This chapter presents a case study of Yirrkala School, a remote Indigenous school in the Northern Territory of Australia that has succeeded in maintaining its long-standing bilingual programme in spite of great pressure to move towards a...
moreThis chapter presents a case study of Yirrkala School, a remote Indigenous school in the Northern Territory of Australia that has succeeded in maintaining its long-standing bilingual programme in spite of great pressure to move towards a mainstream, English-only model. Bilingual policy and education in the region is discussed, and the history and current realities of Yirrkala School itself are described. The chapter draws on a set of interviews conducted in 2015–16 with community members intimately involved with designing and implementing the local school curriculum, as well as on various community-based publications spanning several decades. These are used to articulate local perspectives on the role of language and culture in the classroom and the journey of two-way education in Yirrkala.
