How Indigenous-led childcare centres could help close Australia’s education gap

When Wayne Griffiths first went to primary school, it was a terrifying experience.

“I grew up in a little town called Curlewis [in northern NSW], and my first day at school was so traumatic I cried most of the morning and eventually I had to be taken home by my eldest brother,” he recalls.

“That was the case most of the days that week. I didn’t know what school was, I didn’t have access to any early childhood settings, and it was just horrific for me.”

These days Wayne, a Kamilaroi man, runs the Winanga-Li Aboriginal Child and Family Centre, which provides child care and early education to Indigenous and non-Indigenous children up to five years old.

There are centres in his town of Gunnedah as well as Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge in NSW.