Yirara College

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Yirara College is a 24-hour-7-days-per-week boarding school. The school was established in 1975 as a government secondary residential college for Aboriginal students from isolated central Australian communities.

In 1993 Yirara College became a non-government provider of education, changing its name to Yirara College of the Finke River Mission Inc, under the auspices of the Lutheran Church of Australia. This change was made in part because as a non-government Aboriginal college, the majority of funding would come from federal, rather than territory, government sources and in part because the Aboriginal members of the school governing council supported the move to Christian education.

Yirara College has two closely interwoven domains. One is the academic domain, the other is the boarding component, both being very important. The broad objective of Yirara College is to provide traditional young people with an academic and social experience that will equip them to operate in the non-indigenous domain as effectively as they operate in their own traditional domain.

English literacy, is the key to achieving this objective. The educational programs of the school day must, therefore, satisfy the following criteria.

1 Develop English language skills - oracy and literacy
2 Provide an understanding of the cultural/social context in which the English language operates
3 Provide an understanding of the non-indigenous world view.

The other area operating within the school is that of the boarding program, specifically what happens in the boarding house. Given the lower priority that formal education has in the traditional Aboriginal world view, it is important that the boarding program, meets the needs of Aboriginal teenagers and complies with the wishes of Aboriginal parents.

A prerequisite to improving the literacy of Aboriginal students is to improve their oracy. To give students the opportunity to learn to speak and think in English, it is beneficial to immerse them in an environment where English is the predominant language. It is important that this environment acknowledges and respects the cultural values, social mores and world view of Aboriginal people.