Lesser Known Boandik History

Provocation: Reconciliation must live in our hearts, minds and actions.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following contains images and references to deceased people.

Today marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum that saw 90% of Australians vote to give recognition to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. On June 3rd we culminate National Reconciliation Week with the anniversary of the Mabo decision and the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of lands.

The 2018 Reconciliation Week theme is Don’t Keep History A Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow. This is an opportunity to explore our shared histories, cultures and consider how we continue to contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. The official campaign focusses on the lesser known aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, histories, cultures, and achievements, to promote discussion about our shared history and pique curiosity with respect to what we do not know.

Our school stands in Boandik Country and services the present families of Mount Gambier. This week we explore some of the lesser known Boandik history:

In the late 1840s a Boandik woman Nutunda formed a relationship with a station worker and stockman named William Brice, Billy worked at the Old Penola Station for Alexander Cameron.

An aboriginal camp was located close to the Cameron’s homestead, where members of the Pinejunga tribe lived. The Pinejunga and Boandik people were interconnected; the Boandik being the largest indigenous group in the region with country stretching from the mouth of the Glenelg River (Nelson) through to Rivoli Bay (Beachport) along a 50 km stretch inland toward Penola.

Billy and Nutunda had two children, Lucy and Annie. Annie was born in 1849. In line with Boandik traditions Natunda was given to an Aboriginal man, to whom she had a son named Tommy. There is no documented history of Natunda beyond the birth of her children,  however it is recorded that Nancy (as Annie was affectionately known) and an aboriginal child named Tommy were left at the aboriginal camp where they lived and were cared for in part by Billy and the extended aboriginal community.

The Cameron’s adhered to their lease providing the indigenous peoples with access to springs, surface water, the ability to gather and use food, (including animals and bird life) along with the privilege of constructing “wurlies and other dwellings”. The indigenous people’s rights to their language, songs, traditions, beliefs and customs were all upheld. This was contrary to the practice of many pastoralists throughout Australia at the time of colonization.

Annie became involved with the church and the local Catholic nuns. Annie was baptized in 1856 and confirmed in 1867 at the age of 18.  In 1860, Mary Mackillop began as governess to her Uncle Alexander and Aunt Margaret Cameron’s children. She included Annie in the lessons, teaching her to read and write – which for an Aboriginal woman of the era was extraordinarily rare.

Annie moved to Gambiertown where she remained until her death, she had thirteen children and married twice; her first husband Emile Francois Jaqueline and her second George David Holmes.

She worked for Dr Whel as a domestic servant, as a servant at the Royal Oak Hotel in Penola, a general servant at the Temperance Hotel and Boarding House and for Christina Smith who ran the School for Aborigines. Christina Smith among others wrote to the Commissioner of Crown Lands in support of Annie’s application for 158 acres of land at Millicent in 1879 to “bear testimony to the genuine character of Annie” stating “ I have been interested in the aboriginals for many years and have known the applicant to be industrious, hardworking and honest. She is a real native. Her maiden name was Brice.” The Commissioner declined the application.

Annie’s daughter-in-law Florence Holmes is said to have recalled Annie as “a tough, hard working woman. She expected all her children to work hard and attend church every Sunday. She was tall and very beautiful with a voice like and angel”.

Annie’s aboriginality was not shared with the Holmes children; and consequently history was a mystery for nearly three generations.

Jaquelin-Furr, M (2017) Annie’s Mob: the story of the Brice/Holmes/Jacqulin Families

Members of Boandik Tribe, Mount Gambier. L-R: Ellen, Tommy, — with Mrs Christina Smith, Sally, the lady on the right of the picture is Annie Brice who was born at Penola. She worked with Christina Smith at her home.

Reconciliation is a journey we share toward a stronger identity as a nation achieved through respectful relationships across our communities. Reconciliation lives in the actions of all Australians.

On 13th February 2008 Kevin Rudd delivered the apology, acknowledging the stolen generation and apologised for the role played by the government. The Closing the Gap strategy targeted: life expectancy, Year 12 attainment, enrolment in early childhood, early childhood mortality rates, literacy & numeracy and school attendance. 3 of the 7 targets are on track.

One decade on policy has become rhetoric, rather than action. If we want meaningful improvement and outcomes we need to act.

The issues we face are symptomatic of the trauma of past experiences – whilst we are not responsible for the mistakes of Australia’s past we need to recognise these mistakes. Because we need to learn from them to ensure we do not repeat them.

The generational issues such as substance misuse and domestic violence affect our children and families today. There are an inordinate amount of dollars spent in Aboriginal Education and still little meaningful outcomes are achieved.

Why?

Because of a lack of understanding, fear, apathy and inaction.

Fear of aggressive parents, due to a lack of understanding about mental health, substance misuse and domestic violence. Along with a lack of confidence or experience in the interpersonal skills required.

