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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 33 September 21, 2015
(front page)
Cuba’s program for Aboriginal
literacy expands in Australia
BY RON POULSEN
AND MANUELE LASALO
BREWARRINA, Australia — “What makes ‘Yes I Can’ so special is that it is
our own community running it,” said Jack Beetson, head of the Literacy
for Life Foundation. He was addressing more than 100 people, a majority
Aborigines of all ages, gathered for the Aug. 26 launch of the
Brewarrina First Nations Adult Literacy Campaign, which will be carried
out with collaboration from the revolutionary government of Cuba.
Brewarrina is an outback town of 1,500 people, over two-thirds of whom
are Aboriginal, 600 miles northwest of Sydney. “Sixty-five percent of
all Aboriginal people are functionally illiterate,” said Beetson,
presenting a barrier to them getting driver’s licenses, jobs and services.
The program “Yes I Can,” or “Yo Sí Puedo” in Spanish, draws on the
experience of the mass literacy campaign during the Cuban Revolution in
1961, during which more than 700,000 people learned to read and write. A
volunteer Cuban literacy teacher, who lives and works with the local
community, leads each session. Already some 90 adult Aborigines have
achieved literacy in three other remote towns where the program began,
contrasting to little progress from government courses.
Beetson explained why his hometown was next on the list. In 1849 up to
400 Aborigines were killed in a massacre nearby at Hospital Creek. This
was part of the long frontier war for control of the continent, first by
British colonists and then Australian capitalism.
Beetson spoke about the local Reserve, where Aboriginal people were
deported from their ancestral lands to live in “tin shacks with dirt
floors, hot in summer and cold in winter, no better than dog kennels.”
The Reserve manager could walk in at any time.
In 1987, Brewarrina erupted in angry protests, branded a “riot” by the
media, after Lloyd Boney, a young farm laborer, died in police custody.
The launch was held by ancient stone fish-traps on the Barwon River,
where thousands from different tribes traditionally gathered to feast.
Used for 40,000 years before British colonization, the Ngunnhu Traps may
be the world’s oldest surviving man-made structures.
The Aboriginal people “have survived because of our ability to change
and adapt,” Pat Anderson, a director of Literacy for Life, said. “Being
able to read and write is the next adaptation we have to take to be able
to survive.”
Cuban Ambassador to Australia José Manuel Galego said that since the
revolution, Cuba’s internationalism has meant more than 100,000 teachers
have served in “different countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
More than 200,000 doctors have been sent to 150 countries in the world,”
including Pacific islands neighboring Australia.
Mark Coulton, National Party Member of Parliament for the large outback
electorate, and Angelo Pippos, mayor of Brewarrina, also spoke.
“At school, I never really learnt, like a lot of people,” Kelvin Smith,
43, a sheep shearer who is Aboriginal, said. “I got sent to the back of
the room. I didn’t know how to use a phone or put words into sentences.”
After 13 weeks in the nearby Bourke course, he graduated from Yes I Can
with new self-confidence.
Traditional Aboriginal dancers opened the launch. Ngemba elder Ernie
Gordon sang a song he wrote for the program with the lyrics, “Literacy
for life can make us strong. I can do it, you can do it, yes we can!”
The event ended at the community hall, where the classes will be held,
with a barbecue of “bush tucker,” including freshly hunted kangaroo and
emu.
Related articles:
Vietnam event: Fight to end US embargo on Cuba!
Cuba, Angola and ‘the most beautiful cause’ — the defeat of apartheid:
‘Visions of Freedom’ tells ‘true history’ of Cuban Revolution’s selfless
internationalist example in southern Africa
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