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NSW Teacher's Federation Conference

Tom Calma

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

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Darling Harbour Convention Centre, Sydney

12 July 2009

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Delegates, distinguished guests and friends, good morning.

I begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the
traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your
elders, to the ancestors, and to those who have come before us.

Thanks to Bob Lipscombe and Charline Emzin-Boyd of the NSW Teachers
Federation for inviting me to speak today. I’d like to acknowledge Angelo
Gavrielatos of the Australian Education Union and to acknowledge all of you
here.

In fact I would like to make it clear that I have great regard for the work
you do and the important role you play in our society. You are educators of
current and future generations of young people.

Of all of the variables in any educational context, you are by far the most
important resource. You create and shape the educational experience for
hundreds and thousands of young people – in a role that can be as
challenging as it is rewarding.

And as you know through experience, you are required to perform numerous
roles in the course of your duties. You are curriculum experts, pastoral
carers, classroom managers, sometimes entertainers, negotiators, pacifiers, and
much, much more. So much of what you do is about communication.

Today I want to talk about the role that you have in forming relationships
with students in the school environment, as well as the role that you have
outside of it; with parents, carers and other community members. I am going to
explore the importance of these roles, and the impact that they can have on the
child’s sense of identity.

While some of the focus of this presentation will be on the education of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the points I am about to make
could equally apply to other cultural groups. However, there is good reason to
focus on Aboriginal issues, because in number terms, NSW has the greatest
concentration of Aboriginal children compared with any other Australian state or
territory. This is also NAIDOC Week so a focus on Indigenous issues and
reconciliation is appropriate.

So my speech today is about how education can assist to develop healthy, well
adjusted young people. As we all know here, education theory changes over time.
There are no real orthodoxies – and there are as many views about
education as there are teachers, parents, and politicians. Everyone has an
opinion on how education systems should best be run, and how teachers should do
their job.

You may have seen the 7.30 Report recently – a two part interview with
one of the architects of Tony Blair’s education revolution in Britain
– Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken has his own theories about education, arguing
that many education systems around the world are too narrow and backward
looking. He claims that too often they ignore the talents of students. He said
a couple of things that I found very interesting.

Firstly, he said this, and I quote:

... every education system in the world currently is being reformed. I know
it's true here in Australia, but it's true wherever you go – Asia, Europe,
America. And it's happening for two reasons. One of them is economic;
everybody's trying to figure out – as parents and as employers and as
students – how on Earth do you educate people to find a productive life in
the 21st Century, when all the economies are shifting faster than we've known
them. So the economic thing is really important. But it's also about culture,
about how do you give people a sense of identity and what do they need to know
to be literate and fluent in these extraordinary times as well. The thing is
that most reform movements are looking backwards; they're looking back to the
old system that was the result of the industrial revolution.

And then he goes on to say:

You can't achieve educational improvement for everybody with a standard
template. In the end, every child goes to a particular school, works in a
particular classroom with particular teachers. You know, this doesn't happen in
the committee rooms of Canberra. This happens in these neighbourhoods with
these kids. And great head teachers always knew that. And what I would like to
see is politicians giving teachers room to breathe and do the job they're being
paid for. And instead what they aim to do is to try and make education
teacher-proof, as if it's all machine minding.

What policymakers tend to do is focus on the curriculum and then they focus
on maths, science and languages, and leave the rest. And then they go to
assessment and they do standardised tests, as if the whole thing were like
pumping out widgets. And the bit they leave is the only bit that will ever make
a difference which is the quality of teaching. (end quote)

I have to say that I agree with Sir Ken. Teachers need room to breathe and
they also need to be able to be responsive to the particular talents and
requirements of the students at their school. The stuff about being responsive
and assisting students to be their best is not something that is written in any
curriculum document. There is no handbook on assisting students to develop a
sense of identity – or assisting students to have some faith in their
abilities to negotiate the world. Yet this part of the equation is crucial to
the success of the education environment. These intangibles, these soft relationship parts of education, are also the guts of it. If we can’t
reach the students; if we can’t inspire them; if they can’t
understand us – then the game is over.

