Making safe spaces

Staff and students wanted Tranby at Glebe to be a place where everyone felt safe, comfortable and confident.

This was important because so many Indigenous people had come from places like mainstream schools where they had felt isolated and marginalised.

But there were many students who had felt isolated within Indigenous communities.

Some students (either themselves, or their parents), had been victims of family separations arising from Stolen Generation policies. While they might not ever find their families, they still wanted to learn about their Aboriginality without being made to feel lacking.

Gay and lesbian Indigenous students had often faced hostility from their own families and communities. They were looking for safe spaces where they could feel strong and accepted as Aboriginal men and women. Tranby wanted all its classes and activities to feel safe for same-sex-attracted students as well as for heterosexual students.

Indigenous women have also often faced challenges from sexism and family violence within their communities. Many of the women enrolled in Tranby were single mothers raising children on their own or with help from their families. They wanted Tranby to feel safe for them too. Tranby had a number of women Directors of Study - like Helen Corbett and Yvonne de Vries - who made sure that issues of women’s rights and safety were important for all students, male as well as female.

Many Aboriginal people had faced discrimination during their earlier education. This meant they had been denied the teaching that would have enabled them to develop effective functional literacy and numeracy. They wanted to be able to build their skills in non-judgemental classes which were tailored to fit their needs.