Understanding Indigenous Communities And Education: A Case Study From Collingwood, Victoria

The Indigenous Population: A Brief Overview

Discuss about the Public Participation and Innovations in Community.

The indigenous people are a distinct and socially deprived community in Australia. They are the first inhabitants of Australia. The advent of the European settlers brought them into contact with the outside world for the first time. They were subjected to many atrocities, which were committed against them by the white settlers. Even after the formation of the Republic of Australia, it took a lot of time for the indigenous people to get due respect and freedom rights. There have been many incidents, which have led to the feeling of ostracization among the indigenous people. The incident of stolen generation is a prime example of such atrocity. There are less amount of representation for the Indigenous people in the social institutions such as the Educational institutions, the employment sectors and the healthcare departments. The report analyzes the probability of providing education to the children of the indigenous communities and the various factors, which influence the process of imparting knowledge, and education to the indigenous children. The report analyzes the changes to be made in the aspect of teaching to fully incorporate and assist the children from the indigenous communities so that they are able to perform to the best of their potential and there is no feeling of being victimized and discriminated against.

It would be a very difficult task to enumerate and enlist the conditions of the Indigenous people in Australia, therefore, the chosen community which will be emphasized is the Collingwood community in Victoria, Australia. The demographics of Collingwood show that the population of Collingwood as of 2016 is 8500. The diverse population of Collingwood is evident in the fact that a large number of the inhabitants of Collingwood trace their lineage and ancestry to the East Asian countries of China, Vietnam and the South East Asian countries. The indigenous population of Collingwood accounts for 0.9 % or its population. The region where the school is located is in the Dandenong reservoir area of Melbourne,Victoria. The demographics of Dandenong region shows that the majority of the population (60%) in the area is of ethnic Australians while 47.99% of the population are from those families where the parents or one of the parent is from foreign country. About 1.1% of the population is of the indigenous people.

The indigenous population are the natural inhabitants of the Australian continent. Before the advent of the European settlers, the indigenous people used to lead a normal and simple existence. They are a society, which has not much sophistication in terms of the division  of labor and the technological advancements. The indigenous people as they are referred to include the aboriginals as well as the Torres Strait Island Inhabitants. They together account for 2.5% of the population of Australia. Amongst the indigenous population, 90% of the population is accounted by the Aboriginal community members. The population figures estimate that 32% of the indigenous population is residing in the major cities while the 9% of the indigenous population reside in the remote areas. Another 15% of the population of the indigenous people lives in extremely remote areas (Race et al. 2016). The population of the indigenous people is spread across a large extent of the Australian terrain. They are more concentrated among the Northern Australian territories and the remote areas.

The Collingwood Community: Demographics and Context

The statistics, which reveal the fact that the majority of the indigenous people are residing in the remote and very remote areas, highlight the fact that they are socially ostracized and prefer to stay away from the city life. This might be because the aspects of industrialization have still not affected the community. The community prefers to maintain the traditional standards and therefore resides in the remote areas. There may be another aspect, which might influence the indigenous people to stay away from the majority white population. This reason is that the atrocities committed against the aboriginal community by the white settlers are still lurking in their minds. The memories of the stolen generation incident are still fresh in the memories of the Aboriginal community. The stolen generation incident was a dark period in the lives of the indigenous people as the children and infants of the community were systematically removed from their biological parents and transferred to the Australian government agencies so that these agencies can facilitate the process of assimilitating the children of the indigenous communities (Miller et al. 2018). The stolen generation impacted the community to such an extent that to this day, the community members are scared to send their children to the government sponsored schools and institutes of education.

