NAIDOC award
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 126 No 5, 30 July 2021, page no.22
The QTU and the Independent Education Union - Queensland and Northern Territory Branch have been awarded the QCU NAIDOC Union Award.
Deputy General Secretary Brendan Crotty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer Rachel Bos proudly accepted the award from Uncle Bob Anderson.
The award was in recognition of our campaign to develop industrial guidelines for the employment of First Nations teachers and school officers engaged in First Nations cultural and language instruction, based on the concerns of First Nations members.
We recognise the phrase “First Language instruction” to have two components:
- The right of individual students to access the curriculum in their home language
- The teaching of First Languages to students from all backgrounds to ensure that the language is not lost.
In considering how our unions might best work with relevant stakeholder and employer groups to support and encourage more schools to offer First Language instruction, we are undertaking three key areas of work:
- documentation and dissemination of best practice case studies from our membership
- advocacy for First Language instruction (in both contexts – accessing curriculum in First Language and explicit teaching of First Languages)
- development of industrial guidelines for engagement of First Language teachers and instructors.
In engaging with this work, our unions are embracing an opportunity to conduct genuine consultation with First Nations stakeholders before establishing a log of claims, in order to strengthen our commitment to reconciliation.