“I’ve always thought about that lesson and those lessons from teachers who have that incredible power to really affirm their children in the classroom, even if you are so different from the rest.”

Today, the data is clear that education is fundamental to improving outcomes for First Nations people, yet Indigenous students continue to lag behind the broader population.

“Instead of us thinking about Aboriginal people — us as people failing — we need to look at what’s the responsibility of the system itself and to not position ourselves as helpless in the process, but think of how we change a system and how we change what teachers learn and how they operate within a classroom.”

Teacher Jaimee Leigh Wiley shares a story with her class at Cherbourg State School in Queensland. Credit: The Point

Less than 2 per cent of registered teachers in Australia are Indigenous and Woodroffe said an “infiltration” of First Nations teachers and perspectives will help to transform the system from within.

“For that to happen, though, they need teachers to engage them in the first place and to be able to work in a way that helps the students feel like they belong within that school.”

“But we’re adults, and if we are setting out on this path to be educators, we should be educated and understand how to find the answer to something that we don’t know.”

Jackie Huggins (left) attended school in Inala in Brisbane in the 1960s. Credit: Jackie Huggins’ book ‘Auntie Rita’

Aunty Jackie agreed that there is still a long way to go, but she has seen enormous change in her lifetime.