Education justice

Many people who enrolled at Tranby had faced racism and discrimination in the school systems in NSW and other states. So in 1982, after a Bourke teacher had made racist statements about Aboriginal students, many staff and students at Tranby – as well as supporters – demonstrated outside the NSW Department of Education, demanding to meet the minister and top bureaucrats. Led by Tranby Board Chair Bob Bellear and General Secretary Kevin Cook, a deputation of the protesters met with Douglas Swan, the Director of Public Education, to argue for more Aboriginal teachers and an end to racism in the school system. Brian Doolan, then Tranby’s Director of Studies, was in the demonstration and took these photographs.

Tranby staff and students have continued their criticism of the public – and private – education systems. Many Tranby students continue to suffer from the damage inflicted by racism and discrimination in their earlier educational experiences in public, private and church schools. So the goals of the Tranby Coop Board have been to encourage staff to create learning experiences that were very different from schools – with more support for students, immersion in Indigenous approaches to learning and the frequent involvement of community members as teachers whether in the classroom or on excursions. Students in the CAFE (Certificate of Aboriginal Further Education) in 1998 made a plea for better funding for Indigenous-led education providers like Tranby to run the type of courses in literacy and numeracy that they were benefitting from.

This has continued into the present with Tranby’s continuing exploration of Indigenous approaches to learning and with the encouragement of community involvement in all teaching and learning programs.