Lajamanu community meeting, 13 May 1999 - notes
Participants
Teachers, parents, school council members
Lajamanu
Lajamanu is situated in the Top End of the Northern Territory in the Katherine region. Approximately 650 - 900 people live in Lajamanu depending on the time of year. Lajamanu Community Education Centre ('CEC') has 171 students from preschool to Year 7 or as secondary age students. Walpiri is the first language.
Students with disabilities
Lajamanu CEC has 11 children with some sort of disability. The Special Education Unit assisting these students is made up of a .5 (half time) special education teacher and a couple of Inclusion Support Assistants working on a casual basis. The special ed. teacher presented a written submission about disability issues to the Inquiry and spoke about the issues facing disabled students in Lajamanu.
It is very difficult for the community to get the special equipment needed for the disabled students. This includes shower chairs, special toilets, safe paths around school, lifting devices and a standing frame.
"We have had applications in with the Education Department for a year and a half now, to have our school modified to meet disability standards ." "But the process is so slow that nothing happens. Just recently we were told that we would get the first part of the grant to get the disability toilet but it is still going to be months before that happens. And there seems to be no special provisions to get this disability access. You just have to apply like everyone else does for improvements to the school, and it is just a matter of luck I suppose, or if the Department considers your thing all right they approve it. But there is no actual process, which we can go through to get disability access and to get it quickly."
A general shortage of student support service staff in the area means that the town schools are given higher priority and isolated schools do not get the special education staff they need. "Last year we got no speech pathologist service, no behavioural management service and we have got children with high needs in both of these areas. Recently we made a request for a guidance officer to come to the school and once again we were told that they had to prioritise the town over us."
"Leston [a disabled student] just came back from respite care yesterday and they sent him back without his wheelchair because they could not fit that wheelchair on the plane they said. And when I asked the doctor, 'How could you possibly send a young boy without his wheelchair?' her reply was 'Oh he will be OK for a couple of days.' For me and for our school that is just an absolute abuse of that boy's human rights. He has a right to be able to move around the school."
Housing for teachers
The Northern Territory Government provides houses for teachers who are not locals. The local Aboriginal teachers are not given houses whereas all the white teachers in remote schools are given houses. The Aboriginal teachers feel that this is discriminatory.
Bilingual education
The teachers and parents of Lajamanu CEC were all very concerned about the Northern Territory Government's decision of 1 December 1998 to phase out the Bilingual Education Program. It was expressed very strongly that the people of Lajamanu consider their Walpiri language to be a very important part of their culture and that it is crucial that the children are taught in Walpiri as well as English. The parents and the teachers are afraid that they will lose their traditional language if it is not taught in the local school. They feel the Bilingual Education Program has been a success but they want to have more time to make it work. One very important result of the Program is that the elders of the community are involved in teaching the students.
The people of Lajamanu think it is the Northern Territory Government's responsibility to assist the community in maintaining their language and their culture.
One Aboriginal teacher from Lajamanu CEC said, "It is really important, I think Walpiri and English should be together, giving our children pride in themselves."
"And bilingual education is really important. That we get our elders involved in teaching our children, our children learn Walpiri, learn about our culture and it makes them proud of themselves, of who they are. It is really important that bilingual education is not stopped. It shouldn't be stopped. We've told the government over and over again not to cut that bilingual program."
A parent and community member said, "You see, I've travelled all over Australia. And I've been to places where Aboriginal people don't have a culture and don't have a language. And when I come back here language is still spoken throughout the Territory, and that makes me feel very proud. And that must continue, for that's been a way of life since time began."
Another Aboriginal teacher from Lajamanu CEC said, "If you can give bilingual education to Greek, German, Italian why can't you give it to Indigenous people of Australia."
Another staff member from the school said, "To me language is very important for the kids as well as for the adults in the community. If we lose our language, what's going to happen? How are we going to teach our kids? We are now approaching the 21st Century. Will the kids still keep their language? Language, that's part of our culture."
Secondary education
There is no secondary education in Lajamanu. Some students go away to Darwin for boarding school. The community was not sure what kind of secondary education they wanted for their children. Several options were discussed: a secondary school in Lajamanu, regional secondary schools closer to the community probably based in Katherine, or more boarding facilities in the existing boarding school in Katherine.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