There is now a significant body of research which shows that when we assist
children to develop strong cultural identity, we are assisting them to develop
resilience. As many of you know, resilience in children is about negotiation
and problem-solving in many environments. It is the ability to ‘bounce
back’ from adversity. These are vital, protective factors, and ones which
assist in learning social, emotional and learning
skills.^[1]

Earlier this month I attended a national Summit on resilience. It brought
together experts and leaders in childhood development. I heard at the Summit
that resilience can be built and developed in children – but it is most
likely to flourish when children are raised in a safe living and learning
environment – in the home, the school and the community.

I heard at the Summit that the child’s sense of identity is a crucial
factor in resilience. Young people need to know and understand who they are,
where they belong, and to whom they are important. One doesn’t have to go
deep into the research to find that support and coherence between the family
life and the wider society are predictors for resilience in
children.^[2] In other words, an
integrated environment that links the culture of the child and the family to the
wider society will assist children to become emotionally and spiritually
healthy, and more able to operate in different
environments.^[3] Congruent messages
from home and school assist kids to learn.

So how do we do it? How do we create environments where the parents and
families of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are an integral part
of the school environment?

In the case of Aboriginal students here in NSW – a regular meeting
between school staff and Aboriginal parents and community members is a good
start. Now I am not talking about a once-in-a-while information session run by
the school with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents attending. I am
talking about formal partnerships that are sustainable and ongoing. They may be
partnerships comprised of an elected or stable membership that opens its door to
other parents and community members.

Some of you here have a role to liaise between the school and Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander parents and carers. I am well aware that it is not
always easy to engage parents and community members in school life –
especially once students are at secondary school. Parents don’t show up
at information nights, and if they do, there is not a lot of real interaction
between the school staff and parents.

This is not the model I am proposing. I am talking about partnerships where
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a role in shaping the school
environment. I am talking about partnerships that become forums whereby some of
our knowledge and world-view is incorporated into the school environment and
curricula. They are forums where we are the advisors running the information
sessions and the school staff listen to us. They would be places where local
people can advise on the ways in which the school building and environment could
be made more reflective of local Aboriginal history and culture. Parents and
others may be able to advise on local artwork for example, and ways in which the
entrance to the school can be made welcoming for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people and can educate the broader school community about the
Traditional Owners of the region and about Indigenous people generally to
advance reconciliation. They may be forums where the school can decide how it
will celebrate NAIDIOC week or allow parents and guardians of the students in
the school, or in cluster schools, to get together to share ideas and support
each other.

Let me share an examples of what I am talking about. My three children went
to Arawang Primary School in Canberra. At any given time between 1 – 2 %
of the student population are Indigenous, yet from its establishment in 1970
Arawang has had a strong ethos to recognise and celebrate Aboriginal culture.
The main foyer displays Aboriginal artefacts, paintings and posters; it has a
couple of large murals on walls and the kids have created a small internal
garden that grows and identifies bush food plants. Through natural evolution
much of the schools curricula reflects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
themes throughout the year.

You can only imaging how initiatives such as these make Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students and families feel about their school - proud, empowered
and welcomed.

So for real partnership to exist, the flow of information should be two-way.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents also need information about school
curricula. We should be in conversations about the purpose of school and the
future of the children in the region. We should be discussing further study
options, training and employment in the region. What will work for our kids?
Where are the local opportunities?

It is important that any partnership is based on local concerns and based on
respect. We need to reflect the aspirations of local communities and parents.
I’ll give you an example.

The Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation was established in Karratha and
Roebourne in 1997 because local Aboriginal parents wanted to establish and
manage after-school support for Aboriginal students wanting to complete their
secondary education.^[4] The
Foundation’s first education partnership – "Gumala Mirnuwarni"
(Coming Together to Learn) ran a project for 27 students. So it started small.
The Foundation comprises of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who work
together to coordinate resources that now support a number of projects, each
tailored to suit a remote Indigenous community.