The indigenous community is poorly represented in the educational sector. This implies that the aborigines are not utilizing the educational opportunities, which are guaranteed by the Government of Australia. The Government has initiated a number of programs to uplift the social conditions of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Island Inhabitants. The Closing Gap initiative, which has been initiated by the Government of Australia, is a strategy, which aims to improve the lives of the Indigenous people by helping and assisting them in the areas of life expectancy, childhood education, employment opportunities (Park 2017). The closing gap initiative has been launched by involving the cooperation of the community members of the indigenous communities. Despite launching the initiative with a good intent, the statistical outcome, which was expected, has not been achieved yet. The enrollment of the indigenous children in the schools and universities are extremely low and the representation of the indigenous people in the employment sector is miniscule. This is directly the consequence of the members of the indigenous people not utilizing the educational opportunities, which they are entitled to receive (Austin-Broos and Merlan 2017). The media depicts the aborigines in a positive manner with the intention of portraying the issues, which confronts the indigenous people in their daily lives such as welfare, land rights, conflict between the feelings of being ostracized.

Challenges Faced by the Indigenous Communities in Pursuing Education

There is a significant amount of diversity among the indigenous community such as the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Island inhabitants. There demographic chart of Australia reveals that the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Island inhabitants are very much diverse in their culture and linguistic abilities. The diversity among the languages of the indigenous population reveal that as many as 250 different languages and dialects are spoken by the members of the indigenous community. The indigenous communities have a diverse social ritual aspect which differs from region to region or the indigenous communities.  This means that the teacher who aspires to provide education in the indigenous communities need to be fully aware about the different ethnic and linguistic variations of the indigenous communities (Wigglesworth,Simpson and Vaughan 2017). The place, which has been chosen, is Dandenong, which is a suburb of Melbourne in Australia. This suburb is a place where there is significant diversity with the demographic ratio showing that the place has a mixed population of the ethnic whites as well as the indigenous communities. There is also presence of Asian communities in the Dandenong suburb. Therefore, any decision to take up teaching profession requires the teacher to be fully aware about the ethnic differences and diversity aspects, which affects the community members.

There are considerable differences in the aspects of issues regarding equity among the indigenous community. The members of the indigenous communities are generally from the poor households and this means that the students who come from the indigenous households are generally lacking in the aspect of possessing the resources and the facilities, which are available with the members of the affluent sections of the society. The fluctuation in the equity can be a reason for considerable deliberation on the part of the teacher and the teacher needs to be aware about the financial background of the students coming from the indigenous households. Being the first learner from the communities, it might be difficult for the young learners to understand and grasp the information that they will be given by the teacher. Therefore, the teacher needs to be extra cautious and considerate if the students take some amount of time to understand and comprehend the information in comparison to the students hailing from the white Australian backgrounds (Rossi 2015).  The teacher also needs to understand the history and culture of the Indigenous communities so that the cultural rituals and festivals of the indigenous communities are acknowledged and respected by the teacher and the faculty members (Short and Lennox 2016).

Recommendations for Teachers and Educational Institutions

The issue of accessibility is a prime concern for the teacher intending to impart education and knowledge to the diverse social communities existing in Australia. The country of Australia, being home to a varied and diverse population of not just the white ethnic Australians and the Indigenous people but also the Asian communities who had migrated from the Indian subcontinent or the other Asian countries (Godinho and Singh 2014). Therefore, the classroom might have issues regarding the accessibility of resources by the students. The students from the white ethnic Australian families might have access to a wide array of resources in comparison to the indigenous and the Asian communities (Coates and Hetherington 2016). The students hailing from the indigenous communities will be the worst off in terms of accessibility mainly because the indigenous people are a poorer section and are deprived of some of the basic human rights facilities. The teacher needs to maintain equilibrium in the classroom as this will make the indigenous students not feel discriminated against and will not deter them from excelling in their studies and career (O’Faircheallaigh 2017). The indigenous student s should also be encouraged to participate in the extra-curricular activities so that the students hailing from the indigenous communities get a chance to display their talents as well as interact and socialize with the students belonging from the other backgrounds (Gilroy and Emerson 2016).

