"By the end of this year there will be a total of nearly twenty seven thousand Indigenous university graduates across the country" With these overwhelming statistics there is, Nothing Wrong with the Education System in this Country !! Sure it may need some tinkering with. As it always will. But the Education Experts Chris Sarra and Tiga Bayles off on their, Don Quixote like Crusades Are Wrong !! I have viewed the Chris Sarra and “Stronger Smarter”website. A lot of it is out of touch and Crap. Yes he did accomplish something at Cherbourg. Due mainly to the dynamics of Cherboug itself. And the People. And history. Because of this he could Never Replicate it Elsewhere. A seemingly well intentioned sort of bloke. But we All know about Good Intentions and Hell. As for Tiga Bayles and the “Murri School”and their private, “Education Experiment”? We will just have to hope that his “Aboriginal Victim Industry” Agendas of Continuous and Unabated Blame Apportioning isn't part of their Curriculum. Though there is no doubt it will affect the kids attitudes. The mere fact that they are there. But there is Certainly a Concern seeing that Tiga is a Serial “Misrepresentation by Omission” Offender. With his finger in “To Many Pies” Becoming To Much of a “Personality Cult” Issue. posted by Arthur Bell.for more info, www.whitc.info

Thank you for those comments, I will try to respond to those worth responding to.

Thank you, Andrea, your support is very inspiring.

You're right, Bully, separate schools don't seem to get all that many kids onto either TAFE or university. In fact, they seem to do a much worse job than the average public school. I think you are a bit hard on Chris Sarra :>(

AGiR, it makes me very uneasy to agree with you, but there you go :) Of course, I don't think anybody has chased a wallaby or goanna with a spear for decades, except perhaps starving kids.


VK3AUU, no, you are way off the mark. Indigenous graduates are usually NOT in the mainstream before they begin their studies, they often come directly from unemployment - they certainly may be when they finish and get employed, but that's a long, hard grind for most of them: they usually don't have families to comfortably support them through their studies. And ABSTUDY has been equivalent to ordinary AUSTUDY for decades.

And what do you mean by 'real aboriginals' ? It's not your call, in the first place, and in any case almost nobody is living in the bush, unless you mean on remote communities ?

Individual, I can appreciate where you are coming from. But remember that the great majority of Indigenous graduates findwork in the mainstream, not so often in the Indigenous industry these days - those jobs usually go to unqualified members of powerful families rather than graduates. Keep your eyes peeled - notice if there are any new graduates getting any of those BS jobs: the people who do will almost invariably be related to some 'big man' or powerful family.

In any case, about 45 % of new graduates are either teachers, nurses or medical professionals - not much room to loaf and bludge there. And a very high proportion of the rest are spread across all sorts of mainstream fields, from archaeology to podiatry to vet science.

[TBC]

On top of that, Individual, given that funding for BS organisations is being wound dowm, there will be far fewer jobs even for the relations in future, let alone for unrelated graduates, so they will spend their lives in mainstream employment, not wasting their skills in those do-nothing organisations.

Cornflower, thank you for a passionate contribution: I have thought long and hard about your references to elitism and the role of TAFE, over many years. With one in nine adults already a graduate, I don't think that there is much scope for an elite. With the equivalent of about 20-22 % of each young age-group graduating these days (26 % for women), there is ever less need for an Indigenous elite at all, or their minders.

What is remarkable, in comparison to situation in other countries, is how little influence the old Indigenous elite actually has on younger people, even on younger graduates. Indigenous-focussed courses have wound right down at universities, so apart from some dedicated Indigenous student support staff, there is little contact between Indigenous students and Indigenous academics at universities. Elitist bodies such as the IHEAC have as little to do as posible with students.

As for TAFE, yes, I have thought for many years that it - or at least Indigenous TAFE - has been a fraud for Indigenous people, channelling them into rubbish certificate courses which they could enrol in year after year, getting them nowhere. The numbers of Indigenous students in genuine courses has been pitiful, perhaps fifteen hundred across the country, with only a handful of graduates in trades each year. I would love to stand corrected :)

But you can't really blame beef for not being lamb, Cornflower - Indigenous people at universities do their thing, people at TAFE do theirs. Indigenous people make their own choices, sensible and stupid, just like other people.

I wish there was somebody around who has been analysing Indigenous participation in TAFE, but I don't know of anybody. Maybe one of those thousand Indigenous academics doing research could look at it :)

Good one Joe, Maria would no doubt approve of this piece.

Thanks Rainier, yes, she's always on my shoulder :)

Loudmouth. You make some interesting comments. From the general tenor of them, one wonders why we actually need to give todays' urban aboriginals any different opportunities than the rest of the community. As it is, we are continually reinforcing the victim mentality that has been thrust upon them by the do-gooders of the community.

I have just come back from a trip visiting some of my old haunts in the hinterland and believe me, the real aboriginals still actually exist and they are still squandering our taxes.

David