Good afternoon, everyone.
We're just on 5:00 and welcome to Community Conversations.
The webinar series looking at empowering First Nation educators and your pathway to teaching in Victoria.
We've got some housekeeping we'll move to now.
I'm sure everyone can read that it's being recorded.
Keep your microphones muted.
Cameras switched off if you require assistance, there's a function chat and personal Q&A questions, so we'll give you a moment to read those housekeeping before we start the formal proceedings.
So, let's move to acknowledgment of country on a Tuesday afternoon we're on the homelands of the Wurundjeri people, the Woiwurrung language group here in Naarm and so I want I come to you with respect to my ancestors and the compliments of my elders, and I'd like you to take a moment in this distributed and virtual platform to think about where you are at the moment.
You've got the opportunity to put in the chat or some way the country you are from and you're on. But in doing that, we will accept that as your recognition of respect of the country we are on.
And we're record later on.
All the countries that were represented here today, they're coming through now so Woiwurrung and Wurundjeri So, it's right there and in the chat. So that's really good.
That's our way of recognising where we're from.
A couple from Gunditjmara. Good on you Cuz.
Boonwarrung who we can see, even though we're distributed across the state, we're on Aboriginal land and we can recognize that in this virtual format.
So, thank you for doing that and a huge welcome to this webinar this afternoon.
I'm a couple people have said that they are missing Deal or No Deal at the moment, but have we got a deal for you this afternoon?
This webinar, it's all about education and the profession of education and opportunities for mob to become teachers
or in preparing pardon me, the coffees bad where I am in preparing for this, I reflected on what teaching is all about and of course people know that I've been in education for a very long time.
In fact, I taught my first class when I was in a home in Ballarat, but the nun got crook and I ended up teaching the class during the day, which was a really interesting experience.
Don’t know what sort of job I did, but I became a teacher in 1977.
In 1983, I became a school principal four years after graduating and of course in the mid nineties I had the unique honour of being principal of Koori open door Education in Glenroy, where I think 80% of the kids in the class were my relatives.
And it was such a great experience working so closely to mob.
I have three academic degrees, which is nice on the CV, but my best academic qualification is what I've learned at the table of VAEAI I I've been at VAEAI for nearly 30 years at the Committee of Management, and that's where I've learned what education is really about.
I've read all of the philosophies of education from Bloom's taxonomy to Pasternak and the new ones, but the Aboriginal philosophy of education is the most, most richest I've ever seen and I'm really welcomed this opportunity to be here today.
And later on when we get yarning with the mob that we got here, I'll talk about some of the lived experiences I've had.
I am, there's been really great, fun experience and that's really great when your ideas are translated to a kid's mind and spirit and we invest in that kid's dreams.
That's what teaching is all about.
I love the Aboriginal function of teacher becomes the learner, learner becomes the teacher.
And as I say, our philosophy of education outstrips everyone else. All our people are teachers, by who they are. It’s in our DNA, and what we're going to talk about today through Teach the Future campaign and through the inspiring Koori teachers program is about how you can enter the profession and leverage that part of your DNA, the cultural part of your DNA that makes you a teacher from your birthright, from your ancestors.
So, Teach the Future is a recruitment campaign delivered by the Department of Education in Victoria.
They're looking for new teachers to fill the growing demand across the state and in fact, across the world, and making sure that we hold our place strong and loud in the education profession.
So, we're going to be talking about some development opportunities, but we most of all, we're going to be going in and drilling into the lived experience of people who've done some of time at the chalk face.
So, thank you for joining us this afternoon. And you're not missing much on the Deal or No Deal because there's a great deal here on the table this afternoon.
So, what we might do now is I might move to the next slide where we look at introducing the teachers that we have on.
So, I'm going to ask each of the teachers to talk about their professional, introduce themselves professionally and culturally.
So, Natasha, you popped up on my screen first, let's go to you first.
So, my name is Natasha or Tash, and I am a teacher at Bacchus Marsh College and an education officer at Ecos Science and Technology Centre Ecolink Science and Technology Centre, where I do school excursions from Prep to year 12.
This is my fifth year in teaching, but I've also done some work with RMIT and published a paper looking at embedding Indigenous knowledges into Western curriculum in science and in primary school science, more specifically in a holistic way.
So, I've done some research and done some work in that space for more of an academic perspective as well.
Where I'm personally from, I've always lived on in Naarm, I've grown up on Woiwurrung Wurundjeri Country, where my family's from.
We're not 100% sure we believe we are river people in New South Wales, but that is an ongoing journey and something that I continue to learn more about every day.
And Tash, it's been great to show you, to know you from when you were younger and how you've developed into a great educator, as is the next guest, I pass to Ilona.
Thank you.
My name's Ilona.
Now I'm culturally, I am part of the Rose family.
I'm from Gunditjmara Country, very proud Aboriginal woman teacher.
I have grown up most of my life on the beautiful Wadawurrung country and that's where I currently live at the moment. By the beach in Torquay.
I feel very connected to those lands and very, really grateful.
And also just to acknowledge that I am a visitor here on these lands and pay my respects in terms of professionally
education, I'm probably at the other end of the this, the scale as to what Tash was just mentioning there.
