Education Down South

The Tiwi Education Project started when a parent asked us to help with the education of his grand children. He wanted them to learn alongside non-aboriginal kids, he wanted them to be away from the relatives who live in long grass 'humbugging' every day, and he wanted them to be in a Real School where all the subjects are taught, and where you could go on to University

Several of our team had taught the first batch of Tiwi to come south to Monivae College in Hamilton Vic for Education 40 years ago, and felt that a sustained effort might bring results.

These students were Bush Aborigines, who spoke English as a Second Language, they knew little of European Australian society. Some of those first students showed real ability, and later proved it being Chairman of the Tiwi Lands Council, and initiating good community policy. But the program was only maintained for a year or two.

The StVdeP Conference listened and decided to give this project ten years of effort, reasoning that we needed to go on trying beyond the stumbles and problems and persevere until the capable rose to the top.

The StVdeP is the organ to help because they have guys on hand for the pick-ups from Toowoomba, they have contacts and apparatus for fund raising and they can give full tax deductibility for donors. Also because Frederic Ozanam believed that what was required was persistent patient care, not the one-off effort, or budgetary allocation.

We chose Downlands College in Toowoomba because the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) established the first Tiwi Island mission in 1911 and because Downlands was commenced in 1935 by MSC as a means of recruiting young men into the priesthood, who could later run the aboriginal missions MSC have all over the Top End of Australia.

Downlands was a good choice because they persevered when the problems came. They had the wisdom not the act but to wait and see and understand first - a prerequisite when dealing with people of another culture.

We realized that it was unfair to only offer this opporotunity to Tiwi people, when other tribal groups deserved the same opportunity. But we figured that a concerted effort in one community would bring success, so that others could do something similar with other groups.

We have had about twenty kids throught he program since we started in 2006. We needed to get it right with one tribal group: *who should come, *how does the community pick the students, *how does the school adapt...

We have had many who did not carry on, but every kid who has been at Downlands has benefited. Now we ask for no less than a two years commitment, we need kids who will go all the way to Tertiary Education, we need educated Tiwi who can hold their own when policy decisions are being made.

I was with a Federal Cambinet minister when Tiwi came back from an ATSIC meeting. I grabbed the bundle of files, and asked the Minister how he would cope with this information.

He said; "I never look at anything unless it is in the Cabinet Submission Form - this stuff is a snow job, bureaucracy setting out to confuse, Yes Minister fashion!"

We expect our first kid to get through Year 12 in 2011 and we expect others to follow in her wake.

If we can get a steady stream trained professionally, then Tiwi can have a real impact on decisions that effect them.

At present they feel like a Tourist Attraction without opportunity for improvement and they know that all over the world attraction to Alcohol/Drug/Trouble comes with being by passed, irrelevant and quaint.

Where it all Started

As we were preparing for the 1986 Alice Springs Pope John Paul meeting with the Aboriginal people, there was a meeting of the Aboriginal Community every Saturday night at the presbytery.

The Author Maurice West came up from Sydney for one of these meetings. He paid for the Pizza on that night, we all ate well that night, he was a generous man. He wrote about his visit in one of his books.

We decided to write a prayer to share with the Pope and with all Australians. So I churned out 20 + versios on the Apple Mac, to be corrected and refined by the community.

The prayer was in the spirit of the Priestly Prayer of Jesus in St John's Gospel. We were happy with the product. The Poet Les Murray thought it was good too and published it in his Anthology of Australian Verse.

The prayer had to be passed by the Papal Visit office, which suggested changes: Father you gave us the Dreaming, was changed to "Father of all, you gave us the dreaming.." Come on, we thought, Father means God, what is your problem...!

Then it was suggested that we water down the 'the people of Australia to listen to us and respect our culture. Too Political, they said. We responded: respectifully, not negotiable!but you can have your Father of all.

So this is the prayer, as the Arrerente people wanted it was:

Father you gave us the Dreaming,

you have spoken to us through our beliefs,

then you made your love clear to us in Jesus.

We thank you for your care,

You own us, You are our hope.

Make us strong as we face the problem of change.

We ask you to help the people of Australia

to listen to us and respect our culture.

Make the knowledge of you grow strong in all people

So that you can be at home in us

and we can make a home for everyone in our land.

Education and Health are needs to help aboriginal people tackle the problem of change

In 1970 the first group of Tiwi came south to Monivae for education. The scheme lasted two years.

In 1990 a group of Arrernte went to Monash University. The scheme lasted for one year.

Some problems need good hearts rather than good government policy to fix. I lived with Tiwi and tired of tending youth suicides. At the Kenmore Qld StVdeP we had like most other Australians had recited the Prayer of the Aboriginal People for twenty years, but thought, in the true spirit of Frederick Ozanam, pious words need to be followed up with Action, and they decided to give ten years to an effort in one aboriginal community.

Four Tiwi have demonstrated the dedication to play AFL at highest level. None have survived the Education labyrinth to get a Year 12 pass. So we commenced the Tiwi Education project, attempting to could crack the Glass Ceiling preventing aborigines making it in education.

If you have any ideas, contact us on phillipwh@gmail.com,

If you Can you help fund the project: https://vinnies.org.au/appeals-processor-national indicate Qld, and pull down the Tiwi Education project option under Appeal.

Bishop Gsell and the Founding of the Settlement

Francis Xavier Gsell was born in Alsace in 1872 shortly after Franco-Prussian War. His family had been French, but shortly before his birth the Alsace became German.

He studied to be a priest and was ordained in Rome before coming to Dawin in 1906

In 1909 he became a naturalised Australian and in 1911, he went to the Tiwi Islands to established a mission - he lived with Tiwi for the next 27 years

Bishop Gsell became concerned by the marriage customs among the Tiwi people, and began a practice by which he ‘bought’ young girls who had been betrothed to older men, freeing these girls to receive education at the mission school and, in time, to marry men of their own choosing.

In all he bartered for 150 young girls, which later led to him being called “the Bishop with 150 wives”.

The Tiwi Custom had been that at first blossom young girls were given to Old men to add to their collection of wives - powerful men had many wives. Similarly, older widows were given to maturing young men as their first wife.

The cultural system had a Social Security dimension, and as Bishop Gsell would supply good steel axes in exchange for the young girls, and because it was clear that the girls were well looked after, the swap was seen to be fair and good value.

Tiwi people are not docile. The Tiwi Islands is one of the few places on the globe where the British attempted to establish a Fort but were beaten off by the locals

Governor King fearing other nations would colonize Northern Australia, dispatched Captain J.J.G. Bremer in August, 1824 to establish a fort which they called Fort Dundas close to Pularumpi on Melville Island and the area was declared a British colony.

The Establishmeht of Fort Dundas was not welcomed by Tiwi, and with strategic killing of cattle and pigs and the ever present attack of mosquitos the settlement was officially closed after five years.

Education and Health standards have not improved since the end of the Mission era, and the St Vincent de Paul effort is in conjunction with UQ Kidney and heart disease prevention

Earlier contacts with Tiwi http://www.tiwilandcouncil.net.au/documents/about/Dutchtiwistory.pdf