English Literacy and Indigenous Education. Australian
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 434 538 FL 801 323 AUTHOR Wignell, Peter, Ed. TITLE Double Power: English Literacy and Indigenous Education. INSTITUTION Australian National Languages and Literacy Inst., Deakin. ISBN ISBN-1-875578-92-7 PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 140p.; Photographs may not reproduce adequately. PUB TYPE Books (010) Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Education; *Adult Literacy; Bilingual Education; *Bilingualism; Case Studies; Educational Strategies; Elementary Secondary Education; *English (Second Language); Foreign Countries; Heritage Education; *Indigenous Populations; Language Research; *Literacy Education; Mining; Preschool Education; Vocational English (Second Language) IDENTIFIERS Australia ABSTRACT The collection of essays on the relationship between English literacy and indigenous education, particularly in the Australian context, includes: "Double Power" (Mandawuy Yunupingu); "History, Cultural Diversity & English Language Teaching" (Martin Nakata); "Scaffolding Reading and Writing for Indigenous Children in School" (David Rose, Brian Gray, Wendy Cowey); "Literacy Teaching and Learning in a Bilingual Classroom" (Colleen Bowman, Lily Pascoe, Trish Joy); "Rough Diamonds: A Case Study of Workplace Literacy & Training for Indigenous Workers in the Mining Industry" (Peter Wignell); and "Digging Deeper: Using Text Analysis To Develop the English Li.:eracy of Indigenous Students" (Patricia Beattie). (MSE) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EllOffce of Educational Research and Improvement ED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS received from the person or organization BEEN GRANTED BY originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES official OERI position or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Nit tf J is Edited PeterWignell BESTI PYAVWBLEL N AG AUSTRALIA Aw :FIE NATIONALLANGUAGES AND LITERACY INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA DOUBLE POWER: English (iteracy and Indigenous education Editor: Peter Wignell, Centre for the Study of Language in Education, Northern Territory University r LANGUAGE AUSIIIA ALIA Language Australia Melbourne 1999 DOUBLE POWER: Ens Iish (T+eracy and Indigenous educanon ISBN: 1 875578 92 7 Editor: Peter Wignell, Centre for the Study of Language in Education, Northern Territory University © 1999. Language Australia, the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia Ltd. Copyright in this document is owned by Language Australia Ltd. No parts may be reproduced by any process except with the written permission of Language Australia or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act. All enquiries in relation to this publication should be addressed to: Publications and Clearinghouse Manager Language Australia GPO Box 372F Melbourne VIC 3001 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Language Australia Ltd. Cover design: Gabrielle Markus Conten+s chapfer page Introduction 1. Double Power 1 Mandawuy Yunupingu 2. History, Cultural Diversity & English Language Teaching 5 Martin Nakata 3. Scaffolding Reading and Writing for 23 Indigenous Children in School David Rose, Brian Gray and Wendy Cowey 4. Literacy Teaching and Learning in a Bilingual Classroom 61 Marrchila Class: Maningrida CEC [Manayingkarrira], Arnhem Land, Colleen Bowman, Lily Pascoe and Trish Joy 5. Rough Diamonds: a Case Study of Workplace Literacy 95 & Training for Indigenous Workers in the Mining Industry Peter Wignell 6. Digging Deeper: Using Text Analysis to Develop 121 the English Literacy of Indigenous Students Patricia Beattie 5 in+rocluc+Ion I'll keep this introduction short and to the point because I don't want to give too much of the content of this book away by telling other people's stories for them. The title of this book, Double Power, comes from the words of Mandawuy Yunupingu in describing his personal experience of becoming a person who is literate across two cultures. Mandawuy Yunupingu argues persuasively that being literate in English has added to the resources he has at his disposal in negotiating with the dominant culture. What I have tried to do in this book is put together a collection of articles which address both the practical and political aspects of literacy in English and Indigenous Australians. On the practical side, the books includes case studies from a number of contexts. These contexts vary in both their circumstances and their locations. They include adult workplace literacy (Western Australia), literacy for adults in tertiary education (Northern Territory) and primary and secondary schooling (Arnhem Land and Central Australia). All of these articles are written by practitioners with experience in the field and all of them document actual practice. On the political side, because of the often