Comments on: Marion Scrymgour: it’s time I said something

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I am really disappointed in the Minister's response to genuine concerns raised in Bob's article

Minister, you could try properly resourcing remote schools. The NT Government claims it spends more money on education than other jurisdictions and this is true - as an average - but lets take the mainstream schools out of the equation so that we can clearly see the miserable amount you spend on remote schools in the NT.

Let's compare SA Government funding of schools on the APY Lands with the NT. For a start NT funds schools for attendance whereas SA funds for peak enrollment. Furthermore, SA Schools all have global budgeting so the School Principal's in SA generally employ at least 1 AEW per class. The end result is that in a school of 60 odd kids you will be lucky to get 2 teachers and 1 AEW in the NT, whereas in SA you will get 4-5 teachers and as many AEW's as the Principal wishes to hire.

As to other resources - I wonder how many remote schools in the NT have interactive whiteboards?

But then you couldn't help yourself, you had to try to deflect criticism of your handling of the portfolio by claiming reverse discrimination? "Too much ongoing misinformation from whitefella's who can just walk away from the plight that faces our people"

It pains it say it, but this is really disgraceful.

By: Frank Baarda

Frank Baarda — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

It was with disappointment and some bitterness that I read Marion Scrymgeour’s response to Bob Gosfords’s articles. I’m one of that “particular cabal of self-important whitefellas with an empire to defend…”. I’m also one of the “whitefellas who can just walk away from the plight that faces our people”.That I haven’t done so in 35 years is a moot point.
The assertion that “non-Aboriginal linguists who had come to the Northern Territory to study and make careers out of Aboriginal languages had not left formally qualified Aboriginal linguists in their place” whilst true, is highly unfair. These “places” no longer exist.
I was in Yuendumu when the Yuendumu Social Club (which is presently being denied a licence by the Intervention) paid for the late Prof.Ken Hale to travel from the U.S. to help set up the bilingual program at our school. That was 1974. Ken Hale was as far as I know the only adult whitefellow ever to achieve native speaker fluency in Warlpiri. The first thing he did was to gather a then young and enthusiastic group of Warlpiri and teach them (in their own language) the principles of grammar and linguistics.
From that bright hopeful start several decades of struggle ensued culminating in the final victory of the ‘monolingual mind-set’ : 4 hours of English-only and as Ms Scrymgeour puts it: “in favour of preserving Aboriginal languages and literacy.. but in a structured time in the afternoons”
We pro-bilinguals aren’t talking about ‘preserving’ the languages. We are talking about respecting and valuing them and USING them (among other things to teach English).
From a linguist for every bilingual school the bureaucracy have managed to whitle it down to several (two?) based in major urban centres. As for qualified Aboriginal linguists, until their ability in their own language is recognised and given the status it deserves and counted towards such qualification, it will never happen.
To blame the non-Aboriginal linguists for this is disingenous.

By: Dave Liberts

Dave Liberts — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Gozer, the ‘whitefella’ reference did not read to me as racist. In an Australian political context, I have found the terms ‘blackfella’ and ‘whitefella’ to be references to different viewpoints rather than racist put-downs. I think they are good labels which are widely understood. Scrymgour’s reference to Gosford as ‘whitefella’ was her suggestion that his point of reference is affected by his own upbringing, and the implications for his view of the world, rather than an attack. As an urban white guy from an urban white community, I feel I could similarly use the term ‘blackella’ to describe Aborigines in the context of political discussion without being racist. I’m prepared to be corrected if anyone takes offence.

By: Gozer McAlindon

Gozer McAlindon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I have to comment on Marion Scrymgour’s article in today’s Crikey. Her rationale about learning English strikes me as sound, as a non-NTer. And Gosford may well be a total knob. But how is it acceptable to dismiss someone, generalising them in with a group of “whitefellas”? I really don’t mean to be trite when I ask, “isn’t this racism?” And from a Government Minister? Apart from the erudite tones, this doesn’t seem much different to me growing up getting threatened for money and cigarettes by Aborigine youths at the local train station. Only “whitefella” is now some acceptable enculturated term to replace the more commonplace “white c-nts”. No wonder so many white Australians find it hard to get past their own generalisations to deal with the people behind the race issue as people. And Scrymgour (of that delicious name, oh please, someone tell me the etymology) has done that issue a further disservice.