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Hi. I'm Roxanne McDonald
and I'm descended from the Central Queensland mob.
You know, it can be quite a challenge
for Indigenous primary school kids to stay strong.
Many of them are disadvantaged from birth
by poverty, poor health and nutrition, overcrowding or homelessness,
and further stressed by the death of family members.
These children need heaps of nurturing, encouragement and support.
In this program, we'll show you some terrific ideas
that have been developed to do just that.
In South Australia, there's a project where the kids do the shopping,
the cooking, and then serve the meal to their family and community.
- I'll just check... - Sure.
A big, big cheer...
ROXANNE: Chris Sarra in Queensland is passionate about keeping kids
strong and confident in school.
Hands up if you're Aboriginal in the room?
Oh, great. Hands up if you think that's a real deadly thing? Even better.
Rock'n'roll battles!
ROXANNE: And talented musician Steve Berry educates and stimulates
remote Indigenous students with music.
♪ GUITAR
If children come to school without breakfast
and maybe they missed out on dinner the night before,
they'll find it hard to concentrate in class.
Nunga Kids Café is a program
that links nutrition and health education
with literacy and numeracy, and gives them a good feed at the same time.
The Nunga Kids Café is a nutrition education program
for Year 6-7 children in Port Lincoln.
It's mainly centred around food purchasing and food preparation
and cooking the food and sharing the food with families.
Port Lincoln is a regional town in South Australia based on Eyre Peninsula.
It's a major sort of aquaculture and agricultural export town.
(Chatter)
The Nunga Kids Café arose from, I guess, an awareness as a dietician
of the need to look at the prevention of illness in Aboriginal communities
and working with kids.
GIRL: This one looks better than the other one.
MICHAEL: It also arose from a link with Aboriginal health workers
who had the same feeling.
The incidence of things like cardiovascular disease and diabetes
and the premature death of Aboriginal people
is one of the major health issues facing Australia -
it's a huge level of inequity.
I've got a strong belief that if we can look at lifestyle issues
and the prevention of illness, and work with kids,
we're looking at a generational change to improve health outcomes.
Ready to put blood on this, right?
So, what I'll do, I'll prick your finger.
Little prick.
You notice there's high levels of... sugar levels and that,
and there was dental problems we'd come across,
and we thought that this links to poor nutrition,
so we thought about providing education sessions in schools.
So, we linked up with Michael Manders, and I suppose, from there,
that's when the Nunga Kids Café really started, I think.
MICHAEL: So, they're the recipes for tomorrow -
the chicken satay and then the fruity crumble.
There are four organisations involved in this project, and very deliberately.
Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service,
they've got the connection with the Aboriginal community.
They know the kids, they know the families,
they know the cultural backgrounds,
they've got skills in communicating with their own community.
Port Lincoln Health Service from a health perspective,
and that's where I'm employed as a dietician,
so that's their involvement in there.
The schools, because that's where the kids spend most of their time learning.
And the Community House, which is an organisation that was set up
about ten years ago, specifically designed
for educational activities for people with lower incomes.
It's got a café, it's got a kitchen, so from our perspective,
that was the ideal place to hold the program as well.
What about the next one, Sachin?
Four bottles of 500g satay sauce.
So, if we've got six apples and we double that,
how many apples is that?
- 12. - Yeah.
With the key health worker having an education background,
we've had a deliberate focus on literacy and numeracy.
So as part of, for example, shopping for the day's menu...
BOY: Eight sticks celery.
..there's a key focus on mathematics...
WOMAN: Right. You've got 12 in here. You need another 12.
..and our testing is showing an increase in higher achievement.
Those that aren't achieving national benchmarks,
have actually significantly increased in their scores.
MAN: So, see if you can choose the one that's the best price.
BOY: What are we looking for? MAN: Desiccated coconut.
You know, literacy and numeracy are keys to health as well,
'cause there's a clear relationship between lower socio-economic
and lower educational outcomes and poorer health outcomes.
