Marginalisation transformed : a different perspective

Marginalisation is a matter of position and definition. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tertiary Entry Program (TEP) at Nulloo Yumbah, Central Queensland University’s Indigenous Learning, Spirituality and Research Centre, could be considered a program for transforming marginalisation. TEP employs emancipatory pedagogy to address marginalisation issues and to bring about a transformation in the lives of the students. How this is achieved depends on the positioning of people in relation to their view of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Those who accept the dominant paradigm that Anglo-Australians and their worldviews constitute the centre of Australian society would agree that Indigenous Australians live on the margins of Australian society. The aim of the program would then be to move people from the margins to the centre. For those who do not accept the relegation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the margins, the program would be about providing an alternative viewpoint. TEP provides opportunities for students to examine, discuss, analyse and critique many viewpoints, including those that seek to marginalise them. Thus they learn that they do not have to accept the labels that others put on them. They can reject stereotyping and become confident in themselves as their thinking is opened up to the many possibilities available to them. This chapter explores an education program which seeks to transform the view of many within Australian society (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves) about the marginalisation of those people.