By ROD MOSS
Mr Moon’s grimacing mouth at Luna Park is a metaphor for the challenges confronting the children.
Born as many Arrernte are, into extreme disadvantage and enduring daily racism in the form of snobbery or strident hostility, I’ve witnessed their spontaneity snuffed when entering mainstream schools and meeting the challenges of a curriculum at odds, or even denying their history, culture and place in the town.
Hence the importance of The Children’s Ground’s programme.
How would I adapt to a foreign power taking control of my finances, learn its language, operate under its laws, and told where to live.
Struggles with cross-cultural communication have been amplified by numbers of Alywarr, Anmatyerr, Pintubi, Pitjantjatjara, Walpiri, and Kaiditch gravitating to town from remote communities consequential to the Intervention.
Protocols these visitors to Mparntwe once observed no longer exist.
I’ve seen too many men and women die, many, in their thirties and forties, felt the bitterness at grave sites as we lowered their casks and tossed dirt on their lids.
Some were good friends, a dozen or so who’d been my children’s playmates. All were hard to bear and the direct result of conditions mainstream Australians would find intolerable.
Catastrophic conditions.
At top: The Great Ingester, 2018
Yes correct … rampant snobbery in Alice Springs mixed with hard core racists. You can literally see the snobbery in the eyes of the town’s business people and many visitors especially from South Australia.
Yes, the haves and have nots worlds apart.
“I’ve witnessed their spontaneity snuffed when entering mainstream schools and meeting the challenges of a curriculum at odds, or even denying their history, culture and place in the town.”
What rubbish. Kids welcome all kids at school, they do not pick and choose their friends by the colour of their skin.
This type of rot, and Aboriginal children not having to be educated as the rest of ALL children born in or living in Australia is the root cause of most problems. Education is the only thing that will close the gap. Stop denying the children by using this divisive discourse.
No one denies history, but when are you going to stop using it as an excuse?
@Jaz Fair go. I suggest you read the article again. When Rod alludes to “a curriculum at odds” I think he is on the money.
In my experience children’s cross racial attitudes and how they relate to each other in and out of school depends a fair bit on what they learn at home (or in the streets), but that is not what Rod was talking about.
The imperative for all children to receive the same education is a dangerous idea. This idea has been pushed by totalitarian regimes throughout history. Education opportunities yes, suppression of diversity no.