Aurukun State School, on the Gulf coast of Cape York, is one of the most complex for its size in Queensland. Situated in a community that is arguably the most traditional in orientation in this state, the well equipped and staffed school is a symbol of cultural change. Children,who at home lead largely unregulated lives centred on their families, encounter in the school another language, anotfyer culture, another set of values and attitudes - often very different from those they have learned from birth. The school’s achievements are defined and its goals shaped by its adaptation to this clash of expectations in forging an education that draws on the best of both cultures.

Dr Ian Malcolm (WA) has shown in several papers the difficulties teachers have communicating with Aboriginal children in the classrooms. Dr Stephen Harris (NT), in his PhD thesis, defined some of the differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sociolinguistic rules of communication.

This study hypothesises that the rules of communication and organisation in the classroom used by Aboriginal teachers at Milingimbi will be different from those used by white Australian teachers.

It concludes that the two groups are significantly different in teaching styles, each tending towards its own traditional sociolinguistic rules, with some integration of rules from the other culture.

No conclusions are drawn as to the effectiveness of each group.

It is stressed that this is very much only a pilot study to open the way for further research and discussion.

Australian Race Relations is a new Group Two Year 12 subject recently accredited by the Victorian Institute of Secondary Education for teaching in 1984.

Such a course is long overdue. It is necessary that all Australians understand the attitudes of the conquerors and the consequences of the manner in which this country was taken. Only then can Aboriginal land rights and other claims for compensation be properly appreciated.

Since 1980 the Victorian Institute of Secondary Education has implemented a new style of program for the Higher School Certificate course. Australian history is a Group 1 subject within this restructured program.

Australian history, according to most literature, is only two hundred years old. In teaching Australian history some teachers have ‘done’ the Aborigines by studying a traditional precontact history. Teachers may have even allocated a whole week to such a program, relying mainly on resource material available on northern or desert peoples. There has been virtually no work done on Victorian Aborigines and very little done on both contemporary and contact history in relation to the traditional history. There is now an option open to teachers to teach Aboriginal history as the HSC core subject, “Aborigional society before European settlement” and “European settlement and the effects on Aboriginal society”, or as the option subject, “Aborigines in the twentieth century”. This has placed an increased demand on the services offered by Aboriginal Education Services. A number of teachers are electing to teach either all three units or a combination of the units. The problem then arises that teachers themselves often have information which is limited, inaccurate and irrelevant.

The archetypal image of an Aborigine standing on one leg on the edge of a precipice, peering out across the horizon, holding a spear and wearing a red ‘nappy’, is often the only picture that the schooling system has presented of an Aboriginal. It is no wonder then that electing to teach even one of the units offered suggests a dramatic redirection of thought. Not only does traditional resource material require revision, but an Aboriginal perspective is essential. This perspective will then validate Australian history.