The identities noticeable among the classroom teaching were that the ethnic whites and the indigenous communities form two separate identities. The thought process, which is generated from the households, is very much evident in the actions and mannerisms of the students belonging to the two ethnic groups. In order to facilitate the process of social inclusion and assimilitating the members of the classroom into one community, it becomes essential for the teacher an environment of inclusivity and equality among the students. The classroom must be taught and evaluated on a much-unbiased manner (Tidwell and Zellen 2015). The essence of imparting knowledge so that everyone can understand and comprehend the information provided to them must be done in a very efficient manner.  There is also a third identity of the immigrants and the Asians who are very much present in the societies of Australian cities. They must also be provided equal opportunities and all these students must be safeguarded against any sort of discrimination such as racial profiling, child abuse and harassment. The children need to be evaluated based on a holistic approach and assisted when they are not able to perform (Gilberthorpe and Hilson 2016). The teacher in a manner must assist the students hailing from the indigenous families so that they are able to enjoy the process of learning and grasp the knowledge, which is given to them by the teacher. Even if the white Australian children progresses, the teacher must be patient and considerate towards the ethnic indigenous children.

Conclusion

Having decided to teach the children in the Dandenong reservoir area, I was prepared to impart education and knowledge to the children in an elaborate and scientific manner. The preconceived notion which I heard before entering the Dandenong reservoir area was that it was multicultural and dangerous. In order to impart education to the children in a multicultural society, some subtle changes need to be incorporated in the study pedagogy. The classroom shall be developed based on promoting the ideals of equality and developing the cognitive abilities and the skills of the children so that the children become well versed in their academic as well as professional lives. The basic focus shall be on the aspects of developing the personality of the children. The effort should be made to make the children from the indigenous families feel comfortable in the classroom and they should never feel discriminated against. The children from all the communities must be encouraged to foster the feeling of mutual respect and goodwill and any sort of racism or segregation of people based on colour must be discouraged. The children must be taught about the ideals of social inclusion and made aware about the rights and freedom guaranteed by the International bodies such as the United Nations Convention on Child Rights (Whitinui, de France and McIvor 2017).  The children must be encouraged to participate in the various extracurricular activities and sports so that the children from all the communities get a chance to intermix with each other and the process of exchange of ideas proceeds amongst them. The children can also be made aware about their culture by including the histories and traditions of all the communities existing in Australia in the school curriculum (Underwood 2015). This will foster the children to respect each other’s community background and history.

The indigenous communities even if they possess less resources in comparison to the ethnic white Australian communities or the Asian communities, still it can be ascertained that the Indigenous communities have a rich tradition and culture. The indigenous communities have a well-knit culture and family plays an important role in their daily activities. According to Bronfenbrenner, there exists five levels of environmental factors which affects the cognitive and learning abilities of a child. These five levels are- 1. Microsystem- the primary sources that affects the cognitive development of a child such as the family and the peer groups. This aspect plays a major role in the lives of the indigenous children as they are influenced by the Microsystems more than any other group 2. Mesosystem- this refers to the interconnections between the family and the teachers. This aspect is not so developed for the Indigenous children 3.Exosystem – the interconnections between the social settting of an individual along with the other social setting of a person where the person does not have an active role to play. This aspect is not very much developed for the indigenous people 4. Macrosystem – the external social setting which impacts the lives of a child. In the case of the indigenous children, the society wherein the indigenous children live is known as the macrosystem5. Chronosystem – the events which shape the lives of a person is known as the chronosystem (Sallis, Owen and Fisher 2015). Analyzing the social setting of an indigenous child by the Bronfenbrenner model enables the teacher to understand and comprehend the missing links and can fill those gaps to accentuate the process of enabling the children from the indigenous communities to grasp the knowledge and information in order to progress in life.

References

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be deduced that the teacher has to be extra cautious while dealing with the classroom involving such diverse number of students. The teacher must always uphold and respect the traditions and culture of all the different communities and backgrounds from where the children are coming from. There must be strict policy not to encourage any form of racism and prejudice on the basis of color and ethnicity. The classroom must be based on social inclusion and assimilation. The teacher must always assist the children especially the children from the indigenous backgrounds because they are lacking in financial stature and they do not have access to resources, which facilitate knowledge and learning process. The teacher must take the whole class forward. If the children from the indigenous communities are lagging behind, the teacher must make sure that they are encouraged to perform better and any issue afflicting them must be resolved immediately.

References

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