Indigenous Sport, Education and Culture EDUH4053

This unit provides students with a socially critical perspective on the range of social, cultural and economic issues facing indigenous Australians and focuses on Koori culture, community and education. The unit examines the history of white Australia from the perspective of Indigenous people and the social, economic and health disadvantages that threaten Indigenous communities across Australia. Although the unit does examine the issues involved with formal schooling, it also adopts a broader view to include the range of learning and development that takes place through the interactions of day-to-day cultural practices such as sport. Sport is one of the few areas of Australian social life where Indigenous people have excelled. While the success of a few sports people at an elite level should not be allowed to distract us from the poor health, economic and educational status of Koori people, it can provide for the development of strong communities built around sport.

While many of the issues addressed in this course may resonate with students from other countries where indigenous people and other minorities face similar challenges, Indigenous Sport, Education and Culture also deals with issues that are uniquely Australian and particular to indigenous Australians. The unit provides students with experiences of indigenous Australian culture, including field trips through which students gather data for a reflective research essay. The trips are informed by lectures and readings, and make an invaluable contribution to a learning journey over the semester that allows the students to develop an understanding of indigenous Australian culture and the issues raised in the unit. In this way, Indigenous Sport, Education and Culture cannot be taught outside Australia and will provide students with a deep and powerful educational experience.

In addition to lectures and tutorials, students will attend the following field trips in 2006:

• A local sports high school that has a high number of Koori students
• Aboriginal Youth Rugby League Competition
• Aboriginal Netball
• Youths at Risk Surfing Program

Course Coordinator - Mr John Evans Contact Mr Evans

John has a background in elite level professional sport, including professional sprinting and rugby, as well as a business background in sports coaching and strength and conditioning. His clients have included the Australian Sports Commission, the NSW Institute of Sport, the Australian Rugby Union, the New South Wales Rugby Union, Eastwood Rugby Club and the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Program. John coached rugby overseas in Japan and Singapore, and in 2000 worked as coach and conditioning consultant for the preparation of the ARU’s under-19 campaign for the Junior Rugby World Cup in France. He has also been the coaching director for the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Program, which has been developing Indigenous rugby players since 1992. In addition to his extensive experience in sport, John has lectured for the Australian College of Physical Education, the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney. He holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in sports science and is currently interested in researching the application of game-sense coaching to elite level rugby in Australia.

Dr Richard Light

Richard Light is a leading scholar in this field. He as a background as a physical education teacher and coach in a range of cultural settings, and has published extensively on the social dimensions of sport and physical education. Richard held national and international titles in martial arts, coached rugby in Osaka for 6 years, and is one of the few western scholars researching and writing on Japanese sport.

Dr Nina Burridge

Nina has extensive knowledge of the education sector with a background as both a teacher and teacher educator. In 1997 she was appointed as director of the Institute for Aboriginal Studies and Research at Macquarie University where she coordinated a multidisciplinary program in Aboriginal Studies for mainstream students. Nina designed and taught the units and brought together other academics and visiting Indigenous lecturers to contribute to the course. Nina met and worked with many Indigenous educators and academics from many fields. Nina researches in the area of reconciliation and Indigenous education and completed a PhD into approaches to reconciliation in the education and community contexts. She has presented papers on teaching history and, more recently, reconciliation. Nina has published an education kit about the Brewarrina Mission Station in NSW as well as several chapters in Aboriginal studies publications. She has been the recipient of a number of research grants, the largest of which was to undertake a project titled Achieving Reconciliation in NSW Schools, which resulted in an education kit to assist schools teaching reconciliation.