This model is based on the following set of suppositions:

– the Aboriginal school should be bilingual;

– Aboriginal people are traditionally tied to their land and therefore students are reluctant to leave their local community for further education;

– Communities in Australia will become self-managing, self-sufficient, and will determine their own future;

– education of Aboriginal children will prepare them for their rightful position in their Community in relation to the above;

– the Aboriginal attitude to education is different from that of the European Australian, and schools should cater for their needs as seen in the Community and not through the eyes of middle-class non-Aborigines;

– Aboriginal people have the right to education on the basis of the United Nations Charter, Article 26:

The main objectives of the parent counselling program are:

1. 1. To come to know parents of learning problem children at our school on an informal basis.

2. 2. To show parents what is happening at the school, so that they become familiar and conversant with what is happening.

3. 3. To develop in the parents feelings that they are involved, in fact, by involving them.

4. 4. To get the parents involved in areas concerning the schooling of their children.

5. 5. To get students motivated and co-operating at school.

6. 6. To show parents how they can help their children both in direct and indirect terms, for example, by helping them complete a maths problem and by giving them encouragement.

Mr Robert Bellear, of Sydney, who is the subject of our cover picture, is the third Australian Aboriginal to become a fully qualified, university-educated barrister and, appropriately, was admitted to the New South Wales Bar on National Aborigines Day, July 13th, this year.

Mr Bellear holds the degree of B. Juris. LLB. of the University of New South Wales, where he studied for five years. Earlier he had studied at Sydney Technical College to complete a matriculation certificate, qualifying him to undertake university studies.

His wife, whom he married in 1966, is the former Miss Kay Williams, a Victorian. Mr and Mrs Bellear adopted three black children and fostered another three – two black teenagers and one white child – during his seven-year period of study.

Mr Bellear was born at Murrumburrah, New South Wales, on June 27th, 1944, the second eldest in a family of nine children. When he was half-way through the fifth year of high school studies, he joined the Royal Australian Navy. During nine years of service in the Navy, he became a trade-fitter and turner, boiler-maker and deep-sea diver. He left the Navy in 1968, because of his attitude towards Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Mr Bellear has been active in the Aboriginal movement for the past ten years and has held executive positions in organizations like the Aboriginal legal and medical services. He started a $3 million Aboriginal housing company in Redfern, an inner Sydney suburb with a large Aboriginal population, which now houses 60 Aboriginal families. He and his wife started the Aboriginal Children’s Service.

The decentralizing movement away from large, multi-tribal settlements and missions over the last half decade is one of the most significant Aborignal initiated movements since the beginning of the European invasion.

Initially the movement required and requested nothing from Europeans. Gradually requests have been made for assistance in the areas of specific foods, health and education services.

In establishing an educational program for the homeland centre schools, it is essential that a situation is not created whereby Europeans saturate/dampen the initiative of the Aboriginal people; and so a program aimed at basic numeracy and literacy (as requested by the groups) has been devised aimed at supporting Aboriginal teachers.

Three attractive Aboriginal girls graduated last December as air hostesses for the government airline TAA. They are Mary Cross, 20, of Sylvania, a Sydney suburb; Jennifer Patterson, 22, of Townsville; and Evelyn Schraber, 22, of Alice Springs, who are thought to be the only Aboriginal air hostesses now working on an airline in Australia. They graduated with 16 other beautiful and intelligent Australians.

Under the new National Employment Strategy for Aboriginals (NESA), TAA and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs undertook a recruitment drive to find suitable Aboriginal hostesses. None of the three girls chosen had considered applying for an air hostess job before, in fact they said they ‘didn’t think they’d have a chance because they were Aboriginal, and didn’t think they would be accepted’.

They see their jobs as being public relations officers, not just for TAA but for their people.

Sydney girl Mary Cross hails from Shark Bay, a little fishing village in Western Australia, and had been in Sydney for a year studying to be a secretary on an Aboriginal Study Grant. Evelyn Schraber was a clerk with the Central Land Council at Alice Springs, and Jennifer Patterson was a field officer with the Queensland Health Department. Their air hostess training was funded by the NEAT scheme.

TAA’s chairman, Sir Kenneth Vial, said he hoped the three girls would be the forerunners of more Aboriginal hostesses with the company.

As teachers, most of us would agree that our attitudes and expectations do somehow influence the academic goals of our pupils and of ourselves. Research findings indicate that the self-fulfilling prophecy operates in all realms of education and that it results in the kind of behaviour that is expected. The significance of this, especially for teachers in cross-cultural classes, is now well established and generally accepted. However, the ways in which we actually transmit our attitudes and expectations to our pupils are still not clear.