I was I went into teaching straight from uni in the year 2000 sorry and I finished in the year 2000.
So, I went straight in 1996.
So, I was teaching in schools first up for 20 years of my career.
But I will say when, when Dad was speaking earlier about I mean, so Professor Mark Rose was speaking earlier about, you know, being in schools from when he started his journey.
That's when I started my journey.
So, from as long as I can remember, education has been ingrained into every fabric of my being.
And I've followed Dad around schools and been in there and just been immersed in the culture of education.
And for that I'm really grateful as well.
And I my teaching career has just it's been so rewarding and has given me so much to what I have even now,
three years into my teaching, I've was nominated for the Leaders in The Making program, which was professional learning, and then followed on with the opportunity to shadow a principal, the highly respected principal here in this area.
And that sort of led me to be going into like a leading teacher position and some numerous acting positions in assistant principal.
But the last leadership role was a learning specialist role, which was student engagement and wellbeing.
And through that I was able to really support the staff, the curriculum, the teachers, the students and the families of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community within that school, which was a large school of a thousand kids to a to achieve better outcomes in a holistic way.
And being in leadership gave me the opportunity to have a real say in what happened there.
So that was, that was really positive for me.
I now work at the Department of Education in the regional office.
My role is Koorie Education Coordinator, so I now get to work in a similar capacity, but with a lot with all of the
schools in the Barwon area.
Thanks Lones and thanks for a recognition of my formal title.
Make sure you keep to it.
Just before we pass on to Brett and Darlene, I just want to mention that one of the things that if you are a teacher, you do drag your kids in and out of staffroom meetings and at Ilona’s prep and with her and her brother, they could understand why they couldn't come and sit in the staff room at recess and lunchtime.
They thought that hanging out with the teachers was part of the normal things kids do. So, and I ask why it shouldn't be.
I am now going to pass and introduce Brett and Darlene.
So again, if you'd like to introduce yourself professionally and culturally, that would be deadly.
Thanks Unc.
My name is Darlene Rumler I'm the senior project officer for Aboriginal Inclusion here at the Department of Education and Training and Koorie Outcomes Division. Bit about me is I've been an educator working as a career engagement support officer, career educator and an educator.
I am I career kindergarten teacher and a proud Ngiyampaa Barkindji woman.
Huge welcome Darlene.
It's great to see you, and we are so very proud of you, you know that.
Brett over you my brother.
Thank you, Mark.
So, yeah, my name’s Brett West. I'm a proud Yamatji man.
So traditional lands were about 4000k's away from Naarm, which is where I reside.
And I pay my respects to the Wurundjeri peoples. And thank them for allowing me to both work and live on their lands, which I have done for a little while.
You probably can see on the screen I'm working for the Outcomes division as well, with Darlene.
So, we're in the corporate side of the department and honestly, the reason that I'm here is I want to speak of a really exciting program that I manage at the moment.
It's not as the AKT Now program, now AKT is A K T. It stands for Aspiring Koorie Teachers.
It's an earn and learn program or an employment-based program.
What that means is what we're looking at is actually combating the barrier of those that are studying, not actually having any money or incomes coming in.
So, the program actually is relies on what it does is give full time employment as an education support person in a role in a school while actually studying full time, you know, either an undergraduate or postgraduate educational teaching degree.
So really exciting. It is for only First Nations or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and as I said, it actually is there to alleviate that component where you don't have kind of monies while you’re studying.
I think especially for Mark and I think we can speak for us because we are the old farts of the panel.
There was a time where none of these programs were about you really got to struggle through your studies without having kind of any money.
So, what do you want to look at alleviating that, as I said, really exciting upcoming program that we’ve got going
and we're just at the moment putting the final touches to it.
Thanks Mark.
Thanks, my brother and Brett, I'm looking at the surname West and it reminded me of another great teacher from this state, Japanangka Errol West, a mutton bird blackfella from Tassie, of course, and he was one of the first Aboriginal teachers in the state.
And he mentored me.
And so, if you know where my bad jokes come from, you can blame Uncle Errol.
But you know, there were no supports when he went through.
He used to drive past the Vic market and get all the potatoes and veggies that fallen under the trestle take behind home to give his family a feed, and he went on and as teachers do everywhere, whether you remain in the classroom or you work in administration, you really progress in the absence of a voice last year, the real voice, I reckon it's when kids go through education and go out and light up the sky with their brilliance.
And as a teacher, you've got a role in that.
It's part of our cultural mandate, ancestral mandate, and it's really good.
Not the first time we've been here with programs like this.
I remember back in the nineties the NAEC, with the campaign for a thousand teachers and then followed in the
about a decade ago with Mercedes not the car, More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teaching initiative, a great program to raise the number of blackfellas in the profession.
Kaye Price, Paul Hughes and Peter Buckskin, led that program brilliantly. Kaye, I believe is joining us this afternoon as a participant online to listen in, lots of love Kaye.
And Kaye and I had lunch with Pete Buckskin the other day and those guys are legend, as is the legends that we have here in Victoria, Vayai and Uncle Lionel.
