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Communities
and networks for students: The Koorana Cluster, Ipswich, Queensland
The
context
The
Koorana Cluster is a group of three Queensland Catholic secondary
schools. The schools are St Edmund's and St Mary's in Ipswich
and St Peter Claver, at nearby Riverview.
More
about the schools and the district...
Indigenous
students are minorities in all three schools and in the past
some have not wanted to identify as Indigenous. Today there
are about 50 identified Indigenous students across the three
schools, and their families come from right across Queensland
and even from other States. |
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The
last few years
David Harrison is Assistant Principal
- College Mission at St Edmund's and previously taught at
St James' in Sydney, which is also a Christian Brothers School.
He talks about what's happened in the last few years.
|  A
few years ago we started looking at whether St Edmunds
was really welcoming to Indigenous students and their
families. It wasn't that we were discouraging,
it was just that we weren't actively encouraging and
supportive. And so we realised we had to really go out
and get in touch with the Indigenous community if we
were to build Indigenous enrolments.
At
first, we had some Commonwealth grant money and we tried
to get Indigenous people into the school to tell stories,
art, to inspire the lads. We did that for a couple of
terms, but it wasn't easy. We had to bring Indigenous
tutors in on a sessional basis and it's difficult to
ask them to just drop whatever else they're doing and
come in. Some of the lads weren't engaged because there
wasn't much continuity there, not much of a relationship.
And
then I was lucky enough to stumble across Joe Kirk,
who had been working in some of the primary schools
in the area. Everyone I spoke to recommended him and
I thought he'd be prepared to engage and challenge our
kids but from a position where he actually was credible
as an respected Indigenous person in the area. |
More
about Joe...
David
continues:
| After
the first year the school funded Joe's part-time position
itself because we believed that it shouldn't be just a
'one off' and we wanted him to continue. But then I was
involved with the Brisbane Catholic Education Office and
Rosemary Bell was the Chair of the committee and we applied
for Commonwealth IESIP funding to contribute to the cost
of keeping Joe in the school. And Rosemary was keen that
more than one school be involved and that sat very well
with me. The three schools came together and the cluster
is one of the great things that has happened around here.
So Joe now works full time for the cluster, the Koorana
Cluster. He has been working through the local background
and cultural history with us, and focusing on the information
that we need to know about the students we're teaching. |
Why
is it called the 'Koorana' Cluster?
Joe
tells us...
Read
about Joe's job description... |
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What
Works
Rosemary
Bell is the Senior Education Officer, Indigenous Education
in the Brisbane Catholic Education Office. Di Peachey is a
Consultant, Secondary Indigenous Education based at the Ngutana-lui
Cultural Studies Centre in Inala.
Rosemary
and Di talk about the beginnings of What Works. The Work Program
in the Archdiocese of Brisbane:
Rosemary:
As a team, we've been having a look at our strengths and weaknesses,
in particular in supporting our 45 secondary colleges, and
looking at the good things that we are doing with the students
and some less successful things. So last year when the team
received a package of What Works. The Work Program we looked
at it in terms of how it fitted in with what we were already
doing. And the package enabled the team to accelerate the
conversation with schools and accelerate the cluster developments
across all secondary colleges. We're into that process now.
Clusters can be the vehicle for What Works. The Work Program.
Di:
We were talking about partnerships, and so is What Works.
It's about working together in networks and bringing groups
together in combined wisdom, and that's the way we wanted
to go, for all sorts of reasons. The Koorana Cluster had already
started, so it was a natural for What Works.
Rosemary:
It helped to open up that conversation between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous people.
Di:
The Koorana Cluster was in place and Joe was there - the two
absolutely essential elements. We started with some of the
things in The Workbook: what are our issues, how do we look
after our kids, how do we support them, what information is
important to have and what's not, what cultural overlay do
we need to know? |
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The
dance group
In
looking at What Works. The Work Program, the Cluster spent
some time thinking about the three general strategies proposed.
They are in The Brief, on this website.
Read
'The brief' ...
It
became clear that cultural recognition and support was an
important part of necessary action and that Joe Kirk was central
to that. It was also clear that bringing Indigenous students
together was the way to go.
So,
tentatively, a dance group was formed. An Indigenous instructor
was found and Indigenous students from the three schools were
invited to take part. The dance draws on a variety of Indigenous
and contemporary elements.
Natalie
L'Huillier has been College Minister at St Mary's for less
than a year. Previously, she had studied theology and had
six years experience as a youth worker, including over a year
in the Kimberley.
Natalie
talks about what happened in 2003:
| At
first we just tried to do some things with our Indigenous
students as a group, and to do that we had to negotiate
with teachers to take kids out of classes. The support
of our Principal and Deputy was fantastic.
At
first only about eight girls identified as Indigenous,
but each time we had an activity (like a visit to a
cultural center or a cooking session) a couple more
girls would put their hands up, saying 'heh, I'm Indigenous,
too'. Joe was pleased about that and helped a lot. To
be honest, I don't think this would work without Joe.
And
then we started the dance group in the cluster, in just
a small way but it's grown and it's still growing. The
girls have developed a sense of excitement and a sense
of looking forward to it. They've always been a small
minority here, and not very visible in the school, but
they're starting to stand out now, in a good way. |
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Natalie
L'Huillier |
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| Feedback
from Indigenous parents has been good as well and they're
saying they've wanted this to be happening and they
want to see where it ends up, how their kids can benefit.
When
we talked with the students about what costumes they
should wear, they said they wanted a 'traditional' look,
so we worked with that idea and came up with something
that suited everyone. That was another great learning
activity. |
Joe
Kirk had this to say about the process:
When
they start talking like that they're starting to talk
about their spirituality and the things that they identify
with, like the frog, the water lily and the water.
You start off like that and then it goes on to tradition
and culture, and then you bring in the literacy and numeracy. |
In
September 2003, the Koorana Cluster dance group performed
in front of over 100 school principals at the Queensland launch
of 'Dare to Lead', an on-going coalition of schools, their
principals and education organisations that is publicly committed
to improvements in Indigenous education.
Visit
the Dare to Lead website...
At
the same launch, staff from the cluster took part in a workshop
in which principals were able to find out about what has been
happening in Ipswich. This wasn't presented as an expert panel,
but rather as the beginnings that can be made in a situation
that would be familiar to many of the audience.
As
David Harrison put it in the workshop:
It's
not just about dance though, it's about building relationships
and what can achieved after that.
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| At
the Dare to Lead launch. |
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