Aboriginal Reconciliation

For children, a bilingual education links up with enhanced numeracy and literacy skills. For Indigenous children, the teaching of their culture along with Australia’s modern cultures, throughout learning and development, children are better able to engage with the general culture, while still maintaining their own cultural identity (Gugu Badhun Limited, 2012). Thanks to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Indigenous people are being given back their rights in regard to their language and in turn cultural identity. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act (2003) is a new promise that the cultural heritage of the Indigenous people will be recognised, protected and managed in Queensland. These are just a few of the reconciliatory ways Australia is giving the Indigenous back the respect and rights they

The Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) was a law that changed Indigenous Australian lives forever. The act enabled the New South Wales Board for the Protection of Aborigines to essentially control the lives of Aboriginal people. It was the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) that had major provisions that resulted in the containment and suffering that Aboriginal people endured. This suffering included the practice of forcible removing Indigenous children from their families. These major provisions help us understand what the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) involved and the impact it has had on the daily lives and cultures of Indigenous Australian peoples today.

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

The Stolen Generation has had a great effect on Aboriginal rights and freedoms as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders didn’t even have the rights to raise and look after their children and as a result 100,000 Aboriginal Australian’s were displaced and placed into white families. The lack of understanding and respect for Aboriginal culture also meant that many people who supported the removal of these children really thought they were doing “the right thing”. The impact on Australian life today is still being felt as the Stolen Generation is seen as a recent event has it only ended in the early 1970s. Children that where taken away back then now cannot trace back their roots and therefore have no record of their family history or where

Throughout the early 20th century, the Australian public was led to believe that Aboriginal children were disadvantaged in their communities, and that there was a high risk of physical and sexual abuse. Aboriginal children were being removed in order to be exposed to ‘Anglo values’ and ‘work habits’ with a view to them being employed by colonial settlers, and to stop their parents, families and communities from passing on their culture, language and identity

Teachers in Australia have the responsibility of catering to the learning needs and abilities of the students in their classroom. Additionally they are also responsible for catering to the unique cultural backgrounds of each student, in particular the cultures of Indigenous Australians. The teacher can cater to the diverse and complex Indigenous cultures by creating a learning environment that is based on effective student engagement for Aboriginal students. Studies have shown that Aboriginal students are currently not academically achieving as well as non-Aboriginal students (What Works: Core Issue 5). Closing the academic performance gap is considered a national priority. As a result, the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework has been developed to ensure that schools are delivering the best possible education to all students, specifically those who identify as Aboriginal. During term 3, 2017, I completed my final practicum at Baler Primary School in a year 4 classroom. The students in my class came from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, many of which identified as Aboriginal. Throughout this essay I will use examples from my final practicum at Baler Primary School in South Hedland to discuss how to make learning engaging, accessible and culturally responsive for Aboriginal students.

Government policies authorising the removal of Aboriginal children have caused extensive and unrepairable damage to every aspect of Indigenous culture. It could be argued that the emotional turmoil which occurred as a result of this policy, is greater than any physical abused ever faced by the Australian Aboriginal people. The act of child removal would be a scarring experience for parents and children of any race or culture. This policy had a particularly damaging impact on the Indigenous people as their identity is based within a set of strong traditional guides and teachings. These lessons are not recorded, but can only be taught through speaking with elders and learning through a connection to others within the mob, connection to art forms

The important relationship building teachers must conduct with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is another key issue teachers must keep in mind for working successfully with Indigenous students. Price (2012) argues that teachers hold a special place in the Indigenous community, especially with parents and caregivers. She states that by “mastering the craft” of teaching, you will be rewarded both personally and professionally over the years of your career (Price, 2012). Over the last 30 years, a number of prepositions have been put forward that will assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to become emotionally healthy, so they can live out their entitlement to becoming a dignified citizen of Australia and the world (Price, 2012).

