Co-director Norma Ingram, a Wiradjuri woman who has lived most of her life in Redfern, brings over 35 years of direct industry experience in both training and serving the interests of Aboriginal communities.
Establishing an institution of academic excellence upon traditional Aboriginal philosophies has been the dream of a lifetime. Setting up the NAC has been a lot of hard work, especially in the past six months, for both Aunty Norma and Aunty Grace Ferguson, a teacher and mentor with over 25 years of experience.
“I’ve been passionate about education for a long time,” Aunty Norma says. “We started the Murawina Preschool in Redfern [in the 1970s] and the Pemulwuy College in Newtown [in the early 1990s] because we want our people to succeed in mainstream society but not lose who they are culturally.
“Working in the TAFE system, I’d see a lot of Aboriginal people who’d say they did not know who they were. I’d say to them, ‘Tell me about your family, tell me about the festivals you enjoy, the community organisations you trust’. It can be a battle to maintain cultural values as an Aboriginal person. If you’re ‘one out’ it’s that much harder.”
Aboriginal cultural philosophies are relational and ecological. Aunty Norma refers to spiritual values (embedded in song and ceremony), kinship and community. “Aboriginal families are extended families – the sharing, it’s not just tangible but also knowing there’s somebody there [for you]. It’s about reciprocity. The words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ don’t exist in Aboriginal languages. Reciprocity is something more automatic; a natural way to be. It’s being aware of needs, being in tune.”
Elaborating on the theme and its relevance to education, Aunty Norma speaks of everybody working toward the same goals, and of rewards shared. “And we never use the word ‘fail’ at the NAC,” she says. “Students are encouraged to engage in their own ways, at their own pace, with the support of online assessors. Until a student has met the subject requirements, she or he may be deemed ‘not yet competent’. We don’t shame our students – I’ve seen how demoralising that can be.”
Students of the NAC may include parents at home, people of all ages with various disabilities, or people isolated in small towns. “Everybody has the right to an education,” Aunty Norma says. “You just never know what skills you’ve got or what you can achieve until you give it a go.”
