Like a Kangaroo Watching

Like a Kangaroo Watching

Mervyn Wilkinson Organisational change agent and educational leadership consultant

A paper advocating the Embracing of Black Complexity within current Schooling Systems for the elimination of the existence of systemic racism in institutions. This is a 2021 adaptation of a paper presented to 2006 International Conference of the Australasian Evaluation Society Inc. with the intent of striving for a fairer Australia.

Introduction

When I wrote this originally in 2006 I said it was still evolving.

Well in 2021 it is still evolving with the questions seeking answers for racism in schools; an ancient ongoing problem.

I offer this adaptation in the current contexts of conversations in the media about systemic racism to ask questions, present a point of view and to add insights for systemic leaders striving to change their organisations for the good of all, not some.

Racism in Australian institutions has occurred since our early white settlers arrived upon this continent.

The racism story repeats itself everyday now across ethnicities, groups and castes systemically throughout the nation.

For this article, in schools, where there are interracial divides we pretend it does not occur much; we do not shine the light upon it, but it exists “bigtime” in schools and online.

The subject of this 2006 case study was played out in a place we call “school” in a small rural community in Queensland, Australia. I used it as an example of systemic racism that needs to be “fixed”. It was just one example of thousands of institutions that grapple with racism everyday; systemic racism, often unknowingly perpetuating it.

Metaphorically, it is as if in the middle of a (racial) pandemic, people do not social distance and do not wear masks let alone have a jab of a (anti-racial strategic) vaccine. People are seemingly blind and deaf to the problem of racism.

Current social change phenomena such as Black Lives Matter and systemic police killings occur with individuals taking the blame whilst it is the systems that are in error, not just the individuals and groups. Change leaders, managers and agents responsible and accountable for systemic equality and for ensuring social justice and human rights take note that there is a new dawning, belated as it is, but nevertheless significant not just for America but for Australia.

It is really a story that is not new. No-one in leadership and power seems to move things. Nothing of great consequence happens.

A lot of great organisations and people are doing their best and making great in-roads but it seems that there is an anchor, a leaded weight I call the “system” pulling things back to where they were perhaps inadvertently or even deliberately or ignorantly structured to be.

Enable your systems, and particularly the leaders and staff be they in education or police or health or any other systems to eliminate racism and prejudice.

Racism in systems is happening silently, invisibly, inaudibly before us everyday…it happens across all institutions, not just these places we call “schools”… a travesty of educational injustice and a problem that sits upon all our educational consciences.

Whilst much has happened since 2006, indeed since 1770, it remains a familiar refrain that manifests in educational illiteracy and lack of numeracy and then in racial profiling and incarceration of Indigenous youth, to note examples. Look at the statistics proportionately of Indigenous incarceration. Witness why the Uluru Statement from the Heart was thrown out before lunchtime the day after it was presented to the then supposedly “withit” and “smart” PM.

Yes, maybe the systems we have were structured to keep castes in their place.

Maybe, just maybe these systems are operating very successfully based upon key assumptions that keep certain people down and percolate certain others up. Systems that seem to accept that black kids do not have to read or write or count as good as white kids.

No more.

Black kids deserve the best. They deserve to be able to have the best opportunities to read and write and do many things in society.

The systemic situation in Indigenous schools from my limited experiences is already known by local, state and federal politicians, decision makers, directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, principal officers- whatever their titles and positions of institutional authority.

There are high ranking officers, public servants, principals and other teachers who know about Indigenous failures and who are doing some work upon the issues- but no sustainable change and sustainable results seem to be appearing in a consistently recurring, regular manner and in some places no action occurs at all.

Is it that administrators and politicians prefer to turn a blind eye, then rationalise that they are doing “something”, or look for some scapegoat, or use for their benefit a stereotypical, sensational, news flash media event?

If this is correct in school systems what about police systems, corrective services, health systems? I worked on post Fitzgerald Royal Commission recommendations on the reduction of black deaths in custody. This work is long overdue for more energy and systemic change today. Many recommendations after thirty years are still not implemented. Why is that Australia? Where are the leaders? Where are the change agents? C’mon Aussie, c’mon!!

Are they structured around a certain power group to maintain power and keep others servile?

