Comprehensive Notes – History & Issues in Aboriginal Education (Australia)

Opening Provocation: Oodgeroo Noonuccal – “The Teachers”

• Poem (1964; reprinted 2008) positions education as a tool of colonial control.
  • Missions promised “sense of sin”, “fear of God and boss”.
  • Aboriginal reply: “Teach us first to read and write.”
• Sets thematic lens for whole history: imposed pedagogy vs. Aboriginal agency.

Introduction: Education, Power & Life-Chances

• Schooling of Aboriginal children inseparable from dominant Australian attitudes since 1788.
• Community complicity: 1902 NSW principal – exclusion of Aboriginal pupils was “the will of the people with the Minister’s sanction”.
• Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC, 1991) showed schooling determines survival:
  • $40$ of $99$ deceased hadn’t progressed beyond primary.
  • $20$ had not finished primary; $8$ had no primary at all.
  • Only $2$ completed secondary; $3$ reached TAFE (only $1$ finished); $0$ attended university.

1788-1850: Missions, Protectors & Early Experiments

• 1814: Governor Macquarie’s Native Institution, Parramatta – first government/mission “lock-in” school.
  • Maria Lock (1819) topped the colony’s examination – early evidence of Aboriginal scholastic ability later ignored.
• 1821 move to Blacktown; closure by 1830.
• Mission logic: remove children from parents; inculcate Christianity + Anglo work ethic.
• 1837 House of Commons Select Committee: “gift of Christianity” = restitution.
• Attitudes: Adelaide Protector (1840) – “Our chief hope is in the children” if removed from parents.
• 1848 NSW Board of National Education: educating “the Blacks” declared “impracticable”.
• By 1850 all south-eastern missions closed; 1856 NSW Select Committee on Native Police: “little hope of ever civilising the Aborigine.”

1850-1900: ‘Dying Race’, Segregation & Exclusion on Demand

• Social Darwinism + population decline birthed “Myth of the Dying Race” → justification for reserves & separate schools (“smoothing the dying pillow”).
• 1880 NSW Public Instruction Act promised free, secular, compulsory schooling for “all”, yet Board of Yass Public School (1883) threatened to withdraw white pupils if $15$ Aboriginal children not expelled.
  • Minister George Reid: no child should be excluded “as a general rule” but Aboriginal admission may be “prejudicial to the whole school”.
• Policy: where exclusions numerous & funds available, Department built separate ‘Aboriginal Schools’. By $1900$ NSW had $13$ such schools.
• Parallel exclusions in WA: Minister authorised wholesale expulsions early 1900s. 1916 letter of appeal by John Kickett illustrates parent resistance.

1900-1937: Second-Class Schooling & Deficit Theories

• Reserve schools = untrained staff, sub-standard facilities; curriculum = manual chores (boys) & domestic work (girls).
  • Queensland architect Archibald Meston (1901): teaching decimals or composition would create competition with Europeans.
• ‘Child-Race’ science: Sir Baldwin Spencer (1926) – Aboriginal brains “structurally simple”, “over-grown child”.
• 1941 NSW Aboriginal Syllabus: ‘full-bloods’ unable to progress past Grade 3; ‘mixed’ sometimes suitable for ordinary syllabus. 380-page mainstream course vs. 14-page Aboriginal booklet.
• IQ testing (Western-centric) “proved” intellectual inferiority → legitimised low retention & low expenditure.

1937-1965: Assimilation, Exemptions & Intensified Segregation

• 1937 Commonwealth Native Welfare Conference: destiny of “mixed blood” = absorption; educate them to white standards for white workforce.
• 1940s Exemption Certificates (NSW, SA) – holders “deemed not Aborigine”; children admitted to public schools. Yet implementation patchy (e.g. Lismore RSL protest).
• Case Study: Gulargambone, NSW
  • Total town segregation (housing, cinema, cafes, religion, sport). 1955 GG’s displeasure led to closure of reserve school (1958) & forced integration; violent backlash followed.
• Remote missions proliferate; pastoralists oppose schooling fearing labour loss. Bateman Report (WA 1948): keep kids on stations; towns ‘spoil’ natives.

Voices from the 1940s-60s: Denied Schooling

• Tombo Winters: stuck in 7th class for 6-7 yrs; left at $13$, worked for rations.
• Henry “Banjo” Clarke: total of two days’ schooling; fled flogging teacher.
• Isabel Flick: only three half-days at minister’s house; official segregation until mid-1940s.
• Dr Eve Fesl: parents forced to Cherbourg; literacy forbidden; family moved to Brisbane for education.

1965-1980: Integration, Community Movements & Policy Births

• 1965: ‘Assimilation’ replaced by ‘Integration’ – cultural blending not erasure; yet deficit assumptions linger.
• 1967 Referendum – Aboriginal citizenship, catalyst for community control.
• 1970s: International Van Leer influence → deficit/deprivation preschool programs.
• 1971 NSW Teachers Federation survey: $1608$ Aboriginal secondary students (vs. $514$ in 1964); $0.8\%$ sat HSC.

