Indigenous adults on site: Working as a team at Healy State School Murijunda, Mt Isa

Healy State School in Mt Isa has an enrolment of 280 students, 63% of whom are Indigenous. The school is near the two Indigenous housing communities of Yallambie and Wulliberi and many students from these communities have come from outlying areas. The school operates according to a set of principles.

Read the principles…

Why has the school added 'Murrijunda' to its name?…

AEW, Joan Marshall (left), with Principal Janelle Balderson

Principal Janelle Balderson believes in making the bargain with the community that 'if you get the kids here, we'll ensure they learn'.

More about Janelle...

Healy has several Aboriginal Education Workers. One of them is Joan Marshall, whose role is to be a link between the school and the Indigenous community, and to encourage consistent attendance.

Joan can talk to Aboriginal parents in a way that's difficult for non-Indigenous teachers. She can also open doors in the two camp communities, which are difficult for non-Indigenous teachers to access. But Joan takes young teachers to the camps as well, and observes that this leads to positive changes in the way they teach Murri students.

Conversely, Joan also works to convince parents that the school's door is truly open to them.

Much of her work is with what she calls 'the middle group' of parents (neither the Elders, nor the youth), who have not been engaged with the school and are more likely to be affected by negative factors such as alcohol. Community Elders, however, are very supportive and the school has an Elders group which gathers regularly, meets with teachers and works with students.

More about Joan...