Aboriginal Culture in a Victorian School

Extract

On Friday July 7, Jungai Day was held at Bell Primary School, Preston, to mark the beginning of N.A.D.O.C. week for 1978. Bell has an enrolment of just under 500 and has a high and expanding migrant population.

In early 1977, the first Aboriginal child arrived at the school, to add to the already complex nature of the school’s ethnic structure. Children from other Aboriginal families soon followed as the Housing Commission pursued its policy of providing houses that would match the finances of Aboriginal people.

The Aboriginal children made an immediate impact on the school. For some teachers and children, it was their first encounter with Aboriginal people. The children also brought their own problems, apart from those usually faced by any child starting at a new school.

It would hardly be overstating the case to say that the Aboriginal families would not have accepted the houses that they did, if they had not been in dire straits financially. The houses generally were small, cold, and inadequately furnished.

During their first winter at the school, the children were absent for much of the time, due to illnesses that were almost certainly related to the quality of the housing. The long breaks in the children’s attendances, however, were also indicative of a negative attitude to school, an attitude that proved very difficult to change as the children were away so often.

The situation didn’t really begin to improve until Pam Pederson arrived at the school to work as a teacher aide. Pam filled a crucial liaison role between the school and the Aboriginal families, as well as being a focal point of support for the Aboriginal children within the school.