Apathy on behalf of children, families and educators due to a lack of understanding about poverty and intergenerational poverty.

Our aboriginal children have a rate of removal that is 10 times more than that of non-indigenous children – this often leads to youth detention. Legislation for indigenous voice is on the agenda and being discussed widely in the media. Whilst Aborginal children sit 10% behind their non-ATSI counterparts in attendance nationally. Children are below in literacy and numeracy and indigenous unemployment is risisng. Mortality rates are down in early childhood but life expectatncy is still poor.

Our children are surviving but for what future?

The narrative of our past as an Aboriginal peoples is one of colonisation and dispossession. The narrative we pen with our children and with our families should not be one of continued inaction on a daily basis in our schools. Our action needs to come in the form of intentional planning for all our learners, strengthened partnerships with our families and high expectations in our schools and kindergartens.

We need to shift the conversation and focus the resource.

We must work in partnership with our families, our wider community and present Elders to gain social justice and empower all our children.

Nurturing & Empowering Our Community

Provocation: every child’s right to education provides a basis for building wellbeing within the community.

Quality education is a project of participation; it is impossible to develop quality education if you are not connected to the context in which you are working.

Four years ago we planted the seed for what would become our Community Hub – a space that welcomes families, connects children from birth and provides opportunities for learning together.

Our hub now offers a full suite of programs and opportunities for families to connect and find support; from playgroups, to parenting programs and coffee n’ chat. Having realised our goal we engaged the expertise of our Community Development Coordinator, Fiona Pulford, to facilitate community consultation for the purpose of identifying where to next.

In the first of two planned sessions we opened opportunities for dialogue and participation to capture ideas and aspirations for the future of the Hub.

Our vision:

An empowered, inclusive community that nurtures and strengthens.

Our mission:

Creating opportunities for connection and growth.

Guiding principles:

1. Promoting a proud future that celebrates cultural diversity.
2. Encouraging life long learning.
3. Recognising our children grow in families, neighbourhoods, schools and community.
4. Creating a safe, welcoming space for sharing and supporting.
5. Valuing our combined wealth of knowledge and experience.

Strong families strengthen communities and create powerful learners. By nurturing and empowering our families we promote quality education and improve the lives of children and communities.

Education is a right; education is a responsibility of the community.

NB: The title for this post was generated in the community consultation as a part of the thinking that developed into final vision for the Hub.

Creating Conditions for Learning

Provocation: If you frame education as an interaction, something that touches and shapes all of the participants, the interaction will support everybody’s learning; adult and child.

Our image of the child influences how we engage with children.

If as educators we believe a child is capable and competent then we engage them; we design learning experiences that position children as powerful learners. When we hold limiting judgements about children and families we create a self fulfilling prophecy. The most important thing we can do as educators to shape children as learners is to believe in them and their potential.

Our belief changes everything.

Working in a group is much more than just a functional tool: it is a cultural context that includes a vitality and an endless network of possibilities. -L. Malaguzzi

The majority of our work is based around groups of children working together; groupings allow children to observe how others learn and expose them to opportunities, skills and knowledge outside their proximal zone of development. Groups provide opportunity for dialogic encounters which builds oral language and supports stretch. Group work requires social competence and where these skills are still being mastered there is potential for conflict.

All behaviour is communication. To understand the behaviour you need to listen to what the children are telling you in their interactions. Analyse the situation, consider what the child is seeking. Once we have identified what the child is communicating then we can be responsive to their developmental, social and emotional needs.

When we create the conditions and space for learning we support children in their development. That is why the first step of our Behaviour Learning process is :

• Establish a safe, calm and productive learning environment. Incorporate behaviour learning into the learning program to teach children the skills required for self-regulation and social situations.

This was developed based on trauma informed practice in the formative stages of our journey. It has since been strengthened by our whole school Nurture & Wellbeing for Learning Agreement. We began this work within the context of setting high expectations for learning alongside the provision of appropriate support.

As a whole staff we recently strengthened our work in this area by attending professional development as a whole school with Phil Beadle on Behaviour Management, Engagement & Relationship Building. Participating in interactions that are designed to strengthen the various aspects of our project helps us to hold onto the threads that form the basis of our work.

Working with children is tiring, working with children is hard. Working with children is hardest when doing it alone because then the conditions easily give way to judgement of children and families.

Education needs the right conditions and we are responsible for creating those conditions.

Documentation, Observations and Involvement

Provocation: Do I know who my children are and where their zones of proximal developmental are?

This is the responsibility of the educator.

In order to know what children are capable of and what their potential could be we need to observe children in a range of contexts.

Observing children’s engagement in learning provides opportunity for educators to reflect on children’s involvement and is a basis for thinking and taking action.

It is the process the teacher uses in designing, reflecting upon and relaunching rich learning experiences that is valued. This is developed through professional learning focussed on the design of purposeful and intentional learning experiences posed for children.

