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As the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, one of my responsibilities is to monitor the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Over the past five years I have assessed the opportunities that Indigenous children have to thrive in Australian society and achieve their full potential. My evaluation of the opportunities for our young people is mixed.
On the one hand I am pleased that there has been remarkable progress towards reconciliation in Australia. Indigenous culture and knowledge systems are now recognised and valued in our education systems and other important Australian institutions. This recognition has fostered pride and this has had positive impacts on new generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. No longer do my people hide their cultural identity.
On the other hand there is still a lot of work to be done to develop basic services for Indigenous children, particularly in remote regions of Australia where our young people do not enjoy equality of opportunity.
In remote Australia, many of the resources and options that we take for granted in urban locations, simply don't exist. In recent months however, the Australian Government has made some large commitments to address health and housing inequalities. The Close the Gap campaign aims to improve outcomes in the living standards and the health of Indigenous people across Australia.
However, health and housing initiatives alone will not achieve their intended outcomes unless they are supported by quality education. And there is still plenty of work to be done to improve Indigenous education in this country. For example, Australian governments are yet to do a comprehensive analysis of the education services that are available to remote Indigenous Australians. We simply don't know how many children have no access to school education in this country.
On my travels I have visited remote communities where a visiting teacher attends a remote community for three days per fortnight. There can be up to 40 children in these communities who receive a part-time education in sub-standard facilities. I have seen schools made of tin roofs with no walls and dirt floors. There is no electricity, no running water and no telephone or basic amenities. The teacher sleeps in a tent for the days of the visit, often in testing circumstances.
Despite the obvious inequities in the provision of education services, we still test these remote children using the same Benchmark tests that are given to urban school children. Governments lament the poor educational outcomes of Indigenous students, while failing to look at, or address, the inputs.
Despite these hardships there are some remarkable things that are happening in the bush. In some instances, philanthropic groups, local councils and industry groups support Indigenous community members to develop and deliver learning projects which may be tied in with school curricula or complimentary to school programs.
In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the Yiriman Youth Project brings together elders and community members to develop projects that connect young people to country. These projects, which sit outside of the formal education system, provide an example of the ways in which culture, learning and employment can be driven by the community.
Another astonishing example of educational success comes from the Northern Territory. In the remote Arnhem Land community of Garrthalala the elders decided that they wanted the local young people to access senior secondary education in their Homeland communities of Arnhem Land. Over a period of years, they collaborated with committed teachers and Geelong Rotary volunteers to build educational facilities and an educational service that would ultimately see the first ever remote Homelands students graduate from Year 12 in their own communities.
This is a story about how a school can be established with very little government support. To understand how incredible this achievement is, one only has to consider that Garrthalala had mains electricity connected for the first time in 2008. It underscores the commitment of some very motivated people in this very remote part of Australia.
It also reminds us that there is much work ahead to provide school education to remote Indigenous students. It tells us that when the school service is available, incredible things can happen.
Tom Calma
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner
Every Child magazine – vol. 15 no. 2, 2009, p. 3
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