Lessons from the Past: Education and Racism in Australia

Abstract

The history of racism in Australia is inextricably linked with prevailing ideologies of rural Australia, supported strongly by educational discourses of deficit and disadvantage. A challenge for the Reconciliation Movement will be tomake an effective contribution to the development of anti-racist and non-racist practices n rural schooling. The history of racism and education in relation to Indigenous people in Australia is one which was, in earlier times, largely enacted in rural areas. Many Aboriginal people still living and bringing up young families in rural areas have been and still are directly affected by the educational policies and practices of the past. Further, whilst the majority of indigenous people in Australia live in urban areas their origins are, in the main, rural. This article provides a historical synthesis of the most important empirical and conceptual research in education and racism in Australia. It contains information in summary form, which rural and isolated teachers should be familiar with as part of their professional preparation to teach in country areas. It also sets the scene for further developments in Aboriginal education in rural areas setting down and analysing past events, describing some of the complex situations which are the direct results of past practices and relating these to present issues.