If you’re online, welcome to you and to everyone who's joining us from across the state.
So, education is part of what we do as blackfellas.
We tell the best stories.
We construct the best relationships, and we're able to take people's minds to another place, to stretch the mind and stir the spirit.
That's what teachers or chalkies do.
And this is your opportunity to join a profession that is that looks after you and in which you make a difference.
So, I'm going to now invite our teachers to come on board and we're going to ask a few questions and really explore what it's like to be a teacher.
So welcome back you two.
And if you both could use my title properly, please, that would be really good.
When I interview for teachers, I in early teacher education, I realised that all of us have gone through, you know,
13 years of formal education and I ask them to name one teacher that has really enlightened them, that has really embroiled their mind and their spirit and taken them to a new place.
Hopefully in 30 years there’s been one. Who is that person for either of you?
And the lady you don’t have to say it was me. Cos you’re going to get a birthday present this year anyway.
All right.
I would say for me personally, it was probably my history teacher in high school, Mr. Hiho he stood out as being an amazing teacher because he actually got into teaching much later.
He didn't start off as a teacher and he had all of this world experience and he would be so passionate and talk about history and revolutions with as if they were happening right in front of him.
And he was so excited about it and so passionate about it.
And it always made me really excited to go to class it didn’t feel like I just had to sit and listen to someone recite from a textbook.
So, he definitely stands out as one of my, you know, most influential teachers.
And you take his spirit with you when you're in the classroom.
Yeah, I try to I definitely my students say that I nerd out quite a lot when I talk about science and they call me a dork or a nerd.
And I think that's very accurate.
I try and have my passion shine when I'm teaching just like he did.
Ah lovely, Lones?
What about you, in your 13 years, who was a standout educator?
Well, obviously my first principal, obviously Mr. Mark Rose.
But a teacher that comes to mind for me was somebody who was really there for me and believed in me at a really transitional stage in my life, which was sort of through those teenage years, the female role model that I, I needed at that time in my life and I really I don't draw on actually what it was that that this person taught me in terms of the subject and the content of whatever that was.
But it was just about the investment that she showed in me and being able to direct me into pathways where she so clearly saw the strengths that I had and gave me the confidence to be, I guess, a better version of what I thought I had in me, and just continued even after that, that person wasn't my teacher anymore, continued to check in and have a relationship with me and I still have a relationship with this person now.
And when I was teaching, that was what I kept coming back to that relational side of, you know, really get getting to know who my students are and having that strong relationship with them and that that belief in them so that that empowers them to then, you know, go off and do the things that they are capable of.
Both examples are really beautiful and great teachers have that that spiritual connection with someone who's inspired their life.
And you take that light forward with you and ignite another life.
So that is terrific.
When did you know you wanted to be a teacher?
You two arm wrestle for who goes first.
You go Tash.
Thanks.
I officially decided that I was going to be a teacher when I was end of year 11 or so, but it had been one of my “when I grow up” careers that I would say since early primary school.
I actually had teachers in primary school say, try and do something very different.
You're very smart.
But in the end, teaching was the thing that I enjoyed the most, and it was the thing that made me the most excited when I thought about going to university and studying something.
So yeah, for a very long time as it's been on the radar of what I wanted to do.
Fantastic, Lones what about you?
Yeah, and that would be this - oh sorry Dad.
Ah Professor Rose, if you don’t mind, we're working here tonight ok?
Yeah.
I was just going to say and I mentioned earlier that it was from my earliest memory of being in in schools and around universities and all of that with you and I still get this nostalgic kind of feeling every time I walk into a school, even though I'm not teaching in the one school anymore.
The minute I walk in, it's the the sounds, the smells, the visuals, everything about being it just it does something for me.
It's just yeah, it's I think it's just very much a part of who I am. And what this program's about is raising the spirit
and the excitement for people online to come to the profession.
If you're creating a commercial to invite people to become teachers, what would be your selling points?
You can channel Russell Howcraft in this.
I think it would be just like a snippet of the most chaotic part of my sessions and I mean that in that when my students are laughing and if you walked past, you would think they're not doing the work, but we're all really engaged.
And maybe sometimes it's because we've gone on a tangent, but we're really loving learning at that moment.
It would be just a snippet of that joy of discovery, I guess, that you see, which I personally find so much sweeter when you manage to get that out of a teenage boy because they don't like to show that.
So that kind of energy.
That's lovely.
Lones, what about you?
No, I absolutely agree with that, too.
Yeah, I agree.
It just there's something those the moments where you see it just really sink in for them and they get it and that or they, you know, seeing someone else achieve, you know, that sense of accomplishment of what they're doing, It's pretty special.
But I think really it's about the influence that you can have on a group of individuals.
And it doesn't it doesn't just sit with that one individual.
It actually has, you know, this ripple effect that's far greater that reaches out into the home as well.
And the influence that you can have on, you know, obviously there's the academic, the achievement performance sort of, you know, what happens in schools, but also the wellbeing and the engagement and pathways in to where they land, when they when they walk out, when they leave, you know, the doors of the school and just with how many opportunities there are now for all students to be able to achieve, particularly at that senior secondary level
and the pathways that they have and even going further on to that.
