Brewarrina Secondary Students meeting, 2 March 1999 - notes
The students attending were all Aboriginal students from Years 10 and 11. The 3 Year 12 students at Brewarrina did not attend. The group developed a list of issues they wished to address. Participating students were then split into pairs and allocated one or two of these issues. They were asked to prepare three sub-topics.
- What is the current situation on that issue?
- How does that affect you and your classmates?
- How can the situation be improved?
The students addressed
- sporting facilities and opportunities
- travel to competitions and otherwise
- parent involvement in the school
- staff turnover
- staff quality
- school budget decisions
- library
- subject choice
- exchange programs
- activities both at and after school.
Sporting facilities and opportunities
"All we have is an open basketball court and a netball court which is a personal hazard. The grass is growing through the court and there's glass over the court and both courts are cracked. The fences are partly ripped open. If it's raining, we miss out on sport. If it has rained, people can slip over." "Also we have to go out in the heat and we've got no energy to play sports."
"We, as students, feel that we have to upgrade both our basketball and our netball courts such as with a multi-purpose centre. That would be a big hall where you could have concerts, school sporting activities, plays, school discos, anything."
"How to solve it? We would like community involvement for fund raising and also student and teachers fund-raising in the school. We would like to do a survey of how many people throughout the school and town are in favour of a new multi-purpose centre. The town is sick of having meetings with the Shire here and you still don't get anything out of it. They're very tight. Although they were good during the floods and afterwards. But something major has to happen before they get up and do anything."
"In the school and town we have no sport competitions whatsoever. We do have a swimming carnival and an athletics carnival. Again they're losing numbers because everyone is sick of doing the same old sports every single year. There's nothing new to do. We need a wider range of sports. The only sports competitions in town are rugby union and netball. But people lose interest and it's lacking in numbers. They haven't got the teams. Rugby union only has the one season and then, when that's over, what have you got after that? There's tennis courts but there's no tennis. The courts are just the same as the school courts. The Shire is responsible for those courts. There's golf in town but it's not part of school sports."
"This problem is a major factor as to why young people are breaking in [to homes and business]. To achieve it we feel we need the community and school involvement to enter into competitions and we need a sports coordinator to organise more sporting activities. Now it depends on the sports coordinator at the school whether he enters us - some of them are a bit lazy. We've got friends in Nyngan and Bourke and they tell us they're going here and there for sports. But we're not going because we're not being entered."
Travel to competitions and otherwise
"I think we need one big coach because when we travel away to other schools we've got two buses - one is a little Hiace with only about 25 seats on it and there could be at least 30 kids going away - so there's 25 on one bus and 5 on the other. We need one coach that's big enough for all of us to go on."
"Sometimes people miss out. When Nyngan kids travel away they all go in the one bus but we have to go in two or three. It looks untidy and one turns up early and another one turns up late."
"We haven't got a clue how to get one. How much would it cost for one?"
Parent involvement
"We want them to get more involved. They're not really there. There's Parent and Teachers night but most parents don't even show up there."
Students noted that Aboriginal parents do not get involved in the high school even though, on the whole, the parents' school experiences had been positive. The reason was felt to believe that the staff at the school do not make the effort to involve themselves with the parents. A suggestion to increase parent involvement was for the school to hold a Fun Day. But "really there's only a few interested parents, anyway".
"The [school] newsletters don't get home to the Mum."
Staff turnover
"Mostly the staff - to us - don't seem interested. Mostly they only stay for one year and then they're gone. They're supposed to stay for three years."
Staff quality
"They haven't got the experience to teach what we've got to learn."
"They have to cover two subjects and they're only first year out teachers."
School budget decisions
The school spent a large amount on computers which the students felt was excessive considering the need for a bus. "There's nearly more computers in the school than students. And they don't even give us access to go and use the computers anyway. They haven't let anyone use them this year. We go up to TAFE to do computer studies."
Internet is only available on two computers in the school. One is secured with a password. Students feel the need for training in internet research techniques. "I used it two years ago when the teachers used to get us involved in it a lot. This year and last year they haven't got us involved in it at all."
Library
"The variety is not what you'd call a large range at all and we need to update our books. Most of the books we've got don't cover our subjects at all. The only ones we use are Encyclopedias. I have to use the town library, but I'm the only one in our school with a library card. And the books there are not what you'd call a large range either and they're real old. If I need something I surf the Net for it."
"We can prove that they're old, too, because they've all got our Mother and that's name in them."
Subject choice
"Most kids won't come to school because there's really nothing to learn."
"We have Aboriginal Studies and we don't know anything about our culture. They don't get no elders to come in and talk to us. All we do is watch silly little videos. And some things that aren't even involved with our culture. No Aboriginal Education worker participates in Aboriginal Studies. I think we need an Aboriginal teacher in the school who can teach us about our culture."
"When we were in Year 7 we had an Aboriginal teacher who used to take us out on this language program. He used to tell us all these Aboriginal stories. That was every week. That was good eh? We even made a video. We had a big book with photos of us."
"We haven't really got very much subjects. When I was on a TAFE course I picked Building and Constructions. I really wanted to do it. But they put me in Office Skills and I've got to put up with it. They didn't even give me a reason." Another student comments it was "Probably because they were girls and not boys."
"With netball and football it's the same thing. They don't ask us what we want to play."
"They made us take Science this year. We chose a computer class but they said, 'No. We want you to do Science.' I think they're trying to get us some UAIs to get into University. They kind of explained that to us."
Exchange programs
"We'd like to get someone from overseas to come here and learn our language and stuff like that. And we'd like to nominate one student to go over there and learn to speak like they do. We could all chuck in and have more fund-raising."
There's nothing at present. "We're lucky to go to Bourke. They don't give us a variety of places to go."
Activities
"We need more community activities for young and old to get involved. It could get people off the streets and give people something to do. People in Brewarrina are talented in a variety of sports. We've even got dancers. But the only dancing put on is line dancing. There's not even a town disco."
Bourke's youth centre was envied with its roller-skating, a weights room and a canteen. "There's not many things at the Brewarrina youth centre. A lot of kids have to wait their turn." It was suggested that the old bowling club could be used for a youth centre.
"Nothing is open on a Sunday which is the most boring day: the youth centre and the video shop are closed. That's when the breaking and entering happens. Only the pool is open."
The students expressed concern for young people engaging in petrol-sniffing. "It's been big here - petrol - over the last couple of weeks." "It's young people: about 13, 14, even 12. There's some our age too. A range of 10-18 or something like that." "They're only doing it because they haven't got money for marijuana. That's why they're doing the breaking in." "There is most definitely a drug problem - marijuana, cigarettes, but no heroin although there was a couple of months back when two people came from Sydney (they were doing it in the park where kids were and they left needles in the playground where little kids were running around). Both white and Aboriginal people have been bringing it in. Some people have been waiting to bash them for it."
Last updated 2 December 2001.
