Throughout history there have been many events, policies and

reasons as to why Australian Indigenous people were and still seem

to be marginalised from mainstream education. The factors that
have influenced Australian Indigenous education are things such as
policies that were put in place throughout history, lack of
understanding and knowledge from educators, language barriers
which are a result of Australian policies and also previous cultural
practices of education that have been demolished by European
Settlers. Indigenous Australians have been discriminated against
throughout history but particularly when it comes to education
Indigenous Australians have been unfairly treated and have had
little rights or opportunities to receive an education the non
Aboriginal Australians have been given.
Before the Referendum about Aboriginal rights and citizenship in
1967 there were many policies that segregated Indigenous
Australians from non-aboriginal Australians. (Kay, 2012, p. 6) One
particular policy that was in place in the 1880s made a huge impact
on the language barrier for Indigenous Australians to learn.
The language barrier for Indigenous Australians had and still does
have a massive impact on Education. Before the European settlers
invaded Australia, there were approximately 700 dialects spoken by
Australian Aboriginals but today there are approximately only 60
spoken (Simpson, Clancy, 2005, p. 328).
This is because the government had full responsibility and control
over the Aboriginal Australians and they were forbidden to speak
their traditional languages. (Simpson, Clancy, 2005, p. 328) This
meant that the Indigenous Australians that were being educated
had to attempt to learn whilst speaking, reading and writing only
English and not their first language. This was also very difficult at
there was no assistance or aid for aboriginal learners. This made the
aboriginal students look very uneducable (Kay, 2012, p. 2) as they
struggled to learn at all.

Now in todays present educational system Indigenous Australians

are still required to learn Standard Australian English (SAE).
Indigenous Australians have adapted SAE and developed their own
alternative language which is mixed with their Aboriginal language.
This language is named Aboriginal English (AE) which many people
see as a poor form on SAE that requires remediation and/or
correction, rather than being acknowledged as a separate and first
language for some (Simpson, Clancy, 2005, p. 328). The
Referendum about Aboriginals rights and their citizenship took
place in 1967, which was perhaps one of the most powerful
influences on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in the
20th Century (Kay, 2012, p. 6). A referendum is a vote made by the
Australian population on policies and measures proposed and or set
by the Australian government. In 1967, 90.77 per cent of Australians
wanted to change the sections of the constitution that were
discriminative towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons.
The discriminative sections of the constitution that were voted
against changed the law that Aboriginal natives shouldnt be
counted in the population of the country or states and also changed
the law that Parliament are to make laws the respect the people of
any races besides the Indigenous Australians. Once these two
policies were adapted or taken down the Education Department
then had a lot more involvement in Indigenous Australians
Education.
Since 1967 there have been many positive changes in the
governments policies that have benefited the Indigenous Australians
education. In 1969 when Malcom Fraser was the Prime Minister of
Australia he had a positive influence on Indigenous Education and
he in visioned good outcomes for the future. He hoped that both
non-aboriginal Australians and Aboriginal Australians would be able
to have the same opportunity as one another in education. Although

this vision did not happen within Frasers time as being the Prime
Minister, it did influence the future of the Indigenous Australians and
their education. (Kaye. 2012 p.7)
Today there are many programs and courses that encourage
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to become teachers or
teachers aids within classrooms. This is because culturally they have
a better understanding and comprehension of how to teach
Indigenous children due to cultural and language barriers although
there are still very little Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander
Teachers.
A major historical event that has influenced the segregation and
exclusion of Australian Indigenous in education is the time of the
Stolen Generation which was a policy made by the Australian
Government called the Aborigines Protection Amending Act 1915.
Under the act the Aboriginal Protection board had the ability and
permission to remove any child without parental consent if the child
was being neglected within their families and homes. When the
aboriginal children were removed from their homes, they were
usually taken to missions, which were similar to boarding schools.
These missions were religious constitutions where they were taught
the European curriculum. The performance of indigenous childrens
education within these missions was seen as poor but there were
many factors that have seemed to influence the way in which the
aboriginal pupils learnt (Broome, 1982, p. 184) The curriculum did
adapt the goals they had for their indigenous students aiming to
teach aboriginal children by the age of 14 what state school pupils
learned by the age of 8 (Broome, 1982, p. 185) Although this was
an adaptation to help benefit the indigenous Australian children,
their was no adaption to the actual curriculum to help them better
understand and learn in a language that wasnt their own and a
curriculum that was unlike their easy-going cultural ways of
learning. Within this indigenous Australian education in the early

1900s a lot of the syllabus was labouring such as gardening,

cooking and cleaning etc. This kind of learning only prepared them
for unskilled work which trained them to become servants and
labourers for European Australians. Although a lot politically has
changed since the stolen generation, the feelings of the aboriginals
in response to historical events like such are still influenced.
Because education was not easy to complete or benefit from for
Aboriginals throughout history, education is not very important or
valued now days. There is potentially a lot of trust issues between
Indigenous Australians and Education systems as during the 1900s
the schools were not mainly there to educate the Aboriginal children
but to separate them from their families.

In 2013 the issue of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders being

segregated from mainstream education is still present. Although
there have been many positive changes both within the government
and outside of the government in relation to education for Aboriginal
children, there is still lack of Indigenous Australians finishing year
12. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the percentage
of indigenous Australians that have finished year 12 is 28.5 percent
in comparison to the 72.6 percent of non-indigenous students who
have finished year 12. The difference between the two percentages
is drastically different and I believe today it comes down to a
number of different factors. I think although there have been many
positive changes throughout Australian history to better educate
Indigenous Australians, I still believe there is a lack of understanding
and knowledge about Indigenous culture that educators need to
have when teaching students. The language barrier plays a huge
part in the ability to learn, even thought most Indigenous
Australians learn English from an early age it isnt Standard
Australian English but the adapted version called Aboriginal English

which means its difficult for children to understand teachers etc.

In conclusion since the European Settlers arrived in Australia the
education for Indigenous Australians has not been a priority and has
not been managed appropriately. Policies such as the stolen
generation where children were taken from their families and then
taken to educational institutions and missions segregated all
Indigenous Australians to European Australians as the curriculum
was set up only for European Australians. The policies and
procedures before the 1967 Referendum did not assist or encourage
indigenous Australians to further learn in educational systems. Now
Indigenous Australians are still marginalised from mainstream
education for a number of different factors such as lack of
understand and knowledge of educators but in saying that, there
has been a very large increase in educated Indigenous Australians in
the past 20 years. The issue is still present and should still be
recognised by the Australian Education System.

References
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Aims': Governing the Post-Primary Child in Early Twentieth-Century
Australia." Journal of Educational Administration and History 44, no.
4 (2012): 295-316.
Findandconnect.gov.au (2011). Aborigines Protection Amending Act
1915
Legislation - Find & Connect - New South Wales. [online] Retrieved
from:
http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/nsw/biogs/NE00011b.htm
[Accessed: 5 May 2013].
McKay, Graham. Policy and indigenous languages in Australia
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2011: 297-319. Availability:
<http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=7297183483
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Australian Education. Journal of Social Policy, 41 pp.141-159.
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