I would like to discuss certain aspects of teaching in a predominantly Aboriginal community. I want to stress three major areas which I believe we must think about carefully if we are to educate children successfully, and actually be content in our job.

1. 1. The manner in which we teach the children in our class.

2. 2. Community involvement.

3. 3. The decision-making role of the Aboriginal Community.

This film describes bilingual education in three places in the Northern Territory: Milingimbi, Yayayi and Yuendumu.

It shows Aboriginal teachers in action, teaching reading, number and traditional dance and weaving, as well as English speakers teaching English.

At Milingimbi the bilingual program is advanced, and there is an enthusiastic team including United Church linguist, Miss Beulah Lowe. One of the highlights of the film shows Miss Lowe taping a story told to her by an old man, transcribing it, and bringing it to him as a published book.

The Aboriginal Social Club of Port Augusta has been operating a pre-pre-school for Aboriginal children for the past six months or more. The idea behind this venture was to enable Aboriginal children between the ages of 2½ to 4 years to come together in a playgroup situation where they could experience the social contacts and educational experiences which many middle-class children already experience in the home. Such experiences prepare the children for kindergarten which they attend between the ages of 4 and 5 years.

In June 1973 a proposal for a study of the beliefs of metropolitan (Perth) Caucasian children and adults towards Aborigines was submitted by the Western Australian Institute of Technology to the then Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority. The proposal was forwarded to D.A.A. in Canberra, was approved, and preliminary work on a pilot study commenced in February 1974. The survey continued through the year and the results were analysed. A final two-volume report was presented to the Department in January 1975.

I wanted to become a teacher-aide after I heard of an experimental project in a Brisbane school where Aboriginal people were asked to be part of the school and part of the classrooms to help the Aboriginal children attending the school. I applied at three schools in the Inala district because I live in this district, my children go to school here, and my sister-in-law is a teacher-aide at one of the schools in the district.

I thought it would be really great if I could get a job like that. I could be at the school with my two children and work the same hours as them. After I found out that I had got the job at the same school that my children attend, I didn’t have a clue what work I’d be doing. My sister-in-law told me a few things, and after I had been for an interview, I had a better idea. But I still didn’t expect to be working with the children – doing sums and reading.

A multi-cultural education program has been followed in the Augusta Park Kindergarten for the past six months, with such pleasing results that, if introduced in all kindergartens, it could reduce the misunderstandings arising out of ignorance in a multi-cultural environment. This program was based on similar courses in Scandinavia, Germany, the U.S.S.R., Canada and New Zealand, all combined and adapted to the situation in Port Augusta and the Australian situation generally. The basic idea was for the learning to be a two-way process between the Euro-Australian children and the two dominant cultural groups, the Aboriginal and Italian children.

Over the last two years Australians have become more aware through the bitter comments of Aborigines in the media that a new government cannot overnight solve problems which have been festering for more than a century. It is still possible for the National Population Inquiry Report to note in 1975 that ‘in every conceivable comparison, the Aborigines and Islanders … stand in stark contrast to the general Australian society, and also to other “ethnic” groups, whether defined on the basis of race, nationality, birthplace, language or religion. They probably have the highest growth rate, the highest death rate, the worst health and housing, and legal status of any identifiable section of the Australian population’. They also have the least schooling.

Australian society offers its major rewards to people who live in cities. Whether in employment, entertainment, housing, or welfare facilities, urban centres can generally offer more and better. This is a gross generalization, of course, but it must be seen as a major factor underlying rural-urban migration in Australia today. This is true whether migrants are Aboriginals or Europeans – despite the fact that Aboriginals generally end up in just those urban areas where the limits of the generalization can be most clearly seen.

In broad terms education is available to Aboriginal children in the same way as to non-Aboriginal children. That is to say that in most settled areas there are facilities for pre-school kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and of course, for the whole of Western Australia there are now 2 Universities, a Technical College, and 2 Teachers’ Training Colleges. Like all other amenities, however, they are more accessible to Aboriginal pupils in certain areas of the State than in others.