Comparatively few Aboriginal words remain in the speech of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community. The words that have survived are remnants of two Aboriginal languages of the South Coast of New South Wales – the Dharawal language and the Dhurga language. Linguists consider that these were the main languages on this section of the coast. Since the turn of the century, however, it is thought the vocabularies were mixed up, so that now it is sometimes impossible to know for certain from which language particular words have come. It is on the basis of the words that have survived, a grammar of the languages compiled by Diana Eades, and her advice, that a language unit has been developed for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children who attend Jervis Bay Primary School.

The language materials have been designed for children aged eight to nine years. In the materials emphasis is placed on the human qualities of language – its day-to-dayness, enjoyment and human interaction. By means of colourful, self-corrective manipulative materials, games, songs and vocabulary built around themes, the children are encouraged to work and play with the languages. These enjoyable experiences are expected to motivate the children to undertake language learning in the future. By teaching the Aboriginal languages of the area, the school demonstrates that it values the original Australian languages and that it desires to achieve in its curriculum some cultural transmission by the Aboriginal community.

In the time I have been employed as a home/school visitor, I have visited 55 schools and have seen about 91 Aboriginal students. I have talked to principals and have spoken about Aboriginals to groups of children in some of the High Schools. I have attended a number of committees that one finds that one gets involved in once one gets into Aboriginal affairs. In addition, I have spoken to different groups of people at colleges, at teachers’ councils, and also at the Aboriginal Educational Seminar for Aboriginal children which was held in April.*

I think about 188 students attended that seminar during the three day period, and even the bus strike did not affect the children’s attendance, which I thought was great. The seminar was organized by John Lunnay, a consultant in Aboriginal education, with whom I work rather closely. It was a great success, with people on the program like Wandjuk Marika and David Gulpilil, Colin Thiele and Dora Hunter, Sonny Morey, Sid Jackson, Kay Hampton, Michael Ahmad, Brian Dickson, Eva Johnson, Leila Rankin and Des Price. During the seminar, I accompanied some of the students on visits to different places, like the Aboriginal Community College, the Task Force at the South Australian Institute of Technology, Torrens College of Advanced Education where some Aboriginal students are enrolled in the Teacher Education program, the Community Centre, the Aboriginal Health Unit and D.A.A. Over all, I feel it was very successful.

The following article is based on a “paper given in 1976 in Alice Springs at an induction course for teachers newly appointed to work in Aboriginal Schools in the Northern Territory. Mr Brennan is Principal Education Adviser to the Northern Territory Division of Education. In his talk he was concerned to give practical advice to this group of teachers and we believe that his comments will be helpful to teachers who work with Aboriginal children in a variety of settings around Australia.

May O’Brien wanted to become a teacher while she was still a small girl. There is nothing unusual in that. Other girls also want to be teachers when they grow up – but few have ever faced the problems and difficulties of May O’Brien. She would have given up long ago in the face of white prejudice and hostility, if it had not been for her unrelenting determination to reach her goal as a teacher.

It is easy now for Aborigines to become teachers. They get plenty of help and encouragement. But it wasn’t like that when May was born at Laverton in the 1930’s. At that time, she claims, white people used to say that the Aborigines in the Eastern Gold-fields were “the worst in Australia” – and they were treated as such by whites.

She left that hostile atmosphere when she was sent with other Aboriginal children to the Mount Margaret Mission.

There were no qualified teachers at Mount Margaret but the mission staff realised the importance of education and did what they could for the Aboriginal children. It opened up a new world for May.

The staff received Correspondence School lessons for their own children. They copied these for the Aboriginal children, but because there were too many children for full-time lessons they were split into two groups, one being taught in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Each group thus got two hours schooling a day. It wasn’t much, but the grounding in basic subjects was good, particularly in English.

Sir Herman Black, Lady Black, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

When I was first asked would I come along this afternoon to say a few words, my reply was, “I will think about it”. The response was, “How long do you need to think?”

Well, here I am.

It gives me great pleasure to be here this afternoon, to take part in this occasion. An occasion that has been taking place about this time every year, since 1975.

1975 will always be a year to remember, for it was the year that the first group of Aboriginal teacher assistants graduated from the training program and were presented with their certificates by Sir Herman Black.

Since then I have watched many Aboriginal people go through the same well-earned procedure. I guess it was the same with most of the groups, not knowing anybody, but by the end of the year it was like one big family.

First, I would like to congratulate the people who have successfully completed another year of the Aboriginal Teacher Assistants Training Program. I am sure this will be another year, 1978, that will go down in history, where yet another group of Aboriginal people have progressed within themselves from doing such a program, and I wish them the best of luck for what they may do in the future. I hope there will be many more continuous ATA programs to follow.

It has been the accepted view that children learn best when the learning experiences progress from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

The New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group feels that more emphasis needs to be placed on the training of teachers in regards to Aboriginal education.

Many first year teachers are sent to country areas with a relatively high percentage of Aboriginal students. In the main, these teachers have had little or no contact with Aboriginal children or parents.

