Ideas@TheCentre
Time for some commonsense in Indigenous affairs
In a speech delivered for The Centre for Independent Studies this week, Professor Marcia Langton called for more partnerships between Indigenous communities and high-performing schools, and pointed out how commonsense is often lacking when it comes to Indigenous education.
Evidenced-based policy was clearly absent when the Gillard government ignored its own feasibility study and decided to build a boarding school on swamp land at Garrthalala in East Arnhem. After the government spent $650,000 before any construction work even started, it has now been decided that it is too expensive to build a school there.
This lack of commonsense is characteristic of Indigenous Affairs. Instead of discussing effective policies, people attack personalities. Take for instance the tirade directed at Professor Langton in Crikey because she did not disclose the fact her research was partly funded by three mining companies - Rio, Woodside and Santos.
If the journalist had bothered to look at the Indigenous website atns.net.au that Langton referred him to, he would have seen her research is also funded by the Australian government and various universities. The range of funding partners suggests Langton did not deliver her Boyer lectures to suit the agenda of a particular donor or donors. More likely she praised the contribution that mining companies are making in employing Indigenous people simply because it is the truth. Even Boris Frankel who scathingly refers to Langton’s Boyer lectures as a ‘shameful episode’ in the latest edition of Arena could not help admitting: ‘there is no doubt that mining projects have delivered new jobs and business opportunities for some Indigenous people.’
So what is the problem? Yes, Langton did not disclose that her research is partly funded by mining companies, but this was probably an oversight rather than intentional. This omission does not really warrant the vitriol and innuendo she has been subjected to. The real reason for the beat up against Langton is because she dares to criticise environmental groups and other progressive types.
The anger directed at Langton is reminiscent of the tweet Larissa Behrendt made following Bess Price’s support of the Northern Territory Intervention. Clearly, some academics take offence when members of their profession or Aboriginal people break rank and disagree with them.
Langton’s proposal for partnerships between Indigenous schools and high performing interstate schools to enable more children to go to boarding schools will probably be seen by her critics as creating another Stolen Generation. But as Langton rightly says, the parents want it. If there is a demand for something then it makes sense to try and meet that demand. Let’s focus on what the residents of remote Indigenous communities want, not what academics in ivory towers or bureaucrats in Canberra think.
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