The Foundation has since developed a model for managing a large number of
projects in different states, using the advice of steering committees who have
responsibility to set the strategic direction. Local Indigenous people are the
essential drivers of each project, and it goes without saying that they are part
of the steering committee.

This example raises an interesting point. Partnerships do not happen without
resources. Some communities are lucky enough to have the support and services
of organisations like the Polly Farmer Foundation, but not all.

It is my view that governments should fund schools to develop a secretariat
that will support Indigenous community members and schools to develop
partnership forums where the need for these groups can be established. An
Indigenous school secretariat would consist of support staff whose role it is to
communicate and record all of the recommendations of partnership agreements.
The secretariat would manage all aspects of the partnerships, including bringing
in services such as translator and interpreter services where required.

Some of you will be aware though, that at the moment it is not easy to get
funding for this purpose. We used to have ASSPA, the Aboriginal Student Support
and Parent Awareness program, until 2004. The ASSPA funding was allocated to
school committees based on a per capita formula taking into account the number
of Indigenous students enrolled at the school and weighted for remoteness. To
my mind, this was a fair process.

Now we have the Parent School Partnership Initiative (PSPI) program. This
operates on a submission process which puts the onus on the school to apply for
funds. The PSPI is part of the Government’s Whole of School Intervention
Strategy which aims to involve communities and parents in schools. But I am
concerned that the submission process puts small schools at a disadvantage and
there is some evidence that small schools might have difficulty accessing these
funds. In 2006 the government was unable to spend all of the money that was
allocated for this program.^[5] I
suspect that the small remote schools, to which 50 percent of the funds are
allocated, were unable to make the appropriate submissions to get the
funding.^[6]

I would like to see this program improved. If governments want partnerships
to be more than aspirational statements, then they have to target funds and make
sure that they get to the schools where they are required. Later in this
presentation I’ll talk about a plan to hold governments to their
commitments to partnership approaches.

Up until now, governments have been high on rhetoric and low on action when
it comes to partnerships.

Ideally, every school with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
should have representative forums which are in a sense a meta-structure to
guide, encourage and support parent and community input into schools.

In the classroom there are also many actions that can make sure the learning
environment reflects and recognises diversity. The internet now makes it easier
for schools to reflect Indigenous knowledges throughout all areas of the
curriculum. Consider, for example, the complex kinship systems of Aboriginal
people. This is something that can be taught through mathematics. It is a
fascinating exercise to look at the kinship systems of people from different
regions of Australia, and to ask students to work out mathematically, which
people within the kinship matrix are permitted to marry under the law, and which
ones aren’t.

There are excellent materials that cover historical content including a good
selection of film and text. The Commission’s website has very good
material on “Bringing them home” suited to the senior secondary
levels. I urge you to look at it, or to look up other websites that contain
materials to support your subject area. The Dare to Lead website has some
excellent materials. There are many more.

But formal class room sessions are not the only way to go and teaching and
awareness does not have to just come from teachers.

An example I think worth sharing is about a 12 year old non Indigenous girl,
Ella Butler. Ella goes to Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College in North
Sydney and earlier this year she decided to make her school aware of the
disparity in life expectancy outcomes for Indigenous Australians, namely that we
die on average 17 years younger than non Indigenous people. She mounted an
information campaign and collected nearly 800 signatures from the school
community pledging support to the Close The Gap campaign. Additionally, she and
a couple of friends ran a cake stall from their home and raised around $50 that
will go to ANTaR to support the CTG Campaign - not bad for a 12 year old
concerned citizen I think.

Small but profound acts like this and some very simple actions like
acknowledging the traditional owners at assembly and knowing the Indigenous
history of your school region, can make a big difference.

I am aware that you have one of the more demanding jobs in civil society
– and so I hope what I am saying here is not something that is making you
think that your job has to be more complex or difficult. I think so much can be
achieved by very small adjustments. And I ask you to make them because the
difference that small actions can make to young lives can be so significant.

