But since the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy was put in place in 1989, progress towards achieving the worthy goals of that policy has been, at best, mixed. There are many good programs in place at the Commonwealth and State and Territory levels, but the gap between Indigenous outcomes and those of the whole community refuses to go away. The good news is always qualified. The gap does persist, and it might be partly because education providers, and policy makers, are still coming to terms with what it really means to talk about crucial factors like cultural relevance, community involvement, the quality of education as seen by Indigenous people as opposed to the quantity of education offered to them. These crucial factors are generally recognised at the policy level, but they clearly take a while to translate into results out there on the ground.
Reconciliation suffers while that gap remains.
I think it's up to all of us to keep the pressure on among our peers and our elected representatives and in our communities. We must maintain the momentum. We must make sure that maximum impact is achieved from a growing pool of human resources, like those produced through the University of South Australia. Now to the second strand of the link between education and Reconciliation. Fear, prejudice, and even hatred take root so easily in a culture of ignorance - a sad fact that's been demonstrated time and time again in societies all over the world.