The program is organised in such a way
that a group of children will come once a fortnight.
The very first session is looking at the Community House
and feeling comfortable with the way the Community House is laid out
and learning where things are,
opening the cupboards and seeing where the equipment is.
MAN: And we need a tablespoon, our vegetable peeler and a wooden spoon.
Second session, a fortnight after that, the kids do cooking just for themselves,
so they practise teamwork and they've talked about teamwork
and the importance of working together.
BOY: 'Peel and core, then slice thinly.'
Take it off and then you can chop that up.
MICHAEL: And then the last three sessions are where
we invite parents and the guest speaker,
so that's when the work goes up and the quality goes up,
but the fun is there as well.
(Chatter)
How many tablespoons of margarine do we need?
GIRL: Three - Well done. Three.
One-and-a-half by two is three.
WOMAN: OK. Let's go to the kitchen.
- I'll get it ready for you, alright? - Mm-hm.
GIRL: Aren't we supposed to take the chicken skin off to reduce the fat?
JEREMY: Well, it is off.
First we go and buy the food,
and then we run through the instructions of how to cook it and the utensils.
BOY: 'Sprinkle topping over the fruit.'
And then after it's all done,
usually when dessert's cooking in the oven,
we usually set the tables and put the cutlery out.
And then we just serve it up.
(Chatter)
It feels really pleasing because you know you've done it yourself.
(Chatter) And, yeah, you just feel really happy.
(Chatter)
They're learning skills, lifestyle skills,
you know, when they go out on their own.
They get the nutritional value, you know?
Different foods to eat. No, Nathan's enjoying it very much.
Cooperative learning is really essential,
and you know, if you look back at traditional cultures,
they had to cooperate to live.
You couldn't have this sense of individualism or competitiveness
and our education system predominantly
is around competition and competing against each other
and getting the best results for an individual, and not sharing.
Whereas if you look at successful communities, it's all about sharing.
JEREMY: Core the apples.
It's a hard thing to get across sometimes,
but I think, through cooking and through this experience,
it's a really important message to keep passing on.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Say 'Chicken satay'.
ALL: Chicken satay! (Laughter)
(Camera clicks)
So, making sure the kids are well fed is a great start,
but how do you get them to come to school every day?
When Chris Sarra became principal of Cherbourg School in Queensland,
he developed the Strong and Smart program.
He insisted that if the kids believed they could be strong and smart,
then they would be.
It's very much the negative stereotype.
When we talk about Aboriginal children in schools,
it's chronic non-attendance, chronic underachievers,
a little bit aggressive, very much disengaged -
all of these kinds of things that are very much a stereotype that exists.
We can be so stifled by these kind of negative perceptions that exist
to the extent that we can actually stop young black kids
from believing in themselves.
That's a tremendous tragedy and, um... one day we'll overcome that.
It's wonderful to be here in this part of the world.
I'll start as I should, by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land,
and say thanks, 'cause it's wonderful to meet you
and you're gonna hear about some marvellous stories, in fact.
You know it's not only about the story of what happened
in my time at Cherbourg - it's about...
At the institute, we're determined that
we're gonna change the tide of low expectation
by working with other school leaders, to arm them with the belief
and the capacity that our children are bright, they are worth investing in
and that we can project them into a stronger, smarter future.
(Animated playground chatter)
CHILD: Kick him! Kick him!
In the first couple of weeks here, there were children literally
running up and down on top of two-storey buildings.
And there was no pride in the school, there was no sense of,
'This is our school and we love our school
and this is where we come to learn.'
There was none of that, and that had to change.
When I came to Cherbourg in 1998,
I saw the same thing in these children here
that I saw in schools right throughout the country.
MAN: I don't care if your mum lets you stay home.
I don't let you. Now get to school!
I listened to teachers explain to me
why children were failing so dismally
and why they weren't coming to school.
And they'd say things like, 'The parents don't value education.
The kids don't value education.'
All of these kinds of things.
