Page 456 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

35 Australian Torres Strait Islander Students 431

P: What in the wind will make food burn?
B1: Aha! Oxygen mister, Yupla (you me fellows) that experiment, when you
cover the fire stops and when you open you have fire.
P: How can we test this?
[Conversation interrupted by Dean of Students entering room to make a sports
announcement]
Philemon introduced traditional drums to investigate kinetic (sound) energy
and this too proved popular. Students were eager to try different beats on the
drum and analyse waveforms on an attached oscilloscope and were fascinated
with the relation between the amplitudes and frequencies of the waveforms to
the loudness and pitch. One student commented: “I always knew there was
something special about the skin on the traditional drums, the way my man
popa (grandfather) makes them, I think we should investigate that next week,
should I phone him” (from Research Diary, April 2008). Students investigated
tightening and loosening (using the sun as a heat source) the skin of the drum,
and investigated the air pressure at the end of drum using a barometer to inves-
tigate compression and rarefaction. Philemon is convinced normalising cul-
tural diversity in science classrooms improves student participation and
engagement. Employing learning strategies that recognise and celebrate Torres
Strait Islander ways encourages students and generates enthusiasm, resulting
in the all-important “shining eyes, smiling faces” outcome. We think it is a
matter of educational justice to position indigenous students as knowledge
creators capable of controlling their own learning. Osborne and Tait (2002)
suggest it is time for teachers to test out, at the classroom level, a diversity of
approaches that reflects social justice as well as curriculum justice. We add
ecojustice to these considerations.
While climate change is not a focus of this research study, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to think about the Torres Strait islands and the future of
Torres Strait peoples without factoring in the cultural risks associated with sea
level rise, depleting fish stocks and coral reef extinctions. Professor Ross
Garnaut delivered the Eddie Koiko Mabo Lecture for 2009 at James Cook
University and argued that climate change is in the process of transforming pat-
terns of life in the Torres Strait Islands and on the adjacent shores of Australia,
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Garnaut highlighted a number of issues fac-
ing Islander people, including a loss of cultural heritage due to eventual reloca-
tion. Following the lecture, a member of the audience, Kanat Wano, made the
comment that Indigenous people of Australia were again facing cultural geno-
cide in the face of climate change. He is quoted as saying, “for Indigenous
Australians our land is our identity, it’s our heritage and climate change threat-
ens to destroy this land and to force us to move to other areas. This means a loss
of identity and culture to our people,” (JCU media release October 9, 2009).
That which can be done to mobilise Islander language(s) and celebrate Islander
ways of knowing and learning in the school science classroom is an act both of
adaptation and resilience to undesirable change.