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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4492 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

Most of the information I was given came in the way of stories. There was general storytelling every day in various parts of the camp, and it was a real honour to sit and listen to the stories people told. I learnt a lot in that very brief period of time - obviously, only a tiny amount of what there is to be learnt. The elders in that community were very impressive. At the end of that week I had not just learnt the information that was given to me; more importantly, I had developed a much stronger sense than I previously had of what Aboriginal communities are about. I certainly learnt a bit about the men's and women's business and issues such as that that I had not really understood in any way before that.

I was very humbled by my experience, and I must say that I felt some reluctance to come back to Canberra and leave behind the people with whom I had spent that very important time in my life and who had in a very trusting manner given me so much of themselves and their customs and traditions. When I came back, I wondered why I had not been given any of this information or any of this learning as a child in school. I have spoken recently to a number of teachers in ACT schools and asked about the status of Aboriginal studies in the ACT schooling system, and it is disappointing, I must say. What I have gleaned from speaking to people is that those studies are not routine and they are not consistent across different schools. It appears to be up to the initiative of different teachers in different schools. That is a little disappointing, and I would like to see, perhaps as part of this motion, the Government take some further action to ensure that we get to a fundamental learning level on these issues and that schools right across the ACT have Aboriginal studies incorporated in their curriculum. I think it is essential.

Even though we feel that, as a society, we have moved forward and that we have learnt a lot about Aboriginal issues in the last decade, if there is not a commitment to ensure that young people in schools are picking up on those very important issues about culture and history and how Aboriginal people have fared in the past in this society, there is a danger that there could be people in our society who come through the system without knowing some of those fundamental things about Aboriginal history and society. We had the discussion about racism a few weeks ago.

Debate interrupted.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 5.00 pm, I put the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr Humphries: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

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