But you can have a small little part that that might influence, like when I talked about that teacher for me before, you know, being able to influence that and it's given me a really rewarding, great career and someone who someone else had a part to play in that that was a teacher.
So yeah, the influence.
That’s lovely.
And both of you mentioned that recognition you get.
I went to a reunion a couple of years ago when I taught at Assumption College and are surprised this kid came and said that he used to wag classes and come to my class and I thought, what a complement that is.
And that's the sort of things that really excite you about teaching that when you really make a difference in people's lives.
And Ilona, I know that you rang me one day and asked me if I taught this person and that you were teaching that person's son.
So, yep. What a tragedy.
One family has had two generations of Rose teachers.
Yeah, I would say the son was better off, but anyway.
We'll talk about that later.
Okay.
So having said that, how do you know when you've done that good day's work or when you really achieved something as a teacher?
A lot of the time it's more about the way it for me, it's the way that the students have acted in the class. At the start of the year I tell them, you know, what are your goals for this year?
I don't care if your goal is to scrape through science, that's fine.
But for me, I feel like I've had a really good day when I've had some of those kids that just don't want to be there.
They don't care about science.
They think it is useless and not going to help them ever.
And maybe they learned one thing or maybe they just had a good time in the session that day.
But knowing that they've come to school, gone into an area like science that can be quite divisive and walked out, not hating it and actually having had a good time, those for me is when I have the best days.
And, you know, I've even had that just in the first couple of weeks of school where I've had kids who have walked
in, told me the wrong name when I've tried to mark the role three times.
And at the end of the session when I've tried to be like, all right, you really need to tell me what your name is.
They've got a very defensive and kind of be like, ‘Well, I told you in the end.’
And then ended that sentence with ‘No, it’s alright, Miss. You're a good teacher.
I actually kind of like you.’
And that was, for me I was like, that's such a good end to that session.
That's such a good day, because this kid clearly came in not wanting to be here, not wanting to do anything to do with science or class today, hence telling me the wrong name multiple times and has left going, you know what?
You're actually okay and had done some work and hopefully learned something along the way.
Ah Tash as you tell me that story, you remind me of a story of again, teaching secondary school at Assumption
College in Kilmore.
The kid in those days, every subject laid out the hand wrote the report.
And I did that around the staff room.
And you placed it on the kids pile of report notices.
And that was good, except a couple cheeky kids in that class created a kid that didn't exist called Barry Mundy
and some of the teachers who didn't know that it was gammon was calling out trying to find the rest of the reports
for Barramundi, and it was hilarious.
So, I don’t know, I get amused by little things.
Lones, save me from falling into telling bad stories again.
It sounds like a joke.
You would have cracked actually.
Do you know what?
It's really hard, I think, to pinpoint exactly what it is in one particular day, because what I always found is you could in the in the space of a day and especially you Tash, if you've you've got all these different classes
coming in and out you can just have all of these different experiences, ups and downs and just, you know, things happening in a day.
But it only takes one thing for you to walk out of there at the end of the day where you've seen a student lift, you know, lift and just stand there really proud of what they've done or just it can be the smallest thing.
But when you see that in a student again, I know I always come back to that relational kind of element of teaching,
but it's just so important to me.
And I think that they're the things that you, you hop in the car at the end of the day and you drive home and they're the things that stay with you and they stay with you.
They stay with the student, they stay with the families.
And they and that's a long-term thing, too, even if it's a small thing.
But I'm so I yeah I can't think pinpointing exactly the moments but it doesn't take it doesn't always take big things.
I think that's what you were sort of saying Tash too, it say small things, levels of interaction and engagement
that you get, especially with teenage boys, you know, teenagers are so delightful because I chose to study secondary education, I've done this to myself.
But, you know, sometimes it is those little things and it's not necessarily that, my whole class was so well behaved today and they all did their work and they all answered the questions because honestly, if they all did that, I would think something was wrong.
Yeah, yeah.
All those little connections, seeing that something has made a difference.
Well, something has worked.
Yep. Yep.
Or they've just walked away with something.
Like you've been able to give them something small in a day. So. Yeah.
And what is it like seeing students in the street after a couple of years I think it's more relevant to me because I
I've got colleagues that I taught in grade one who work in the university with me, but when you see past students,
are there ones that you carry around with you for various reasons.
Absolutely.
100% yes.
I see students everywhere.
You know, Geelong is not that big a place.
I see students down here all the time and that, you know, you're always catching up with the family and you know what they've been up to and it's yeah, it's so nice to just sit and listen and hear what it is that they're doing.
As you know, as I said before, you know, you've got them through school and but it's, it's where they land as young adults and functioning adults when they when they get out of school as well.
That's still you know, it's still part of the reason why you do it. And, you know, the purpose behind everything you do.
So definitely. That's a really beautiful part of the profession for sure.
I have chosen to live quite far away from where I work, so I don't really run into my students.
I work about 50 minutes away from where I live, so that's not necessarily something that I do experience as much.
But there's definitely still students that I think about a lot more or, you know, I'm wondering how they going on, things like that.
