Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia
- Chapter 2 The Stolen Generations
- Chapter 3 Delivering the promise
- Chapter 4 Your professional experience and becoming professional about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities
- Chapter 5 The ‘silent apartheid’ as the practioner’s blindspot
- Chapter 6 Better
- Chapter 7 Maths as storytelling
- Chapter 8 Information and communication technologies in the classroom
- Chapter 9 Language and literacy
- Chapter 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in the classroom
- Chapter 11 Engaging Indigenous students
- Appendix A Take a book: Any book
- Appendix B1 Terminology
- Index
- References
Chapter 1 - A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia
- Chapter 2 The Stolen Generations
- Chapter 3 Delivering the promise
- Chapter 4 Your professional experience and becoming professional about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities
- Chapter 5 The ‘silent apartheid’ as the practioner’s blindspot
- Chapter 6 Better
- Chapter 7 Maths as storytelling
- Chapter 8 Information and communication technologies in the classroom
- Chapter 9 Language and literacy
- Chapter 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in the classroom
- Chapter 11 Engaging Indigenous students
- Appendix A Take a book: Any book
- Appendix B1 Terminology
- Index
- References
Summary
My life began at the water’s edge near a tiny town in Tasmania. I had eight older brothers and sisters, one of whom had died from diphtheria before I was born. My father was Aboriginal and my mother an Englishwoman who had moved to Tasmania while still a teenager. Her father had been a merchant mariner who sailed to Hobart on his final voyage, where he settled with his family. My dad was also a mariner, and it was probably inevitable that they should meet. The marriage, however, was pretty unusual for the times.
I was born during the Second World War. While I was still a baby, a mill fell on my father, breaking many bones in his body and putting him out of action (and income) for a long, long time. We were financially poor, but family rich. Both my parents loved reading, listening to the radio and completing crossword puzzles. Recently, I realised where my love for, and knowledge of, arcane words comes from: the crosswords in the Hobart Mercury.
My siblings and I received a good education throughout the compulsory years. There were very few high schools in Tasmania, and I was fortunate to win a scholarship to attend Hobart High School, as I had set my sights on becoming a teacher. However, my attendance there was short-lived, as I was incredibly homesick. When I finally convinced my mum that I needed to be at home, an area school had been built and I was able to complete secondary schooling to grade nine, leaving at 15 to go to work.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander EducationAn Introduction for the Teaching Profession, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
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