Cirrus@Austlit

'The subject of English offers a unique context to embed Indigenous perspectives for the benefit of all students through its availability and variety of text choices. Currently, the New South Wales (NSW) English Syllabus requires teachers to include texts which provide 'insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia' (NESA, 2012). With no structured auditing method for this inclusion, there is room to further understand how teachers select texts to include Indigenous perspectives. This paper will present some factors influencing text selection when including Indigenous perspectives through four teacher profiles. It presents four teacher profiles to explore some influences on their text selections when including Indigenous perspectives. It is a snapshot of decision-making for class texts identified from semi-structured qualitative conversations with four Western Sydney English teachers. The study aims to provide some insight into the process of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives through text selection in Years 7-10 English.' (Publication abstract)

'What percent Aboriginal are you,?'

'You don't look like an Aborigine.  '

You've done really well for an Aboriginal. 

'You're not like those other ones - you're one of the good ones. 

'You wouldn't have had it hard growing up.'

'I'm darker than you are.'

'Are you really Aboriginal?'

'So do you get all the benefits?'

'All Aborigines are angry.'

'Get over it, it happened two hundred years ago. No one alive today was there.'

'I'm not racist, I have an Aboriginal friend.'

These are the phrases I hear constantly. I'm an Aboriginal woman, I'm a Koori woman. I'm not a percentage, I'm not pan Aboriginal and I'm not an Aborigine. My skin colour does not dictate my connection to country, my attachment to culture or my understanding of who I am. I'm not your ever-available resource to learn about culture, but being sick of ignorance I'll probable be inclined to share what I know. I'm not an expert. I know my life, my mob and my stories, but I don't speak for the diversity of Aboriginal Australia. I do get all the benefits, if you're referring to belonging to the longest-living culture in the world, a culture of beauty and wonder that has guided my identity in every facet of the world. But no, I don't get more Centrelink study allowance than you. I haven't done well for an Aborigine: I've done well for any twenty-two-year-old who has overcome hardship.' (Introduction)