The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education
Volume 41 Number 2 pp. 131–138 c© The Authors 2013 doi 10.1017/jie.2012.20

Funds of Knowledge of Sorting and Patterning:
Networks of Exchange in a Torres Strait Island
Community
Bronwyn Ewing
Yumi Deadly Centre, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

This article focuses on the funds of knowledge that are mathematical in nature and how they might be used to
support parents and children with their learning of mathematics that is taught and learned in the early years
of school. Funds of knowledges are those that have been historically and culturally accumulated into a body
of knowledge and skills essential for people’s functioning and wellbeing. Drawing on community research
design, where the process of learning is owned and framed by the community and its people, a consultative
meeting was held to discuss the pilot project.

� Keywords: Torres Strait Islands, Torres Strait Islander Parents, Indigenous Knowledge Centre, funds of
knowledge, sorting, repeating patterns

Background

In recent years a number of strategies have been imple-
mented to increase Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal
parents’ participation in the education of their children,
with the view to making a difference and contributing
to helping such families to live productive and fulfilling
lives (see, e.g., Closing the Gap Strategy, Department of
Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous
Affairs, 2009; The Productivity Commission, 2009). For
example, in April of 2007 the Council of Australia Gov-
ernments (COAG) reaffirmed its 10-year commitment to
closing the gap between Torres Strait Islander and Abo-
riginal people and non-Indigenous Australians, with the
initial priority of ensuring that young children get a good
start to life (COAG, 2007a). Then, in December of 2007,
COAG communicated that all levels of government in
Australia were to work together with Torres Strait Islander
and Aboriginal people to achieve the target of closing the
gap on disadvantage with a commitment to halving the
gap in reading, writing and numeracy within 10 years
(COAG, 2007b). In July of 2008, COAG agreed to sus-
tained engagement by all governments over the next 10
years and beyond to achieve closing the gap targets for
Indigenous people. It agreed in principle to a national
partnership, with joint funding of $547.2 million over
6 years to address the needs of Indigenous children in
their early years (COAG, 2008a). Indigenous early child-

hood development continued on the COAG agenda, with
a communiqué in October 2008 that all governments sus-
tain their commitment, engagement and effort in achiev-
ing COAG’s Closing the Gap targets for Indigenous people,
with leaders signing the first National Partnership cover-
ing Indigenous Early Childhood Development (COAG,
2008b). The agreement detailed that all states and terri-
tories work together ‘to improve the early childhood out-
comes of Indigenous children by addressing the high levels
of disadvantage they currently experience to give them the
best start in life’. The National Partnership comprises $564
million of joint funding over 6 years to address the needs
of Indigenous children in their early years. Detailed also
in this agreement was that governments were to ensure
that all Indigenous 4-year-old Children in remote com-
munities have access to early childhood education within
5 years and that the gap be halved in reading, writing and
numeracy achievement for Indigenous children within
10 years. As a further commitment, thirty-five Children
and Family centres were to be established across Aus-
tralia to deliver integrated services that offer early learning,
childcare and family support programs. The central tenet
in COAG’s communiqués and government reports on the

ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Bronwyn Ewing, Yumi Deadly
Centre, Faculty of Education, QUT, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin
Grove QLD 4059 Australia. Email: bf.ewing@qut.edu.au

131



Bronwyn Ewing

Closing the Gap strategy is that access to education for
Indigenous people will create substantial social and eco-
nomic benefits for remote and very remote Indigenous
parents and children, thus increasing success in education
and life opportunities (FaHCSIA, 2010).

Influence of Family and Community

A recurring theme of COAG’s tenet is identified in gov-
ernment policy and literature on Torres Strait Islander
and Aboriginal parent engagement in education (Depart-
ment of Education and Training [DET], 2010; Depart-
ment of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
[DEEWR], 2011; Schaller, Rocha, & Barshinger, 2007).
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ed-
ucation Policy (AEP; DEEWR, 2011) advocates the im-
portance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander com-
munities’ involvement in education and its provision to
‘ensure equitable and appropriate outcomes’ (p. 1). Fur-
ther, the Torres Strait Islander Regional Education Coun-
cil (TSIREC; 2011) stresses the importance of improving
‘parent and family engagement in their child’s early years
development’ (p. 1). This emphasis is repeated in the green
paper, A Flying Start for Queensland Children (DET, 2010).
This document states that Torres Strait Islander and Abo-
riginal families who encourage and instil in their children
the importance of learning, are providing the foundation
for their children’s later success when they enter formal
schooling. Of importance here is the provision of before
school and school programs that permit and promote
parent engagement. Such programs aim to work towards
closing the gap between Torres Strait Islander and Abo-
riginal and non-Indigenous Australians.

Indigenous Knowledge Centres as Place of Agency

The establishment of community network spaces such as
Indigenous Knowledge Centres (see, e.g., Taylor, 2004)
in Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal communities has
provided places of agency that permit and promote en-
gagement in a range of activities for parents and their
children. Indigenous Knowledge Centres are spaces where
Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal culture and knowl-
edge are showcased to the wider community, a reposi-
tory for community knowledge where such knowledge
can grow and where two-way learning can occur (e.g.,
the State Library of Queensland’s Indigenous Knowledge
Centre). They can be spaces where Torres Strait Islander
and Aboriginal cultural knowledge is kept safe to pass to
future generations.

