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Submitted with permission by: Shane Atkinson and Lakes Entrance Secondary College. Interview with Shane Atkinson on 11th November 1998 by Nina Mullett, Fiona Hood, and Kerryn Cullinan at Lakes Entrance Secondary College.

My name is Shane Frederick Atkinson, and I was born on 26/1/1969 at Swan Hill. I have three brothers and four sisters, one sister has passed away. The tribe I belong to is Yorta Yorta and they come from the boarder of NSW and Victoria.

I grew up in Moe, and went to Elizabeth Street Primary School, then I went to Yallourn Technical College, a Trade School, where I did year 12. When I was at school things were a lot different from today. If we mucked up we got the strap or the cane, you don’t see any of that today. Because I had no trouble with school work, I was treated pretty good, where as some of the other Koori students who had trouble understanding were treated badly.

When I was younger and playing sport, I was often called Abo, and black this, or black that. For me the only way to beat that, was to beat them on the footy ground and win. It happened in what ever the game we were playing. I often thought it was just a way for them to try and put you off your game. On the sports field was the only place I was subjected to racism. When I was growing up I had lot of white mates who never made racist comments. We mucked around doing all the normal things kids used to do.

At times when we had Koori functions it was hard for me to interact with Koori kids from other families, as I had mainly mucked around with white mates.

Attitudes have changed a lot since I was a kid. I always had to listen to Mum and Dad, and did what they said to do straight away. We had more respect for our elders than the kids today.

I had a pretty strict up bringing. Dad was strict, particularly with the boys, if we back answered we’d get a clip around the ear, we had to show a lot of respect to our elders.

The kids today have far more freedom than we had, we were never allowed to back answer, give cheek or swear.

Work opportunities have changed in the past ten years. The kids today have, Work for the dole schemes, Workways, Employment National and other places that help you look for work and get jobs. There are far more training schemes and courses today that can help these kids. I am a painter and decorator by trade, unfortunately due to continual discrimination and harassment I was force to leave the industry. Since then I have worked mainly with Kooris.

I have been a Youth Worker with Koori kids at a Hostel in Morwell. The kids had little education, not much respect for the elders or the community. These kids came from dysfunctional families. My job was to help get these kids to attend school regularly, and gain some self respect. In 1992 we had a Victorian Aboriginal Cricket side that went to Perth WA for two weeks to play the WA Aboriginal Cricket side. Unfortunately they won three games to two. Over all it was a great experience, and good fun. The best two weeks I have ever had. I am now the Koori Educational Officer at Lakes Entrance Secondary College. My roll in this position is to help the Koori kids understand what they are learning in class , and to help them with any problems in the school or at home.

Due to racial discrimination, I find Koori people prefer to work with their own people in their own communities. They tend to do better when they can do this, than they do in the wider work force. They are a proud people who want to prove they can work well without always being told what to do.

I feel the future for Koori kids is not all that bright. It is going to be hard no matter how intelligent, or well educated they are, it will always be hard for them to obtain employment, and acceptance. Sadly this is based purely on the colour of their skin.