Dare to Lead

THE DARE TO LEAD COMMITMENT

Primary schools with enrolled Indigenous students are asked to make a formal commitment to achieve, over three years, a 10% or greater improvement in literacy outcomes at Year 5.

In secondary schools the commitment is to a 10% or more improvement in completion rates of recognised Year 12 courses over three years.

While these targets reflect central issues in school achievement, it is anticipated that many other desirable goals will be achieved throughout this process for all students.

Schools without Indigenous students enrolled make a formal commitment to audit and, where necessary, revise their curricula/programs to ensure all their students develop an informed understanding of Australia's Indigenous peoples and their cultures, and of the importance of the reconciliation process.

All schools will be expected to actively promote contact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and especially among students with their peers, and support the work and directions of the Coalition.

Dare to Lead

A Lesson in History

My father grew up in an area of Victoria known to the local Jarwadjali people as Darrangurt. Their ancestors had constructed channels to drain the marshy ground between two natural swamps so that, when it rained, the swamps overflowed and fish, especially eels, were flushed into those channels and captured in fish traps.

Like their neighbours, the Gunditjmara at Lake Condah, they probably had a good business going in smoked eels, and may even have had permanent dwellings, long before the pyramids or stonehenge were ever thought of – some 8,000 years ago.

Nearby Gariwerd and the Black Range feature the highest concentration of rock art sites in S.E. Australia and include the Gulgurn Manja Shelter which contains Jarwadjali hand stencil rock art. There is a goodly chunk of human history – not just Aboriginal history – to be rediscovered, appreciated and treasured here.

Sadly, my father grew up knowing nothing about any of this. He was taught, if the subject was raised at all, that aboriginals were simple nomadic hunter-gatherers. Widespread ignorance and/or arrogance still coloured the attitudes of the day and a misguided “Christian paternalism” did nothing to improve things for indigenous Australians back when he was a boy.

When I was at school in the 1950s and 1960s things hadn’t changed that much. It is a sad fact that some of those old attitudes still persist today.

My father educated himself on these matters in his later years and he has expressed the hope that his grandchildren and
great-grandchildren will be able to properly study and appreciate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island history and culture.

He hopes that their view of Australia will also embrace history from the arrival of the ancestors of modern aboriginal Australians out of Africa some 40,000–50,000 years ago, rather than just the little white bit at the end.

How will that happen?

With Dare to Lead schools can deliver all that and a bit more. Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian children is one focus. Improving the education of all children in Indigenous history and culture is another.

At ASCIV we are committed to doing our part to support the work of Dare to Lead. We are encouraging all schools to join the coalition, and we are also offering our support to make their participation meaningful and effective.

Bill Gordon
President ASCIV

ASCIV CEO,
Stephen Franzi-Ford;
a Dare to Lead Ambassador.

ASCIV has a proven track record of working co-operatively with Indigenous communities to advance their educational goals and enrich schools for all students.

These efforts were previously acknowledged when ASCIV CEO, Stephen Franzi-Ford received a citation from Dare to Lead which recognized his commitment and personal contribution to the improvement and educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and the goals of the Dare To Lead Project. Stephen was appointed a Dare to Lead Ambassador in 2009.

ASCIV has long encouraged schools to sign up to the Dare to Lead coalition. Not just sign up – but to actively embrace the challenge of improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students and ensuring all students develop an informed understanding of Australian Indigenous history and culture.

While over 5,000 schools across the country have joined – less than 30% of Victorian schools are members.

Let’s do something about it.

If you’re not a member yet, please click on the logo (above right) to download an application form.

Make use of some of the great Dare to Lead resources or if you’re not sure where to start give us a call at ASCIV.