Joel talks about culture & curriculum (2:21)

For lecturers to – to teach and educate better, it’s – it really does come down to learning a little about our culture, and then understanding your student base and, you know, you can – you can angle things on, like – like the cooking class.  If there was just the one class that that lecturer had put in, and it was, you know, we were cooking witchetty grubs, it could be anything, if we were doing some sort of cultural thing, everyone would understand that.  We would feel a little more – because we did Asian cookery, we did Indian cooking, we did all these other things, you know, but there wasn’t a – a traditional, sort of, Indigenous dish.  I mean it would just – it just makes us feel accepted.  And acceptance, you know, it comes both ways like me as an Indigenous student, I had - I accept the views and cultural differences of others.  As a non-Indigenous lecturer, I think they need to do the same, they need to respect the differences, you know?  But that being said, they need to be educated on what those differences may be, and be able to pinpoint that.  Like it’s going to be different, I think, for each individual because of maybe what they’re teaching.  You know, like I said with cooking class they could have done some – an Indigenous dish.  If it was law, they could do some Indigenous law.  If it was, you know, if it was music, we – when I was doing music – the music I did in VET was awesome because the lecturer was from the Yothu Yindi band, so there was – you didn’t feel like black or white, we felt like students.  And, you know, there was – there was never any separation.  It never, ever felt there was a difference between the – the Asian student, the white student, the Indigenous student or the – any – you know, you didn’t feel any difference.  But in another class you kind of do.

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