And every time we discussed or we looked for reasons,
we were pointing the finger outwards, and this didn't make sense to me
because we didn't have any control over
what was happening outside the school gate.
We had to be intent on focusing on the things that we did control,
and being the best that we could be at that.
(Children shriek)
(Camera clicks)
They were the strong and smart,
and they were what we say in our song - young and black and deadly.
The very first thing that I said to kids on parade
is that the most important thing that you will learn from me
is that you can be successful and you can be Aboriginal.
When we measured attendance,
I'd write the number of absences for a particular class on the board.
- We're all black here, aren't we? CHILDREN: Yeah!
Hands up if you think that's a great thing,
if you love being Aboriginal.
Hands down.
If we're all Aboriginal in here - which we are -
that doesn't mean that we have to be at the bottom,
it doesn't mean that we have to be missing from school,
it doesn't mean that we have to put up with rubbish,
it doesn't mean that we have to expect ourselves to be on the ground,
because that's not about who we are.
This is the challenge I'm bringing to you at the moment.
The attendance in the school is getting better,
but it's still not good enough.
We'd established a high-expectations culture,
and we had a school motto that was 'strong and smart'.
So, at some level, you know, they are just words,
but at another level, it lets me say to children individually,
'Look, you can't tell me that you're strong and smart -
you've gotta be the words that come out of your mouth as well.'
And that meant working harder in the classroom,
being respectful to teachers, being respectful to each other,
getting to school every day
and being more respectful to ourselves as human beings
and as young Aboriginal men and young Aboriginal women.
And that included the staff.
It was all about colluding with this strong, smart,
young, black and deadly Aboriginal identity.
Write that. Good sentence.
You know, it's not rocket science.
We had kids turning up to school hungry and couldn't learn because of that.
Well, just give them some toast and juice or Milo in the morning.
You know, attendance was a really chronic issue.
Well, let's get out and chase the parents up
and find out where their kids are.
Let's offer rewards for those kids who are coming to school.
If kids are highly strung,
get them to meditate for a couple of minutes before every session.
Who can remember some of the spirits from this area?
- Hand up. No calling out. Jayden? BOY: Tall Man.
- Tall Man. BOY: Owl.
- Owl. BOY: Djangirri.
Djangirri. What is it?
BOYS: Mundagarra. TEACHER: Mundagarra.
By implementing an Aboriginal Studies program here at the school,
it was... we were able to give Indigenous people a voice.
The first concept we look at is pre-Cherbourg,
which looks at Aboriginal culture.
Then we look at government policies and practices.
An example is looking at the Act,
and different policies that were put in place.
They learned how to speak English, so when they went out to work,
they could speak English to their boss.
They learned how to write, so they could write letters
to the superintendent for permission.
We have artists from the community come in, and they're sharing their art,
but they're also teaching techniques of Aboriginal art
or Torres Strait Island art to children.
We have a dance group at our school, and they're learning corroboree,
they're learning the dances from the community.
The Aboriginal Studies teacher takes the children out.
They might go down to the waterhole
and might learn a Dreaming story about that particular waterhole.
And when I was a small boy, I heard this story called Booyooburra.
These rocks over here is very sacred to the Wakka Wakka people.
When we first came here, you'd ask children questions,
and they'd put their heads down in shame and stuff.
Now when they're standing up there and they're being praised and rewarded,
they're proud to be standing up there,
and we talk about being Aboriginal and being proud of who you are.
The reason why Arthur's won the Principal's Award
is because he always works very hard in class, doesn't he, Mrs Sarra?
He's always at school, he's always having a go. OK?
So, a big, big cheer for Arthur for being strong and smart.
We've gotta give these kids one place in their lives
that has structure, that has a positive kind of love and warmth
where there is high expectations,
where kids can predict what's gonna happen.
You know, where they know that if they act positively,
there's gonna be rewards for that,
and if they act negatively, there's gonna be a consequence for that.
So, it's about controlling the things that we do, and being excellent at that.
Ladies and gentlemen, special guests...
