mgmelkat: I am an aborigine, a "murri", I see the plight of our people, very sad that many are like this. I've lived in outback QLD most of my life and questioned why my own people live the way they do. Most of my aboriginal family have done very well for themselves. My generation, all my cousins, my brother and sister and myself, which I am proud to say, (all of us are NOT JWs) has successful fitters, welders, lawyers, doctors, studying politics, business and curators, completed TAFE cert 4s, etc and all of us are doing well except for 2-3bludgers.
And thnx for adding another dimension to the experience of the young lad involved in the incident, which I posted. Its great to hear that your extended family has done well. As I commented previously, I know that some indigenous witnesses, had successful lives. Another one comes to mind in Sydney. His name was Stan Goodvin (or Goodwin). He was Congregation servant (under the pre-elder arrangement) in North Sydney Congregation for quite a while.
I'm thinking that government programs are having an affect. I know that at the university where I study the head of the Dpartment of Indigenous Studies, Associate Professor Michelle Trudgett is an Indigenous Australian
She has an excellent academic background and quite a lot of publications to her name.
Biography
Associate Professor Michelle Trudgett is an Indigenous scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West New South Wales. At the beginning of 2013 she commenced a new position as the Head of Warawara - Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. Michelle is a committed teacher who has been instrumental in developing and implementing the new postgraduate programs in Indigenous Education. Her research provides considerable insight into the area of Indigenous participation in higher education, with a specific focus on the postgraduate sector. Her research has been presented to ministerial bodies and to leading scholars on the national and international stages. Her research is used to inform current national policy, particularly in relation to Indigenous postgraduate student experiences. Her current Australian Research Council funded study with A/Prof Susan Page and Dr Neil Harrison seeks to create a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. Michelle is passionate about developing strategies to ensure Indigenous higher education students receive culturally appropriate support throughout their academic journeys.
The University provides good support to Indigenous students, even providing and elder on campus.
Meet Aunty Elaine, Elder-in-Residence
Our Indigenous Elder-in-Residence, Elaine Chapman, offers a friendly welcome and a listening ear to our students and staff on campus. And she knows first-hand the challenges that can face our Indigenous students, as she is completing her own study herself!
As the Elder-In-Residence with Warawara (Department of Indigenous Studies), Aunty Elaine provides support for Indigenous students and staff and a place where they can drop in for a chat. She also offers guidance for anyone across the university who has questions about Indigenous customs, myths or protocols. Aunty Elaine - as she is known - gives talks to a range of visitors to Macquarie and helps with some teaching units.
Aunty Elaine says she loves her job at Macquarie and encourages students and staff to come and meet her.
"Probably a lot of Macquarie's students are mainstream, a number of them know that they're Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, but they haven't been involved in Land Councils, or Indigenous community or school groups. They don't know that they can just drop in here and say hello, and they won't be given the third degree. So come in and say Hello! "
In her previous working life, Aunty Elaine has worked with a range of marginalized people. She was a psychiatric nurse before working in education and supporting people with special needs. Upon retiring in 1996, she soon became bored, so she decided to return to study. With some trepidation, Aunty Elaine began a Bachelor of Community Management at Warawara in 2005 at age 58. She enjoyed it so much that she is currently studying her Masters degree! It was returning to tertiary study that also got Aunty Elaine involved in the development of Elder-in-Residence programs at a number of universities over the last few years.
A listening ear
Aunty Elaine is a Wirradjuri woman and her people are from Central West NSW. She says her own experiences in searching for her family roots help her to give guidance to others on the services available for tracing Indigenous family connections. She also understands the range of emotions that can come with looking for one's family.
"I am fourth generation stolen... I came into contact with my brother for the first time in 2002 - when he was 65 years old, it was an amazing journey," Aunty Elaine said.
"People going on that kind of a journey, sometimes they just need to talk. If you are the person that they feel comfortable talking to about it, you don't need to give them advice or your opinions on how they should do things, you just need to be there to listen."
"A confidential listening ear is what I aim to offer to the students and staff here."
Support for Block students
Aunty Elaine is on campus every Monday and Tuesday, and also stays on the campus full-time when the Warawara block students are in residence. Aunty Elaine says the block students travel from Australia-wide to study on campus, and being a long distance from their family can be an added pressure on their study.
"Often during a block residential, one of the students has somewhat of a midnight crisis that is family-related. It always happens late at night when they might receive a phone call. They have a situation where they feel someone needs them at home, but they've got to be here. So I can be a supportive listener for them and help them get through that feeling of the need for immediate flight that you get when you want to go straight back home and sort things out."
The problem is, how do we move a young man like the one that this post is about from his current life (but, I'd like to say, that there are many so-called, "white" kids just like him.) to a situation where he could undertake University or Technical college studies?