Gudharraa ngalgarra yarringan Shining a light on urbanised disenfranchisement: Exploring the impacts of the Yes I Can Aboriginal adult literacy campaign in an urban setting

A key issue that prevents many Aboriginal communities in Australia from being able to engage in self-determining social and political participation is related to developing English literacy. While many adult literacy programs assume a deficit position in terms of people ‘lacking’ literacy, the Literacy for Life Foundation (LFLF) program takes a critical pedagogical approach with an emancipatory aim. While LFLF programs have been funded for non-urban Aboriginal communities, urban Aboriginal communities have not received similar attention. Using a critical Indigenous approach, this study explored the impacts on the participants involved in the LFLF’s first urban Aboriginal adult literacy pilot program in Campbelltown, NSW. It also considers the wider implications for individuals and the community when funding for this critical literacy program ceased after two iterations. The findings suggest that engagement in this urban LFLF pilot increased participants’ sense of self, confidence, connection to family and community, and contributed to a sense of empowerment that is commonly associated with critical literacy endeavours. More importantly, the urban LFLF pilot provided students with a reflexive sense of their place in the world and how their developing literacy was a result of how western education systems oppress Aboriginal peoples. However, the findings also suggest that these positive impacts were undermined by the cessation of the program, which ultimately resulted in anger, followed by apathy. This study provides further support for arguments about the invisibility of urban Aboriginal communities in policy and funding to ‘close the literacy gap’, as well as the evidence for the ongoing problems with the endemic ‘revolving door’ of policies aimed to redress structural marginalisation that Aboriginal peoples face. This points not only to the importance of creating sustainable, strength-based, community-led programs that are self-determined and not dependant on temporary funding, but also the critical need for further research on the impacts of literacy programs in an urban context.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Halliday, Michelle

• Aboriginal/Indigenous adult literacy
• anzsrc-for: 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY 4.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/24360

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/100653