Aboriginal Nation: A strong Kimberley tertiary education narrative

Sandra Wooltorton; John Guenther; Judith Wilks; Anna Dwyer

doi:10.55146/ajie.2022.45

Authors

Sandra Wooltorton Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8677-870X
John Guenther Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education; Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0080-1698
Judith Wilks Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia; Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4725-8741
Anna Dwyer Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55146/ajie.2022.45

Keywords:

deficit discourse, Aboriginal education history, Kimberley Tertiary Education, Remote Aboriginal Tertiary Education, Cultural security, strengths narratives

Abstract

Our past shapes our present. However, do Australian universities understand the ways historical discourses continue to shape them? Provoked by the findings of our empirical study implemented in Western Australia’s Kimberley region in 2018-2019, we conducted a critical text analysis of recent and past policies to seek historical explanation. As a research team, we noted a demand on behalf of Aboriginal activists to shift from the discourse of ‘problem’ to ‘nationhood’, during the first launch of the Aboriginal flag at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972. However, in our study we observed the ‘problem’ vocabulary lives on, impacting remote Aboriginal tertiary education through its deficit discourse and ‘gap language’. In this paper, we show how the future for remote Aboriginal tertiary education sits within our everyday narratives and explanations. It is to recognise Aboriginal knowledges, strengths, contribution and experience, or remain trapped by the deficit discourses of a colonial era. A strengths-based discourse acknowledges that Aboriginal people living in remote communities have the capacity, knowledge and ‘know-how’ to engage with tertiary education in culturally secure ways. Remote Aboriginal tertiary education could show the way to genuine socio-political transformation in Australia; and the Kimberley could lead this process.

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Author Biographies

Sandra Wooltorton, Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia

Sandra Wooltorton has been a Senior Research Fellow with the Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Broome Campus since 2015. Sandra comes from Noongar Country in South West
Western Australia, and has a passion for Aboriginal education and a commitment to environmental and social justice.

John Guenther, Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education; Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia

John Guenther is a researcher with 20 years’ experience working in overlapping fields of social inquiry, typically in areas related to education and training, and its intersections with mental health and wellbeing, justice, employment, child protection and welfare. In the last 10 years he has more intentionally focussed on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote parts of Australia. He led the Remote Education Systems project under the CRC for Remote Economic Participation (2011-2016) and is currently the Research Leader for Education and Training with the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, based in Darwin, Northern Territory. John is a leading academic in the field of remote education and has published widely on his findings, often under the banner of ‘Red Dirt Thinking’.

Judith Wilks, Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia; Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University

Judith Wilks’ most recent academic appointment was as a senior lecturer in Southern Cross University’s School of Education’s secondary education program. Coming from a Geography background, she worked for many years as an environmental planner before transitioning into the field of education.

Anna Dwyer, Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia

Anna Dwyer is a Karajarri Woman from the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. She has been an educator and researcher with the Nulungu Research Institute for more than 10 years. Anna’s interest is doing research for her own people and the wider Aboriginal Community around the relationship to Country, language and culture.

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