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Higher Education Review ProcessAchieving Equitable and Appropriate Outcomes: Indigenous Australians in Higher EducationforewordVisitors to my Canberra Ministerial office will be familiar with a black and white photograph more than twice the size of a standard door. It hangs immediately opposite my desk. It is of the late Neville Bonner—first Aborigine elected to the Federal Parliament. But that is not why it is there. It is there to remind me on a daily basis of what is important—and why. Born into abject poverty under a palm tree on Ukebargh Island in the mouth of the Tweed River, Bonner’s life stands as testimony to the life changing power of education. But equally, his is the story of both life and education building character that would serve the interests of other human beings. Denied a primary school education by non-Indigenous parents who protested Neville’s presence at the school near Lismore, he finally did three classes in one year at Beaudesert School. Abandoned by his father as an infant and orphaned by his mother’s death in childhood, he would later pay tribute to the great influence of his grandmother. Her inspirational encouragement to him was to say, ‘If you can learn to read, write, express yourself well and treat people with decency and respect, it will take you a long way’. And it did. From the life of droving, scrub clearing, bridge carpentry and administration on Palm Island, he came to the Federal Parliament in 1971 as a Queensland Senator. Through it all he endured discrimination and the consequences of prejudicial ignorance, all of which he faced with graceful humility. Bonner’s life stands as testimony to the power of determination in the face of extraordinary adversity. When asked by Robin Hughes in 1992 to nominate his greatest achievement, he replied on reflection that ‘he was there’. He said that his presence in Canberra forced others to see Aboriginal people as just that—people. Real people with real needs. But in order to ‘be there’, it is critically important to the meaningful engagement of Indigenous Australians in forging the future of this nation that education be not only accessible—but have purpose. The existential despair that permeates many aspects of Aboriginal life can only be broken with determination led by Indigenous people. They need leadership qualities forged in the kind of education that can only come from universities. This paper examines the participation by Indigenous Australians in higher education. It necessarily does so in the context of secondary school completion, vocational education and the labour market. We have come a long way in some areas, but we have regressed in others. As the Hon Bob Collins observed in the Northern Territory, many Aboriginal grandparents are more literate than their grandchildren. This monograph, proposed to me by the National Tertiary Education Industry Union, seeks to focus our attention on the specific needs of Indigenous higher education while asking directional questions. Neville Bonner’s photograph—as does the mortality, morbidity, incarceration, illiteracy, school non-completion and low participation rates of Indigenous Australians in higher education, reminds us all that we have unmet challenges ahead in ‘practical reconciliation’. It also suggests that whatever else we achieve in education, science and innovation in the pursuit of excellence at one end of the spectrum, we should not ever forget we will be judged by our ability to lift the life horizon and outcomes for those at the other.
The Honourable Brendan Nelson MP
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Any comments or
queries should be sent to:
highered@dest.gov.au
Department of Education, Science and Training
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