Often people in high places seem to address problems and change, but in order to stay the same; or they do things in order to try to generate spin-off, so-called credibility and publicity for themselves?

There are many who try and do great works. But why the continuing failures?

Why do we have kids be they Indigenous or otherwise failing school in systems of schooling?

Let’s not blame the parents or home situations; blame the teachers too…if anyone…and blame the policies and procedures of the schooling system. Blame the system.

And, why do we have so many youth incarcerated?

Why do we have so many die in police and corrective custody? It is the concurrence of policies, programs and practices and patterns of thought and actions we call the “systemic culture”.

Black Australians will not be lied to anymore, without knowing what is happening for real. There is an awakening. People will not be bullied or tricked by non-transparency and spin weaving.

Australians of all colours and castes and hierarchies have to realise that the egalitarianism our founders once espoused (or did they?) needs to be fought for and all of us own this challenge.

The system to me seems structured and policed and administered wrongly. At the moment the system works well to keep certain parts down and other parts up. We need to totally change elements of the procedures and the underlying assumptions to restructure the systems in order to attain justice for all... That’s for another change agent conversation.

We are realising that we have old forms of seeing and perceiving the roles of our institutional forces in the past and we need to develop new ways of seeing and leading these entities. We need to give the people of communities the ability to share the power to run schools.

Who owns schools?

Surely the community. School organisations were once seen as machines, factories, input-outputs, actions and reactions, forces and responses, evolving from Newtonian influences. They still are…

Many people in our administrative offices still see them as machines. Lots of people who administrate are "just doing their jobs" they tell me, and have not given the slightest thought about how and what they are doing with their actions and decisions and effects upon these black kids. They come to work, collect their pay and continue the process. Failure is perpetuated, unwittingly, or is it?

I wonder if this is the same in most professions and institutions? It is no wonder we perpetuate inequities.

How do we change this?

Leaders who perpetuate institutional racism should retire and let new minds take over…get out of the way!

We have to weed out the weavels, as it were. No time to put up with people not rowing the boat towards equity and social justice.

There is a need for changing the mental model of a machine organization, in particular, towards Indigenous schools as the world and the pace and nature of our tasks in Indigenous society change. 

I have taught in black classrooms in the Pacific, America and Australia. It is time we all changed. For some of us, we burn out by standing up and arguing against injustices and silly decisions of power-wielding "bureaucrats" and ignorant, conservative, weak politicians; to seemingly small blockages by mandarins in charge of finance and programs, but whose decisions, like the butterfly in Peru, have a large negative effect upon results in black classrooms.

To be constructive, let me suggest what we could do as leaders to begin the process of change.

We as leaders now need to take certain steps towards action below, not necessarily in this order:

Assess the current situational state of the containers, differences, and transforming exchanges in the school organisation; Acknowledge there is racism inherent in your organisation- first important step…get over it…accept the fact. Select an institutional racism condition that is easiest to affect, say through a complex force field analysis process; Make an intervention; Evaluate the shift in the practices and process of the organisation; Then withdraw to allow self-organising to re-fit with the new internal environment and external pressures.

It is not rocket science- just political science.

Just like the "small" decisions of bureaucrats and gatekeepers that affect larger outcomes; small immediate changes can have a large impact. Self-organising conditions of schools as organisations are inter-dependent. As the community school system shifts, the change agent/leader repeats the process to re-assess, intervene and evaluate once more prior to further interventions.

This is similar to an action research process of query/question /seek information/ plan/take action/reflect…then go into next cycles of questions/ plans/ actions/ reflections in a systematic manner which is part of the procedural resetting of culture and sub-cultures of the organisation.

This, again, is not rocket science. But it does need the right principles of operation and positive attitudes towards black kids and community people.

Models of change for schools have varied. There have been many successes. But more failures or changes in order to return to failures.

In the future and now, we must realise that:

Order emerges as opposed to some hierarchical order or linear approach; the systems history is irreversible; the systems future is unpredictable; and…leading agents are the semi-autonomous units that try to maximize "organisational fit" over time. It is a new way of “change agenting” making things happen.

This new paradigm of seeing school organizations emerges from findings in the "new sciences" chaos, complex adaptive systems, complex processing systems, non-linear dynamics, quantum theory, revolutionary ways of thinking about causality in natural systems. I see these as relevant to Indigenous schools.

