Most teachers of Aboriginal children are aware that to teach reading to their students they have to jump significant hurdles, some of which are so high they appear as barriers to progress along the learning trail. We are often faced with substantial hearing losses, and/or poor health. Often Aboriginal children’s motivation to improve is poor, because of their poor health. More often than not, response is poor, due to the home environment and attitude towards learning. Employment prospects must dampen much enthusiasm for learning. All these social and health factors are reasonably well documented and teachers are aware of their implications and program their teaching accordingly. However, taking into account all these factors, we still have non-achievement, in the field of reading in particular. Several children appear healthy – and this status has been confirmed by medical personnel – appear to be positively motivated with all the teacher and parental encouragement needed to succeed, and yet, despite significant remedial efforts, reading development is extremely slow and tedious. Why?

Almost without exception we have found that the non-attaining Aboriginal children who for all intents and purposes should have been progressing, especially in reading, exhibited visual problems, most of which appear to stem from poor eye muscular control. These children have good sight, which is the ability to see, but lack good vision, which is the ability to use one’s sight correctly.

If these problems are not overcome, then the sight will deteriorate, or most likely, in the case of Aboriginal children who have little inducement to excell in reading, the child will ‘give up’.

All of us in the broad field of Aboriginal education – teachers, aides, administrators – are innovators. For the first time there is an effort being made to modify the school system to cater for the needs and interests of Aboriginal students and parents – individualized treatment, bilingual teaching, meaningful consultation with the Aboriginal community, new studies in Aboriginal culture and Australian history. Seminars and teacher training, consultation on books and curriculum in preparation, provision of special resource teachers and Aboriginal teacher aides and a number of initiatives begun at individual schools by resource teachers and teacher aides themselves, are the means of change.

Innovation brings difficulties for the innovators, whatever field it is in. It is rare for new ideas to go into practice smoothly, because new ideas generally replace old ideas and old, established ideas have their followers. Quite often there will be a vested interest involved. Vested interests in education do not often involve money or profits but they do involve time and effort, and sometimes reputations. People don’t like hearing that some practices or beliefs they have spent great effort in developing, or learning, are now regarded as obsolete. So they resist. They resist change. To be able to handle such people is just one of the extra demands made on innovators. It calls for patience, the ability to remain firm in your own beliefs while trying to win people over. It calls for flexibility in your own plans where discussion reveals shortcomings.

Innovation also means an increased workload. Explaining to teachers, principals, students, parents and curriculum developers takes time. Preparing submissions takes time. Drawing up detailed action plans for any education program takes time. As education is funded by government and as innovations create interest among colleagues, report writing becomes part of the job – far more than when well-known practices are being followed. Finding solutions to problems which arise along the way takes more time than usual because there are no precedents to follow.

On Friday July 7, Jungai Day was held at Bell Primary School, Preston, to mark the beginning of N.A.D.O.C. week for 1978. Bell has an enrolment of just under 500 and has a high and expanding migrant population.

In early 1977, the first Aboriginal child arrived at the school, to add to the already complex nature of the school’s ethnic structure. Children from other Aboriginal families soon followed as the Housing Commission pursued its policy of providing houses that would match the finances of Aboriginal people.

The Aboriginal children made an immediate impact on the school. For some teachers and children, it was their first encounter with Aboriginal people. The children also brought their own problems, apart from those usually faced by any child starting at a new school.

It would hardly be overstating the case to say that the Aboriginal families would not have accepted the houses that they did, if they had not been in dire straits financially. The houses generally were small, cold, and inadequately furnished.

During their first winter at the school, the children were absent for much of the time, due to illnesses that were almost certainly related to the quality of the housing. The long breaks in the children’s attendances, however, were also indicative of a negative attitude to school, an attitude that proved very difficult to change as the children were away so often.

The situation didn’t really begin to improve until Pam Pederson arrived at the school to work as a teacher aide. Pam filled a crucial liaison role between the school and the Aboriginal families, as well as being a focal point of support for the Aboriginal children within the school.

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:

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.

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.

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.

On many occasions in recent times, at conferences and in reports, it has been said that it is of considerable importance to produce curriculum materials which are relevant to the lives of Australian children. In particular, it has been asserted that language teaching programs for Australian Aboriginal children and for the children of recently arrived community groups would be facilitated, if there were materials available to which these children could relate. Many materials presently available in schools are criticized, because they have been designed for child audiences in the United Kingdom and the United States, or that minor ‘cosmetic’ adaptations have been made to suit them to an Australian market. One argument put forward for the use of these ‘imported’ materials is that the Australian market is too small to support the development and production of materials designed specifically for Australian conditions. Contributing factors to this cost element are the use of four-colour printing, high quality glossy paper and expensive binding techniques. It is asserted also, that the use of these materials may be necessary*as they form part of integrated language teaching programs. In many instances, however, the classroom practitioner may develop an ideosyncratic language teaching regime which incorporates facets of several ‘recognized’ schemes. The problem arises therefore of how to capitalize upon the techniques and skills of the teacher with ‘established’ methods and yet provide materials with which the children can achieve a degree of empathy and self-identity and thereby, through the materials, experience stimulus motivation.

This course design is such that it will enable twelve Aboriginal school leavers to compete, within nine months, on an equitable basis with other generally more qualified students who seek apprenticeships in the automotive and building trades.