As a child the most I was exposed to in the way of Indigenous culture was some stories about the Dreaming, which while wonderful are still folklore, just as Grimms’ Fairy Tales are for Europeans.

I also find myself wishing to know more about family structures, traditional law, ways of thinking and of living that have been practiced and refined over centuries. Just because a culture is “unsophisticated” by Western standards, doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer us.

Rather, it is the methods and understanding of learning style and complications that occur for Indigenous kids, for whom SAE is a second or more language in a very different style from their own, that is the issue.

I challenge you to learn a language totally unrelated to English - say Mandarin, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit - and see how easy you find it.

I think this article provides an extremely thought-provoking point of view, particularly in terms of the structure of the language representing a different view of the world. For me it is more a case of curiosity to learn more about this cultural perspective, than one of relegating the issue to a ‘black and white’ (no pun intended) ‘learn or do not learn’ dichotomy.

One day I will understand the complex familial relationships described in my daughters picture book “Tom Tom”. He has brothers, sisters, brother-cousins, sister-cousins, cousins and others besides - I’m fascinated by which relationships these attributions relate to in our western framework.

The only thing this article doesn’t propose is a way forward. Certainly we can acknowledge the issue and take an interest in it, but how does that translate into practical action for Indigenous students?

I wish I had the opportunity to really know other cultures - especially Indigenous cultures - earlier in my life, rather than being baptised into a worldview dominated by an ango-saxon superiority complex and defended with endless references to dollar signs. The more I seek to understand the incredible tapestry of human life that developed here in Australia over thousands and thousands of years, the more I see the value in mainstreaming its wealth, its knowledge and its wisdom. Embracing its many languages is a key part of achieving that.

Unless children of all ethnic and social backgrounds learn English effectively they will be economically and socially isolated from the mainstream of the Australian community.There are numerous examples of children of non-English-speaking backgrounds being bilingual and there is no reason for them to abandon their language.

By all means preserve language culture would you be Aboriginal, Chinese, Vietnamese,Indonesian or whatever social background the family has, but do not knowingly isolate children by teaching them in a primary language other than English. To do anything else is to condemn the children to social and economic inequality.