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UNE project to help Indigenous children

June 17, 2004

The University of New England is undertaking a study that will help schools
in country NSW accommodate Aboriginal children who move regularly, with
their families, from one area of the State to another.
UNE won State Government funding of $105,000 for the two-year project titled
“Murdi Paaki”. It is the first study of its kind in NSW.
Murdi Paaki is an Aboriginal region covering much of the Murray-Darling
Basin. UNE researchers are starting on the project by surveying, throughout
the second half of this year, schools and community groups from Lightning
Ridge in the north to the Victorian border near Mildura. Next year they will
visit schools and communities revealed by the survey to have a supportive
and positive approach to students from mobile families.

“Many Aboriginal families move regularly within and across NSW in search of
work and housing, and to fulfil family commitments,” said the project
leader, Professor Anne Eckermann. “The Government wants to know what schools
and communities are doing to acknowledge these movements and to support
children’s education within this context. It wants an idea of the services
they are providing to offset the problems that children can face if they’re
not attending one school regularly.”
“Maintaining traditional migration patterns can, for Indigenous people, be
an important way of preserving cultural vitality,” Professor Eckermann
explained. “Our project will help the NSW Department of Education and
Training ensure that children’s education is enhanced rather than hindered
by these traditions.”
Professor Eckermann is the Director of UNE’s Centre for Research in
Aboriginal and Multicultural Studies. The project is a joint venture between
that and another UNE research centre, the Centre for Cognition Research in
Learning and Teaching (CRiLT). The Director of CRiLT, Professor John Pegg,
is a member of the research team, along with Cynthia Briggs and Dr Neil
Harrison from UNE’s School of Education.
“Our final report, by providing the Department with examples of the most
successful strategies we find, will help it with policy-making for the
future,” Professor Eckermann said. “Schools throughout NSW will have access
to this information on current best practice.”
Media contact: Professor Anne Eckermann, School of Education, UNE, Armidale
(02) 6773 3849, Professor John Pegg, School of Education, UNE, Armidale (02)
6773 5070, or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at June 17, 2004 03:40 PM