They Throw Spears: Reconciliation through Music

"They throw Spears" was written as part of the research for my PhD at the University of Sydney. The study was conducted in two primary schools: one in a remote area in the Northern Territory (NT) and one in an urban setting in Tasmania. It was conducted in 2009 and investigated Indigenous and non-Indigenous student, non-Indigenous teacher, non- Indigenous principal and Indigenous Teaching Assistant attitudes towards Reconciliation. The theories of Lev Vygotsky and Kieren Egan and the writing of Karen Martin informed the study. The article focuses on the importance of the contribution of the two Indigenous Teaching Assistants involved in the research and explores their role in its success. It concentrates on Marlene Primary School in Katherine in the Northern Territory. At the time that the research was conducted, the school population was over 90% students Indigenous. I used an arts-informed research methodology and the writing includes narratives written in the first person. I gathered the research data through semi-structured individual and group interviews, student definitions, song lyrics, t-shirt designs, digital recordings, video footage, sketches, collographs, photographs and researcher observations. This approach enabled my personal story to be told. The article also features an image I created to symbolise the spirit of the research. The image is a block printed collograph and depicts the spears that the Indigenous Teaching Assistant (Arthur) used in his classes with the students.