Researchers and writers of the emerging paradigm talk about the conditions for self- organisation.

These are: (I) "Container"… In a school this sets the bounds for the self-organising system. It defines the entity, or the "self" that organises. It can be physical eg. geographic location; organisational eg. department, function; behavioural eg. culture, role, conceptual egg identity, purpose, procedures, rules, budgets. (ii)"Significant Differences"…within a school are factors which determine the patterns that emerge during the processes of self-organising. Any difference that exists in the system can serve to shape emerging patterns. Complex adaptive systems CAS can have unlimited differences so the emerging results are full of endless possibilities. It is for example in an Indigenous or highly diverse multi ethnic school not about just conforming to a white bureaucracy's set of rules. The differences embrace elements of power, expertise, quality, cost, gender, heritage and "race" and culture, and Indigenous students' educational backgrounds. This is the challenge of the systems and people who are leaders striving for fairness of systems. Adaptability of rules and procedures, expectations; flexibility…(iii) "Transforming Exchanges" are the connections between system agents eg. money, information, energy, expertise-the "media" for transforming exchanges….facilitating the changes to the system, together with the differences and the characteristics of the containers. These materialise in face-to-face meetings, emails, web pages, products and services, financial decision meetings, memos, minutes, departmental newsletters, ministerials, phone calls, and flexible delivery systems of communication.

How does this theory work in a school system?

The Self-Organising Process moves towards an integrated system in which education is an important hub for example in schools with Indigenous children.

The leadership roles of principals and other school leaders as a change agent/managers are linked closely to this concept of complex adaptive systems philosophy. For example, we now need principals to be untraditional leaders, to know about complexity, to depend upon connections, to be emergent, to be adaptive to uncertainty in the school culture, to expect conflict and deal with these constructively, to share across systems all the working processes and to fit their schools with their environments of culture and socioeconomic milieu. To embrace complexity of black life in communities, for example, the principals need to understand, among other knowledge, the assumptions about change; such as:

·      Complex adaptive system assumptions about change

·      Complex adaptive systems can work subject to connections between system agents.

·      Groups follow predictable stages of development whilst system agents adapt to uncertainty.

·      Clear goals and structures emerge as goals, plans and structures Values achieve consensus amid tension between self-similarity and difference

·      Levels of intervention (individual, group and organisation) occur within self-similarity across the system

·      Success is defined by not as we often say: “closing the gap with a preferred future” but instead by adapting to survive and thrive and re-fit with the pressures and forces of the ever-changing new environment.

·      Link these to the embracing of black complexity.

As well as focusing upon the above assumptions, leaders of schools with Indigenous kids, for example, indeed with kids from any part of the world as well; must remember to address the artifacts, values and assumptions of the teachers, other Indigenous staff, community members and others in their school.

Listen and respond, not command and control anymore. Let systems emerge under sets of principles such as respect and cooperation.

Throughout the journey of change they then develop a collaborative vision for success and higher student achievements.

Again, its not rocket science!

To uncover school cultural assumptions and embrace black complexity for example we all need to realise and enact Artifacts that are made visible such as our school’s organisational structures and processes; we need to find out our school’s espoused Values Strategies, goals and philosophies and we need to find out what the basic Underlying Assumptions which are Unconscious taken for granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, attitudes, feelings (ultimate sources for our personal, group and organisational values and actions). This all requires specialisation of inputs and clever and refined mobilisation, getting people aboard and group facilitation. It needs change agentry.

The main role of leadership in uncovering levels of organisational culture (such as the assumptions above) and directing these towards progressive outcomes in Indigenous communities for example is to engage meaningfully with all system people and to foster their interconnectedness, not to try to control those interactions. The interactions among system agents who operate in Indigenous societies produce patterns of change.

In a CAS the system agents are massively entangled so one way to influence change is to influence the interactions such as: counselling, coaching, mentoring, workshopping, asking process questions, providing expertise, or listening and watching, and observing. These are significantly important roles for people in black schools. How can we minimise, eliminate, stall and change Indigenous failures in this school and others?

Let’s at least remember from my case study data and other research data that there is no single source of change, no single source to blame. Go to the Australasian Evaluation Society if you wish to read the whole data sets and commentary with voices from communities.

