It is timely that this conference has been convened to promote and support the recording of family and community histories. These histories can be offered as an alternative to the one sided view of Australian history currently presented in our schools, and provide students with a balance of viewpoints about events that have occurred in this country in the last two hundred years or so. In the past schools have taught only one perspective of the colonisation of this country, and have shown little respect for views other than those presented in written reports, letters, press articles and other documents by the British colonisers.

The English-based creoles, which are spoken by a very large number of Aboriginal Australians, are so named because it is obvious that a large proportion of their lexicon is derived from English. This fact alone, however, does not indicate that they are merely regional varieties of English. They are distinct languages. Together with other world creoles, they are at the frontier of linguistic research and the subject of considerable controversy. One critical forum of debate centres on the validity of creoles as languages of education. It is the intention of the authors that this paper should achieve two things. Firstly, it is intended to contribute constructively to that debate. Secondly, it is intended to provide an overview of the present use of some creole languages in Australian schools.

‘Language immersion’ has been regarded with suspicion for roughly two decades by many educators wishing to be loyal to the goals of bilingual education in indigenous groups. In this paper I argue that we should not be suspicious of immersion in a generalised way as an approach to both first and second language teaching among these groups. Rather, we should define those conditions under which immersion might be dangerous and those under which it might be helpful to the language aspirations of indigenous minorities.

In January/February 1973 at the request of the Minister for Education, the Hon. Kim E. Beazley, an Advisory Group was set up to make recommendations for the implementation and development of a program involving teaching in Aboriginal languages and the incorporation in the school curriculum of further elements of traditional Aboriginal arts, crafts and skills. The members of the group were:

Dr. Betty H. Watts, Reader in Education, University of Queensland, Mr. W.J. McGrath, Inspector of Schools, Aboriginal Education Branch, and Mr. J.L. Tandy, Department of Education, Canberra.

It is believed that many teachers will be interested in the thinking behind the bilingual education program and the manner of its recommended implementation.

The extracts which follow set out the rationale and the recommended progress through the educational program. The recommended roles of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff members will be outlined in the next issue.

Most educationalists now acknowledge the pedagogical power of the Whole Language or Language Experience approach to the teaching of reading and other language skills. This approach is particularly valuable in remote Aboriginal schools where teaching resources can be made culturally relevant by centering learning around local and community driven experiences. Once a theme has been selected (usually around a personal or mediated experience such an excursion or other activity or a Big Book), the children are immersed in the oral and written language that arises from this experience. Activities may include creating a negotiated text, modelled writing, co-operative cloze and formulating a personal response to the experience. A thematic approach seeks to provide sufficient repetition of language structures and vocabulary for children to increase their fluency as readers and to generally expand their skills as language users.

One of the founding members of the famous Papunya desert artists, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, was announced the winner of the prestigious Red Ochre Award at the presentation ceremony of Australia's major arts awards at Parliament House, Canberra on the 17th of October 1994.

The mastery of beginning reading skills by Aboriginal students is still an area of ongoing concern. The discussion paper released as part of the National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people (1994) points to 45% of Aboriginal students having significantly lower levels of achievement in literacy and numeracy than other Australian students despite the intervention programs that have been developed and implemented. The Review also recommends that to improve this situation an emphasis needs to be placed on literacy programs “which identify difficulties as early as possible and which deliver special assistance to improve and maintain literacy achievements at the earliest possible time”(1994). The purpose of this article is to provide an example of one such program that has been developed around new research into the area of early reading development and used successfully with young Aboriginal students.

The English language differs from others both in the patterns and the sociolinguistic conventions of its discourse. This paper uses forms of greeting as a specific reference as to how cross cultural communication can break down when Aboriginal people and English speakers interact.

Since leaving ‘the bush’ I have been continually surprised at the ignorance that still exists about Aboriginal people and their languages. When people chat to me, and it is revealed that I used to work in Aboriginal schools in the Northern Territory, they say things like “Do you speak Aboriginal then?… Maybe you could make a sign for us saying ‘Welcome to our Kindergarten’ in Aboriginal?” I then have to explain that there are many, many different Aboriginal languages, not just one, and to say or write such things in any one of these languages requires a lot more than a mere literal translation. When I began doing research on the topic of writing in Aboriginal languages. I was again surprised at the sorts of comments people made to me. Comments like “How can you do research on writing in Aboriginal languages: I thought the Aborigines didn't even have an alphabet!”

The structures of a traditional school curriculum, timetable, and teaching practices can, by their very nature, be destructive of Aboriginal identity and traditional Aboriginal education, even when, on the surface, the content of the school curriculum is Aboriginal. This article explores the idea that the processes of reading and writing and making books, movies and videos can also be very destructive of Aboriginal identity when these things are controlled by the imagination of white educators and media makers.

Aboriginal Studies and how to teach Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander students were the focus of the Queensland Yatha Conference.