By Sophie Scanlon
Elliot is an indigenous Australian student who has grown up in a regional town in Northern Australia. Elliot’s family had struggled to support him in a small town with limited resources but his local community is being supported by the Australian Government to ensure that the youth in the community are going to school.
According to the 2017 Census within Australia Indigenous people only make up 3% of the population. Whilst Canada has a slightly higher percentage of Indigenous people at 4.9%, according to the National Household Survey, but both countries are facing very similar problems.
The Closing the Gap campaign’s purpose is to close this gap and try to create an equal society. Canada is looking at statistics that may be a little different but follow a very similar trend. In 2006 only one-third of Indigenous adults aged 25 to 54 hadn’t completed high school education.
Canada has a bigger population and is older than Australia and this is reflected in the progress that Canada has made with their Indigenous population. Canada still has a long way to go and so does Australia.
These countries are not alone in their efforts to improve the lives of Indigenous people as it is a worldwide issue. From the USA to Norway Indigenous people are still being oppressed and each country is searching for a way to close the gap.
In regional towns across Australia the young indigenous population’s school attendance has been falling but with the Government’s new initiative which hopes to Close the Gap between indigenous and non- indigenous Australians attendance is improving.
Through this initiative, Elliot’s school attendance has drastically improved. The gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous student’s attendance is an issue which is similarly being faced by Canada. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) set targets in 2008 which aim to eliminate the gap in quality of life between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous people of Australia. School attendance officers working with schools, families, parents and community organizations to ensure all children get to go to school every day as a part of the remote school attendance strategy.
In 2017, nationally non-Indigenous student’s overall attendance was 93% whilst for Indigenous students it was only 83.2% according to the ‘Closing the Gap’ campaign.
The Closing the Gap campaign has drastically changed the lives of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The campaign has made lots of positive change and will continue to do so as more initiatives are introduced and more goals are achieved.