Bennelong Society Conference 2001: From Separatism to Self Respect

Reply to Dick Estens

Geoffrey Partington

Dick Estens did a splendid job in providing work for Aborigines in Moree. It is a great encouragement to us all that his efforts have had such a positive effect on morale and the overall quality life in Moree. As Dick said, there is a significant connection between education and employment. Yet employment is not the only or even the most important purpose of education. When I was a young teacher in London in the 1950s, an old stager said to me, 'Don't get into such a lather, they'll all get jobs whether they learn anything or not'. Twenty years later when I was a headmaster, I was told, 'Don't get into such a lather, they wont get jobs even if they do learn everything you have to teach them'. A large number of jobs, even in 2001, require few of the skills and knowledge which schools provide.

Education is needed for more than jobs and this is especially true for disadvantaged groups if they genuinely seek 'empowerment'. There can be no genuine empowerment or self-determination for Aboriginal Australians if their ranks include no electricians, mechanics and plumbers, let alone surgeons and dentists. Nor can there be equality in health and length of life for people who believe that disease and death are caused by sorcery. Nor can people have much hope of effective self-government at any level unless they have knowledge about how the wider world is governed and how its wealth is created.

There are very real difficulties in the way of helping all our Aboriginal fellow citizens to achieve genuine educational equality in contemporary Australia. The first is that about one-fifth of them have mother tongues other than English, and for them mastery of English is needed in order to acquire the knowledge needed for empowerment. Of course, four-fifths of persons classified as Aborigines already speak English as their mother tongue, whilst the example of success in Australian society by a host of ethnic groups whose mother tongue is not English show that the language obstacle can be overcome. But it can only be overcome if teaching in English is begun early and intensively during a child's schooling. Whereas our Politically Correct Aboriginal Educational establishment (hence PCAEE) seeks to prolong teaching in Aboriginal languages.

A second problem is that most teachers in distant Aboriginal communities have little experience, because the turn-over rate is so high, even though nearly all beginners start with PC evangelistic fervour and are determined to be totally different from their despised predecessors. Most beginning teachers in Aboriginal schools are full of the kindness that kills, or at least maims, hopes of significant educational progress. They fear that if they try to act effectively to reduce the massive absenteeism which is the main single reason for poor progress, or to try to increase attention and diligence when the children are in school, they will thereby be acting as racists and will show lack of understanding and respect for traditional Aboriginal culture. Some broad differences between traditional and mainstream children are difficult for any teachers to cope with.

For example, questioning of teachers and 'the critical attitude' is encouraged among mainstream children from a very early age, whereas such questioning is generally discouraged in traditional Aboriginal groups. Signs of possible child abuse, which in mainstream education require mandatory reporting, are likely to be ignored by teachers in many Aboriginal communities. The use of Aboriginal teachers and teacher aids in many Aboriginal schools where 'the culture' still has effect is often limited because various 'skin' relationships may make it inappropriate for the teacher to teach the particular child. Kin relationships between children may present problems for teachers. Such problems are, of course, unlikely to arise in urban areas in respect of families which have 'lost the culture'. On the other hand, problems faced in remote Aboriginal communities are no less for Aboriginal teachers from such urban areas.

A third problem is that many Aboriginal parents are unwilling to take responsibility for their children's education. In traditional Aboriginal life, there were no formal institutions such as schools, so that traditional law and custom includes no obligations on parents in such a sphere. Aboriginal mothers may want their children to go to school but will maintain that it is the responsibility of teachers, government or some other outside agency to ensure attendance. No truancy cases are taken against Aboriginal parents, whether in Arnhem Land or Redfern.

Mention of Arnhem Land and Redfern reminds us that the situations of persons classified as Aborigines differ immensely. One difficulty here is that, as Fr Steve Etherington noted, although it might be best, whenever possible, for educational and other important decisions to be taken locally, few small and remote communities have the experience or resources to take those decisions wisely.

In many ways, educational problems today are more severe than those of the 1960s, a time of hope in Aboriginal education. The ending of 'Protection' had much to commend it, but the price of freedom has proved to be a high one: drunkenness, drug abuse and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases have reached unimagined heights, or depths. These dangers were reduced for several years by the removal of many part-Aboriginal children thought to be 'at risk' to foster homes and schools where they were educated in the same way as other Australians. Many of these 'stolen', or 'rescued', children became the national leaders of Australian Aborigines. Since the abandonment and demonising of assimilation, it has been difficult to apply what are called by childhood specialists 'early intervention strategies'.

The main aim of PCAEE since Dr H. C. Coombs first gained influence in the late 1960s in Commonwealth Aboriginal policies has been the 'strengthening of Aboriginal identity.' Since Aboriginal children are frequently told that Aboriginal science is as good as 'western' or 'white' science, many see little purpose in racking their brains in trying to master school knowledge when they can get something as good or better by wandering in the bush. Instead of trying to show children the relevance of knowledge they previously thought irrelevant, many teachers themselves adopt a very narrow view of what knowledge is relevant to Aboriginal children. Aboriginal children are often told, too, that the white invaders stole the whole continent from their ancestors. They are taught in classrooms funded by all Australian taxpayers that their ancestors suffered genocide, although they do not learn that the form the alleged genocide took was inter-marriage with non-Aborigines. After all, most present day Aborigines descend from such unions and will themselves marry non-Aborigines. But it is not surprising that the very least demanded by men and women who believe their people have suffered genocide at our hands is massive recompense without having to undergo the demands of study. We are lucky our PCAEE is so inefficient, or we might already have our own Mohammed Attas and the Sydney Opera House might have followed the World Trade Centre.

Among the saddest pages of Richard Trudgen's account of the plight of the Yolnu of Arnhem Land are those which note that the alcoholics include young men who, like Mohammed Atta, had attended university. No single condition for advancement, however necessary it may be, is itself a sufficient condition. Knowledge and virtue require each other, as do freedom and self-control. There are indeed obstacles in the path of Aboriginal empowerment through education which have been so formidable as to frustrate much genuine effort in past generations. Yet many such efforts have been made. It is wicked to denigrate as agents of genocide all of our predecessors who, from the time of Governor Phillip onwards, sought to share with Bennelong and his successors the benefits of advances made in the rest of the world.

Despite all difficulties, we should be optimistic. In just over two centuries, a very large number of persons classified as Australian Aborigines have, as Roger Sandall puts it, crossed the ditch which divides closed from open societies. Many of them have gained possession of the rich store of knowledge garnered in many lands and by many peoples over several millennia. And those with such knowledge prove well equipped to ensure that the best of their own Aboriginal heritage becomes part of that wider human inheritance. If the PCAEE can be prevented from sabotaging the process, then people such as Dick Estens, Helen McLaughlin and Maroochy Barambah, men and women, Aborigines and non-Aborigines, will extend the empowerment of Aboriginal people, and the rest of us with them, side by side.