WA Education Minister Sabine Winton teaches next generation in Fitzroy Crossing where her career began

When Sabine Winton arrived in Fitzroy Crossing as a bright, second-year teacher in the 1990s she was keen to put her training into practice. Lttle did she know she was about to receive an education of her own.

Three decades on, the Education Minister recently returned to the Kimberley town she credits with being, “the personal and professional making” of her so that she could reconnect with the people who taught her that to be a successful teacher in the bush you need to bring the community with you.

Ms Winton was welcomed at Fitzroy Crossing District High School and she even taught a few lessons to the students, some of whom were the children of the pupils she had taught between 1991 and 1993.

“There’s no question that those three years in Fitzroy Crossing were the personal and professional making of me and has shaped my worldview, has shaped everything I’ve done since,” Ms Winton said after the trip.

“It’s something quite magical when you can live and work in a community, and you stay connected to that community for the entire week, the entire year, as opposed to a metropolitan setting where you go and do your work and then you go and live a separate life.

“It shaped my teaching career onwards, and also my political career, because really, to be a successful teacher, it’s about connecting with the students, and it’s about connecting with parents. And that’s so important, particularly in a setting like Fitzroy, you need to bring community with you.”

During the school visit she reconnected with former colleague Robyn Long who was the Aboriginal and Islander education officer in the 1990s and a person Ms Winton credits with helping her succeed with the students.

“She’s still working at that school some 30-odd years later. My success in classrooms and Fitzroy was really very much based on relationships with community and Aboriginal people, so that I could meet the Aboriginal kids from where they’re coming from and that’s really, really important,” she said.

Bunuba elder Patsy Ngalu Bedford said it was a heartwarming reunion for the entire community.

“She did have an impact in Fitzroy when she was a teacher,” Ms Bedford said.

“It’s so exciting and to now be a minister in that field where she first started off, we’re very fortunate, and honored that she’s climbed into that space of being Minister for Education, because she’s come from the ground up.”

“She’s been there, she’s done it. Now she’s at a level where we know she understands the struggles that the system brings into the education field, because she’s been part of it,” Ms Bedford said.

The elder was also delighted to see her nine-year-old granddaughter receiving a lesson from Ms Winton just as her own mother had in the 1990s.

“She said, ‘I like her, I want her to be my teacher,” Ms Bedford recounted.

After the school visit Ms Winton was at the opening of the new kitchen for Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation’s Night Place program. The initiative offers a hot meal, activities and a lift home for young people in Fitzroy Crossing with the aim of keeping them off the streets and out of trouble.

“They’re doing an incredible job in engaging with disconnected kids, giving them not only a safe space, but a place where they can actually talk, connect, and from that start that journey back into trying to get them back into school.

“I’m really looking forward to continuing to support Marra Worra Worra’s work so that we can also see those positive impacts back in school and getting those kids engaged in school,” she said.

Ms Winton’s visit to Fitzroy Crossing was part of her first Kimberley trip as Education Minister where she attended the Cross-sectoral Kimberley School Leadership Team Conference.

“There are a number of schools in the Kimberley, some Department of Education, some Catholic Education and some independent. Each of those schools do tremendous work. It’s really great for all those sectors to be able to get together to celebrate and share their successes and also talk about their challenges,” she said.

With many parts of regional WA suffering from skills shortages of essential workers Ms Winton said she hoped as Education Minister to encourage more teachers to take on remote posting, such as in the Kimberley.

“I’ve never met a policeman, a nurse or a teacher yet who doesn’t reflect anything but positively on their time in community, and so we’ve got great teachers doing incredible work in remote and regional places in the Kimberley, and we want to improve on that,” she said.

“We want to get more people up here, and we want more people to stay longer and make a commitment to community.”