT a linguist, to show his fellow teachers who are NOT linguists, that we can still understand the linguistic problems in our classrooms, and have therefore a reasonable chance of coming to grips with them.

The Workshop took place from the 15th to 22nd September, as part of Lismore’s September Festival. Our main activity in the Festival was teaching young Aboriginal children on missions and in schools.

There were three dancers, Michael Leslie, Malcolm Cole and myself, along with our teacher, Lucy Jumawan, who attended the Festival. Our director, Carole Johnson joined us towards the end.

It was also handled as a student teaching project of the Aboriginal/Islander Dance Training Course, since advanced dance students taught the children the dances under teacher supervision. Lucy Jumawan assisted us, the student teachers. She would watch us and sometimes started the class off with a few simple steps/movements, just to warm up and encourage a feeling of security and relaxation. Each of us had been taught certain dances to teach. While one person was teaching his or her dance, it would mean the other two would help and correct the children.