Long road travelled but possibilities endless thanks to indigenous foundation

“IT’S a long way from home,” says Year 9 student Leon Wunungmurra. Arnhem Land is ­indeed a far cry from Sydney’s Scots College.

AIEF COLOUR STORY

“IT’S a long way from home,” says Year 9 student Leon Wunungmurra.

The Gapuwiak community in northeast Arnhem Land is ­indeed a far cry from Scots College in Sydney’s exclusive Bellevue Hill, where Leon now boards with four other Yolngu boys.

Leon and his cousin Delwyn received scholarships last year from the Australian Indigenous Edu­cation Foundation, which is building a $140 million fund to enable 7000 students to attend some of Aus­tralia’s leading schools and univer­sities.

The AIEF has succeeded where many government and not-for-profit initiatives have failed. The program has a 93 per cent Year 12 retention rate. The ­national ­average is 55.1 per cent for indigenous students and 82.9 per cent for non-indigenous pupils.

The Scots boys are yet to ­experience homesickness but all have expressed the desire to return home with university ­degrees and give back to their communities.

Scots College appreciates how the students have ­enriched the school, as the flow of knowledge works both ways. Leon was joined by four day students from the school during a recent visit home.

“We took them swimming and showed them how to cut a didge, and we went fishing too,” he says.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has questioned the reality of offering quality secondary education in remote communities, while several submissions to the recent Wilson review into indigenous education in the Northern Territory argued for students to complete their studies at boarding schools in urban centres.

AIEF founder and chief executive Andrew Penfold says there are many boarding facilities in regional and remote Australia with empty beds, but he is unable to meet the demand from indigenous families for more places in his program.

“(They) desperately want their children to go to these schools because they offer quality teaching, 100 per cent attendance, a wide range of subject choices and three healthy meals a day,” he says.

“And they offer extra tutoring and structured homework sessions in the evening ... on-site health facilities, a safe place to sleep and early nights.”

Mr Penfold stressed the flow-on effect these scholarships had within communities such as Gapuwiak in transforming attitudes about education.

“The one or two kids from a community who go off to boarding school are the trailblazers and it can be a tough experience to be the first one ... but what we’ve seen happen many times is others will follow them,” he says.

“Others will see a kid in their community in a blazer and think, ‘I want one of those’.”

The impact has a more nuanced effect than just encouraging further scholarships, he said.

“Not all kids will or should go off to boarding school but what it does is raise aspiration and expectation ... it leaves an impression that education is something that can take you places and should be valued.”