Terra Nullius
F E AT u R E
Terra nullius
‘We, as explorers with young children, must seek to appreciate what we do not know and be as they are—open to a “hundred, hundred worlds” of possibilities.’
One key issue that I feel we currently face in our efforts to advance early childhood leadership is in the spirit of ‘the Apology’.
A PART OF ‘PL ACE’
When Captain Cook first came to the shores of what became known as Australia, he encountered inhabitants of the land … but despite that evidence of occupation he nevertheless proclaimed it ‘terra nullius’, or ‘uninhabited land’. It is ironic, indeed absurd, that such a term could be applied to peoples whose lives were so intimately integrated into and a part of ‘place’. By comparison, the European ‘discoverers’ were transients—wanderers with far fewer ties to their own homelands.
INv ISIBILIT Y
Karen Martin, in her work Ma(r)king our tracks and reconceptualising Aboriginal early childhood education: An Aboriginal Australian perspective (2007), describes this proclamation as the beginning of the invisibility of Indigenous peoples in Australia. I am concerned that we see that invisibility continuing to the present, that we find it within early childhood education and care, and that it is not limited to Australia, but can be found around the world. The form such invisibility often takes today is one of a ‘conceptual nullius’— that because ‘others’ do not see and understand the world as ‘we’ do, there is nothing there, or whatever is there is in need of replacement by those more knowledgeable, and more powerful. Such dynamics preserve power for the powerful and over time, extinguish competing understandings. We are all, however, less for their demise.
They, are we. We—through our belief in a singular ‘best’, our belief that findings from one particular context can be generalised to all contexts, and through our search for universals in a world filled with diversity—steal ninety-nine. Such theft is accomplished
Terra nullius
‘We, as explorers with young children, must seek to appreciate what we do not know and be as they are—open to a “hundred, hundred worlds” of possibilities.’
One key issue that I feel we currently face in our efforts to advance early childhood leadership is in the spirit of ‘the Apology’.
A PART OF ‘PL ACE’
When Captain Cook first came to the shores of what became known as Australia, he encountered inhabitants of the land … but despite that evidence of occupation he nevertheless proclaimed it ‘terra nullius’, or ‘uninhabited land’. It is ironic, indeed absurd, that such a term could be applied to peoples whose lives were so intimately integrated into and a part of ‘place’. By comparison, the European ‘discoverers’ were transients—wanderers with far fewer ties to their own homelands.
INv ISIBILIT Y
Karen Martin, in her work Ma(r)king our tracks and reconceptualising Aboriginal early childhood education: An Aboriginal Australian perspective (2007), describes this proclamation as the beginning of the invisibility of Indigenous peoples in Australia. I am concerned that we see that invisibility continuing to the present, that we find it within early childhood education and care, and that it is not limited to Australia, but can be found around the world. The form such invisibility often takes today is one of a ‘conceptual nullius’— that because ‘others’ do not see and understand the world as ‘we’ do, there is nothing there, or whatever is there is in need of replacement by those more knowledgeable, and more powerful. Such dynamics preserve power for the powerful and over time, extinguish competing understandings. We are all, however, less for their demise.
They, are we. We—through our belief in a singular ‘best’, our belief that findings from one particular context can be generalised to all contexts, and through our search for universals in a world filled with diversity—steal ninety-nine. Such theft is accomplished
References: Malaguzzi, L. (1993). Invece il cento c’e. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini & G. Forman, (Eds) (p. vi). The hundred languages of children. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing. Martin, K. (2007). Ma(r)king our tracks and reconceptualising Aboriginal early childhood education: An Aboriginal Australian perspective. Childrenz Issues, 11(1), 15−20. www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au 31 A world of difference: Readings on teaching young children in a diverse society Forty five readings that will provoke self-reflection and thoughtful discussions. Emphasises building respect and understanding in regard to culture, language, religion, inclusion, socioeconomic status etc. ECA Code: SuND109 To order or find out more, please visit www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au or (free call) 1800 356 900 E xTIN G uISHIN G DI vERSIT Y In other writings and presentations, I have likened the diversity of human understandings of children to Loris Malaguzzi’s passionate plea to honour and support the ‘hundred languages of children’. Not only do children have a ‘hundred, hundred languages’ that speak to ‘a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking … of marveling and loving …’, but humankind has a hundred, hundred ways of understanding children. But in both cases, ‘they steal ninety-nine’ (Malaguzzi, 1993).