19S
V
has been a source of real sacrifice for both marrngu and
staff.
12.52
(iv) Schooling
’Schooling’ as such was not part of the traditional Aboriginal
’world’. Education on the other hand was of pre-eminent importance.
’Schooling’ is an introduced element - a mystery1 of the white
man’s world that is seen to be important in the evolving Aboriginal
structures contiguous to white society.
The aims of schooling for the Strelley Mob are precise - the
white teachers are responsible for numeracy and literacy in English,
the marrngu will ultimately be responsible for teaching the vernacular
and for education in its widest sense.
Schooling is a specific, limited part of education, integrated
within the station economy, the curriculum geared to specific ends
relating to the economy. There is not the disjunction between ends
and means that confronts the youth of the nearby town. Strelley
Community School is what its name implies - an alternative independent
school embedded in the total community structure and under the
control of the people themselves.
Schooling is currently carried on at four separate locations - at
Strelley, and three off-shoots - Warralong and Lala Rookh and Camp 61 .
_______— _ _ __________■__—
1Stanner tells of meeting a ’supremely competent hunter* who
could have continued to live in the wilderness, but had come to
strike a bargain with civilization.
nIVhat decided him, or so he said, was that he had
heard about something called ’a school’ and that
it was good for children, so he took them in to let
them find a new life and a new identity" (Stanner, 1969:55).
^Lala Rookh school was established in 1980; Camp 61 was established in
1981. Noonkanbah school is also affiliated with the Nomads group.