I was Angurugu Community School on Groote Eylandt’s principal from 1979 until 1982. I was asked to write a paper on Aboriginal Education for the Pacific Women’s Diamond Jubilee Conference held in Sydney in January 1882. The following was what I wrote. Forty years later, my propositions, if anything, are even more relevant than they were at that time.

A dilemma of the developing Aboriginal society is one of attitude. Women can play a vital role in societal development if society allows them to do so. There is abundant evidence to show that young Aboriginal women can do well at school and that they do achieve. The dilemma is ‘for what’. Often, it is for a return to the camp life, where childbearing and child-rearing provide the only relief from the following monotonous domestic routines.

Aboriginal society is patriarchal. It is what men say counts, and what men want happens. Aboriginal women have a vision; they are thinkers and know what they want. But they often don’t have the power in their society to put their thoughts into action. They don’t count enough.

This usually means that education only frustrates teenage girls growing up into women because education shows the girls concerned about what they could be and trains them to do things they learn about. In the end, however, it means nothing because society tells them they must fill a position in life that puts them in a less critical position than men. Aboriginal culture and tradition are essential. But often, men, who are the custodians of this culture, think ‘back’ to it without thinking ‘forward’ enough to the changes forced on Aboriginal society by the time and place in which we live.

I expanded this topic more deeply, but word limits mean this truncated version must be offered.  I would add my deep appreciation for the work of Senator-Elect Jacinta Price and Dr Anthony Dillon from the Australian Catholic University on this subject. We should heed their advice.