Local versus Global Knowledges: A Fundamental Dilemma in "Remote Education"

When 'remote education' is seen as something which is delivered from some outside (by definition not remote) agency, rather than something which is grown at home, it is usually constructed as a problem o f disadvantage: how do we deliver to remote students the quality cosmopolitan education we offer to kids in the city? Equality o f educational opportunity is equated with uniformity o f curriculum. But in the Northern Territory, many o f the recipients o f very remote educational delivery live very deliberately by choice in very remote places because they want to be in control o f their young peoples' education (including cultural transmission), and need to be able to do this on their own land, knowing it and caring for it and each other, and making sure that new generations are grown up to continue to renew it. This paper is about what I have learnt about the local nature o f knowledge in my involvement in remote education in the north.