And I know like my first yard duty this year, I had eight different students from my classes last year come up to me very excited to say, hi, how are you going?
This has happened, or even, you know, some of them were getting very detailed about like some emotional things
that had happened over the holidays.
And some of them were just, oh my God, Hi Ms. Ward, how are you going?
It's so good to see you.
How were your holidays and things like that.
So, whilst I might not see them on the streets and have that same kind of experience, even just when I do see them
and they're no longer mine, it is really nice to see how they're going and touch base and yeah, and I can I also add that just quickly, sorry I've cut you off, but so it's different when you've been teaching a lot longer because sometimes some of the students that I was teaching are that I had babies that were starting to those don't have babies and go to that next stage of their life Lones, I think we've got a ...
I think you might have pressed the mute button, have you?
Houston, I think we've got a problem.
Tash, can you hear me? I can hear you, Uncle.
It may be a headset mic issue rather than a mute issue.
Well, it's just a good thing I can lip read Ilona, was saying what a great principal I was.
So Lones, back to you to finish the story.
No, we're back to lip reading.
So, we got a team behind the scenes who are who probably will. Well that gives us an opportunity
to lip read now.
And what Ilona was saying was what a great… Just how amazing you are.
Yeah, exactly.
So, yeah, we can interpret that.
We'll get Lones back online in a moment, which will be good.
So, these things happen live to air.
Teaching, I'd like to drill down into the profession itself of the culture of the classroom at the school and the staff room, and Tash being a very unique, a female Aboriginal teacher, female Aboriginal science teacher.
Tell us, what are the the curses and the blessings of being such a minority?
I guess, yeah, definitely on that minority thing, something that really stuck with me just before I graduated, I spoke to a professor at Monash and he told me that to the best of his understanding, I was going to be the only Aboriginal science secondary teacher in the state.
So, I am very much a minority. I have met one other in the time that I've been teaching and reaching out to other First Nations educators and something that I find what that actually means is that the blessing is that people want to ask questions, they want to learn more, they want to have information and they want to know how they can embed these kinds of things.
These knowledges, the techniques behind First Nations teaching and learning into their classroom.
But the curse is that you're kind of the only one.
So sometimes it can kind of feel like the expectation is that you do know the answer well, that you will always have the time to answer those kinds of questions.
So, I've had to learn how to have some very strict boundaries and how to say no.
Ask me another time or do your own research first, and I will help you consolidate that knowledge.
So, I think that's kind of like the blessing and the curse in that regard.
You know, there's not many of us people want to listen, people want to learn, but there's also not many of us.
So, we do need to make sure we take care of our own mental health and our own ability to juggle that kind of stuff as well.
So, Tash, how do you take care of yourself?
Yeah.
So, I make sure as much as possible to switch off at the end of the work day.
I left work yesterday having left my laptops on my desk, and then when I walked out with just my keys and my phone in my purse, one of my colleagues actually said, did you not bring anything today?
I said, no, I'm making an effort to switch off when I go home.
You know, I put a lot of work in and sometimes it's inevitable, as we all know, sometimes you just going to do work at home.
I'm probably going to be doing some work at home this week.
I'm aware of that.
But trying to minimize that and make sure that I have time to not be a teacher, not to be Ms. to be Ms. Ward, Ms. Ward but just be Tash and to just relax, you know, make sure I keep up the hobbies that I was enjoying before I started teaching all of that kind of stuff.
That's, for me, really important in taking care of my wellbeing.
And sometimes that comes at it also in the form of just talking about the stuff that I'm experiencing with other First Nations mob, other people who get it, who I can just be like, you know, here's what's been going on.
This is the good, this is the bad.
And we can all just kind of decompress in those kinds of ways.
I remember the great Aunty Mirri, I consider who was a great leader in Victoria on education, so that teaching is about doing the ancestor's work.
So, do you can you elaborate how you're doing the ancestor's work?
Yeah, I like to think that I'm doing the ancestor's work, as you said so beautifully earlier, we are teachers.
That is just inherently who we are.
As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
And I try and think about that when I go into my classrooms, when I think and when I'm talking and when I'm interacting with students.
And some of the ways that that comes out is in my role at EcoLink, I teach from prep to 12 and if we're sitting and I'm trying to talk to my students, I will sit on the ground in a circle with them.
I don't want to try and have, you know, these inherent power imbalances amplified.
I try and make sure that I'm bringing those kind of practices that we've always done, where we're sitting in a circle,
we're communicating with sharing.
And I try to embed that in the way that I approach my teaching practices as well.
And I think that's how I'm able to do the Ancestor's proud is sharing that knowledges that we've always had,
but also just embedding the ways that we've always shared. Those knowledges that we know work, where we make students and young people feel empowered and feel like they have a say in their education and they have a say and they want to learn.
I try and embed that kind of stuff into my own teaching.
Too deadly.
Lones, welcome back.
I hope we got you. Can hear me okay?
Sorry. What did you say?
We got you. Lones?
The question was, for Tash was, Aunty Mirri has said often that, as a teacher, you do the ancestor's work. How do you know you're doing the ancestor's work in what you do?
