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Comment on LETTER: Shire attacked over children’s service, responds by Ex-NT Whitefella.
Old Tjilbruke asks for constructive criticism and says that the letter failed to provide the reader and the Shire with any. Except for the following points of information:-
• locals should be making decisions about their future, not organisations
• plans aren’t community specific, but easily can be
• can be working towards NQS/ACECQA standards, but choose not to
• two way learning, using local staff to choose the best approach
• child raising practices by locals aren’t catered for
• needs to be culturally appropriate, but isn’t
• raise people off minimum wage, especially with staff that have served a long time
• staff were previously working towards qualifications, but Shire failed to do so since establishment
• basic first aid training, requirement for all staff in an early childhood environment
• finally, one other thing that was mentioned in the letter was that the Shire would not listen when she was on the job.
Enough constructive criticism?
You tell Ms Taylor that she is young in her career and that her experience is not enough to judge the system. In any position, it does not matter about the quantity of your work, but the quality.
Relating back to a community position, if you spend a long time in a community, fail to relate to the locals, fail to learn language and fail to see local practices, then you have failed at your job miserably – you are the uneducated! And it is very unfortunate for the educated that the uneducated generally remain that way.
Ex-NT Whitefella Also Commented
LETTER: Shire attacked over children’s service, responds
People of Ikuntji, has anything changed from two years ago?
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/06/29/2940212.htm
LETTER: Shire attacked over children’s service, responds
I feel sorry for Ms Taylor. Quite often whitefellas are pushed out of their positions in the NT because they gel too well with the community but cannot work with the organisation. A fact that resident of Ikuntji raised is quite a good one, workers in the NT should be learning language, especially in an early childhood environment where the children don’t learn an ounce of English until they reach school, and also the fact that English literacy levels are very low in adults.
Like Ms Taylor mentioned, “too many decisions are being made without community consultation” by organisations that will appear to be unable change their ways.
It seems like the simple things cannot be done by these organisations like first aid training, keeping up with government standards, raise on minimum wage, etc. even though the community members are happy to fulfill these essential requirements. I wish the best for Ms Taylor and hope that the organisation can learn to change their ways as it too is still young.
