'For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future' and 'Indigenous kids get the plot' by Sarah Elks

"Indigenous kids get the plot" by sarah Elks, The Australian ( Mon August 22nd, 2011)

I came across Sarah Elks articles in The Australian newspaper, about remote Indigenous schools and communities getting the chance to improve their reading and writing schools through different programs and methods. One of these is the literacy program in the small remote school St Michaels Catholic School on Palm Island, which encourages students to read and write at their grade level, not employing 'dumbed-down' books and materials. Since 150 students are indigenous at the school and have English as their second language, it can be difficult for them to read and engage with english. However, this new literacy program has challenged and accelerated Indigenous students understanding and learning of how to read and write. This I think is obviously a great step in uniting all students together and letting them help each other by having them all read the same material. I think that at other schools, children that are given material intended for a students of lower literacy or an earlier grade, would make them feel more isolated and possible form slower learning in the long run.

"For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future" by Sarah Elks, The Australian ( Mon August 22nd, 2011)

Another program reported on is the One Laptop Per Child program where small cheap laptop computers with wireless internet access have been given to children in remote and regional communities throughout Australia. One of the biggest deployments of these hardy kid-friendly laptops was to Doomadgee, an Aboriginal community in northwest Queensland, 2250km from brisbane and isolated by flooding three months of the year. What I personally really like as a designer looking at these laptops is how they've been made especially for kids to engage them witch technology. Not only do their fluorescent green appearance make them more vibrant and interesting but the two antenna's on each side of the screen called "dingo ears" add another element of interest and fun. Again what's good to see I think is the element of inclusion the internet brings to the students, where an isolated community can engage with not only the rest of Australia but the world, despite extreme physical distances and barriers.

Current issues within Australia of a social, political and ethical nature are more than ever a part of some Indigenous artists work as a platform of commentary. Destiny Deacon I think is one artists who does this really successfully, drawing on her background in social activism to make sometimes satirical but always carefully and beautifully composed work to make these comments subtle and reflective. One of the techniques she employs in her photography/installation work is the juxtopositioning of materials and objects that form Western stereotypes and transforming them to reflect back on colonial Australia whilst still examining contemporary Indigenous Australian identity and views. The fact that Deacon uses a Polaroid camera a lot to create her constructed imagery, like through the photography of artist Ricky Maynard, maintains a connection to Colonialism. The misrepresentation of Indigenous people the camera served in creating as an introduced Western tool, Indigenous artists like Maynard and Deacon have taken as their own to produce work which constantly reminds us of these past injustices.

I think it's interesting the connections made between Western technology and Indigenous people or communities. The laptops supplied to children have been a great tool for them which will help them explore and learn about contemporary Australia and also it's development from the past. This is something at the heart of Deacon and Maynard's work as well, but they do in different and unique ways as contemporary Indigenous artists.


References:

• Sarah Elks, "Indigenous kids get the plot", The Australian, August 22nd, 2011
• Sarah Elks, "For Doomadgee, laptops promise a future", The Australian, August 22nd, 2011
• Blaire French, "Destiny Deacon", in Twelve Australian Photo Artists, 42 (Annandale, NSW: Piper press, 2009)