contentious and sometimes acrimonious debates which happen around the issue of literacy in English, I have left it to two Indigenous contributors to state their positions. Mandawuy Yunupingu, from North East Arnhem Land writes of his experiences in becoming literate across two cultures. Martin Nakata, a Torres Strait Islander, presents an impassioned case for English literacy in schools in the Torres Straits Islands.I will not summarise or paraphrase these articles, instead I will let them speak for themselves. Of the case-study oriented articles, Brian Gray's, David Rose's and Wendy Cowey's chapter both presents a case for and exemplifies in detail a pedagogic model for teaching literacy in schools. The chapter focuses on teaching primary and secondary school Aboriginal children from Central Australia. The other school DOUBLE POWER: ENGLISH LITERACY AND INDIGENOUS EDUCATION oriented chapter documents the work and experiences of two teachers, Colleen Bowman and Lily Pascoe, and a teacher mentor, Trish joy, and their primary age class in Maningrida, in Arnhem Land. This chapter highlights co-operative teaching between an Aboriginal teacher and a non-Aboriginal teacher and the innovative approaches they implement, especially the use of the Internet in literacy teaching. The other chapters focus on adult contexts. Peter Wignell's chapter documents his work in developing worplace literacy training materials for Aboriginal workers at a mine site inthe.Kimberley region of north west Western Australia. Patricia Beattie's chapter is about working with Indigenous students from remote communities who are undertaking tertiary education courses at Batchelor College in the Northern Territory. 7 Vi CHAPTER 1 ()out:4e Power Mandawuy Yunupingu Yirrkala, Arnhem Land What I'm writing about here is, on the surface, my experience of becomingan educated, literate person in and across two cultures, Yolngu and Balanda*. (*Balanda is a term used in the Top End of the Northern Territory to refer tonon- Aboriginal people.) On another level, however, I want to use my story as an example of what I call 'double power'. By 'double power' I mean the power to operate in and negotiate between two cultures, in my case Yolngu and Balanda. First I'm going to talk about how things are now for me. Then I'm going to talk about some of my life history to show how things got to be the way they arenow for me. Finally I'm going to offer some suggestions and possibilities for the future. My experience as part of Yothu Yindi illustrates the meaning of 'double power'. In Yothu Yindi we bring together music, ceremony, lyrics and technology from two cultural traditions into a fusion which produces something new and different. Different threads are woven together and then put out into the worldas a finished product that is something new and different. I guess you could say that whatwe are doing is a kind of multi-literacy, or multi media and multicultural literacy. Isee this as a positive thing, not putting two cultures up against each other but bringing them together. However, the kinds of things we are trying to achieve with Yothu Yindi are a long way from where I started. Where I am today is the result of a long journey. How did I get here where I am now? Before I tell my story I want to put outa few questions and, while I tell my story, I want you to think about what I say in relation to these questions. These questions are: When am I literate? How am Iliterate? DOUBLE POWER: ENGLISH LITERACY AND INDIGENOUS EDUCATION Why am I literate? and Who decides if I am literate or not? I grew up in critical times. It was a time of transition, with contemporary culture as well as traditional culture being accepted by my people. In this time of change my people wanted to keep control of their destiny. We needed to be the ones who made the decisions. To keep control of our destiny required a shift in thinking.It involved both acceptance and resistance. We had to take account of Western ideas, both positive ones and negative ones and accept the ones that would help us strengthen our culture. My education started off as traditional learning. From when I was a baby until I first went to schoolI had a traditional upbringing. Ilearned from my mother, my relations, by being with people and doing things with them. My traditional learning didn't stop when I started Western schooling in a mission school. I've kept up my traditional learning for my whole life. Going to school was, however, an interesting time for me.I was learning something foreign that I was intrigued by. This made me want to learn more about this foreign culture that I was curious about. Please note that the key word here is about. I wanted to learn ABOUT them, not become one of them. This was difficult in the assimilationist climate of that time. It was difficult to learn about Western things without feeling pressure to act like a Balanda.