Activity: Reflect on what connection to Country, and an understanding of the intergenerational impact of colonisation, have to do with reconciliation.
Read the following reflection by Tace Vigilante, a social justice educator who joined the School of Teacher Education as a lecturer at Bathurst’s Charles Sturt University in 2011:
My name is Tace Vigliante and I am a lecturer in Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University. I wanted to share with you my experience of coming to understand the role education can play as a vehicle for achieving reconciliation in Australia.
When I started university I was confronted with many new and big ideas—ideas that were in some cases in conflict with ideas I had previously held, and that were held by the people around me about whom I cared and respected, such as my family, friends and teachers.
There are a few ideas that have been very powerful in determining the educator that I am today. I am going to share one of these ideas now. You might expect that such a ‘powerful’ idea would require a lengthy explanation or argument to be convinced but this idea can be explained as briefly as this:
Everything we have as Australians is a result of the land being taken from Indigenous Australians.
This idea, delivered in a single sentence in a social psychology lecture blew me away. It seemed so straight forward when I heard it. Here was a simple claim, and I could not counter it.
What’s more, I had recently also learnt at university (in another subject) that Indigenous Australians were deprived of land due to the concept of terra nullius. In essence, I extrapolated; Australians have benefited and still benefit immensely from land being taken from Indigenous Australians and conversely the effect on Indigenous Australians was devastating; and Indigenous Australians continue to be disadvantaged and feel the effects of colonisation today. What an injustice I thought. From this I came to think that, if non-Indigenous Australians benefit from this injustice then non-Indigenous Australians should (have an ethical obligation) be working towards and contributing to the process of reconciliation.
This all took place in my first semester at university and I wondered, why had no one ever shared this idea with me before? I probed further. It was not a particularly popular idea. Whenever I raised this idea of injustice or injustice towards Indigenous Australians I was met most often with contestation, sometimes anger and many times misinformation. Yet, I did not come across a good argument against this claim and the subsequent conclusion, that if we, as non-Indigenous Australians benefit from this injustice then we, as non-Indigenous Australians should contribute to reconciliation.
As I began at the start of my story, throughout my studies in my first year of university, I was challenged by many new and different ideas and it was at this point that I began to see that teachers and educators play a significant role in shaping society and have the potential to be agents of change. At the end of the year I enrolled in a Bachelor of Education.
How do you feel or react to new or different ideas?
Does this story include any new or different ideas for you?
Had you heard of terra nullius in your own schooling experience?
If so, when (in high school, in history class etc.)?
If not, why do you think it was not included?
(How) has the dispossession of traditional lands impacted on or disadvantaged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia? (Explain your answer).
(How) has Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ dispossession of traditional lands impacted on or benefitted non-Indigenous Australians? (Explain your answer).
Do non–Indigenous Australians have anything to lose by acknowledging or accepting such a claim?
Do non–Indigenous Australians have anything to gain by acknowledging or accepting such a claim?
Should those who benefit from a policy such as terra nullius make reparations to those who have been disadvantaged by the policy?
If not, why?
If so, what kinds of reparations?
(What) do ideas around connecting to Country, and the intergenerational impacts of colonisation, have to do with education? Explain your answer.
(What) do ideas around connecting to Country, and the intergenerational impacts of colonisation, have to do with reconciliation? Explain your answer.
Do you think educators have a role in shaping and bettering society through fostering relationships, respect and reconciliation? Explain your answer.
Image: From Wikipedia; detail from ‘A pioneering settler family, circa 1900’
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Read the following reflection by Tace Vigilante, a social justice educator who joined the School of Teacher Education as a lecturer at Bathurst’s Charles Sturt University in 2011:
My name is Tace Vigliante and I am a lecturer in Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University. I wanted to share with you my experience of coming to understand the role education can play as a vehicle for achieving reconciliation in Australia.
When I started university I was confronted with many new and big ideas—ideas that were in some cases in conflict with ideas I had previously held, and that were held by the people around me about whom I cared and respected, such as my family, friends and teachers.
There are a few ideas that have been very powerful in determining the educator that I am today. I am going to share one of these ideas now. You might expect that such a ‘powerful’ idea would require a lengthy explanation or argument to be convinced but this idea can be explained as briefly as this:
Everything we have as Australians is a result of the land being taken from Indigenous Australians.
This idea, delivered in a single sentence in a social psychology lecture blew me away. It seemed so straight forward when I heard it. Here was a simple claim, and I could not counter it.
What’s more, I had recently also learnt at university (in another subject) that Indigenous Australians were deprived of land due to the concept of terra nullius. In essence, I extrapolated; Australians have benefited and still benefit immensely from land being taken from Indigenous Australians and conversely the effect on Indigenous Australians was devastating; and Indigenous Australians continue to be disadvantaged and feel the effects of colonisation today. What an injustice I thought. From this I came to think that, if non-Indigenous Australians benefit from this injustice then non-Indigenous Australians should (have an ethical obligation) be working towards and contributing to the process of reconciliation.
This all took place in my first semester at university and I wondered, why had no one ever shared this idea with me before? I probed further. It was not a particularly popular idea. Whenever I raised this idea of injustice or injustice towards Indigenous Australians I was met most often with contestation, sometimes anger and many times misinformation. Yet, I did not come across a good argument against this claim and the subsequent conclusion, that if we, as non-Indigenous Australians benefit from this injustice then we, as non-Indigenous Australians should contribute to reconciliation.
As I began at the start of my story, throughout my studies in my first year of university, I was challenged by many new and different ideas and it was at this point that I began to see that teachers and educators play a significant role in shaping society and have the potential to be agents of change. At the end of the year I enrolled in a Bachelor of Education.
Activity
The following questions have been designed to be discussed in a Community of Inquiry (see the guidelines for conducting a community of inquiry):
Image: From Wikipedia; detail from ‘A pioneering settler family, circa 1900’