Aboriginal Education Consultative Structures

• 1963 Alan Duncan establishes Consultative Committee → Aboriginal Education Council (AEC).
  • Pioneers scholarships, study centres, Aboriginal Teacher Aides (ATAs), Home-School Liaison.
• 1975 National Aboriginal Education Committee (NAEC) advises Commonwealth; goal: $1000$ Aboriginal teachers by 1990.
• Late 1970s: State-based AECGs formed; NSW model evolves into local-regional-state network.

Funding & Supplementary Assistance

• 1969: Commonwealth secondary assistance (115 recipients).
• 1973-77: Whitlam bilingual pilots (5 → 20 → 25 NT schools).
• 1988 Hughes Report → National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP/NATSIEP → IEP).
  • Three triennial funding streams: ATAS/ITAS (tutoring), ASSPA (school-level support + parental participation), VEGAS (vocational guidance).
  • Post-1996 shift to per-capita allocations; remote weightings; contracts for AECGs.
  • 2005: ASSPA abolished → Parent-School Partnership Initiative (PSPI) → PaCE.

Curriculum Reforms & Aboriginal Studies

• 1975 Commonwealth press release promised compulsory “race relations” classes (no state agreement).
• NSW leadership:
  • HSC Aboriginal Studies developed 1986, taught from 1991.
  • Years 7-10 syllabus (1994) & K-6 HSIE integration.
• Nationally: 1989 ‘Common & Agreed National Goals’ include Aboriginal heritage; SOSE Profile embeds perspectives; RCIADIC & 1994 National Review call for mandatory Aboriginal Studies.
• ‘Deficit Model’ diagram (Cambourne & Turbill 1990) illustrates vicious cycle of low expectations → poor practice → poor outcomes.

Two-Way / Garma Schooling Paradigm

• Yirrkala Community School (Arnhem Land) under Principal Manduwuy Yunupingu (1989) pioneers ‘both-ways’: Yolngu + Balanda knowledge merge like tidal Garma metaphor.
• Kinship concepts used to teach maths/science; curriculum driven by community Elders & Aboriginal teachers.

Health, Social Determinants & Learning

• Otitis Media: 1989 inner-Sydney survey – >80\% of Aboriginal students intermittently deaf; “Can’t hear, can’t learn.”
  • National conferences (Alice Springs 1994; NSW 1995) sought health-education partnerships.
• Additional compounding issues: family violence, drug/alcohol abuse, child protection; holistic responses required.

Pedagogies of Relevance & Engagement

• Walgett (1970s) action-research (Laurie Craddock & Ed Gaskell):
  • Experiential / culturally relevant content; align with learning modalities (visual for many Aboriginal students).
  • Discovery: Aboriginal content alone insufficient—must tap visual/kinship frameworks.
• Croc Festival (1998-2007): touring non-competitive mega-event blending performance, health education, careers; described by GG Deane as “reconciliation in action.”

Personal Narratives & Case Studies

• Norm Newlin (Worimi) – labelled “stupid”, beaten; later poet, university graduate.
• Tennant Creek “Grog War” (Alexis Wright): schooling amid alcohol devastation, truancy triggers, youth anger.
• “Only Aboriginal” OA classes in NSW (1980s) – over-representation; highlighted by AECG.

Critical Commentaries & Polemics

• Helen Hughes, Lands of Shame (2007): argues “exceptionalist” policies trapped $\approx90,000$ remote residents in $1200$ communities without mainstream-standard schools; calls for universal quality schooling.

Statistical Trajectory of Improvement (Yet Gaps Persist)

• Higher ed enrolments: $7000$ Indigenous students (1996).
• Secondary assistance: $48,000$ recipients (1996).
• Year 12 completions: $2206$ (1999) → $4779$ (2009).
• Year 7→12 retention: $32\%$ (1998) → $42.9\%$ (2007).
• Participation key issue: engagement beyond mere access.

Contemporary Challenges

• Community involvement fragile; many advisory bodies now government-embedded; national AECG federation collapsed; ATSIC abolished (2004); no standing Indigenous education body.
• Teacher education: majority still graduate knowing “little to nothing” about Aboriginal Australia; mandatory training advocated.
• Racism (individual, institutional, curricular) continues – boys’ disengagement, disciplinary disproportionality, over-representation in juvenile justice.
• Remote vs. urban disparities; technological, resource and staffing inequities.

Future Directions & Imperatives

• Affirm students’ right “to be Aboriginal” in every school (NSW AECG consultation mantra).
• Whole-school anti-racism implementation; culturally responsive curricula across ALL schools, even where no Aboriginal enrolments.
• Reinstate/expand visiting Aboriginal speaker programs to educate non-Indigenous students.
• Multi-sectoral health-education strategies (hearing, nutrition, mental health).
• Sustain bilingual & language-revival initiatives; Australian Indigenous Languages Framework guides flexible P-12 provision.
• Strengthen parental/community engagement via PaCE and beyond; fair funding formulas.
• Uphold stories as pedagogical tools—‘thousands of stories spoken & listened to with understanding’ (Sally Morgan).
• Core mantra: “Koori kids can do anything” – challenge deficit mindsets; design schooling for genuine participation, success and wellbeing.