The Importance Of Educating Non Indigenous Australians About Indigenous Culture And Epistemologies

The discourse of whiteness has severely impacted on the educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (herein referred to as Indigenous Peoples). The discourse is based on an ontology founded on overt racism, discrimination, prejudice, exclusion and dispossession and towards all Indigenous Peoples. Subsequently, the history of Indigenous Peoples experiences in relation to education is extremely negative. They have been denied the right to the same education as non-Indigenous students, frequently expelled and continually forced to deny their cultural identity. The discourse of whiteness has resulted in pedagogies and pedagogical practices that are overly racist and not inclusive of Indigenous Peoples culture. To improve future educational outcomes it is necessary to decolonise Australia and rewrite the curriculum so that it is inclusive for all students.

Unique traditions, language, beliefs and values all comprise Indigenous culture. It is critical that a meaningful appreciation of their culture

The Australian Curriculum currently is struggling with incorporating indigenous perspectives as a key focus in the curriculum properly. It is lacking the ability to normalise indigenous knowledge and instead represents

An innate understanding that all beings on the planet are important for the subsistence of each other is a large part of Indigenous ideology, as well as the respect for the vast ways with which beings on the planet interact; whether they are “animate” or “inanimate”, they are all apart of the “web of relationships” (Battiste & Henderson, 2000, p. 44). Drawing from this view, most Indigenous Peoples believe that every member of a community has their own thoughts, gifts, and knowledge that they are able to contribute to the group. This means that there is also a large appreciation of Reciprocity because all knowledge is good knowledge, and that means all knowledge holds some validity and truth. Dreams, for example, are seen as premonitions and fact. As it happens, Indigenous Peoples place much of their societal values into facets of life that are intangible, such as emotions, spirituality, and mentality. It is for this reason that maintaining healthy and Respect-based Relationships amongst all beings on the planet is such an important part of Indigenous identity. The holistic understanding of the world can only occur if individuals are listening to each other as well as sharing whatever knowledge that they have to share.

60% of aboriginal children are significantly behind non-indigenous Australians by the time they start years one. Only 40% of aboriginal children stay at school through to year twelve. Causes of this include language because English is their second language, inappropriate context; material being taught does not relate to the aboriginals lives. Over crowed house where aboriginal children cannot learn to do homework is a big factor in them being behind in education.

This indirectly implies the significant role of culture in improving educational outcomes of Aboriginal population. Which role does the acknowledgement of culture play in education of Aboriginal students? Meyer (1998, as cited in Hanlen, 2010) argues that the Aboriginal communities consider the knowledge to come through other people’s knowledge and that a person exists through interaction with other people. Education is considered to be a process which never stops and which is taking place inside the family and daily activities (Hanlen, as cited in Hanlen, 2010). Furthermore, Hanlen argues that the Aboriginal people think about goals of the community as more important than individual goals and all aspects of life are

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.

Through my life, I have seen several different approaches to Indigenous people’s rights and importance in Australia. I have been fortunate enough to visit Ayers Rock and undertake a tour which allowed me to see Aboriginal culture in art and drawings as well as hearing Dreamtime stories from guides. I have also witnessed family friends who have been severely racist and disrespectful of Indigenous heritage and history. I also was lucky to work with some Indigenous students who were in Reception during my Professional Experience 1, and I was able to see first-hand how a culture clash can affect a student’s behaviour. I feel that even before entering this course, I have had the privilege of being able to observe both positives and negatives

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

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.

Throughout the last fifty years two diametrically opposed views have played out. H.C. Coombs argued that the priority was to use the curriculum and teaching methods to rebuild and sustain traditional Aboriginal culture destroyed by colonisation, racism and oppression. He supported Moira Kingston’s view that all Aborigines had a “world view derived from the Dreaming and irreconcilable with the demands of a modern industrialised market economy.” Sir Paul Hasluck represented the opposing assimiliationist view that schools should give priority to literacy, numeracy and technical and scientific knowledge to asssist integration in the workforce.Many theorists and practitioners have focused on the one third of students in Aboriginal schools with a specifically Aboriginal education rather than the majority attending the same schools as non-Indigenous children. In either case major problems were indentified with Aboriginal education by 2000.

Most indigenous people live near the coastal or forest throughout Australia. In northern Australia, around a third of landscape have owned by indigenous people (Department of the Environment, 2013). In the area with reach of biodiversity like wetland tropics, there were eighteen tribal groups living for more than 8000 years, namely Girramay, Gulnay, Bandjin, Kuku-Yalanji, Nywaigi, Gugu-Badhun, Koko Muluridji, Wulgurukaba, Kunggandji, Ngadjon-jii, Warungnu, Yirrganydji, Jirrbal, Djabugay, Yidinji, Djiru, Warrgamay and Ma:Mu (Hill, 2015; Wet Tropics Management Authority, 2016). These groups have a traditional relationship and ecological knowledge in managing ecosystem through fire, pest and weed management.

Learning from indigenous knowledge in education: Indigenuous knowledge has been the foundation for learning that aboriginal families, communities and nations have always maintained for their children. It has been our knowledge systems, cultural traditions and values, and ancestral languages that have affirmed our place within the Canadian context. Indigenous perspectives on learning do not see indigenous and western knowledge traditions in opposition to one another.(Battisfe,2002).Indigenous peoples ability to thrive is a testament to the ways they can a

In 2006 the Government published a report “Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage” which showed that approximately 32% of Indigenous people lived in major cities, a further 21% lived in inner regional areas, 22% in outer regional areas. An estimated 9% lived in remote areas and 15% in very remote areas: compare this to 90% of Non-Indigenous people who live in major cities or inner regional areas. These figures show that almost half the Indigenous population has very limited access to many services. Another obstacle to formal education and training is cultural attitude which has only recently began to change as the Indigenous community becomes more politically aware and sophisticated. In 2006 there were only 36% of students completing year 12, in comparison 76% of non-Indigenous students finished year 12. Economically the average Indigenous family is much worse off, earning a median income that is 65% of non-Indigenous households, add to this the historical absence of western scholarship and it is obvious that there is not an equality of opportunity available to most of the Indigenous population.