Beth Graham began teaching Indigenous children at Yirrkala in the Northern Territory in 1963, as retold in her book Dear Family: Letters from Arnhem Land 1962–1966.
In this memoir she takes that story forward, recalling a long career working as a teacher-linguist at Yirrkala in the early 70s and later as an advisor working across remote communities in the Northern Territory and elsewhere, as an advocate for bilingual education for indigenous children. Apart from the teaching of literacy and numeracy, her focus was also on team teaching, where two teachers from vastly different languages and cultures work together to ensure Indigenous children learn effectively in both languages. The book also tells stories of the home life of a family living and learning in another culture.
Beyond a memoir, however, this book is a lament about current approaches to the education of Indigenous children from remote communities that fail to respect and understand their culture and language and do not use this knowledge as a starting point for their school education.
Above all it is a reflection on the way living in another culture can open your eyes to another way of seeing the world.
