March 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology

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swinburne March 2010 social inclusion 8 Cultural pride helps education start making sense A Swinburne TAFE program run in partnership with Aboriginal organisations in Victoria is helping to create some stability for disadvantaged Indigenous youths By Karin Derkley By age 15 Joe* had been expelled from two secondary schools for “inappropriate behaviour”. As an Indigenous teenager, and one with little family support, his life path may well have become the well-trodden one through the justice system and juvenile detention. Instead, Joe found his way into a specialist Indigenous educational training program for 15 to 24-year-olds – Mumgudhal tyama-tiyt (which translates as “message stick of knowledge”). The TAFE program, hosted by Swinburne University of Technology’s TAFE division in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association Ltd (VACSAL) through the Bert Williams Aboriginal Youth Services (BWAYS) in Thornbury, has recently been granted the Wurreker Award for achievements in training for Koorie students. Program convener and trainer Melinda Eason says Joe was with the program for six months in 2009 and is keen to finish the program in 2010. Notably, he involved himself enthusiastically with the program’s practical approach to training and there was no sign of his previous reputation for violent and antisocial behaviour. When the course trainers told his mother how well Joe had been doing at the program, she cried, Ms Eason says. “She’d never had a teacher say anything good about her boy before.” Many of the young people who have attended the Mumgu-dhal tyama-tiyt program are the first generation in their family to be educated beyond primary school, says Anne Jenkins, a senior Indigenous education officer at the Centre for Engagement in Vocational Learning (CEVL) at Swinburne. “In mainstream schools the teachers are saying they’ve got enough to deal with; they haven’t got the time to deal with Aboriginal kids’ problems. But they don’t understand that for a lot of these kids they are the first in their family to stay at school. It’s a big step.” Parents of Indigenous children can at best be ambivalent about the idea of education, says Miranda Madgwick, an Indigenous education officer with the program, who also received a Wurreker Award in 2009 ,, Teachers don’t have enough time or expertise to build the rapport with these kids that would reveal how much the kids are struggling. Hence the very high drop‐out rate for Indigenous kids in mainstream education.” Melinda Eason for Indigenous Teacher/Trainer of the Year. “They often have an issue with authority figures. They can’t understand why you’d want an education – they see it as a white man’s thing.” This is compounded by the way mainstream education alienates many young Indigenous people, Ms Eason says. “And teachers don’t have enough time or expertise to build the rapport with these kids that would reveal how much the kids are struggling. Hence the very high drop-out rate for Indigenous kids in mainstream education.” Many who attended the course at BWAYS had been completely sidelined by mainstream schools – either having been expelled or dropping out themselves. Some were residents of BWAYS hostel after becoming homeless or coming out from a spell in juvenile detention. Many were dealing with substance abuse in their families, others had the responsibility of looking after younger siblings. “These were very disadvantaged kids,” Ms Eason says. “So just getting them to class every day was a big achievement.” It’s a task that was carried out by the staff at
March 2010 swinburne illustration: Justin Garnsworthy BWAYS, who picked up many of the young people from their homes and also fed them lunch. The Mumgu-dhal tyama-tiyt program offers Indigenous students training in Certificates I, II and III, which equip them with the basic skills needed to find employment. But unlike regular secondary schools and TAFEs it does this with as much focus on Indigenous culture as on literacy, numeracy and other employability skills, Ms Eason says. “It’s about cultural competencies and about seeing positive role models within the Indigenous community and about producing work that expresses their identity.” Part of the success of the course has been its partnership with other Aboriginal programs. These included ‘Koories in the Kitchen’ – a program developed by the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, which teaches nutrition and hospitality skills and which culminated in the students preparing lunch during the ‘raising of the flag’ in NAIDOC week † – and MAYSAR (Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation), which delivered a program to teach the students about responsible drinking, first aid and occupational health and safety. The students were also involved in a youth forum at the Aboriginal Advancement League, designed to hear the needs and wants of Indigenous youth during NAIDOC week. Other cultural projects carried out as part of the course helped the students connect more closely to their local Indigenous communities. For many it was the first time they had been able to learn about their own culture in depth, says Shane Charles, Indigenous education support facilitator. “It’s been found that a strong grounding in their own culture gives Indigenous kids the security and self-esteem to move more comfortably into the mainstream. Conversely, Indigenous children who do not have a connection with their culture often show worse outcomes in the mainstream,” he says. Seventy-five per cent of students who started the course completed it, a result that is an achievement in itself, Ms Eason says. “Just the fact that these kids attended long enough to be able to graduate is a big deal, given their other responsibilities and life situations.” One graduate who has already gone on to bigger and better things is Leigh Pridham. He joined the program at age 19 after finding himself “going downhill”. “I’d been pretty unmotivated and I thought it might be a good way of getting myself back on track in a place where you feel comfortable with people you know,” he says. Leigh says he liked the way the program got him out doing things in the community, and working with other students to build their cultural understanding and skills. “It got my confidence back up – and got me back into the habit of getting somewhere on time.” The year paid off for Leigh. He was taken on by Crown Entertainment Complex as part of its hospitality training program and is learning “everything to do with hospitality … I’m really in my element now,” he says. For others the achievements have been more modest, but no less significant. For Joe it’s simply the fact that he’s enthusiastic about returning to education in 2010. For another student who arrived at BWAYS at the beginning of the year so traumatised he could barely look anyone in the eye, it has been a journey just to be able to communicate with others. “His big achievement was to escort elders to the stage during an Indigenous Award to cross-culture business program Swinburne TAFE’s partnership with several other organisations to develop Indigenous business governance skills has been recognised with a Business/Higher Education Round Table (B-HERT) Award in the category of Best Community Engagement. The Indigenous Business Governance Program – ‘Managing in Two Worlds’ – aims to develop the skills of directors of Indigenous corporations and senior staff working in the Indigenous community sector to help the organisations run effectively and with the usual accountability processes. The program acknowledges that directors and managers of Indigenous corporations need to be able to ‘work in two worlds’ – their community’s culture as well as within Western systems. Swinburne University of Technology partnered with several organisations to deliver the program including the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, the Department of Planning and Community Development – Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, South Australia, and Horizons Education and Development, Queensland. Through the partnership, more than 600 people from over 300 organisations across most states and territories have taken part in this training since late 2005. About one-third have gone on to undertake accredited training at Certificate IV or Diploma level. Sharon Rice, Swinburne’s director of learning in the School for Sustainable Futures, says the program will play a key role in building the capacity of Indigenous organisations and, through that, facilitate progress across a range of economic, social and cultural programs and objectives. B-HERT is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in 1990 to strengthen the relationship between business and higher education. It is the only organisation with members who are leaders in higher education, business, industry bodies and research institutions. – Karin Derkley organisation’s celebration evening at the end of the year. There’s no way he would have been able to do that the beginning of the course,” Ms Eason says. •• Contact. . Swinburne University of Technology 1300 275 788 magazine@swinburne.edu.au www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine Key points In 2009, its first year, 75 per cent of students completed Swinburne TAFE’s specialist Indigenous training program Most were from highly disadvantaged backgrounds and many were the first in their family to gain a secondary education Run in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association Ltd, through the Bert Williams Aboriginal Youth Services, the program was granted the Wurreker Award for achievements in training for Koorie students. Miranda Madgwick, an Indigenous education officer with the program, also received a Wurreker Award in 2009 for Indigenous Teacher/Trainer of the Year For information on how you can support social inclusion initiatives at Swinburne, see page 23 * Not his real name † NAIDOC (the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) fosters the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields. Celebrations and activities take place across the country during NAIDOC week, the first full week of July. social inclusion 9
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March 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology

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