Role model Leona to teach kids hope
07.03.2009

LEONA Yunkaporta from Cape York carries the weight of a community on her shoulders.
Ms Yunkaporta, 20, knows a lot about her people's hopes and dreams, being the niece of one of Aboriginal Australia's most revered members, Francis Yunkaporta, a litigant in the 1996 Wik native title judgment.
But she is also one of a growing number of Aboriginal students to have learned enough at school to now be enrolled at university, a generation who will provide inspiration to those communities still racked by dysfunction and despair.
Ms Yunkaporta is doing a four-year education degree in Brisbane to qualify as a teacher so she can return to Cape York and pass on her knowledge.
``Throughout my school life I never had an indigenous teacher and I know it will be much easier for Aboriginal children to learn with somebody like me standing in front of the class,'' Ms Yunkaporta said.
``English is my second language and we all speak Wik-Mungkan at home. Mum always tells me to stay strong and she is my inspiration, and I want to be a role model for other indigenous kids, particularly from Aurukun.''
Ms Yunkaporta attended Aurukun State School until Year 9. Then she went to Weipa and repeated Year 9 at the local school -- part of an innovative indigenous education program achieving significant results -- before being sent to board at Clayfield College in Brisbane until she completed Year 12.
She spent a year on a traineeship with mining giant Rio Tinto in Brisbane before returning to work for a year at Aurukun school as an administration officer.
Aurukun is one of three campuses of Western Cape College, which is headed by former Queensland Teachers Union president Ian Mackie. It is responsible for getting students such as Ms Yunkaporta prepared for the world of further education or for the workplace.
The college has 1268 students enrolled, 64 per cent of whom are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.
The federal Government has now approved the building of a 120-bed hostel in Weipa to accommodate students from remote communities.
Mr Mackie said yesterday the college had formed a work readiness partnership with TAFE and the Weipa Chamber of Commerce to facilitate students' transition to employment, with the local Rio Tinto bauxite mining operation as the main employer.
``Last year, there were 19 indigenous students who achieved a senior certificate upon graduation; this has grown from none in 2001,'' Mr Mackie said.
``We are very proud when we see outstanding students like Leona getting on the plane to go to uni -- it makes the effort of all the teachers and other people involved with education of these children seem worthwhile.''
Noel Pearson, the head of the Cape York Institute, a policy and leadership organisation, said Ms Yunkaporta was ``a special young woman from a very special family''.
``Seeing members of their own communities achieve like Leona is doing is the encouragement that children on communities need,'' he said. ``She is an inspiration to us all.''