Save Aurukun School

LATEST NEWS ON OUR CRUSADE
      *About our group
      *Our campaign (it's big reading!)

Firstly thank you for your generous support. 

Today (3/8/16) it saddens us to hear that NAPLAN results come out of all Australian students today except for Aurukun kids.

Our school was foolishly shutdown a day before NAPLAN testing due to lawless teenagers carjacking the school principal at night in the community. 

Our kids NAPLAN results were on an upward climb. Was this all part of the government plan? They didn't want NAPLAN to prove that the Cape York Academy was achieving good results and closing the gap. 

The Queensland Government has since taken over our school and our kids are the losers:
* We have  lost our extended school day designed to accelerate our kids’ learning.
*The successful Direct Instruction method for reading, writing and maths has been cut back.
*We lost Club, and Culture Programs.
*The Academy band camp is no longer available to our kids.

We asked many many times for the Education Minister and the Premier to meet with us but they refused and government officers did not include our knowledge and thinking in the school review. The review was selective and shoddy.

One family has opted to home school their kids as they have no confidence in the government takeover.
*When will the government put our families and our children first over politics?

Thank you to all of you for your quick response and support. We are humbled that you have shown great generosity and care for the little people in Aurukun. Your donations helped to fund the publishing of our community petition in the Courier Mail newspaper and hundreds of campaign t-shirts worn proudly by our people in Aurukun in support of our revolutionary Cape York Academy school model. 

We remain hopeful that one day the Premier and Education Minister will listen to grassroots people like us - the women trying hard to make change for our children.






ABOUT The Wik Women's Group

The Wik Women's Group of Aurukun is a collective of like-minded women determined to make a better life for our families and children. 

We come from a long line of fearless crusaders, both men and women, who  fought long and hard for rights to our land and culture. 

Our Elders fought against the introduction of alcohol in our community and grieve the impact of passive welfare  on our culture. We have many struggles on our hands. We have no employment to provide us a future.Our community is hurting.

OUR CAMPAIGN

Today we are trying to save our school.  Ten years ago our schooling in Aurukun was appalling. Only 20% of teens attended high school which didn't provide what you would call a proper or mainstream education. Children were not learning to read or write in primary school. Our community leaders led education reform and successfully introduced a revolutionary schooling model. We have gone from 0% of Preps in 2010 reaching age level to 61% in 2016.

Following some violent midnight attacks on some teachers and the prinicpal by lawless youths, the Queensland Premier decided to close our school for six weeks. She plans to change the school model against our wishes. The Premier is not listening to mothers, aunties and grandmothers like us who send our children to school every day and witness the great achievement by our little ones.


We need the Premier to put politics aside and reopen our school with the model our community started in 2010. But we need her to listen. She is ignoring our many cries for help through letters and emails.

We need your help to campaign loud and clear about what Wik women want for our children. We need your help to travel to Brisbane to hopefully meet with the Premier and to publicise our very real concerns in newspapers that may help to influence government decision making over the next few weeks.  The welfare of our children have not factored in the government decisions so far. This is about politics and out of our control.

Education is the greatest tool that we can provide our children. We need our Cape York Academy school. And we need your help to keep it. 


Hundreds of local people in our small community are uniting behind this campaign that appeals to the Queensland Government to reopen our school immediately with our wonderful teachers and revolutionary school model. Children must come first.

There is no place for politics when it comes to our children. The Queensland Government must concentrate it efforts of safety and security. 
Thank you to everyone who has pledged support for our crusade for our children and their education.

Video: Phyllis Yunkaporta shares the story of Aurukun introducing Direct Instruction and the Cape York Academy model.

Below video: Wik mother of six Jenny Kawangka says her sons have excelled at the Cape York Academy.