By Marina Cameron and Nick Soudakoff
Despite the fact that some high-profile Aborigines have "made it" — become lawyers or got that PhD — the reality for most is that access to education and employment is limited, and will worsen as a result of recent federal government cuts to higher education.
In the decade after the abolition of tertiary fees in 1975, participation by Aboriginal students in higher education increased by 3000%. Increased fees have been shown to discourage or prevent participation by Aboriginal students. Increases to HECS and the lower repayment threshold will impact more on groups such as Aborigines and women, who generally have a lower earning capacity.
Cuts to operating grants have led to announcements by university administrations that numerous subjects and services will be cut. The cuts have fallen disproportionately on humanities subjects, including Aboriginal politics and history, and services which cater to disadvantaged students.
The establishment of Aboriginal centres on many campuses to promote indigenous education and serve the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students has been a step forward. Universities with the best equipped centres have been shown to have the best enrolment and success rates of Aboriginal students.
The further restructuring of education towards user-pays, money-making and competition will leave many students and prospective students out in the cold, and subject areas that aren't profitable or are politically discomforting will be under threat. The continued existence and effectiveness of Aboriginal centres are currently threatened by a move earlier this year to "performance-based" assessment, with a major review of funding due at the end of 1997.
Green Left Weekly spoke to Lee Smallwood, vice-president of the Ngannawal Centre Students Association at the University of Canberra, about the effect of education cutbacks on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and the increase in racism which has followed Pauline Hanson's maiden speech.
"Hanson has stated that Aboriginals have been getting far too much money and attention. This has actually revived a lot of ideas of the '50s and '60s", Smallwood said. "We weren't allowed to vote until 1967. Aboriginal people wore dog tags; we weren't even citizens. It's racism. Asian and other migrants are also getting attacked. She is attacking the ones who don't have any power in Australia. They think we won't fight back.
"She needs to get her facts straight about Aboriginal people. We have the highest statistics in child abuse, incarceration and deaths in custody. We have a very low participation rate in tertiary education. We are trying to make our way up. All she is doing is trying to do is bring us down."
Smallwood talked about some of the problems Aboriginal centres confront on campuses, which were raised at a conference on indigenous education held at James Cook University in Townsville in October. "The centres should be run for students. We need indigenous directors and indigenous staff. Over the last number of years there have been Aboriginal students getting masters and PhDs, and we need these types of people running our centres."
Smallwood said that of particular concern to Aboriginal students is the proposed merging of Austudy, Abstudy and unemployment benefits for young people.
"The Ngannawal Centre has sent a submission saying they shouldn't replace Abstudy with the Common Youth Allowance. With Abstudy, we get flights home, eight hours a week of tutoring, and a fortnightly wage. Without Abstudy, we won't be able to live anywhere except at home with our parents.
"If you abolish Abstudy, you will drop the participation rate of Aboriginal students. We wrote on October 31 and we got a response back the other day saying 'Thank you for your letter but the Common Youth Allowance will be reviewed in early 1997'. It seems that in the next two years the plan will go ahead. I think they didn't even consider our letters.
"Aboriginal students are taking other actions too. We are attending rallies against racism like the one on November 23 in Canberra. We have been fighting for the last 208 years, and we will keep fighting until we get justice. We have to look at the future generations that are coming up behind us in education. We want to make it better for them."