Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Galiwin'ku, Elcho Island: a hot spot for change in education

Posted by Katina at 9:28 PM

Well, I'm still excited I have Instagram a month in (follow me by all means, @katiinkaa01), but really, not being able to embed photos to show you is a bit of a pain in the neck.

So you'll just have to follow the links.


The pictures show my day at Arnhem Land's Elcho Island, which is my first proper trip for work. I had to fly on a plane to get there! It was also my first day as the education reporter, as I'll be focusing on that round as well as general news stories from now on.

It was really great to get to a remote part of the Northern Territory - and Australia. I was there while the Galiwin'ku community received a visit by federal Indigenous Affairs minister Nigel Scullion, who had been in talks with an elder from a group of Yolngu communities. They have been discussing the options for getting children to attend school - in Galiwin'ku there's a five-year average of about 52 per cent attendance - and that's for the kids that are enrolled, there are still lots more that have never been to school.

For me, it was just great to get to talk to some locals. I got a little bit of an insight into a different way of life, saw why there's such a need to push education in certain areas, and saw how a community is easily brought together (literally - the meeting was organised by someone talking over a massive PA system and everyone converged onto a public space).

I thought it was so important I suggested my American friend Luke get a copy of my paper while he was visiting Uluru during his current trip across Australia. Although he couldn't buy one, he did see my work. Thanks mate.
The power of news...

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