In Newtonian physics we borrow language and concepts such as "pressure, forces, momentum, inertia, resistance" etc. Our traditional change strategies are often derived from a force for change; so we find a champion, convince senior management, enforce expectations, and anticipate and overcome resistance…..as if the change is a solid object to be moved from A to B. But this is not sustainable….it is doomed to failure.

No one agent or group in a system can effect change in a deep manner. It is only one source. It is hierarchical and like the playground can be seen as organisational “bullying”.

Change such as eliminating systemic racism is complex and there are many interacting sources and feedback loops and interventions, multiple messages, accumulation of integrated activities, histories and actions of teachers and staff and relationship nurturing of staff and students and community by a school leader in an Indigenous school which can help.

Principals and other leaders can ensure all these feedback loops operate freely and with relationship, self esteem and trust building and with results productively with directional patterns of behaviour and with minimal interventions and unobtrusively where necessary.

Strive for connectivity organisational and individual learning, communication, iterative processes of relationship building and embracing of black identity, and adaptability through connectivity, dialogue and collaboration with community.

There are dilemmas for change agents in Indigenous communities: Unreadiness for change of leaders, motivation of leaders in trying to introduce a particular change idea, closed pathways of dialogue and thinking and old mental models of managing behaviour, discipline, community voices etc all have an effect upon changing the situation in school.

School leadership and system change I suggest from the data that we could open up areas for investigation in leadership styles and behaviours, working relationships, appraisal methods etc to open up communication and information channels with Indigenous communities.

We could involve senior and middle managers in opening up channels so they experience and see the results and the new energy and growth of cultural strength in the system. They could be principal for a week.

We could ensure there are consultants trained in connectivity and communication, dialogue, conflict resolution, negotiation, fierce conversations and group processes ensure they are agents in helping to open up channels and feedback loops as well as continuing the process.

This way the system reaches new levels of self organising capacities and new patterns of culture emerge. Group and individual consulting techniques for facilitating change are important in these Indigenous schools. Principals and staff could welcome such moves by system infrastructural entities. Leaders in Indigenous communities need to learn to adapt their people to dealing with uncertainty. Stages of development of the curriculum, the new project in the school, the community meeting etc. are not always predictable. Organizational changes are non-linear in reality. The need for control by white staff needs to be submerged. Staff need to realise that goals, however well defined will continue to change and emerge in such school communities subject to ongoing dialogue and debate in the homes.

Clear detailed planned goals should be left on the bookshelf for presenting to system officers when they arrive but I am afraid teaching and learning in Indigenous communities does not flow by a plan or by a book. In real systems the goals emerge, change, plans and structures will change according to the effects of interactions and the characteristics of the community school, differences of thinking and behaviour of staff and the communicative and transforming exchanges that occur between staff and Indigenous community.

What is important is to amplify the differences of views and creative ideas from the community rather than try to build unnatural consensus by suppressing creativity often. That unfortunately assists systemic racism.

A brainstorming process that picks out commonalities does not necessarily move the self organisation forward. Differences become points for growth.

A self-similarity approach of leadership personnel which, in effect, searches for interventions that entwine levels and patterns across levels of interaction and activity and decision making across the life of the school to try to "fit" the new and ever changing environs of the Indigenous community is the natural advantage for such schools as systems.

There are some other key principles that leaders in Indigenous communities who try to embark upon this complex adaptive systems approach must "live" out: Responsibility, authority and decision making are distributed among system agents; variation and experimentation are the vehicles for change; purpose for change is to increase resiliency and capacity for continuous adaptation; and focus of change effort is the current functioning of the organisation.

There are many mental models of how Indigenous organisations can be changed. Free yourselves from the old paradigms of hierarchy and control. You cannot control anything, really. Well, not as much “control” as we think we can. Life and organisations are much more fluid, flexible and uncertain in these new times. In the end it may be simply to let the human value of the enterprise of the school emerge, surface, finds its place in the learning environments of school workplaces and for administrators to embrace the skills and expertise that is nurtured and emits from the ground. 

Indigenous societies deserve to self-regulate, evolve, emerge and live out as complex adaptive systems. Indigenous schools are such entities. Leaders should be aware of such characteristics of Indigenous schools and act accordingly. Within my text above lies some wisdom of how to progress through the quagmire and chaos of continuing school failure. But this is the beginning. There is much more to do.

