Aboriginal Studies in the School: A Port Augusta Experience

Following co-ordinated effort on the part of teachers and Aboriginal school assistants from three Port Augusta schools and an Aboriginal Education and Aboriginal Studies adviser throughout 1980, courses have been developed for an Aboriginal Studies program at Year 8 and 9 levels.

All Year 8 students at Port Augusta High School, Augusta Park High School and Caritas Catholic School currently participate in the one term course. Each of the three secondary schools has committed both teacher time and available facilities to the successful development and implementation of the course. They continue to co-ordinate their activities and resources through the management of an Inter-school Aboriginal Studies Faculty which meets fortnightly.

The initiation of these developments came from the felt need of the schools to cater more for the cultural requirements of the Aboriginal students and to provide all students with an insight into local Aboriginal cultures.

Each of the people involved in developing the course had previously made efforts to incorporate elements of Aboriginal Studies in other subject areas like Social Studies, History, English and Science but felt that the topics were not being developed to their full extent. Also, whether or not Aboriginal Studies topics were taught tended to depend upon the individual interest of the teachers. By developing a course outline that could eventually be taught at each year level and accepted as a part of the curriculum of the course, writers believed that the future of the course could be ensured.