Embedding Indigenous perspectives are paramount for all students to advance as learners/active participants within society. Entrenching Indigenous perspectives via our mandated curriculum and three cross-curriculum framework concepts simultaneously helps learners develop a sense of identity. Students’ will build connections to ‘country/place’, ‘people’ via language and experiences, and ‘societies’ through the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

There is a height of significance when it comes to embedding Indigenous perspectives in the curriculum and in schools. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, their students thrive in educational environments where staff respect and promote strong Indigenous culture and identity, build collaborative relationships and set high expectations (Kerley, 2015). Abiding by this principle would see students thriving for higher education, recognizing this has made it quite common for schools to introduce indigenous programs or units. These are put in place for the purpose of being extra support to not only Indigenous students but for everyone at school serving as a source of information and guidance. By incorporating these Units, cross-curriculum

Education is fundamental to growth, the growth of the individual, and the growth of a nation. Anthropologically this can be seen from the earliest of developments of human societies where practices emerge to ensure the passing of accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next. In the centuries since the invasion and colonisation of Australia in 1788, colonist authorities and governments have dominated the making of policies regarding most major aspects of Australian life, including the lives of Indigenous Australians. The enactment of these policies and legislation, whether targeted at society as a whole or directly at education, has had significant and most often negative causal impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, resulting in not only poor educational outcomes, but the loss of cultural identity, the development of serious issues in health and wellbeing, and the restriction of growth of Aboriginal communities. Moreover, there has been an ongoing pattern of the adoption of ill-informed policies in Australia, resulting in these poor outcomes and cultural decimation. Aboriginal people have developed a wariness, a mistrust, and even an attitude of avoidance to engage with non-Indigenous officials and those who they associate as their representatives, i.e. personnel working within

This week’s learning has significantly developed my awareness of Indigenous origins, history and culture. I discovered the multiple recordings of Indigenous origins and events that occurred before and after European settlement. Before starting this unit I did not have proper knowledge of previous government policies of discriminating the lives of Indigenous Australians such as protection, assimilation, integration, self-determination, multiculturalism and the Howard Government’s mean-spirited practical reconciliation (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016); and how Indigenous Australians struggled to earn the equality (Miller, 2012) to reach the current policy of ‘Closing the Gap’. What this week’s learning have highlighted that today Australian classrooms acknowledge, respect and deliver Indigenous Australian histories more adequately than ever before. I now understand that Indigenous perspectives would help students to learn the interconnectedness of Indigenous histories and relate these to contemporary life for Indigenous Australians (The Department of Education, 2017). This understanding is essential for me to evaluate my own knowledge of Indigenous Australian histories and policies to develop a holistic approach to include Indigenous perspectives in classrooms.

The main goal of the initiative is to boost Aboriginal student achievement, help close the gap in achievement between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students, and increase public confidence in publicly funded education. The document unpacks into eight sub topics: Aboriginal Peoples and Organizations; Culture, Tradition, and Language;Cross-Cultural Perspectives; Celebration; Aboriginal Contributions; Current and Historical Issues. By unpacking the initiative it is easy for educators to navigate through the report.

The structure of this paper will follow the Cultural Competency Framework as a means for exploring the above stated speeches. This framework moves through knowledge; informed practice/informed decision; and positive/effective learning and development. At the knowledge stage the content, importance and effect of the speeches will be explored, as well as their context. To address informed practice/informed decision the paper looks more closely at the issues which are raised in the speeches and their impact on Indigenous Australians. Finally positive/effective learning and development will be acknowledged through the exploration of the education implications that these issues can have in the classroom.

In 1979, the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) instigated a concentrated campaign calling for a treaty between Indigenous Australians and the Australian Commonwealth (Short, 2003, p. 494). The campaign gained a fair amount of legitimacy when it was adopted by the Aboriginal Treaty Committee (ATC), a respectable group of non-Indigenous academics who actively protested for Indigenous rights and justice. The ATC hoped the envisaged treaty would recognise and acknowledge Indigenous history and provide Indigenous peoples with the right to control their own affairs (Short, 2003, p. 494). However, the term 'treaty' unsettled many parliamentarians, as it implied two conflicting sovereign nations. In the face of heavy opposition, the treaty campaign gradually faded. In the years that followed, parliamentarians shifted their focus onto other matters they felt lay at the heart of the "Aboriginal problem", such as societal attitudinal change, education, and reconciliation (Short, 2003, p. 495)