Conclusion

Moving from the above school change and complex adaptive systems development activities oriented to the new paradigm and metaphors of complexity, let us now return to the evaluative issues.

This evaluation asserted that whilst leaders and managers of centralist educational systems can be positive forces for student achievement everywhere, they can be a disempowering challenge to parents and students who are on the societal fringe economically, socially and culturally; who are not central to the decision making and authoritative structures of power.

These authorities made up of culturally dissonant people from the so called "fringe" communities, not in real touch with black society hand out decisions and enable consequences to flow in terms of staffing, recruitment, professional development, curriculum change, community involvement and decision making. It is no wonder we have what we call “systemic racism”.

There is little community "say" in the school or real local influence and community power in the running of these places of learning for black children. One has to realise that these are disenfranchised people, barnacled, as it were upon the low economic rung of Australian class order, rendered unemployable, rendered unemployment benefits people class, "sit-down" money people and people who in spite of their pride and great dignity, are not helped to help themselves educationally as much as they can possibly be assisted by systems under our control.

Whilst the white bureaucrats and educational decision making dominators will deny these statements from the community which I presented in 2006; nevertheless there is no denying the facts that: leaders, managers and personnel within educational management systems, district and regional offices, and central offices are made up of role playing people, sometimes power=wielding people who have been given structural authority; often people climbing career ladders, people sometimes greedy and threatened by power and people who whilst espousing the rhetoric of Indigenous achievement and change, actually delay, and stop student achievement change occurring. Some answers to the challenges posed about black, educational, systemic complexities within white structures, may transpire, from this small case study evaluation.

My task in 2006 was merely to see, hear, analyse, interpret and comment from the perspectives of my respondents and my own black complexity perspectives. All so-called solutions that transpired needed to be contextualised for particular sites and communities and groups.

Given the difficulties of societal realities at these places, differing opinions, perspectives and world views, there may possibly be no easy, simple solutions to such complex problems of learning and higher Indigenous achievement. We read and speak about poorer societies in other continents of the world; I have seen the reality with my own eyes as fact in Australia, the people on the margins of capitalist and so-called democratic, free, societal systems of governance have an ongoing struggle to achieve, to be recognized, to be economically, educationally and socially liberated.

Black voices are stifled, black phoenixes are rendered useless in ashes and this situation gives rise to the glowing embers of defiance and a simmering educational revolution.

These are my perspectives only, nobody elses. I hold them dear and true. Black dots within a white mist.

In the end higher student outcomes are affected. The struggle goes on. It really should not be happening. How can this be changed for the better?

This story continued after I left that remote community school with its fantastic people and their wonderful zest for life in spite of their social and economic milieu. As I observed and participated in the work of teachers in an Indigenous context across Australia I notice with the greatest of my Pacifika pride that the black spirit lives on in this school, still, and I know in many other black communities Australia-wide/ Nothing can quench the thirst for emancipation through education; and the silent resolve, the strong sense of all in seeking liberation from the power of administrative control of their school; not even systemic racism.

The patience, the ancient wisdom, the elders knowledge and forthrightness and indeed, even a sense of humour resides; knowing that the moral good is on the side of this community, on many communities.

As one respondent cheekily said: “White is black and black is now “white”!

This whole scenario and dilemma about Indigenous education and the under-achievement of Indigenous kids should come as no surprise. Queensland has a history of separate development. It is in the psyche of public service mindsets and actions of the past. This is a class society. People, unfortunately are placed upon rungs of the economic ladders of opportunity. Sadly, our institutions gave ideas of dealing with blacks to the old South Africa.

We, both white Australians and black and many in-between people and colours are programmed to accept this status quo. We are blinded by what is; and, we do not know what we do not know-we do not know what should be. But South Africa has cast apartheid aside now and thankfully begun anew, in spite of their continuing challenges.

The educational revolution here in Australia has begun. Mindsets, attitudes of white people, some black and powerful white teachers and administrators however, are still barnacled in the past, in old silos of power. Many are still old fashioned mission-aries on the road to converting the “savages” to their ideals.

We now need passion-aries…fairdinkum, socially and intellectually smart, culturally adaptive and intelligent teachers with a love of black students and communities, irrespective of their colour or religion or social background.

