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Session E1: Successful education

1. Lester-Irabinna Rigney: Future directions for Indigenous education post Apology; trends and implications for schools and literacy.

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 1.1MB

Abstract

Poor performance indicators in education and literacy for Indigenous Australians are unacceptable and unsustainable. Too many observers have reduced this phenomenon to a symptom of economics and welfare - policy failure. Subsequent studies reveal a more complex picture. This paper will examine the state of Indigenous Education and its challenges toward seeking optimistic evidence based solutions.

Author bio:

Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney is Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research, Flinders University. He is a Professor of Education and is one of the most influential Indigenous educationalists in Australia today. This year he has completed a review of the National Indigenous Education document Australian Directions for the Federal Government. He was been working across the Pacific on Indigenous Education in Hawaii, Taiwan and Canada. His leadership in education is evident through his election by his academic peers since 2002, to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Research Advisory Committee as expert on education and cultural transmission. His professional standing in education saw him inducted into the Australian College of Educators (ACE) in 1998. He is recognised as a national and international authority in the area of Indigenist Research Methodologies. Interest in his work by National and International universities has seen him uptake several prestigious Visiting Research Fellowships including Cambridge University, UK; Fort Hare University, South Africa; and University of British Columbia, Canada. He has also been chief/co- investigator, led research teams for reports and policies for key benchmarking research/government agencies including: United Nations; DEST; ATSIC; NCVER; AIATSIS; The office of the SA Premier and Cabinet; SA Department of Education and Children’s Services. Similarly, Professor Rigney is an active editorial board member of, three national Indigenous Studies journals He is the Regional Editor for Australia to the International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies titled 'Interventions', from Nottingham Trent University and Cambridge University, UK. Professor Rigney is in constant demand as a commentator on national and international Indigenous matters and has published widely on Education, Languages and Knowledge transmission. His recent 2006 co-edited book titled Sharing Spaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Rights, is the most up to date Australian text on Indigenous and non-Indigenous race relations and how this converges in the vulnerable, vital and contested space called ‘education’. Dr Rigney is an Adjunct Professor at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies Australian National University.

2. Colleen Hayward: Indigenous education into the 21st Century

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 1.7MB

Abstract

Despite the myriad of research into Indigenous education, the disparity in education outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the rest of the Australian population remains at alarming proportions. For years, we have told people what we know to be true – our kids need to be ready for school but we also need schools to be ready for our kids. We recognise we have a responsibility to prepare our kids for school, albeit we need to have our capacity built to do this in a more comprehensive way; and, most importantly, we need to make sure our kids get to school regularly enough to make a difference. These are things about which we’re increasingly aware. Less can be said about schools being ready for our kids and now there is even a call for Indigenous children as young as primary school age to be removed from what are seen to be households ‘chaotic to development’ to be taken into hostel care presumably ‘for their own good’. This presentation will explore that call and propose options for ways forward that lessen the disparity in outcomes but in ways that respect and reinforce Indigenous knowledges and ways of doing rather than what could be seen to be a reversion to the removal and assimilation practices of the past.

Author bio

Professor Colleen Hayward is a senior Aboriginal woman of the Noongar nation in the south-west of Western Australia and has recently been appointed as Head of Centre of Kurongkurl Katitjin at the Edith Cowan University. For more than 30 years, Professor Hayward has provided significant input to policies and programs on a wide range of issues, reflecting the needs of minority groups at community, state and national levels. She has an extensive background in a range of areas including health, education, training, employment, housing, child protection and law and justice as well as significant experience in policy and management. Among her many achievements, Colleen was last year recognised for her long-standing work for and on behalf of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia by being named a finalist in the national Deadlys Awards in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health and by winning the National NAIDOC Aboriginal Person of the Year Award. Colleen is the 2009 inductee into the WA Department of Education & Training’s Hall of Fame for Achievement in Aboriginal Education.