Reconciliation And Learning Program For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Preschoolers

Vision of Reconciliation

Reconciliation Australia is the national organization engaged in promoting reconciliation between the Australian community and the Torres Strait Islander Community. The aim of this report is to create a reconciliation and learning program for the preschoolers of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Community people of Australia (Reconciliation.org.au, 2013). These people are a part of the Australian heritage and they are responsible for creating a unique culture in Australia. However, it has been found that they do not get enough opportunity to learn. therefore it should be of primary concern to teach and learn the people of this community. It is only when the children at the early stage are given proper direction to study they become eligible to perform better in the later stage of life (Pelletier, 2014). Thus, proper guidance should be given at the early stage of education only. This report aims at creating reconciliation and learning experience for the preschoolers of this region. In order to do so a detailed analysis of the Community protocol of the aboriginal shall we carried on based on the scenario certain learning methods shall be proposed.

The vision of the reconciliation is to acknowledge and support the ancient living culture of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Community people of Australia. Ermington, New South Wales, Australia is a suburb of Sydney on the northern bank of the Parramatta River is an ancient place that is well renowned for its culture and ethnic diversity (Aifs.gov.au, 2017). Ermington is associated with the Wangal people. There are limited numbers of schools that are meant for educating children; that calls for better education and reconciliation techniques to be adopted for the early childhood service.

The vision is to articulate a community plan that would be creative enough to include the culturally diverse and intercity community group of people for the learning purpose where they would get continuous support from others and that they would not face any challenges in inspiring the local identity (Ndis.gov.au, 2017). The idea is to create a better life for these people. In fact, it is equally important to support children in their early stage of lives. If the children are properly guided, they shall be able to think about their future plans easily and thus, there remain better opportunity for them to lead life (Reconciliation.org.au, 2013).

The aim of reconciliation learning and teaching is based on early childhood education.  Small children belonging to the category of pre-schoolers belonging to the age group of 3 o 5 years are the ones who would be taught in the reconciliation process. In order to teach them the best means is to educate them with the help of Art that would include drama, recitation or acting. Thus, the element selected for learning and teaching experience is art and craft. This would be helpful because early learners or the preschoolers are not accustomed with other form of learning and teaching like directly teaching them history from the books or other resources. In fact, in the view point of Weinstein and Hernández, (2016), preschoolers love drawing and related activities. Therefore, it is expected that is related to any kind of activities that are related to visual effect that would create better impact of the learning program.

Selected Learning Experience

The idea is based on teaching the children the culture of aboriginals. This is important because the Aboriginal culture has been losing its impact. For the growing children it is important to know about their past that might include the living pattern of the Aboriginals or the dance and other recreational activities that make up their part of culture (Wami et al., 2015). Since the learning group is preschool going children, the only scope of teaching them is to use visual aid that it would be easier for them to recognize and relate things easily.

The series of learning experiences selected for teaching the preschoolers can be listed below.

Teaching about the old culture with the help of books:  The books filled with different kinds of images shall be used to teach the children about culture and the different factors associated with the aboriginals. For example the book containing different images of the aboriginals, would be very interesting and easier for the children to adapt (Davies, 2017). Therefore, the idea is to teach them about the dressing or the way of living of the aboriginals. There are many books that offer these things.

Teaching about the dance or the cultural programs of the aboriginals: It is also common evidence that children are fond of songs. They can easily adapt to the hymning tune and the songs that are taught to them. Thus, the different sounds of dances or songs that the aboriginals used can be taught with the help of sound or music. This would help them to recognize different birds and animals (Short, 2016).

Teaching about the dresses or other things that people used: The children can also be taught about the stolen generation of the aboriginals or the Corroberre circle which was a custom of the people to interact with people. Children should know about this culture that they would be easily resemble themselves with their ancestors (Heard et al., 2017).

In addition to this, it can also be recommended that visual aids or videos can also be used to teach the children. In the recent time, the advent of technology has created better opportunity of presenting things among others and the teaching method has become easier. Therefore, it can also be recommended that the children are taught with the help of visual aids as well by using tabloid phones or projectors.

It is important to get support from the community stakeholders as well. The stakeholders would act as a support to the overall activities in terms of both financial security as well as proper guidance towards the approach made by the organization.

Community Organization Support

The non-government peak child care organization that is responsible for undertaking the interest of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander Children Families (Reconciliation.org.au, 2013). The main responsibility of this organization is related to child care services, crèches, for the pre-school, foster care agencies and family reunification services as well. They are the ones who are responsible for the family group homes and the community based services (Smith, 2014). This particular organization would work together in partnership as a part of the community service and they shall be able to finance the basic needs of the early child care service.

This is another important organization that is responsible for taking care of the children and families of the Aboriginals in Victoria. They are the ones who promote the rights of the people. This organization often comes up with some programs as well that works against any kind of oppression against the community people and protects child abuse and the neglected Aboriginal community (Aifs.gov.au, 2017). This community shall help in bringing back the rights and authority of the people of the community.

