What a great time to be a teacher! | Nambur Yaalam Wiyeliko

An Article by Bruce Bascoe for the Eastern States Aboriginal Languages Group.

Here?s the perfect opportunity to positively affect the education of the country and bring black and white Australians towards an understanding of each other. Federal Parliament?s standing committee on indigenous affairs has released a bipartisan report calling for more action to protect endangered indigenous languages, and recommending bilingual education.

At the same time new state and federal teaching curriculum models are being formulated which include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and culture. Our educators will be responsible for the presentation of these topics to our children, not only for Aboriginal communities who already speak their language but also in communities where language is no longer spoken. This will be the best history lesson ever taught.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are not quaint anachronisms. They are vital carriers of cultural knowledge with relevance for geography, history, the environment, health, literature and philosophy. The languages speak of Aboriginal grains which require little water, tubers adapted to Australian conditions and even recipes for the cooking of these foods. The languages are not relics of a dying society but have commercial information for the new.

Teachers can embrace these opportunities knowing that Aboriginal people have been involved in preparing these languages for the classroom and that teaching First Australian languages does not diminish the importance of Indonesian, Chinese or French because it is not a simple case of words and phrases which equip a student to communicate overseas, our languages teach about the land itself and are rich in philosophical reference and intimate knowledge of what it is like to be Australian on the Australian land.

How to tackle such profundities? Simple. A student?s first task might be to study a map of the school district. Send the kids home to ask their families to find all the Aboriginal street and place names. The first task is to recognise one when you see it. As families sit around the table they can list the obvious ones like Woollongong, Bombala, Canberra, Brewarrina, Warrnambool, Kalbarri and Boorooloola but what about Kiama, Mandurah, Echuca, Caboolture and Taroona?

Now the task is to search for the meanings of these names. The most helpful resources are cheap. Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria is a great text, Shire Records of any district (surely the Shire would break their necks to provide good information to local school children), but teachers will be amazed at how many languages are being revived. Many of those communities have dictionaries which the community is happy to share with the Australian community; especially if the intention is to honour the language and not make it one more item of appropriation.

Thirty percent of Aboriginal placenames in southern states have no certain meaning. Imagine the excitement if a kid in your classroom uncovers the answer. How did she do it? Found an old surveyor?s map with the meaning sketched in pencil beside it? Worked it out by comparing similar words and walking down the road to ask Aunty Mary who came to the school last year and told them she was born in the area before any house was built. ?What does beenyak mean, Aunt?? ?I don?t know but my granny used to have a binak, basket, made it herself. I reckon that?s what it means.?

What a great moment in Australian education!

Now you help the class prepare a presentation to the shire so that all known names have their meanings included in the street sign every time a sign has to be replaced. Of course we?re not recommending students graffiti signs in order to accelerate the process. That would be mischievous.

Young Australians have had no part in the destruction of these langauges but they can have an enormous influence on their reclamation. Immersion in the language will teach students about a culture that many older Australians have tried to forget. The mere familiarity with the names of country is a huge step toward reconciliation.

The other great function of Aboriginal language tuition is for the survival of those languages in the mouths of the new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

So much damage has been done to these languages in the last decade by political zealots who thought knowledge of one?s own language and culture prevented progress in a world dominated by English. Those people singled out dual language education as the impediment faced by Aboriginal people as if poor educational provision, deplorable health facilities and the worst employment provision in the country were not the root cause of the gap in health, education, employment and longevity between Indigenous people and other Australians.

I urge all schools to embrace the opportunity being offered. Most Australians know so little about Aboriginal culture that presentation of such simple information is a transformative act in the national consciousness.

Imagine what else you could do. As far as education is concerned it is a Greenfields estate. Teachers excited, students excited, Aboriginal communities proud, Australians more in love with their country than ever.

This is a wonderful opportunity and must not be missed. It?s not an expensive innovation but it requires vision and that most electrifying of all educational pre-conditions ? curiosity.

?Bruce Pascoe 2012 (900)
BrucePascoe?s most recent books were
Convincing Ground (ASP) and Bloke (Penguin).

Source: http://easternstateslanguages.org.au/what-a-great-time-to-be-a-teacher/

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