Students Inquire into Indigenous Rights & Issues

by ICS Teacher Rebecca Gillman

As part of our IB inquiry into how we can leverage rhetoric to speak truth to power, we are exploring the oratory and writings of Stan Grant, an Australian journalist and Wiradjuri man who uses his platform to discuss justice imperatives primarily rooted in the realities of indigenous people in Australia. Stan Grant is a passionate advocate for indigenous rights, honest storytelling about historical processes and exposing the root causes of discrimination felt today. He honours his elders in his advocacy and is a staunch advocate for epistemic justice and truth telling. 

We are very lucky to have a new Individuals & Societies teacher this year, Mr Rob Love, a white Australian who taught in indigenous communities for the first three years of his career and was privileged to spend time learning and teaching ‘on country’ with the local elders of the Arabunna and Diere people. In another role, he also worked with elders from the Adyamatna, Kuarna and Ngarrindjeri people.  Last week, Mr Love visited our Language and Literature classroom to share some of his own experiences and stories about working in community, on country, and he also fielded questions that learners had been developing, rooted in their study of Stan Grant’s rhetoric.

Here is what some students had to say about their learning:

Simon: I was very interested by the perspective that Mr Love shared with us and how he sees the discrimination that First Nation people are facing now in Australia. He shared with us the troubles that First Nation People have experienced throughout history and shared his own stories and experiences. 

William: I’ve noticed that there has been a very significant change from the aboriginal people not being considered as citizens with rights in the 1960s to where Australia is at now. I learned that the referendum to include aboriginal people in the population count was in 1967, this also gave them the right to vote. 

Aadira: I found it very surprising when Mr. Love shared that people who voted ‘no’ during the recent referendum either didn’t know what they were voting for or they were too scared of change in their country. Some of the reporting in the Australian media identified this too. This showed that there’s a lack of understanding and awareness about the situation within Australia and the people let alone the rest of the world. 

George: I found it interesting that aboriginal people do not identify as aboriginal through blood relation directly and are instead based on how you identify personally and how you interact with the community you wish to be a part of.

Sultan: I like how Mr.Love explained how his way of teaching differed and he adapted to support his indigenous students the best he could. 

Sam: I realized the real issue of mistreatment of indigenous people in Australia and how ingrained it is in society, especially in the past although it has improved recently and continues to do so to reach the vision of a more equal Australia.

Spiros: The thing I liked about his visit was when he was talking about his experiences and  relationships with first nations people. I also was shocked to hear what was happening in Australia in the 1970s. Also I found it interesting how Australia has changed since then.

Biruk: Mr. Love’s visit brought an astonishingly insightful level of input on the historical presence of the racially-motivated power dynamics present in the distribution of the powerful and the disempowered; and its expression in modern-day Australia. Another observation was how Mr. Love described images of  suffering from intergenerational trauma due to the policies of assimilation that resulted in the stolen generation; and how to this day Australia as a nation fights with the idea of comfort against change, an ideology that deeply resonated with my own experiences of local and trans-national politics.