We need technically excellent teachers in these communities who are willing to give 110% to learn about each child and his/her life to help them to grow and learn and achieve like any other kid in this nation.

But we also need the systemic people, the mindsets and the administrative structures to support them to the utmost. And these systemic people need the right mindsets. That’s when things might change.

Many reports in the past, including the recent 2004 Queensland Ministerial Advisory Committee for Educational Renewal Report into Indigenous Education and more recent ones highlight the ongoing need for improving performance levels of Indigenous students in numeracy and literacy. In policies and strategies and programs much seems to be happening; yet nothing happens; much seems to be said; and yet, results stay the same.

Australian Indigenous education is an issue of significance nationally because of the failure of white systems to accelerate the success of black kids academically and socially.

Failure has been a hallmark of educational system administrators for decades. And, they allow it to continue, in spite of the rhetoric.

Every year we witness, in this 21st century more of the same failures and more of the same excuses. Comments about how we are doing a little better with Indigenous results, but what would the responses be if it were white kids' results? It is as if (from a black person's view) an add-on problem, unimportant; and an ongoing thing we have to deal with gradually. Yet the mandarins will quote figures and statistics to offset these qualitative, sensitivities of a place and a school to protect their cushy jobs and fat salaries.

But the reality is that black kids- too many of them- fail. The time is now. The governments and the public servants and administrators would be ousted from their meeting rooms, padded seats, polished desks and car allowances; mobile phones, trips, conferences and three figure salaries, if it was a white problem. People would revolt. The black facts are: Numeracy and literacy rates for Indigenous kids remained well below the achievement of mainstream Australians back in 2005. I believe there has been progress and many things and institutions , mainly black institutions are endeavouring to change things; with many successes in changing the situation but more is needed. Nothing systemic is really biting into it from my observation…and I certainly hope I am incorrect in 2021 and that there are statistics to show that good things are really happening. There is much tinkering at the edges, some full and half-hearted efforts- from bureaucracy and governments but nothing with real verve, energy, commitment and money and resources to change the status quo. Nothing with change agentry energy and go-detter oomph and no more mucking around…pretending…it seems…time for real action…the kids , our kids and societies suffer.

To date, it seems not much has resulted. Black kids come to school, have a sort of a go, live through the experiences and await on average, in spite of great exceptions, under achieving results.

In conclusion, my mind continues unravelling black complex issues, searching for soluble simplicity out of a socio-economic, educational landscape of messiness through adapting and/or changing systems of governance of schools and adaptability to new cultural and social milieu in these varied communities.

But my thoughts remain evolving, awash with surprises at continuing micro-political and administrative and power dynamic incidents that I read about and are reported to me at these schools and communities around the nation.

There is a recurring theme. In reviewing the responses of my data set, I asked in 2006 about school systems:

·      Is it more than structure?

·      Is it really the mindsets of people, how they think about black kids and communities?

·      Is it school culture?

·      Patterns?

·      Is it about how these people in positions of power and resources and rules see their relationships and their stakes with these communities and how they then make authoritative, structurally driven decisions ?

·      Is it these people who, albeit unwittingly and with the best of intentions, perpetuate a continuing failure of Indigenous educational achievement and indirectly a continuing second class life style and life chances of Indigenous Australians ?

·      Because, when it comes down to things, structures are in our minds.

Rules are in our minds.

Programs, projects, the ways we do things and the regulatory networks are initiated in the minds of each of us. We are the structures we make.

We need to change this structural status quo through renurture-ing black lives, through embracing and developing relationships that are trustworthy, built of high respect and esteem and based upon best practice for the new economy with black Australians.

Are we doing this now? We say we are. The rhetoric is everywhere. But we are not doing it together or even enough. There are still unsatisfactory results.

Our system report card reads: "Must do a lot better...". Every individual working with Indigenous kids needs to take a look at what might be on his/her report card? “.............has failed again this year!" perhaps.

As one of my community respondents commented: ‘It has taken over 200 years and we still ain’t got it right- why don't they give 'em the sack and ask somebody else to have a go ?’

I consider it a privilege to have lived my life as a black Australian. Generally people are fairminded and supportive of difference. Institutions try hard.