I think bringing people along with you, you know so and I guess I didn't hear what you said today, so apologies, but it's probably a good thing if we do probably talk the talk the same language.
But I think, you know, when you what are you teaching in the classroom and you in perspectives across a curriculum of them?
You know, a lot of people would sort of draw on the content of what you're teaching, which is really hugely important.
However, I think where you where the where you really do the ancestor's proud is when it comes into the pedagogy, in the ways in which that you transfer that knowledge and you know, I guess and within that is understanding each of your students so individually and being able to draw the different and kind of the different learning styles within, but using some of the more traditional ways of transferring knowledge that and I think I heard you say is at the end teach that that we know has been proven to be effective way of learning, teaching and of learning.
And I think there comes a lot into that you know, comes that the way in which you set the scene and you create
the balance of power in the room and you know how everybody knows and understands their role that they play in the holistic education of what is happening in the room at that time.
Right. Thank you for that.
And Loans we were talking about community, too, and we know that BI has been around for decades now and has worked with the department as a party partner and they were we got maroon as a policy and I know that you're involved in the local league and I said earlier that I've got a number of degrees from formal universities, but
my best knowledge is sitting at the table with Aunty Mary, Aunty Geraldine, Aunty Rose and Laura and Imelda and the women who have been and the men who have been the leaders of community driving Aboriginal education.
So, what's the role of community in 2024 in a cutting-edge education system like we brought here in Victoria?
What is the role of the community?
Yeah, I think community is so important.
Community underpins everything that you do, but it's about, I guess, the understanding of where that sits and being really clear and transparent about that within the schools, you know, prioritizing flag meetings and encouraging to having families that come along to those and feel like that they that's a place where they have their voice, you know, you know, we can sit around and have professionals meetings and we can be there to be able to support.
But it's got to come from what it is that they're raising within those community meetings. And they need to be regular and they need to be prioritized, which that's something that we really work hard to do down here in Geelong.
And you talk about the people that you've talked about.
I've obviously mentioned you yourself that, but you know, there's also elders down here in the community here that that you just go to for advice on the daily, you know, just, just to, just to float what this might look like and have a look at all the perspectives.
But you're right, the value that you get from the elders in the room is just priceless.
So, any opportunity that you can draw on that is definitely worth taking.
And Tash, I've seen you in community roles.
You know that night you gave all Korea Trackies out.
Was that Sydney or Melbourne?
I'm trying to remember, yes.
So, I believe that was at Sydney.
And then from there I'm not sure you mean you know this one that after that I got approached through someone that saw that and I gave a speech at Parliament House, the same speech for the anniversary of the apology to the Stolen Generations for the ministers and the aunties and uncles that were there as well also.
And of course, we first crossed paths as a first member.
And of course you're crazy.
Sister was a second member of the courier cell.
Okay, so I want to talk about some of those roles, how they contribute to you as a teacher.
Yeah, definitely.
So, yeah, like you said, we've known each other for a long time now.
I think it's 13 or so years ago that the K was first created, the Academy of Excellence, and I got involved in that.
And for me it was one of the first times that I was able to have a community of other First Nations students.
It was something that I hadn't been able to access personally as someone whose family was affected very heavily by the Stolen Generations and the subsequent effects of that.
So, for me it was really amazing to have a community of people my age who I could relate to instantly in these ways and I could connect to and that's just continued.
I've always sought out these communities, be it the Koorie Academy of Excellence going into career track is at University.
I'm seeking out community now as a teacher, working with the Australian Education Union, being a member of their First Nations committee.
You know, all of these ways that I'm trying to get community and get that connection because I feel stronger for it
when I am not connected to other people that I can reach out to all that I can just, you know,
talk to have those same lived experiences. I don't feel like I can be as strong in my being in that time.
I can't, you know, express the best version of myself.
So, I've always tried to surround myself by community because I personally see that it makes a huge difference for me.
And now I'm trying to do that as well for my students.
I run the First Nation student group, so my school and I'm trying to get them to be a community in themselves.
You know, they're there to help each other.
They've got these lived experiences.
Yeah, I was actually going to say that same thing as well about communities and just about the external community, you know, but it's within the individual schools themselves as well.
And I think when you do become a teacher in a school, you then are the connect for these students.
So, for with one another, with their families, but then also the community events that are happening at and around
that, you know, you can sort of support them to attend. And I agree with you, Tash.
That's where the real code is.
When they when you see them all together, we hold the sort of aspirations day thing down here where we get all the secondary kids to 2 to 300 secondary kids altogether.
At the John Tech School. We did it last year with us.
So, they're all engaged in STEM and inspirational speakers and just but just seeing them together and every time they get together, you can tell the next time they all say each other, they really start to connect and collaborate and then they see each other at community events on weekends, and it's really starts to strengthen the whole community.
But it's a school is just the greatest, you know, starting base for that to occur.
And I know I've heard stories and I told stories, read dinner tables about the fun that you have in the profession that you come from the community, and Lones you're right you're part of a community of practice in that school.
What supports do you guys have in the profession?
You know, again that when you draw up our lines we said that you know often you're the only Aboriginal person in a very white setting.