We need to start from the place that adjustments are necessary because
governments and non-Indigenous people design everything about the educational
environments where our children are schooled. They design the infrastructure,
they develop the curricula, they set the times for school holidays and they
design the measures against which our kids are assessed. We need to make sure
that schools are places where our kids feel welcome and where our culture and
knowledge is reflected. Our voices must inform some of these education
variables.

Now I said earlier that I and collaborators are doing something to elevate
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in education. I am currently
engaged in preliminary discussions with the Australian Education Union, the
National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the ANU, the National Indigenous
Higher Education Council and senior Indigenous education professionals like Dr
Chris Sara and Professor Lester Irabena-Green. We hope to develop a coalition
that can influence education policy, monitor government performance, and hold
governments to their promises. Some of you may know that I am engaged in a
similar process to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, through
the Close the Gap campaign. Time does not permit me to elaborate on the Close
the Gap campaign today – but watch this space - or if you are impatient,
and I hope you are, then look on my website - www.humanrights.gov.au/.

So let me conclude where I began. There are no certainti es in education,
except for the need for good teachers who have room to breathe. Given that
governments and bureaucracies do not have all the answers, as Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people we need to be certain that we have input into the
education of our children. And we need schools to invite us in and to
facilitate opportunities for our input because we need the school environments
to be the best that they can be for our children.

Let me leave you with some good news that is often staring us in the face but
we do not see it or hear about it.

The first is a very successful but
fledging program to support Indigenous high school student. The program,
conceived in 2005, is called AIME and it is the brainchild of a then, Indigenous
university student, called Jack Manning Bancroft.

AIME is a unique style of structured education mentoring to link university
students in a one-on-one relationship with high school Indigenous students.
AIME's objectives are to increase Year 10, Year 12 and university admission
rates for all Indigenous Australian students who participate in the program.

In 2009 there are over 500 Indigenous high school students receiving
mentoring from AIME over 5 university campuses in NSW. AIME has a website for
reference and if you know of any generous philanthropist who wants to back a
worthy and successful program to support an education initiative for Indigenous
students; direct them to AIME.

And second is to recognise the skills, qualities, expertise, life experience
and commitment of your Indigenous teacher colleagues; many are parents or
grandparents, and all have experienced the struggle to achieve a tertiary
education qualification.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, guardians and children have to
feel part of the system, if we are to benefit from the system.

And please remember, from self respect comes dignity, and from dignity comes
hope. And if we can engender hope we build resilience; and resilience is
essential for our kids to thrive.

Thank you

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^[1] Dent M., Real Kids in an
Unreal World: Building Resilience and Self Esteem in Today’s Chaotic
World, extract at: (Viewed 22 June 2009)

^[2] Utsey S., Bolden M., Lanier Y.,
Williams O., Examining the Role of Culture-Specific Coping as a Predictor of
Resilient Outcomes in African Americans From High-Risk Urban Communities,
Journal of Black Psychology 2007 33: 75-93. Extract online at: (Viewed 22 June 2009)

^[3] Maclean K., Resilience: What
it is and how children and young people can be helped to develop it, CYC
Online, Issue 62 March 2004 At: (Viewed 22 June 2009)

^[4] Graham ‘Polly’
Farmer rose to become one of Australian Rules Football’s greatest players.
His early life was at Sister Kate’s Home – an orphanage for children
of Aboriginal descent. He went on to play 392 league games from 1952 to 1971 and
win two Sandover Medals. He was 10 times his club’s fairest and best
player. He was the first footballer to be named as a Member of the British
Empire (MBE).

^[5] Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations, National Report to Parliament on
Indigenous Education and Training, 2006, (2008) p 151. At (viewed 28 January 2009).

^[6] Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations, National Report to Parliament on
Indigenous Education and Training, 2006, (2008) p. 127. At (viewed 28 January 2009).