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Yirrkala Indigenous Schools’ Program: The University
of Melbourne
The traditional placement has not always served the needs of the communities in
which preservice teachers enter, as was found to be the case in a cluster of remote
Northern Territory schools. This section describes a professional experience that
takes place as part of an elective subject in the Masters of Teaching at Melbourne
University’s Graduate School of Education (MGSE). What has developed since
2011 is a partnership that has become known as the Yirrkala Indigenous Schools –
MGSE program. The professional experience aspect of this elective subject takes
place in two schools in the Yirrkala community, one is the Yirrkala Community
School (YCS), and the other is the Yirrkala Homelands School (YHS) which ser-
vices the Laynhapuy Homelands in the region. Preservice teachers travel over
4000 km from their University campus in Melbourne to Yirrkala and live in the
community during their placement.
For many years, the Yirrkala community has hosted preservice teachers from a
number of teacher education institutions throughout Australia for more traditional
placements. Yolŋu and Balanda (non-Indigenous) teachers in Yirrkala have much
experience with preservice teachers coming from afar for a short time, learning
about the community, schools and classrooms, having requisite practical teaching
hours signed off and reported on and then returning to their homes with little reci-
procity with the community. While these more traditional placements are important
for preservice teachers to learn about remote communities and gain understanding
of Indigenous cultures, it is as important for the communities to participate and
ensure learning is ‘two-way’, and there are further and deeper benefits for the com-
munity at large. The MGSE-Yirrkala program embraces the Yolŋu concept: bala ga
lili. Loosely translated, this term means reciprocity, learning from each other and
give and take. Since this partnership, and specifically this preservice teacher profes-
sional experience, began in 2011, the importance of a reciprocal relationship with
all members of the Yolŋu communities of the area has been emphasized. Teachers
and community members have come to understand that hosting these preservice
teachers is not a burden on them, rather an experience that benefits everyone.
Once selected, the preservice teachers begin to work closely with each other,
their university lecturers and, importantly, members of the Yirrkala community (i.e.
the principals and teachers of both schools as well as Elders and other community
members) to ensure that their visit contributes something of value to the community.
This begins before the preservice teachers arrive in Yirrkala with connections being
made and conversations undertaken about the current needs of the schools. Upon
arrival in Yirrkala, the preservice teachers participate in cultural induction facili-
tated by one of the school principals and where they meet some of the teachers and
also some of the families from the community. The focus of this induction is to sup-
port the preservice teachers’ navigation of the local community mores, traditions
and customs both respectfully and comfortably. This induction also facilitates the
B. Eckersley et al.