A Tongan man with more than 40 years of rich educational and cultural experience is helping to improve the lives of Indigenous people of East Arnhem Land in the NT’s far north.
Charles Darwin University’s Emanuele Tausinga is an Indigenous Academic Support Lecturer based in Nhulunbuy, Arnhem Land, where he mentors the educational aspirations of local Yolngu people.
Mr Tausinga moved to Nhulunbuy in early April after working at the university’s Casuarina campus and says he is thrilled to share his Tongan culture and teaching skills with local people.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with Indigenous Australians because we share such similar cultures and this helps us to relate to each other in a very comfortable way,” he said.
Since moving to Australia in the 1990s, Mr Tausinga has taught at remote schools in Western Australia and Central Australia.
He said his experiences reinforced the importance of teaching both inside and outside the classroom.
"I’m always conscious of the kind of pedagogy most appropriate for local people and in many cases the classroom is just one aspect of study of literacy and numeracy which should always be extended beyond the four walls,” he said.
Mr Tausinga said that, like many local people, he had struggled to learn English.
“I fully understand the difficulty Indigenous people face in learning a second language because I went through the same challenges as a child,” he said.