Every child deserves a chance at happiness and the opportunity to realise their potential for a fulfilling and useful life. We all know that children need more than just a roof over their heads—love, understanding and encouragement are just as important.
This study, the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, Footprints in Time, looks at the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families and the ways their culture keeps them strong and healthy. We know that how people feel about themselves, whether they feel valued and respected, has a whole lot to do with how they handle problems.
By the time I was 10, both my parents had passed away and I went to live with relatives in Darwin and eventually to boarding school in Western Victoria. My last nine years of schooling I spent with the ‘Micks’ and it was an excellent education. It not only prepared me for university, but made me ready, if a bit raw, idealistic and naïve, for life! It is clear from much previous research that, for many Indigenous children, by the time they are 10, they are too far behind their peers to ever catch up. By 15, the game is over. How do you count the cost—to the children, to their communities, to this country? The shame is not in failing; it’s in not even trying. Speaking to black American parents, US President Barack Obama said:
“One of the most destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalised a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little from ourselves. We have to say to our children, ‘Yes, if you live in a poor neighbourhood you will face some challenges, but that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school… No-one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands.”
We have to challenge the ‘watered down’ expectations of our children. Our kids have to see that they are stronger and smarter than this society has so far given them credit for and help them to cultivate an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity that is strong and smart. We all need to recognise that children’s sense of themselves as Aboriginal people—who they are and where they come from—is of both practical and spiritual value. In bestowing identity we also bestow dignity. It is a good deal more than symbolic—it has profound practical effects.
There are plenty of examples of Indigenous success; we just have to recognise it and replicate it. We have to get rid of the ‘start again’ syndrome—whereby every new government starts again from the beginning with little understanding of what has gone before—that has a lot to do with politics and nothing to do with evidence. We have to see evidence of success as points of light all around us and join them up to create a universe of opportunity for our children. These results from the first wave of Footprints in Time data provide more points of light. I hope you find them useful.
Professor Mick Dodson AM
Chair
Steering Committee
Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children