Recommendations and conclusion

Indigenous students today feel marginalised as their academic

performance is consistently lower than that of non-Indigenous students.
Attendance levels are also significantly less for Indigenous students
compared to their non-indigenous counter parts. According to the Bureau
of Statistics only 60% of fifteen year olds living in major cities attend
school (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). This is a huge issue as
many Indigenous parents dont see the importance of white education
therefore they dont encourage their child to attend. Another reason
Indigenous students feel marginalised is because of educators, as some
do not understand that Indigenous students learn differently. They need to
be taught using different strategies and need support in the classroom.
Teachers need to be trained to teach Indigenous students. Relationships
with local Indigenous elders need to be established with the school to
open communication lines with parents and ease children transmissions
into the classroom. Another recommendation is that timelines used in the
classroom do not start at 1788. The year 1788 was the year white people
colonised Australia, the Indigenous people had lived here for thousands of
years (Harrison, 2011, p. 20).
Indigenous education cannot be taught in isolation as students need to be
given all the facts so they can form their own educated opinion of the
events that occurred. Australias colonial history however unfortunate is
part of our national identity and must be taught and explored in the
classroom. Indigenous people play a major part in colonial history and this
should never be forgotten. The Indigenous dreaming and culture must be
respected as it is part of their identity. I believe the gap between
Indigenous people and non-indigenous people is still too large and needs
to be reduced. Indigenous education is severely lacking and needs to be
addressed incentives and support system need to be established as well
as sympathetic teachers to encourage Indigenous students. Aboriginal
people are inheritors of the longest surviving tradition of religious beliefs
and practices in the world and this need to be celebrated. Harrison
suggests that through the interaction between Aboriginal parents and
elders, children and teachers in the school yard and through mutual

planning and negotiations of curriculum content and approaches

(Harrison, 2011, p. 36)