Many writings on indigenous education focus on the role of the individual teacher. This is as it should be since the individual teacher is indeed the most significant factor in the success or failure of an educational program. There are other factors, however, which are significant, and in this article I would like to deal with one, namely: the system within which a teacher works.

A good educational system develops, supports and encourages good teaching practice. A poor system inevitably, if unintentionally, frustrates the efforts of its teachers. I believe many of the ablest and most dedicated teachers in Queensland are frustrated. I present here my own view. Quite possibly some of the facts are wrong. The important point is that this is the impression that at least one teacher on the job has of the way things work.

I would also like to propose a few ways in which the Queensland Education Department and the Queensland Teachers Union could better promote indigenous education through more effective staffing and curriculum development procedures. I do not mean to suggest that either of these two organizations is unconcerned with the plight of indigenous students; I do mean to suggest that both bodies are committed to maintaining an administrative system which is inappropriate and harmful to the interests of these students. In order to establish a truly effective program for indigenous students, substantive changes need to be made in the bureaucracy.

In the 1973 parliamentary session, the Australian Federal Government introduced a

Following that announcement, a committee was formed to investigate the possibilities of bilingual education and to direct the setting up of some initial programs. Five schools originally changed to a bilingual education program, and the number has grown to almost twenty. The original schools have now been in operation for five years, and there is a call for their evaluation. The government has expended large sums of money on the development of the programs, but there is still discussion concerning their possible future. Some of the key issues concerning bilingual education in the Northern Territory have not been resolved, and much of the development of programs was taken over by people of initiative in individual schools. This may or may not have been a good thing, but for the purposes of evaluation, we are presented with a very complex and freely structured situation. A just and constructive evaluation of all that has happened thus far will be difficult but invaluable for the government, the administrators, and the teachers.

Readers, we are sure, will be interested in the following summaries of projects sponsored by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The projects show how the Foundation has responded to educational needs in a variety of countries and cultures. There is now a realization that to consider the young child in isolation from his family and community does not make sense, if longer-term educational gains are to be achieved. Eence many of the projects seek to help schools acknowledge the importance of parents in the education of their children; endeavour to make schools and communities more responsive to each other; and encourage communities to help themselves.

Since the mid-1950’s, educational literature has reflected a deep concern for the relatively poor academic performance of children from particular ethnic minority groups. In the United States, for example, attention has focused on the low achievements of many Negro, Spanish and Indian children, and in Australia there is an increasing concern with the educational achievements of numbers of Aborigines. The data collected to date suggest that a child’s ethnic group membership makes an important contribution to his success in school. More specifically, the data raise the very broad issue of educability of children from some socio-economic and sub-cultural groups.

In most instances educability has been closely linked with teacher performance, suggesting that teachers play an important role in determining their pupil’s behaviours and achievements. It is this possible link between teacher behaviour and student achievement which has provided the impetus for much of the educational research focusing on the influence of the teacher. This area of research, however, is not characterized by a large number of conclusive studies. Nevertheless, some encouraging trends can be noted to indicate a possible relationship between the teacher variable and student achievements and behaviours.

This paper provides an overview for teachers who wish to develop a more appropriate mathematics program for their Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students. It covers cultural, linguistic and environmental issues, as well as purely mathematical and methodological procedures. Current literature and reports from teachers indicate that many indigenous students are not performing well in mathematics. It is hoped that the suggestions contained in this article will lead to a more rewarding experience for both teacher and student.

It is generally agreed by teachers of Aboriginal and Islander students that most students are not performing at a satisfactory level. This conclusion has been documented by Bourke and Parkin, by the Curriculum and Research Branches of the Departments of Education in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and by others, including Bishop, who wrote –

The causes of this relatively unsatisfactory performance are complex, but may usually be traced to a combination of environmental, cultural and linguistic differences, as well as to unsuitable teaching programs and methods.

There is a noticeable lack of literature on the subject available to teachers, and it is hoped that the following comments will be useful in drawing up a mathematics program whose content and methodology will be more relevant and meaningful to the students.

This is an account of a project undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Schools Commission ‘s Innovation Scheme to develop a social studies unit in a cross-cultural situation. The minority community involved is the Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay; the school is the Jervis Bay Primary School which the children of Wreck Bay attend.

Some Aboriginal children come to school with skills that are different from those obtained by most middle-class children. This means that they are disadvantaged for several years in the present education system. Many of these children have little experience of reading, writing, standard English, both written and spoken, and the use of books. Since the school is based on this form of learning, their ability to achieve is severely handicapped.

Many Aboriginal families use different linguistic styles and approaches and this means the children must learn a new area of language before they can begin school learning. The Aboriginal Consultative Group to the Schools Commission, 1975, has said:

To this end, there needs to be some work done in the area of school preparation even if it is mainly communication with the parents and an opportunity for the parents to gain a wider knowledge of the school system. Hopefully, this may lead to greater confidence in the parents’ own ability to cope with the system and an attempt by the parents to prepare their own children without destroying their Aboriginality.