Australians Together representative Emily Haegi pines for change in the NSW teaching curriculum for Indigenous studies
A curriculum specialist says more work needs to be done to ensure Indigenous education is taught more widely and these aspiring Coffs teachers agree.
For some Coffs residents, very little attention was placed on Indigenous studies through their education.
This has left many with little to no understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history.
Australians Together Curriculum Specialist Emily Haegi said she had “no idea” about some of the subject matters when she was first started teaching Year 10 history.
“I hadn’t been taught about the ways First Nations people had fought for their rights in this country,” Ms Haegi said.
“The more I found out, the more I was convinced that real change could happen if everyone knew this information, especially students who’d become voters and community leaders themselves,” she said.
Ms Haegi is from South Australia but hopes to push Indigenous teaching across Australia, and said there are several benefits from teaching Indigenous studies beyond history.
“There’s so much we can learn from this knowledge when we start listening,” she said.
Australians Together work with cultural collaborators and classroom teachers to help embed First Nations histories, cultures, and perspectives in the classroom.
“Teachers have the potential to change the perspectives and broaden the minds of a whole generation of young people before they become the workers and decision-makers of the future.”
She fears there will be a backlash in incorporating more Indigenous teaching into units for school children.
“Some people believe that teaching the true history of colonisation to students will damage their development of national pride,” she said.
She said a shift in our national identity is “necessary”.
“Hopefully, with each conversation, Australian society gets a step closer to a brighter future together.”
She said schools should implement a “whole of school approach” led by principals and heads of curriculum to push change.
Indigenous Southern Cross University student Hunter Flanders said she only learned about Indigenous history through her parents.
She said it “means a lot” that more attention is being placed on Indigenous learning.
“It’s evolving very quickly. Younger kids now know the truth regardless of what their parents have grown up being taught,” she said.
Fellow SCU student Chloe Burger has one year left of her teaching degree, specialising in history.
“The way society is moving, people are more and more aware of the truth,” she said.
Ms Burger had to transition to a new degree to include new Indigenous history units.
She said she “hasn’t done a lot of indigenous studies” and found the information confronting.
