When Phillip met Darlene

When Phillip and Darlene met 30 years ago, they were about to become ACU’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates. Since then they’ve worked in their chosen fields to Close the Gap, all whilst raising four children.

Phillip Dreise

“My Dad is of German heritage and Mum is Aboriginal with Kamilaroi and Euahlayi ancestral links. I grew up in an era when mixed marriages were relatively rare, and many Aboriginal people still lived in tin humpies on the edges of towns. I was fortunate that my family lived in town but it was frowned upon to speak Indigenous language and to practice traditional hunting.

“When I was a kid many Aboriginal people still had their Certificate of Exemption papers which allowed them to live and work in the townships.

“I toddled off to university, mainly because I wanted to get out of St George and do something with my life. I was the first of my eight siblings to leave home in pursuit of a tertiary qualification. I studied at James Cook University because they were training Indigenous people to be teachers in the hope that they would go back home and teach in their local communities. This would build the self-esteem of the local community who’d say ‘Well if that person can go and do it, so can I.’

“The problem was that many of us didn’t want to go back to our home communities to teach. My first teaching job was back in St George, but I only stayed for six months. I realised I’d outgrown my own community and I wanted more in life.

“I then taught around Queensland and worked for the Commonwealth Government to fund Indigenous children at school and support tertiary students including establishing the Indigenous Higher Education Units (IHEU) at tertiary institutions in Queensland.

“That led me to McAuley Teachers College, which later became ACU, where I became the first staff member within the newly developed Indigenous support unit. McAuley College was looking for support and input from Indigenous Catholic teachers, at that time I was the only one in the state!

“I got to name the unit Weemala, in my language – Kamilaroi. This means to look to the future, or to have a distant view.

"Once the unit was established, I took on a new job there lecturing, tutoring and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students accessing higher education.

“In the first year there were three staff and three students, including Darlene, so it was very small. I began studying there as well, to complete my fourth year of education. I graduated with Darlene and Patrick Savage. Darlene and Patrick were the first Torres Strait Islander graduates, and I was the first Aboriginal.

“Then Darlene moved back to her Diocese in Cairns and I started my Master in Education full time. I moved up to where Darlene was located and we soon realised that we wanted to build a strong future together. Thirty years later we are still together, going strong and so proud of the family we have created.

“I think we complement each other because we share the same morals but we’re different. I’m sporty where Darlene isn’t. She’s a deep thinker – straight down the line and very serious and I’m the joker in the family.

"We both grew up really poor and we don’t want that for our kids.

"We spoil them rotten; we want to give them everything we didn’t have as kids but hopefully we’ll teach them to value everything we have. I tell them stories about what I had to go through and that there were many days we had to go to school without breakfast because we didn’t have the food or money; but we were still happy. 

“Closing the Gap revolves around education and health and wellness and having the desire to do the best you can do with what you’ve been given.

“Darlene and I worked hard to complete formal education. Importantly, our parents encouraged us at every step to strive for something greater.

“They had a great belief that their children could achieve in ways they were unable to. Within my generation we’ve been able to break free from the cycle of poverty that too many of our people find themselves in. 

"I'm now doing my PhD highlighting the benefits and effects of embedding Indigenous perspectives into the primary teacher education program at ACU. If Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students see and hear these histories and cultures in their lessons, it enhances a sense of self-identity, self-confidence and pride. My non-Indigenous students gain skills in how to embed Indigenous content within their teaching and gain an appreciation of the world’s oldest culture.  

“My kids are fortunate; they’ve got two teachers in the house, parents who are very proud of their children and their cultures. I’m forever working with my kids on their identity and culture and singing songs and speaking language. I know they’re going to get all this cultural knowledge that I never had as a child but had learnt in later life.  

“My mother is Torres Strait Islander and my father is Chinese-Australian. We grew up with my paternal grandmother in the home, a Chinese matriarch, so we had this beautiful intergenerational, intercultural mix. It was challenging and delightful to navigate at times.

“Mum and Dad both wanted a good education for us three kids and they prioritised that.

"University really was the thing back then. That was the pathway and the ultimate goal, which was interesting because neither of my parents had attended university. I always credited their vision and I feel they always knew that for us kids to have a good set up in life we had to be educated and be able to play in the wider marketplace.

"I studied teaching at McAuley College and part way through my initial qualification it changed to become a university and part of ACU which was an interesting in itself – enrolling in a Diploma of Teaching but graduating with a Bachelor of Teaching.

"We were the first intake of Indigenous students. I remember flying to Brisbane by myself, being absolutely terrified to leave the airport. I stayed locked in my motel room for two days, I was just too scared to leave. The beautiful staff members that we got to know took us under their wing with their gentle guidance.

“Weemala was a godsend because it was a designated space (for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students).

“Just knowing you could retreat to that space was amazing. No one was banned from entering there and support was also extended to non-Indigenous students: social, emotional support. That safe space was key to getting through the years there.

"Phil had a formal role in supporting students. He and the unit's coordinator, Tracey Bunda, looked after us and took us to events on the weekends, just did things to make sure we were included and safe and travelling well.

"I admire Phil's commitment to family and fitness. He’s a smart and knowledgeable man particularly about Indigenous matters. But fitness! For some people spirituality is being part of a formal religion and that's great, but for some people it's about being nourished physically. Phil until recently was playing touch football, he doesn't drink, or smoke and he has always encouraged fitness in the kids.

"And as Indigenous people of a certain age now you can really see the difference. He's incredibly active, he doesn't have any chronic illnesses and he's made very wise choices.

"I learn from him. I think he and his family are very connected to culture. It's inspiring to see Phil and his family tracing their family tree back hundreds of years.

"My family lost their deep connection to the Torres Strait over time which is unfortunate. There was a time when I would apologise for that, but now I don't.

"It's been a real lived experience of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, that loss of connection to culture.

"As parents we look for teachable moments and there can be lots of them through the media. But when the stories crop up about Indigenous matters, or things that have happened to Indigenous people or things that Indigenous people have been involved in we like to break that down by asking out children, “What might have been behind that?” Don't judge that person just from what you see in the media. Think about the things that have happened in this country, in our history to bring us to this place today.

"At the moment my role is as the Chair of St Vincent Health Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan. It’s been an interesting journey advancing the status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country.

"I've had to grapple in some ways in taking on a role like this because it's something I hadn't done before. I prayed on it and prayed on it and prayed on it again and got that sense that...

"...you are being called into this work, not because you are an authority, not because you have grandiose knowledge and ideas, but because there is a heart connection to this work.’

"The role ultimately is not so different to teaching. It’s teaching through a different lens and being open to learning.”