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Rural and Remote Education - Qld

Rural

and Remote Education - Qld

Community meeting in Doomadgee,

6 October 1999 - notes

The meeting was attended

by 17 members of the community including four elders who were members

of the Stolen Generations. From HREOC: Chris Sidoti, Human Rights Commissioner;

Lady Pearl Logan, Queensland Co-Commissioner; and two Commission staff.

School attendance

"School attendance

is usually around 60%. It generally starts off well at the beginning of

the year but declines as the year progresses."

"We tried doing a

bus run for a while to encourage children to attend school. It didn't

work very well though. A lot of children used to hide when they heard

the bus coming."

"Sometimes there

are problems in school that keep children away. Some stay away because

of bullying and conflict in the schoolyard. Children sometimes bring community

problems into the school."

"There is a pre-school

but not many children attend. They are excluded because of community grudges.

Some of these feuds between families go back 20 or 30 years. My young

kids have never been to pre-school because of old grudges. You'd think

we could work together for the kids. They don't know about the grudges."

"There are no role

models for these kids. I teach grade 6 kids and yet I go down to the river

and see 12 year old kids who I've never seen before."

"At the beginning

of the year the police put up a sign saying that children have to attend

school and that if they do not their parents will be fined. Imposing fines

on parents when their children don't attend school is not a good idea.

It will only result in people being dragged into the criminal justice

system if they can't pay the fine."

"Maybe financial

penalties [for non-attendance at school] could be imposed on parents pursuant

to a council by-law rather than through the criminal justice system."

Literacy

"Many parents in

the community are concerned that their children cannot read or write."

"My son is 19. He

has been attending pre-school and school in Doomadgee for the past 17

years. He still cannot read or write."

"Children drop out

of school because they are told they are nobody. They need encouragement.

When I was a child someone told me I was clever and that they believed

in me. That gave me the encouragement I needed to learn how to read and

write." [Aboriginal elder, a woman]

Teaching approach

"The kids want more

sport and manual arts. They want to go out bush. They need practical training

as part of their schooling too. They don't want to spend all of their

time in the classroom."

"Indigenous languages

are not taught here. They should bring the old people down to the school

so that they can teach the children about language and culture. The school

is not really serious about culture. They might employ people to teach

it but they are not really committed."

Role of parents

"We have problems

when mothers don't care for their children. There is neglect and then

the child gets no schooling. Parents should give their children more encouragement

to go to school."

"Some kids stay up

late waiting for their parents to come home at night, then they can't

wake up for school the next morning."

Relations between

the school and the community

"There needs to be

more communication between the school and the community. The school should

go out to the community more."

"There is a lack

of communication between the school and the community. The teachers need

to talk to the parents more. They need to come into the parents' homes

and show them respect. If children see the parents and the school working

together, attendance will improve and they will respond better to their

teachers."

"A community school

run by Indigenous people for Indigenous people may be the answer. It should

be a bilingual school and it should teach Indigenous culture."

Alcohol and other

community problems

"There are big problems

in Doomadgee with drugs and alcohol and gambling. There are people selling

'sly' grog so that they can gamble. The children are the silent victims

of this. These things have been introduced into the community on the basis

that people have the right to do so. Yet these people are denying children

their right to a decent quality of life."

"Some kids go away

to do Years 11 and 12. They come back to Doomadgee and find that there

are no jobs, so they just start drinking and having babies. Other kids

coming up through the system see this happening so they don't see any

point going up to Year 12."

"When we [the elders]

were going to school there was no drinking and no gambling."

"When we make decisions

they must be made communally and collectively in the Aboriginal way. When

people say they have the right to drink, they should consider the communal

well-being."

"White society has

imposed its values on us and this has created mental trauma for Aboriginal

people. They introduced many of the problems that are destroying our society.

White people take the view that they know what is best for us. They are

making all the decisions but still things are getting worse and not better.

Blacks and whites need to work together in partnership to solve these

problems."

"We went before the

local council to discuss these issues but they refused to talk to us.

They just left us sitting there."

Health issues

"The school offers

free lunches for students three days a week."

"Some children have

hearing problems which affect their education. They can't get the special

support they need to deal with this problem."

"The Government is

putting millions into Aboriginal health and education but it is still

getting worse. It hasn't occurred to the Government that they are going

about it the wrong way. They still have the mentality that they know what's

best for us."

Indigenous culture

and identity

"Principals and teachers

must be educated in Aboriginal ways."

"Teachers who work

in Indigenous communities should be carefully screened for their knowledge

and understanding of Indigenous cultural issues."

"Government cuts

to bilingual education for Indigenous people is another form of assimilation."

"Indigenous people

have been taught the wrong history. When I was a boy we were taught that

Captain Cook discovered Australia. This gave Indigenous people an inferiority

complex. It made us want to be white and not black."

"The system was created

by Europeans for Europeans and not for Indigenous people. We go into the

system 2 or 3 years behind non-Indigenous people because we are taught

to hunt and to gather, not to play scrabble and add and subtract. We are

set up to fail. It is culturally inappropriate for white people to be

teaching Indigenous children."

"We acknowledge the

good things about white Australia but they must also respect the good

things about us and our culture. It's a two way process."

"White people don't

have the answers for black people. The Indigenous culture is a spiritual

culture and you are a material culture. Your culture does not care about

the identity of the child, only the child's academic achievement. The

child has to be able to answer the question 'Who am I?'. We should have

Reconciliation but we should also understand that we are different. We

have to teach our children the spiritual values of our culture."

"Once the children

know who they are, once they are accepted as equals, we will see Aboriginal

doctors and lawyers working with the white community but also keeping

their own culture intact."

Children from outlying

communities

"Some of the children

from the outstations don't want to come into Doomadgee because there is

too much drinking and fighting and conflict. They want to stay in their

own communities. We should look at ways of enabling them to do this. They

should set up a School of the Air for the outstations. Or maybe they could

send teachers and health teams out there. That way the children can get

their education but can also learn hunting and fishing and traditional

practices."

"One outstation has

been taking Japanese students who pay to stay there and learn about our

traditional medicines and our way of life. This pays for the outstation's

upkeep. It gets no government funding. We would like to expand the scheme

so that more people can go there and learn from us."

Last

updated 2 December 2001.