So, what are the supports you have I personally being in a leadership role, I had the support of the leadership team which I found really important in the school setting because there was time dedicated at all of the leadership meetings to discuss some of the things that were going on for our kids.
There was intentional time and space created for not just myself but the people around me to do the work.
This is the thing.
I was the only Aboriginal teacher, but there were plenty of allies in the school, which was amazing that I could come along and work.
But I but I did often feel like it was it was a bit of a lonely journey as well.
Now I work in a team of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and there's nothing like having someone else there with you as well.
So, the more teachers that we can, you know, get in our schools and working together like it would just be a dynamic force.
You know, if one person can work with leadership and, you know, create some systemic, really great systemic things happening in one school, imagine what a whole group could do together.
And, you know, we have the KSN now, which through the Department of Education state where, you know, all Aboriginal teachers and Torres Strait Islander teachers have the opportunity to come together a couple of times a year, sometimes online, sometimes face to face, and have that opportunity to come together and connect.
And that's been really positive and is the greatest thing has been the teachers who are in the schools, the floor, doing it every day, coming along and just sharing their experience, being part of that group with the whole team.
So, I think and, and it's sort of it's fairly you know, it's been going for a little while, but it's really starting to grow legs.
And I think the more people we can get in and engaged and yeah, working together that the more dynamic we can all be together.
Awesome.
Tash, supports that you have in the in the in your teaching and I you can look from within the department also from the community too. Lots of support there for you?
Yeah, I definitely found that when I first started teaching it was a little bit of a shock because I went from university where I had this support network with the First Nations group at my university to an area where I'm not now surrounded by first nations, by mob all the time, much like how you were saying.
And so, I kind of had to make my community my supports.
And for me a lot of that is my coworkers, those that, you know, I can talk to, who I can rely upon, you know, if I feel like something is going really well, I can talk to them.
But also, if I feel like something maybe was unfair and I'm not sure I can talk to them as well.
So that's been really good within the school.
But also, if I look broader, I mentioned before the union that I've really connected with a lot of the First Nations members in the Union and being able to rely on them and talking to them as other First Nations educators and the offices as well, the First Nations offices at the union being out of reach out to them and say, hey, can I get some advice, can I get some support, anything like that.
And knowing that there are people there that are always going to be in my corner has been really, really helpful for me personally.
Can I thank you very much for this afternoon?
You have inspired me when I go to reunions for my teacher college days.
A lot of those all these are actually going back to the classroom, and I might consider it or I might not.
To bet you really told us how great the profession is, how it's linked into who you are as black fellows, how the community supports and how you're doing the work of the end systems, which is awesome and deadly.
And so, if you are online, then I we give a group clap.
But you know, thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
And we're going to get you to go into the other hands coming up now.
We're going to go into that.
You can go into the background as we invite Brett and Darling back and we'll move into question and answer time.
So, Tash and Alina, thank you so very much.
No worries at all.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
So, we've got some questions coming through already.
It's coming to my phone.
And can I say that it's half price pages tonight at Domino's.
That's just cut through the headlines as a question.
Once I'm a qualified teacher, how do I go about getting a job after you finish the initial teacher education?
That's the first question we have here.
If you don't mind, I'll jump in here.
Firstly, super happy, you guys.
Domino's, as you can say, I do like pizza, but the question about what you need do if you're a competition getting a job.
But in this day and age, what part of school?
I'm pretty sure you might get mugged.
Drag me with No.
Hi there. Is that you get that.
But in all seriousness.
So, once you've actually got a qualification, there's a couple of things you need to do.
So, getting registered started getting registration through the Victorian Institute of Teaching.
So, what, you've been reduced to actually teaching school and then actually having a look at either is a recruitment online area which actually picks up all of the roles that are around the site or as I say, actually being very honest, who is actually going to school.
Like if you have genuine interest, you have a qualification.
Firstly, as I said, I'm pretty sure I have a job for you.
But the other thing also too is that actually helping with the registration process.
So, I mean getting registered and then having a look ahead, he it all seems very hard, but there's quite a number of supports out there now.
I think that actually we will have a slide that actually gives a model for anyone on the webinar.
So, what is it it's like now as in watching a recording, what changed to get hold of that?
But it's not an arduous process and there are quite a number of jobs and for everybody, I've got to give everyone out Brett and Darlene’s home phone number.
We give them at 11:00 tonight, ask them some more questions.
So Darlene, that question about how you become a teacher and you want to add to that or we can go to the next question is what incentives are there to become a teacher from the Department?
Well, long coming, obviously, that the first one you'd like to point out that many people would probably think
about is the convenience around being able to adapt to your family lifestyle.
Hey, working in schools for children, five grandchildren, and to be able to flexibly work around them, be with them in real time, understand what they're going through, having the school holidays.
Some people might even say it's really rewarding.
And, you know, I really loved how Lones and Tash talked about their aspects and the impacts that they've made because I really think it is a village that raises a child.
And, you know, the many educators, my children and grandchildren and other community mob get from day to day, that lifelong learning really is essential and there's many ways of benefits to that that fill your bucket up.
Lovely answer, thank you so much for that.
