Reflections on Education in Remote Indigenous Australia

Abstract

In September of 2006, I was kicking a football around with a 12-year-old boy; he was the son of some friends with whom I was staying. Out of nowhere, he announced – as small boys sometimes do – that when he grew up, he hoped to be a sailor in the navy. I replied that he would have to work hard at school and practise being very well behaved if he wanted to join the navy. My small friend nodded thoughtfully, passing the ball from hand to hand before he spoke: ‘Dad says I’ll have to finish high school…Do you reckon I’ll be able to finish high school?’

I met Phillip Hughes at the ACT Rhodes Scholarship dinner in December 2010. We soon fell into discussion about our mutual interest in the state of educational opportunities in Australia’s remote Aboriginal communities. I am the first to admit that my experience in the field of education is limited; it is far less, I am sure, than that of others who have contributed to this volume. Prior to 2006 my only involvement with education in Australia was as a fairly unreflective recipient of some excellent opportunities. Following 2006 I worked with some friends in the community of Doomadgee, in North West Queensland, to organise better educational opportunities for their children. In 2009 this cooperative endeavour was formalised through the incorporation of the Wadjularbinna Foundation.