In fact, it's nice to know that
through the work that we've done at the institute,
trying to spread this high-expectations agenda
and this 'stronger, smarter' message,
that, you know, there's schools across the country that are doing great things.
And the plan is to get more and more schools
influenced by what they're doing.
So there's a critical mass of schools
doing great things in Indigenous education
to the extent that that's just the normal thing -
you know, that's just how it should be.
OK. Upper school, how many unexplained absen...?
CHILD: Zero! - Hoo-hoo.
Well done, guys. Thanks very much.
(Applause)
That's what I'm talking about when I say strong and smart.
We get the unexplained absences down to zero,
we make sure we get the notes back if we're away,
we make sure that we're at school
and not staying at home just because we feel slack.
Alright? And, upper school, thanks for being strong and smart.
Creating better conditions in Aboriginal communities is everybody's business.
If you're a policeman sent to a community,
if you're a health worker working in a community
or a teacher working in an Aboriginal community.
We've gotta purge any sort of mindset that second-rate is somehow good enough,
and when more people stop accepting that,
then hopefully we'll see the sort of change that we deserve.
We know that if we provide a strong cultural identity
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids,
we can reinforce their pride and resilience.
Their natural ability to use imagery, creativity
and imagination makes Music Outback
a rich cultural and educational experience
for the kids in remote communities.
(Children sing)
Music and the arts are a very important way of educating
and telling stories that are handed down over the aeons.
(Children sing in Indigenous language)
Often there might only be a single teacher,
10-15 kids in the school at some of the remote communities
and it's rare that those teachers have...
..music skills or the broad set of skills
that most of our kids grow up having great access to.
We're able to bring in highly-skilled musician-educators,
and so that sort of personality has something about it
that actually fits well out there in the bush,
engaging kids in really fun, creative processes
that give them a forum for telling their own stories
and developing their own sort of cultural expression as well.
(Children laughing)
We tend to go back to schools every school term
for an intensive period of time -
you know, a week or two weeks every term -
with the same people.
Doom-doom! Ah!
ALL: Doom-doom! Ah! (Laughter)
Doong-doong-doong! Whoo!
ALL: Doong-doong-doong! Whoo! (Laughter)
The first thing that happens is some very fun, physical warm-ups,
which the kids absolutely love
and all our teachers tend to use the same methods
and techniques with their own little variations thrown in.
So, it's a way to immediately get the kids engaged, and it's fun,
it's different to what normally goes on in the classroom.
I was thinking if we could write two more verses, it would be really good.
Songwriting really is the core of the program
and writing songs that come from these kids
and that tell the stories of these kids' lives.
They're speaking the local language - they're local people.
We're able to work with the Indigenous teachers there,
and actually write songs in language about issues with the kids,
things that the kids love, and family, hunting.
(Man speaks in Indigenous language)
MAN: The men hunt emu and bush turkey. The women collect honey ants.
We can build on current best practice to turn stories into songs
and learn about words and language in the meanwhile.
ALL: ♪ Open plains of Africa
♪ Wildebeest, ah, wildebeest. ♪
What I wanna do is count the syllables in this line.
You know what syllables are?
CHILDREN: Three! - Thank you...
We find the rhythm in the verse,
we help them find melodies that can fit those rhythms
and in the end, we've got a song.
CHILDREN: Four. - Plus three more.
CHILDREN: Six. Seven.
With songs, once they're written, we can write
literacy activity sheets based on the content of those songs.
Word games that use the words that were written into the songs,
so that kids know the songs and they're immediately engaging with the material.
♪ Every morning we scrub our teeth
♪ Every morning we blow our noses
♪ Every morning we roll our tissues into spears to clean our ears. ♪
Having a means of communicating health issues in the first place
is extremely important, so we would write songs exactly about that.
♪ We wash our hands with soap and water
♪ Remember to turn the tap off. ♪
So, when there's a repertoire of songs that are built up,
after that warm-up, the kids,
they're calling out, 'Sing Family Song, Bush Sports,'
and we could sit there for an hour just singing the songs.
