Hawks and Doves in the Education of Aboriginal Children

Extract

When I first moved to Coffs Harbour in 1972, I quickly became aware of the problems facing Aboriginal children in the school and community. Now, ten years later, seems a good time to review the position.

Statistically there have been changes. The Aboriginal population in Coffs Harbour Shire is 1.6% of the total population, namely: males 200, females 194, total 394.

The new Tyalla Primary which opened next to Orara High in 1978 has 29 Aboriginal pupils, while the Aboriginal population of Orara High itself has increased from 10 to 31 students (2 being in Year 11) in keeping with this school’s growth from only Years 7 – 9 in 1973, to a full secondary school by 1976.

It appears that attitudes among teachers and white children have polarised. There are the ‘hawks’ and the ‘doves’. When these terms were invented during the Eisenhower years in the U.S.A., it was easy to tell a ‘hawk’ from a ‘dove’. The ‘hawks’ were those who favoured warlike measures and confrontation, while the ‘doves’ were those who wanted peace talks and mutual disarmament. These days it has become difficult to differentiate in the military aviary but in this educational issue there seems to be a marked line of division. On the one hand there are those who condemn as ‘racist’ any special programs of financial aid to assist Aboriginal children, ‘the hawks’, and on the other those who blame a white-dominated society for the problems Aboriginal children face, ‘the doves’.