Anna Shnukal

Some Language-Related Observations for Teachers in Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula Schools.

A note on the contradictory demands and expectations, like provision of the full mainstream curriculum and promotion of traditional culture, which is difficult but teachers can make a real difference to the students and community, is presented. Observations about one such difficulty, in teaching students English, whose first language is not English and for whom English may well be only one of several languages spoken, is provided.

Language in Learning at Thursday Island High Schoo

Last year I was approached by the Thursday Island High School in Torres Strait to analyse the major linguistic differences between Standard English and Torres Strait Creole – the language of the majority of the students – insofar as these affect the students’ comprehension and production of written English texts. In this, the High School was responding to a request by its Management Committee and general concern about the students’ acquisition of English literacy.

A bibliography of Torres Strait education

This non-selective bibliography is limited to published material and is part of the Bibliography of Torres Strait to be found on the Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Studies Unit’s website at . Torres Strait Islander authors are marked with an asterisk.

'Aspirational' Chinese: Achieving community prominence on Thursday Island, northeast Australia

The experience of the Chinese diaspora in Australia has been the subject of much academic attention in the past three decades. The prevailing narrative of the Chinese presence, which dates from early White occupation of Australia, has highlighted discourses of marginalization and exclusion for the Chinese pioneers who contributed so significantly to the economic development of the nation. Yet, despite their economic success, few Chinese gained regard and standing in mainstream colonial society and, of these, the best known resided in southern cities. Across northern Australia, far from the major population centers and seats of government, Chinese also became economically successful as agriculturists and merchants. Again, only a handful sought and obtained wider community acceptance, even local prominence. Our study draws on the diasporic experience of Chinese on Thursday Island in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to elucidate strategies employed by a minority to achieve social status within the general community. Through exploration of the socio-cultural forces influencing their choices — the dominant ethos of Thursday Island, multi-ethnicity and the consequences of anti-Chinese legislation — a unique portrait of the Chinese diasporic experience emerges, narrated through multiple sites of cultural collusion and contestation.