I wrote this in 2006 as I was immersed in a school struggling to stand up proud out of the long grasses of the outback: “ Deep within the canyons of many individuals that make up what we call "institutions", in their individual and collective mindsets is an attitude towards Indigenous Australians that is second rate, callous, uncaring, stereotyping and downright, blatantly racist.”

In 2021 I wonder if much has changed?

I, personally have had it relatively easy compared to my brothers and sisters. In some ways I am a "luckier" black Australian than my brothers and sisters of these communities which I observed. It is an ironic and privileged role to have had the task and life changing opportunity of observing this evolving social dynamic. I was immersed within it for three full years and it changed my life. I grew in the highest respect for Indigenous Australians.

For this article, my ideas are complex, my intentions absolutely geared for goodwill, and my emotions were hurting then in 2006 and are hurting now in 2021…still work needs to be done. I write for you, as a leader, change agent and someone who I hope might commit to doing something about Indigenous education too.

I wrote in 2006: “Close immersion within black complexity does something to one's soul, one's thinking. It is okay for me. I can leave here. It is okay for you the reader. But these people, these families, these children live here. I want them to succeed here.”

Life in a black cultural context with its socio-economic and educational realities of these children and their families is a challenge white Australia has not even begun to get a hold on. And it won't occur until the minds of the people in power allow the interface, the interactive endeavours and the connectivity of people, the ownership and sharing of decision making and power for the future happen in the right way.

I offer this paper and what it says, in conclusion, as an opening up of unsaid realities, as a beginning document for other researchers with heart, mind and soul for black Australian kids, and with research skills far above mine.

If you are reading this on LinkedIn I challenge you to take up this baton, and help make a difference that has gone on too long.

There are so many wonderful teachers, beautiful kids, great public servants and leaders who are trying so hard to make Indigenous kids reach higher levels of attainment.

But there is an ongoing stumbling block that persists.

It is intangible and invisible but lies at the very core of educational culture in our systems.

It is the basic underlying assumptions that are held by all of us individually, in groups, meeting rooms of power, decision making teams, curriculum development and professional associations and classrooms and staffrooms: about whether these Indigenous children deserve the best teachers, the best teaching, the best resources, the best infrastructures that our democracy can provide.

I do not think from what I have observed in one small site that this is in the affirmative.

And, as Indigenous people say: this situation is something we as Australians should be ashamed about.

After that 2006 conference, I returned to these communities, and watched the reactions to my paper, stood next to the eucalypt gums, played cricket with the black kids themselves; and at the end of the day as the sun set there was ...stillness; and I, continued observing, waiting for a change- like a kangaroo watching...as I heard the laughter of children playing.

These kids I felt had little hope once and there was new hope brought by my Indigenous colleagues afresh…new energy…new concepts…new leadership.

We need black leaders, black teachers, black principals and stronger community representation in the decision making bodies of bureaucracies and places we call “schools”.

White systems in the past did not assist black kids much, white clouds have misted out these little black dots. These were the kids whose lack of learning were the original reasons and basis upon which teachers and administrators and leaders like you and me and others more important and influential build careers and futures.

But some things have begun to change since we “surfed the complexity of the systemic waves” against the tides of white systemic control…in 2006 using black surfers, as it were. There are affirming stories occurring. But so much more is needed.

Have we realized that these are our kids?

Our responsibilities?

These are the kids who will be our leaders tomorrow.

These are the kids who will be our future parents and decision makers.

These are the kids also who will be our potential revolutionaries.

Our systems must assist, not destroy.

Weed out the ignorance.

Throw away the waste.

Resign if you are a racist leader. Australia does not need you. Educational systems certainly do not need you.

Future Australian society certainly does not need you.

Let’s clean up our systemic acts.

All the data I presented in 2006 in the original case study posed for educators and administrators and politicians one message:

Sixteen years later in 2021 and some may say 251 years later….

Could we, now serve the learning needs of our kids, towards higher student outcomes?

Could we do this together, equally, and more appropriately, more urgently, through bureaucracy, leadership and authorities of education?

And, so...the obvious final question:

How much longer must we continue failing with outmoded systemic assumptions and values and practices before we embrace black complexity in schools successfully?

Indeed, not just in schools but how much longer must we continue failing in police-ing, health and many other systemic areas and departments and corporations?