Indigenous Students at JCU

"I gained my Bachelor of Education under JCU's unique The Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP). RATEP means Indigenous students from remote communities can do most of their training in their communities. We used multimedia, CD-ROMs, printed material, teletutorials, as well as contact with our local tutor.

My family moved around a lot when I was at school — my Dad worked for the railways. As soon as I finished school, I knew where I wanted to be — up at Napranum on Cape York, where my father comes from. And that's where I did my degree, with RATEP.

Studying in the community means you've got your family around you, and all their encouragement and support. It keeps us culturally strong. And it means we can be role models — maybe some of the young people will look at us and see that they could study at university themselves one day."

To find out more about RATEP, go to Teacher Training for Remote Areas

"I am 48 years old and grew up in the Aboriginal settlement of Palm Island, under strict and harsh conditions. I carry the injustice of those times with me, and today being at university is helping to release those shackles. Every lecture that I go into, and the knowledge that I gain, releases the shackles even more. I am beginning to understand the structure of things and how Murris are oppressed and, like me, the more Murris get educated, the more free they will become.

"Some see education as a means to make a living or gain a profession, but for me it is more than that. I see it as a liberation and setting myself free as I learn about power structures — who I am, where I am and why am in the grand scheme of things. Whether I am working professionally with the knowledge I am gaining at uni, or whether I am sitting under a tree or on the ground with other Murris, this is knowledge that is going to help someone in a meaningful way. I want to support and help others. I never had much of an education and started work at 15. Sitting in a university lecture theatre or even walking down a corridor can be very confronting. Access to university or even a decent education was not available to my generation. Education is a stage of your life that you build on. If you don’t have that foundation you will be a prisoner for the rest of your life. I urge young people today to simply get educated. Vidi et scio — I saw and I know."

"I first enrolled in the Tertiary Access course at the School of Indigenous Australian Studies and am now in my first year of mainstream study. I find uni studies very challenging and rewarding. My goal is to complete the Bachelor of Psychology and work with Aboriginal people in the area of mental health and social health.

Gaining knowledge and education will enable me to develop professionally and obtain my goals. I was born in Bundaberg and went to school to Year 10, then left and had a family. I wanted to get myself education and, apart from raising a family, I wanted to fulfil other dreams. Now, as a mature-age woman, education is crucial. I want to support my children and act as a role model to my kids, relatives and other Aboriginal people."