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Kormilda the way to tomorrow? Elizabeth Sommerlad This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Kormilda, the way to tomorrow? 1 fc&Tiikk TO;. I 'AL department MTiShM aHiUBSIl ß G o m m o retail rmcE <«•<?* h u L W i O N DATE u - k. i \ »•» Kormilda, the way to tomorrow? a study in Aboriginal education Elizabeth Sommerlad %•* * 1 * ' V i < * ! * • * * ' . * ♦ * • * * m% • * • •*.»«*< Australian National . University Press Canberra 1976 . • • * \ . • * ♦ First published in Australia 1976 Printed in Australia for the Australian National University Press, Canberra. © Elizabeth Sommerlad 1976 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Sommerlad, Elizabeth Ann Kormilda, the way to tomorrow?: a study in Aboriginal education/ [by] Elizabeth Sommerlad. — Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1976. Index. Bibliography. ISBN 0 7081 0715 x. 1. Kormilda College. 2. Aborigines, Australian — Northern Territory — Education. I. Title. 371.9799109429 North, South, and Central America: Publishers Marketing Group, Baker & Taylor Company, P.O. Box 350, Momence, Illinois 60954. Southeast Asia: Angus & Robertson (S.E. Asia) Pty Ltd, Singapore. Japan: United Publishers Services Ltd, Tokyo. Preface This book has been some time in preparation. It began in 1969 when I was a research student at the Australian National University, searching for a problem of some social significance to study for three years. Conversations with educational administrators in the Northern Territory led to the selec­ tion of the adjustment of Aboriginal students in a cross-cultural institution. Since completing the study in 1972, I have continued to be involved in teaching and research on Aborigines. One project was a study of the community development process at Hermannsburg; more recently I have been involved in programs in continuing education for whites who are working with Aborigines and attempting to understand changing policies and their role in the process of self-determination and to acquire new skills which increase their effectiveness in this new role. My work in the Centre for Continuing Education at the Australian National University has enabled me to keep in touch with Aboriginal people and to develop further ideas which are incorporated in this book. In 1975, I participated in a study (Duke and Sommerlad, 1976) which indicated that Aboriginal people have already begun to articulate their objectives for education and to choose the model they consider most appropriate to their needs, that of ‘deschooling’. Discussions with Aborigines and whites working in an Aboriginal context indicate that most Aboriginal communities are rejecting current provision and seeking a form of education different from that of the dominant society. Their growing concern to reassert their identity and retain cultural values and patterns of behaviour has been accompanied by a rejection of western education, particularly in a form that removes their children from the community for considerable periods of time. They want education that places Aboriginal culture and values at the core, supplementing it by basic skills required for coping with the dominant society — most particularly oral English, reading, writing and numeracy. Generally, Aborigines want their children to be educated in their home communities. This basic education would be accompanied by a range of vocational training opportunities made available through on-the-job training and decentralised courses. They recognise that certain skills required by the community can only be learned in institutions of the dominant society and involve interaction with whites, but they emphasise that the community should select the students to follow such courses. The principal criterion for selection would not be academic merit but a strong sense of identity and community commitment. In this way, students would be likely to return to their community to apply their skills for the benefit of the community, and not be alienated from the people. Many people contributed towards this book. I particularly wish to acknowledge the help of administrators in the former Welfare Branch in the Northern Territory, especially those in the Education Section. They were eager and concerned that a study of this nature should be under­ taken, and provided every assistance and encouragement along the way, despite criticisms I levelled against them. Most people working for Aboriginal advancement are dedicated to amelioration. My criticisms are not of them personally, but rather of an educational philosophy that reflects values widely held in the dominant society. It is these values that I challenge. Many ideas incorporated here emerged during informal discussions of wide-ranging issues with colleagues at the Centre. I wish to thank them for the insights that, often unwittingly, they provided, and for being a sounding board for my own thoughts. Chris Duke, in particular, gave me much encouragement and performed a useful editor’s task. But for him I probably would never have finished this book. As a research student in the Department of Psychology, I also received generous help from Dr Middleton in the final stages of thesis writing. I wish to thank Edna Duncan for being so patient with me over the continual changes I made to the text, and for typing the manuscript in record time. Last, but certainly not least, I am very appreciative of all the staff at Kormilda College who tolerated me for a year. Most of all, I w'ant to say thank you to the pupils at Kormilda who accepted me as their friend and who enabled me to gain a much better understanding of, and intense admiration for, the Aboriginal people. E.S. Contents Page Preface v 1 Introduction 1 2 Aboriginal life in the Northern Territory 21 3 Objectives of education for tribal Aborigines 48 4 Social structure of Kormilda College 59 5 Life in a cross-cultural institution 85 6 Conflict in identity and maladjustment of students 95 7 Case studies 102 8 Symptoms of stress 117 9 Some educational implications 127 10 Alternative models of education 145 Appendices 1 Home communities of students 165 2 Measuring instruments 167 3 Total enrolments at Kormilda 1968— 1970 1 75 Bibliography 176 Index 186 1 Introduction The concept of Kormilda Kormilda signifies ‘the way to tomorrow’ for the elite group of full-blood Aboriginal adolescents who reach secondary education. The problem confronting educationists is to prepare these students for a tomorrow that lies in the white man’s world without destroying their Aboriginal identity, which is rooted in the past and is expressed through values diametrically opposed to those of the white society and its stress on achievement. The problem is not readily solved, however, and Kormilda is about the conflict Aboriginal students attending the College experience in trying to reconcile the opposing value systems. It is about the crisis in identity between black and white that often results in their becoming marginal members of both societies. It is also a commentary on education as an agent of social change that fails to enhance self-identity and potential for growth and development and abandons its learners in a state of confusion and self-doubt. The problems of identity are not faced only by students at Kormilda; they confront most Aboriginal children living in communities designed to ease their transition into the dominant society through adoption of its values, behaviour patterns and social structures. Such problems are exacerbated in the context of Kormilda College, however, since emphasis is on more rapid and total resocialisation into an alien society. The concept of Kormilda originated in 1961-2 when the then Director of Welfare, Mr Harry Giese, believed in the need to establish a boarding school in Darwin — basically to remove the potential secondary pupil from the reactionary influence of his or her parents. This notion of removal from the parents is an age-old one, going back to Governor Macquarie’s day. The raison d'etre of Kormilda is therefore not new. Kormilda is only one of three residential colleges for Aboriginal stu­ dents in the Northern Territory. It was the first such college to be established and took its first intake of students from communities throughout the Territory in 1967. In recent years, it has become more a regional college as students from distant areas have attended the two newer colleges situated at Alice Springs (Yirara) and Nhulumbuy 2 (Dhupuma). The majority of students attending Kormilda have received primary education in their home communities, transferring to the College at about thirteen to pursue their studies. Some students attend the local community high school while others follow courses with a strong emphasis on vocational skills at the College itself. Most of the students enrolled at Kormilda have been socialised into an Aboriginal culture that retains distinct traditional elements and a life­ style very different from that of the dominant white society. There are certainly wide differences between backgrounds of students from the various communities; there are nevertheless many cultural patterns in common. Most students have had limited contact with whites before coming to Kormilda and for most of them it is the first time they have had any meaningful contact with Aborigines from distant communities. For most, English is a second language rarely, if ever, used in the home situation. Many of their parents speak only Aboriginal dialects and have had no formal education to provide them with basic literacy skills.

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