ALL: ♪ Boom-boom cha Boom-boom cha
♪ A-boom-boom cha. ♪
We've had record numbers of kids attending school during our music weeks,
so the challenge then is to extend that into the weeks beyond visits,
and that's why when we are at the schools,
we're always recording the material that is written with the kids.
They're making their own CDs,
we can develop activity sheets based on the songs
that teachers who might not have music skills
can use with the CDs during the periods in between.
(Speaks in Indigenous language)
Neutral Junction Station is about 300km north of Alice Springs,
and there's a small community there called Tara
where the Kaytetye language is spoken.
And Kaytetye is unfortunately a very threatened language
that's really, literally about to fall off the edge
with only about 200-250 adults still speaking it on a daily basis.
So, at Tara, we'll go out with Tommy and he'll share some of his ancient
traditional stories in language with us and with the kids,
we'll film it and then work with community women and a linguist
to turn those stories into songs that the kids can learn and sing.
Again, always in Katyetye.
(Speaks in Indigenous language)
(Recorded singing in background)
First time I played that to Tommy,
he was just absolutely over the moon about it.
(Chuckles)
Places where we've been going for many years, we get there,
the Indigenous teachers sort of bail us up saying,
'Look, we've got these words for this song
that we've written in Warlpiri,
then here's the Anmatyerre one
and then we wanna do a health song as well...'
And they've already got the ball rolling there,
and the kids are raring to go as well,
especially when they contribute their ideas.
♪ ELECTRIC GUITAR
Most of the schools that we work with have musical instruments now,
and kids, they're playing when we're not there,
and developing skills.
I think it's actually the great untapped career path for remote Indigenous kids
is to become music educators.
Do it like this. Get a nice sound. (Tapping on plastic bottles)
We like to use whatever resources are at hand.
For instance, with soft drink bottles,
if you put a tyre valve in the cap and pump them up with air,
they all actually form different pitches as the bottle tightens with the air.
It's an instrument that you can make cheaply,
but a beautiful sound when you hit it with a stick.
(Kids chuckle)
We have noticed that kids coming to school for the first time,
they'll come to the school and not be able to speak English,
and yet these kids are already singing the songs
that we will have written with their older brothers and sisters.
They'll come into school singing songs in English
before they can even speak the language.
ALL: ♪ This is my father This is my mother
♪ This is my sister This is my brother. ♪
The first time we released the Ti Tree CD,
for instance, every child got one
in their Christmas stocking at the end of the year
and I heard independent reports that for months afterwards,
that music was just blasting out of every house in Ti Tree.
Even though it was all kids' songs, everyone was listening to it.
♪ We'll be singing in Ti Tree Singing
We'll be singing... ♪
We certainly have very happy faces, very powerful-looking kids who are just
really looking forward to what we're doing and have a great time doing it.
♪ GUITAR
(Speaks indistinctly)
Sad part of the song!
(Tapping on plastic bottles)
(Speaks indistinctly) (Laughter)
Those kids were real deadly, eh?
No wonder they turn up for school the next day.
Now, providing the kids with positive role models,
encouraging them to have pride in their culture,
nurturing and educating them in a safe and supportive way -
this is how we can help them stay strong
and get them safely through to the next phase in their lives.
Now, don't forget to visit our website for more information.
♪ RAP MUSIC
♪ You're strong and deadly You ain't gonna stop
♪ You're strong and deadly You ain't gonna beat me
♪ You're strong and deadly You ain't gonna stop
♪ You're strong and deadly You ain't gonna beat me
♪ Deadly
♪ Dead-deadly
♪ Deadly
♪ Dead-deadly
♪ One beat here, another beat there
♪ Real cool beats, we don't swear
♪ One beat here, another beat there
♪ Real cool beats, we don't swear
♪ We are deadly, real proud men
♪ We are deadly, real proud men
♪ Deadly
♪ Deadly
♪ Deadly
♪ Dead-deadly. ♪