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USC lecturer helps set reconciliation goals
The advice of a University of the Sunshine Coast education academic is helping boost Indigenous reconciliation across the state, including updating the Queensland Constitution.
USC early childhood lecturer Robyn Sandri is contributing to the Queensland Government Reconciliation Action Plan 2009-2012, launched in Brisbane on Tuesday 23 June.
Ms Sandri said that as a member of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council, she was consulting on a new preamble to the Constitution of Queensland 2001.
The new wording will formally respect and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders.
The preamble is a key target for 2009 of the whole-of-government Reconciliation Action Plan launched by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Desley Boyle. The plan acknowledges cultural differences and history as well as fostering job and educational opportunities.
Ms Sandri said one goal close to her heart was closing the educational gap so more Indigenous preschoolers entered the mainstream system successfully.
A descendant of the Gungarri people of southwest Queensland and granddaughter of a Stolen Generation child, she is finalising her PhD on this issue of Indigenous children’s transition into school.
Ms Sandri, who worked as an academic and advocate for at-risk children in the United States for 20 years, is also consulting on the national Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children.
“This study monitors the life situations of selected Indigenous families across Australia. The research is narrative as well as statistical,” she said.
“That means we’re learning the real reasons why such a large percentage of Indigenous children don’t transition well to Year 1, for example, instead of just recording a statistic.”
– Julie Gatehouse