It was a great privilege for me to be an invited speaker at the ‘National Indigenous Empowerment Summit’ in Brisbane (May 12 and 13). The title of my talk was ‘Creating inclusive and supportive schools that foster connection, belonging and safety.’ My talk presented educational research aIong-side stories shared about my school, Claremont College. To be honest it was a little overwhelming to give my talk straight after Meena Singh, the Victorian Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People. Meena made some excellent points about the rights of children, particularly in relation to their safety and wellbeing and she challenged me to constantly reflect on, and to be aware of the biases and racist attitudes/beliefs that I might have, even without realising.
For my talk I focussed on three main points;
I was incredibly proud to talk about my school, our students, our teachers and school community. What we have at Claremont is something that is very special. The audience especially loved a video clip I showed of one of my students giving an Acknowledgement of Country #proudprincipal. I am always grateful to attend conferences, to learn and come away with new ideas and perspectives. Some key things that I took away from the conference were a better understanding of the importance of connection to home and community, the concept of fostering ‘cultural safety’ at school and to consider ways to address and tackle racism head-on within a school or organisation. I was also challenged to think about how teachers can be trained (especially as part of their university training) to better understand and incorporate truth telling into their lessons and incorporated more broadly into the curriculum. Australia wide, there are so many important stories that need to be told, listened to and remembered. Healing and reconciliation will only happen with recognition. The many indigenous languages from across Australia also need to be valued, preserved and taught for the generations to come. Above all, it was a privilege to meet and learn from some really amazing educators who are doing inspiring work with indigenous students, their families and communities. I am particularly in awe of the many passionate and talented young indigenous educators who are leading the way. Once again, I am more convinced than ever that great teachers and inclusive schools bring hope to our student's lives and their futures.
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It’s often the little things that make the biggest difference. Northern India is presently experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. The temperature has been ridiculously hot, with no respite in sight. When you live in a slum, there’s certainly no western comforts, no AC, no cold fridge to keep your food fresh, just relentless heat made worse by corrugated iron sheeting and black plastic roofing. Add a sewer that flows by your door, you can probably imagine how bad it is.
I’m so proud of our team, who exemplified kindness and compassion in action … they couldn’t do much but they came up with the idea to deliver cold drinks - offering a friendly smile, a word of encouragement as well as checking in on the welfare of the elderly, mothers with babies, and with the parents of children who attend our education centres. If you look closely at some of the images below, you will see that many families are living on a busy roadside - still displaced from the monsoon floods from back in August last year. Basically it totally sucks! Yet in the midst of the many desperate moments, there is friendship, resilience, some laughs, conversations, human connections and smiles to be found. Jesus commands us to love our neighbour - for me this is what I think he was talking about. No matter where you are - can I encourage you to look out for your neighbour, what is the human need that you see in front of you? If you are serious in doing so, open your eyes, that need and the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life will not be hard to find. Remember, It’s often the little things that make the biggest difference. We can't do any of this without your help. Might you be able to pay for another round of cold drinks? $100 is all it costs and the impact is immeasurable. You can donate to my charity Project Help India HERE Thank you so much. Love Doug |
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September 2024
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