This is another important community that aims at providing the basic rights to the people and the family of the community (Dakich, Watt & Hooley, 2016). This organization works for the health, education, housing and employment of the people along with the legal equality and the social justice. Teaching and learning is also a part of the social objective and so this particular organization shall be helpful in providing basic necessities like health and education (Ndis.gov.au, 2017). Since, the major aim is to educate the children this organization would be of utter help.

It is often found that many families are not able to cope up with the society because they have faced certain trauma or abuses in their past. It is important to bring those families back to the right track that they would be able to understand the situation easily and would be able to lead a better life. The healing foundation does similar activities (Ndis.gov.au, 2017). This organization supports the need of the growing children and helps to assist to build skills of the children. Thus, they would be very helpful in achieving the objectives.

This organization is in alliance with major other organizations as well. They support the aboriginal in terms of medicinal treatment and help them to bring back to their normal lives (Reconciliation.org.au, 2013). Thus, this organization would help in convincing the people to allow their children to participate in the learning programs.

Cultural Protocol

The idea is to create a fair world where people can control their own lives, their basic rights and can achieve environmental sustainability as well. The aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocol recognizes the unique status of the people of the community with their traditional land and water. The cultural protocols are the ethical principles that guide the behavior of the people in a particular situation (Tmn.net.au. 2015). The cultural protocol that shows the rights of the people of the aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander are as follows:

• People have the rights to own and control their cultural and intellectual property.
• People should ensure that any means of protecting the cultural and intellectual property should be based on self determination
• People should be recognized as the main guardian who shall be responsible for interpreting their culture and how the information is regulated.
• Maintaining a level of secrecy of their knowledge and other cultural practices
• People have the attribute of sharing their heritage (org.au, 2013).
• They should also have the cultural customs and expressions that a particular culture should have the identity, knowledge and a particular teaching of culture.

It is important to have these protocols because there remain an extreme prejudice and the need that people should be aware of the discrimination and the misunderstanding of their rights. They should not be dismissed or ignored based on being indigenous (Dakich, Watt & Hooley, 2016). The aim of these protocols is to give respect to the Aboriginals and that they get the opportunity of involving in the major decision making abilities. In addition to this, there should also remain the integrity among the people that would reflect the cultural appropriateness. In addition to this, the attribution also increases the authority of the people to speak for their own rights.

Action	Deliverables	Timeline
Organizing the overall activities	It is important to convince the people of the Islander to let their children participate in the learning process. So primarily they would be made convinced.	June 2017
Arranging the classes	The children should be started to teach by the start of the month of June. As mentioned, they shall be taught in terms of art and craft. Thus, this activity would have started.	July 2017
Teaching them step by step	Care should be taken while addressing the needs of the children and they shall be taught according to their capability of learning.	July to September 2017
Taking feedback	In order to understand whether the children have learnt anything or not, taking feedback is important. So feedback from the members of the community.	October 2017

Conclusion:

A detailed discussion has been made on the importance of teaching the children of the Torres Island. For this particular study, focus has been made on the learning of the pre-school going children. It has to be understood that since this group of children are completely unaware of any kind of educational activity, it is important to begin their education by teaching them in terms of art and drawing. Therefore, this is the best teaching method that can be applied. For the same purpose, the children could be taught using books or songs. The local organizations are also equally important to take care of the need of the children and the people, so these local organizations should be involved in the overall practices. It is expected that if proper precautions and better approaches are undertaken, it would be very helpful and effective to teach the children of the particular region.

References:

Aifs.gov.au (2017) Key Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organizations Retrieved from: https://www2.aifs.gov.au/cfca/knowledgecircle/key-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-organisations [Accessed on: 26-5-2017]

Aifs.gov.au (2017)Working with Indigenous children, families, and communities: Lessons from practice Retrieved from: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/working-indigenous-children-families-and-communities [Accessed on: 26-5-2017]

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Ndis.gov.au (2017) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Strategy Retrieved from: https://www.ndis.gov.au/medias/documents/hcb/h31/8800389759006/Aboriginal-and-Torres-Strait-Islander-Strategy-3MB-PDF-.pdf [Accessed on: 26-5-2017]

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Reconciliation.org.au (2013) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols Retrieved from: https://www.reconciliation.org.au/raphub/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/respect-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-protocols-oxfam-australia.pdf [Accessed on: 26-5-2017]

Short, D. (2016). Reconciliation and colonial power: Indigenous rights in Australia. Routledge.

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Tmn.net.au (2015) Practical protocols for working with the Indigenous Community of South West Sydney Retrieved from: https://tmn.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Community_Protocols_Resource_11.pdf [Accessed on: 26-5-2017]

Wami, W. M., Nausch, N., Midzi, N., Gwisai, R., Mduluza, T., Woolhouse, M., & Mutapi, F. (2015). Identifying and evaluating field indicators of urogenital schistosomiasis-related morbidity in preschool-aged children. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 9(3), e0003649.

Weinstein, J., & Hernández, M. (2016). Birth pains: emerging school leadership policies in eight school systems of Latin America. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 19(3), 241-263.