ABSTRACT
Educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are plagued by poor attendance, poor health, intergenerational poverty, and disadvantage. However, there are a number of programs around Australia seeing results in addressing many of these issues. These schools, community groups and organisations promote culture and pride and follow students through to graduation and often onto further education and meaningful employment. These programs are often unorthodox and challenge the mainstream conception of what education is supposed to look like.
Wesley College has, for ten years, worked with the local Aboriginal community to create the Moorditj Mob Indigenous Program. The program attempts to establish authentic and informative cultural experiences for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. With such a strong desire existing in the community to learn about Australia’s first cultures, why is there still so little being taught in schools? This vignette will illuminate how one school on the banks of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) in Perth, Western Australia, empowers young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to take on the responsibility of educating the educators on how best to teach them and how to teach others about their cultures.