The other questions which are coming in with the dominoes prices too are how to embed practices without being tokenized so I might make a bit of a start of that because I, along with Zach, are on the ACARA and VCAA and with VAEAI’s input into the curriculum.
I would say in my early days as an educator, blackfellas were a commodity, you know, but now we're a currency we're able to lead where other teachers in the school can't go because we have got that probative knowledge of culture and we are often put into the expert position.
So, without being tokenized, I think we make sure we move from being a commodity into a currency and recognizing that.
So, if you become a teacher, you know, through this program and through all the supports of the government, you will go and really blaze a future for our people.
So, if you two would want to add to that or have I answered the question?
Uncle, I'll add to that, because I think being culturally responsive is key.
I think, you know, education has come a long way.
We have a lot of trailblazers that you’ve mentioned in this webinar already and Laurence mentioned a word that some people may not be aware of is pedagogy.
So those pedagogy and practices we use in the teaching world is based around our philosophy and service visions, and our curriculum is all guided and linked back to give our understanding of the why we do what we do.
But they're also embedded as they're actually meant to be delivered and we have the ACARA and the AITSL standards.
It's all a requirement that every educator needs to do.
I think in my teaching, you know, going through my journey to become an educator is the understanding that it is now essential and required that every student going through a university is undertaking, you know, a cultural awareness unit where before it was an elective, but now it's compulsory to do those units and those teachers coming out as pre-service teachers, they're going to have that cultural knowledge.
So, in future, I'd like to think, you know, that that cultural overload that many of us as Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people out there won't feel that cultural burden and overload an expectation to be everybody's dictionary and, you know, help them create the curriculum.
It will be able to cross-pollinate that and be culturally responsive as all professionals in supporting one another equally.
Darlene, lovely answer there.
Brett, would you like to add to that at all?
The only thing I want to add is there are actually supports that come from the department. Ilona is very aware of this as she's moved from the classroom into this particular workforce.
And I will say that myself and Darlene have also been there as well.
It's a regional workforce, career engagement, a number of support offices that actually have wonderful managers
like Ilona that actually look after them, that actually provide that support.
Now, it's not one on one with the schools. It's a number of schools they support.
But it's always refreshing, you know, to think of that you have that workforce that’s able to have not only support from a curriculum perspective, and we’d speak to those perspectives, but real cultural knowledge that comes through each and every one of those people.
So honestly, that's the only thing that I want to add. Thanks Mark.
Just got another question through and how does a teaching role compare to an education support role?
I'll throw that open to you two but often if I look out across the community, there's so many of our mob involved like LAECG support roles, etc. and the work of VAEAI with the department has been immense to create this Aboriginal workforce out there which are inviting you to come and join us.
So, Brett or Darlene, if you want to take up that question, I'll start, only because I've been a bit of that.
All of my journey, I've been an education support class, I’ve been a teacher, I've been an educator in the schools and in early childhood settings.
So really when I think about being that ES, education support class that you're in there being guided by the teacher to support that child for their education needs to help them pick up that pen and write down a few words or help them understand, you know, how to count the counters out and help create that classroom feel and be guided by that teacher in a supportive way.
As a teacher, you're leading that and you're planning the curriculum and planning the educational needs for the child, rather than the two different roles and completed two different ways.
What I'd say is the same is that child centred practice is the same.
You’re still there for the same reasoning and still wanting to get the best outcome the educational needs for that child that you're working around.
Aw fantastic, and Brett, I'm going to give you the final word to that.
In all honesty, while the roles differ slightly exactly as Darlene said, one actually is those that deliver the lessons, honestly, the support that both of them offer is equally important, not unlike, I think, as Darlene mentioned earlier, it takes a village to raise a child.
That's exactly, and the beauty of that is, is having First Nation educators, it's already embedded in this.
So, I welcome all that want to actually join us on this journey to help our community.
Ah, thank you.
What a beautiful way to end the session.
And can I just say to those who have joined us online, you've heard from some great educators and great minds whose lives have been illuminated by the role of working in education, and that opportunity sits there for you very much at the moment that the work that you do as a teacher is you are doing the ancestor's work.
You're not there alone.
You've got VAEAI, LAECG, Community, the Union, the Department, all there working to invest in your success.
As you invest in the success of the kids you have with you.
It's part of our being.
We are the great storytellers.
We have the great teachers.
We know how to exchange knowledge in a respectful way.
And this opportunity exists for you all to take.
Thank everyone as part of today, Tash, Ilona, Darlene and Brett, and also the people behind the scenes, Laura, Tilley, Nadia, Lauren and Adam, and also Zach Katherine from VAEAI, Jarred from VAEAI, VAEAI itself, Lionel if you’re online.
I hope you enjoyed the process, but today it's been a great opportunity to talk about a profession that I love, a profession that's in your DNA, a profession that you're hard wired for.
Opportunity exist like they've never have before.
So please take up the opportunities that abound in and Teach the Future, and Aspiring Koorie Teacher programs.
I want to thank you for the night.
If you're going to go watch Deal or No Deal, remember you had the best deal here front of you tonight.
Let's give our speakers a big hand and thank you for joining us and let the conversation continue.
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