IWAC

We are out here at IWAC in Marrickville with all the classes out happening in the community. These include the Aboriginal Elders Cultural Practices Course, Koori Child Care and the Aboriginal Jewellery Class. Some great pieces of artwork are being produced - so stay tuned and we will keep you informed :-)

Rock the Block - Redfern

Here's an update. JTV will be broadcasting a TV story on Youth Rock the Block on ABC this Friday October 27th, at 11:20pm.

The story will feature footage and interviews with the Youth Rock the Block performing artists, as well as interviews from government spokespeople to 'even things out'.

Tune in and hear what young Indigenous artists have to say about what the Block means to them and their dreams for the future.

Rock the Block - Redfern

The unique Youth Rock the Block event, held in Redfern on October 14, 2006, has featured young performers from the community and elsewhere expressing their art and culture and raising money for a local women and children’s dance studio.

Foretelling the kind of creativity the dance studio promises to harness, the day included singing in the Indigenous Darug language, original dance pieces, renditions of well-known Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal pop songs, and hip-hop.

For the children of a community to hold a public event which welcomed attendance from all of Sydney not only showed their courage and pride but also made a powerful statement about what young people can do to challenge poor perceptions of their environment, and contribute to its redevelopment.

The event was an initiative of the Aboriginal Housing Company, in collaboration with Sydney rock band Andorra (who organised well-known adult performers and bands for the ‘May 06 Rock the Block event), and with great assistance from Vibe magazine/Deadly Awards founder Gavin Jones and crew.


The Aboriginal Housing Company, which owns the Block, hopes to make ‘Youth Rock the Block’ a yearly event.

A video news story of the day will be available after October 27, 2006 at this link.

Aboriginal Elders Form Partnership with TAFE

In this case study Noelene Milliken, Foundation Studies Teacher, TAFE NSW - Riverina Institute talks about how she worked with a group of Koori elders to develop a funding submission to employ their own teacher. Noelene states that a partnership approach to community capacity building is one that can lead to long-term economic and social benefits to groups and communities as a whole.

My students build and steer their own boats. I provide the rudder that keeps them going in the right direction whilst at the same time avoiding the submerged obstacles that could tip them over. Think learning, not teaching.

She explains how she used Paulo Friere' principles. Worth a looky.

Click here for more.

Indigenous Learning in Remote Areas

This is an article by Brian Martin, Teacher-in-charge Arts & Media, TAFE NSW Western Institute sharing information about the delivery of Fine Arts, Ceramics and Aboriginal Arts & Cultural Practices courses to kooris in several remote locations in Far-Western NSW.

He talks about working with these communities exisiting elements and resources and touches on cross generational outcomes.
… we address the underlying issues of society by producing artwork that functions as a resource for cultural development… we foster learning and the expansion of the individual’s and community’s collective mind.…

Great story. Click here for more.

Indigenous Engagement through elearning in NSW North Coast

Have a read of this article on how they went about to develop two sustainable pilot elearning projects aimed at building the learning and employment opportunities and outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

Teaching and learning was flexible and supportive. People could attend when they were able to, and leave when they needed to. We team taught as much as possible. We also utilised peer tutoring, cross age tutoring and mentoring. These were based on practices that the community itself naturally used – here they were applied in an elearning context. Usually there was also a team leader present – a younger person more familiar with elearning. Often young people and elders would be in the same place, the young people moving around, showing and helping.

Click here for more

Two-Way Learning

This is an article by Jill Gientzotis, an independent researcher and writer in Vocational Education and Training sharing her experience as a facilitor working with Aboriginal agencies to develop an Industry Training Network with a view to move toward focusing on their needs.

Participants worked in groups: sometimes particular art centres, sometimes men's group and women's group, sometimes young people and older people. They were invited to contribute information in any way they liked: as a picture, a map, as text, or by simply talking; and in any language they liked, English or one of the 15 languages or so spoken by members of Desart.

She writes

Two-way learning is about the trainer respecting the knowledge, learning processes and perspectives of another people and recognising that they are learning about another culture and knowledge system, at the same time as sharing their own knowledge. It is about working together to find the basis from which new knowledge can be developed in a way that is relevant to the learners concerned, and can be grasped by them.

Worth a read if you are working with Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander people and nations. Click here for more.