Let your breath come down into me (and fill me up)
Let your spirit come down into me (and fill me up)
Let your spirit come down into me (fill me)
Come down to earth into me (fill me)
Pour into me (fill me)
(guitar, sticks)
Moon descend into you (one)
Moon descend into you (two)
Moon descend into you (all)
Moon descend into me (fill me)
Sun descend into you (one)
Sun descend into you (two)
Sun descend into you (all)
Sun descend into me (fill me)
Spirit saturate me fully (fill me) x3
Let your light come down into me (fill me)
Let your breath come down into me (fill me)
Let your spirit come down into me (fill me)
Spirit saturate me (fill me) x3
fill me x2
1 Song in the traditional Indigenous language of Gumbaynggirr, a variety spoken in New South Wales; lyrics and English translation by Larry Hancock, Gumbaynggirr language teacher.
2 Song in the traditional Indigenous language of Gumbaynggirr, a variety spoken in New South Wales; lyrics and English translation by Larry Hancock, Gumbaynggirr language teacher.
List of Abbreviations
ACARA Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
ACT Australian Capital Territory
AE Aboriginal English
ATSI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
EFL English as a Foreign Language
ESL English as a Second Language
HARs Honey Ant Readers
IA Indigenous Australian
NAPLAN National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy
NSW New South Wales
NT Northern Territory
QLD Queensland
SA South Australia
SAE Standard Australian English
TAS Tasmania
VIC Victoria
WA Western Australia
Preface
Seeing one of your students proceed in research after having finished their diploma studies is always a pleasure for a supervisor. In her very first course on foreign language education at the University of Innsbruck, Jasmin was one of my students. Her interest in the various topics presented and discussed in the sessions was immediately observable. During her studies, Jasmin enrolled as an exchange student at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she was awarded a study abroad excellence grant. Impressed by the cultural richness and Indigenous heritage, Jasmin started to plan a research project investigating the interface of education and Indigenous cultures in Australia and decided to apply for an international research funding offered by the University of Innsbruck. Her application being successful, Jasmin returned to Australia to carry out her diploma thesis project on the very topic she presents in this book. Learning from Australians First Nations Perspectives is what Jasmin embraced to do in her exploratory, small-scale interview study with 11 experts in the field of Australian First Nations education whilst also glancing at two volumes of the Honey Ant Readers textbook series put forward by Margaret James.
All in all, it takes quite some courage and curiousness to open up to a culturally diverse and pretty different background to one’s own. Jasmin successfully stepped into that endeavor due to her goal-orientation as well as her outstandingly open-hearted and communicative qualities which made her pursue a challenging target in a self-paced way. Hence, Jasmin’s contribution offers valuable insights and fresh perspectives, strengthens research on Australian First Nations education and raises the issue of multilingual classrooms in an increasingly diverse world.
Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which Jasmin carried out her research. I would also like to pay my respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Barbara Hinger
July 2021, Graz, Austria
Chapter I
Introduction
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela, in a speech at Madison Park High School, Boston,
23 June 1990 (Ratcliffe 2018)
Nelson Mandela, one of the most distinguished activists, politicians, and revolutionaries for freedom and equality, expresses the effectiveness and fundamental importance of education in the above quote. As a result of the possibility and responsibility of equipping learners with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes for citizenship, and thus preparing them for participation in a global society, educators are accorded a highly significant role. As multilingualism and multiculturalism constitute increasing realities in societies and classrooms across the globe, it is of particular importance for educators to learn about the factors connected to students’ home language and culture that can facilitate or impede their learning and to revise teaching materials and methodology accordingly.
Due to my role as a teacher and teacher educator, the aspect of cultural diversity and student heterogeneity inside classrooms has always been of particular interest and relevance to me, something my work with refugee students as well as my research project in Australia certainly amplified. Originally, my genuine interest in approaches to teaching and learning in multicultural classrooms with a specific focus on First Nations education was kindled through a case study I conducted at an Aboriginal school. I explored their methodologies as an assignment during my study-abroad semester in Sydney. Later, my work in a transition class for juvenile refugee students in Austria reinforced this interest and generated the desire to provide the necessary, evidence-based underpinnings for a more equitable education system and effective classroom practice through research. This book presents a research project which investigated the inclusion of First Nations perspectives in the multicultural Australian school setting.
Prior to the composition of this book, which is based on a Diploma Thesis at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, some insights into the research findings were presented at international conferences and published as proceedings papers (refer to Peskoller [2019] for a publication in English and Peskoller [2018] for a publication in German). However, this book presents and discusses the research project in its entirety and grants full access to the data obtained from the Australian educational context.
The inclusive term Indigenous Australian is used throughout the book to pay respect to people past and present who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, the two Indigenous groups in Australia. Moreover, as “[o]ne of the great mythologies of Indigenous education and educational research is that there is one singular, homogeneous entity of the ‘Indigenous Community’” (Philips & Luke 2017, 960), the denotation First Nations Australians proves beneficial as a way of acknowledging them as the traditional inhabitants, owners, and custodians of the land and sea, while simultaneously alluding to the great diversity within Indigenous Australia. If not specifically annotated, the term Aboriginal