Documentation of children’s learning has a purpose; it is clear what the educator is observing in a particular context. If we do not have a purpose we can not synthesise what we are observing and the learning that is occurring.

Our purpose in documenting children’s learning this week was to understand children’s involvement in their literacy learning. Our dialogue and reflections will now inform our design of learning experiences to support children’s development as capable and competent readers.

Educator teams identified 3 children to track and monitor throughout the year. We videoed each child, capturing 6, 2 minute videos. We are now in the process of viewing this documentation for the purpose of measuring children’s engagement against the Involvement Scale.

This process engages educators in reflective practice focussed on student learning. This work is challenging and powerful. Educators engage in vigorous discussion, pose ideas and disagree with each other’s point of view toward a shared position and way forward.

The starting point is always with the child.

Clarifying Behaviours

Provocation: What can be done individually and collectively within our teams and learning communities to build learner dispositions together with improved learning for all children.

Educators are engaging as learners and researchers in order to be intentional in their practice and to inform the children’s learning. Educators consider how to frame the learning, invite curiosity and begin a dialogue with children. It is the responsibility of the educator to identify how to pose the learning experience.

We use our research as a basis for thinking to inform action; staff meetings are democratic places to share and debate ideas, hypothesise and collectively agree to our commitment to action. Dedicated time in teams was scheduled at the staff meeting this week to provide educators with the space to consider and share the what:

• what we have done throughout the latter part of 2017.
• what we are learning through our focussed professional development, recently in relation to meaning making and comprehension.
• what we will go after in 2018.
• what we will implement in our learning communities over a the next 4 week period.

Teams are constructing abstract goals for 2018 using the clarifying behaviours tool; the challenge is to be specific and narrow the ‘what’ before moving to the ‘how’ of the actions and practices that will become the focus for our work.

Intentionality is the emphasis.

Educators are given time in teams to:

• reflect on the evidence of children’s learning thus far;
• consider current research;
• identify the practice that will be implemented to improve learning;
• hypothesise about what will be seen in terms of our children’s learning.

Our abstract goals for what we want to achieve across each learning community have been developed as follows:

• Children to see themselves as capable and competent readers.
• For children to make meaning from text.
• Children and families identify as readers and demonstrate their meaning/understanding of text.

The intent is to revisit these goals each month and sharpen our focus as we strengthen our inquiry and reflect on the documentation of children’s learning. Watch this space.

All our children.

Education is a responsibility of the community. Teachers in an educating community work in partnership with families. And the starting point is always with the child.

In our site we are in the midst of a learning journey that involves educators working collaboratively to understand each child’s developmental needs, to make visible children’s learning processes and intentionally relaunch learning to stretch every child within their respective zones of proximal development.

We capture and share our learning within our local and broader communities through various documentation. We invite our colleagues and members of our community to share our journey through this blog (our floor book) as we continue our educational project and strengthen our work.

There are a number of threads that draw our thinking and practice together. These include: the image of the child as a powerful learner, playful and inquiry pedagogies, wellbeing and nurture for learning, partnerships and participation, educators as researchers and learners, inspired learning environments and documentation as a tool for purposeful and intentional learning design.

Beginning with our image of the child we dedicated substantial time to unpacking and challenging our beliefs about teaching and learning culminating in the following:

Our Beliefs

Melaleuca Park Primary School’s vision that everyone will achieve their potential as learners is supported by the beliefs that children are: competent, powerful and rich in potential. This belief is reflected in our values of Hope and Respect.

Our commitment as an educating community is to involve children, parents/caregivers and teachers as active participants in learning, growth and development.

Learning begins from birth. Learning happens in relationship with each other. It is through respectful relationships that we welcome children in to a safe learning community and develop learning environments that care for and support every child’s wellbeing. We respect each child’s own identity, uniqueness, difference and rhythms of growth and development.

The general capabilities (Literacy, Numeracy, ICT Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding) equip children with the skills to become successful leaners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.

At Melaleuca Park Primary School we invite children to:

• grow academically, socially and emotionally.
• be courageous.
• collaborate.
• be inquirers, researchers and problem solvers.
• have fun, wonder and be amazed.

Everyone in the Melaleuca Park Community has rights and responsibilities. We are all learners, listeners and educators in partnership with our community.

As an educating community we became risk takers, some jumped in feet first whilst others experimented around the edges. We embraced the uncomfortable uneasiness that came with stretching our thinking and regardless of our own comfort we embarked upon the journey together; because education needs the right conditions and we are responsible for creating those conditions, for all our children.

Our professional practice is influenced and inspired by current educational theories, thinkers, consultants and practitioners. It is supported by educators within our local partnership and wider system, however, everything we do is connected and reimagined for our unique context. Our research is based on our observations and reflections of our children’s learning; this process of self reflection and collegiate feedback supports educators to be intentional and purposeful in their practice.

These are all our children; their potential as powerful learners is at the heart of our educational project.