Several issues are relevant here:

1. Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal parents engage in
educating their children using a range of strategies that
reinforce and nurture their culture — it is their lived
experiences (Martin, 2007; Mellor & Corrigan, 2004;
Priest, King, Nangala, Brown, & Nangala, 2009).

2. Parents and community mathematical and science
funds of knowledge become the building block for the
development of schooled or academic concepts?

3. Through Indigenous Knowledge Centre Programs, Tor-
res Strait Islander and Aboriginal parents and their net-
works can extend on this education (see, e.g., Lester-
Irabinna, 2011; Lowe, 2011; O’Connor, 2009; Priest
et al., 2009).

Networks
Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal parents and network-
ing are interconnected and rely on networks (Witheridge,
2009). That is, parents belong to community networks
and, in turn, community networks are comprised of par-
ents (Ewing, 2009; Janmohamed, 2005; Martin, 2007).
Community networks are not static homogenous entities.
They reflect values, beliefs, as well as hopes and accom-
plishments. They are complex and can be mobilising forces
for social justice and the redistribution of power and ma-
terial advantage (Sefa Dei, 2005). They can exist in a range
of combinations as:

1. spatial localised settings that are defined for the pursuit
of socially meaningful interactions;

2. affective and relational communities where members
draw on bonds of affinity, and shared experiences of
values, attitudes, beliefs, concerns and aspirations; and

3. moral communities where participation and belonging
in a citizenry work to achieve common goals defined as
a collective good.

Within these communities, tensions, struggles, ambigu-
ities and contradictions are captured; however, the in-
tegrity of a collective membership is maintained. Local
knowledges are nurtured and made relevant for daily life
(Lahn, 2006; Sefa Dei, 2005).

Networks as Funds of Knowledge of Mathematics

Networks build capacity in Torres Strait Islander and Abo-
riginal parents (Makuwira, 2007). They validate the par-
ents’ own definitions of maths as it exists in their com-
munities — and through exchanges with kin and non-kin
alike, these bodies of knowledge are activated, grown and
transformed (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). The idea
of funds of knowledge views that people are competent
and have knowledge that has been grown and developed
through their life experiences that have given them that
knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2005). The assumption here is
that a funds of knowledge approach provides a powerful
and rich way to learn about communities in terms of their
resources, the competence they possess and the way they
utilise these resources to support them with the education
of their children.

If funds of knowledge of mathematics are those that
reflect the unique histories and culture of Indigenous

132 THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION



Networks of Exchange in a Torres Strait Island Community

FIGURE 1
(Colour online) Torres Strait Regional Authority map.

communities, they provide an effective entry point into
engagement in learning because it is connected with and
situated in communities and the voices of the people. The
process of learning then is owned and framed by the com-
munity and its people, who then work to build a sense of
pride and self-worth in individuals (Khamaganova, 2005;
Smith, 1999). Indigenous parents’ identities are shaped in
their distinct ways in a distinct physical space such as net-
works, with their knowledges, stories and relationships an
integral part and tied to physical locations (Khamaganova,
2005; Lahn, 2006). This relationship ensures that maths is
emerging from communities and their networks because
they are taught and learned in such contexts.

Methodology
The project adopted a qualitative design approach: com-
munity research (Smith, 1999). Community research is
described as an approach that ‘conveys a much more inti-
mate, human and self-defined space’ (Smith, 1999, p. 127).
It relies upon and validates the community’s own defini-
tions. As the project is informed by the social at a commu-
nity level, it is described as ‘community action research
or emancipatory research’, that is, it seeks to demonstrate
benefit to the community, making positive differences in

the lives of one Torres Strait Islander community. I had
established strong working relationships with the parents
and community members over time as a consequence of
another project; nevertheless, embarking on this prelim-
inary process in close collaboration with the community
was a challenge linguistically and geographically.

A Geographic Excursion

The Torres Strait Islands consist of 18 islands and 2 North-
ern Peninsula Area communities (Torres Strait Regional
Authority, 2010). They are geographically situated from
the tip of Cape York north to the borders of Papua New
Guinea and Indonesia and scattered over an area of 48, 000
square kilometres. There are five traditional island clusters
in the Torres Strait: top western, western, central, eastern
and inner islands (see Figure 1, Torres Strait Regional Au-
thority Map, 2011). The research project was conducted
at one site in the eastern cluster.

Language in the Torres Strait Islands

Specific languages are spoken in the Torres Strait Is-
lander communities, including Standard Australian En-
glish, Yumplatok (Creole), Kala Lagaw Ya (Mabuyag) and,
Meriam Mir (Osborne, 2009; Shnukal, 2004). Kala Kawaw
Ya (KKY) is understood to be a dialect of Kala Lagaw

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Bronwyn Ewing

Ya (Osborne, 2009). The traditional languages of the top
western and western islands, Kala Lagaw Ya (KKY and
Mabuyag) are understood to come from the mainland of
Australia, with the eastern island language, Meriam Mir,
emerging from Papua New Guinea. Yumplatok, identified
as a modern language and stemming from colonisation,
is derived from ‘meshing’ both traditional languages and
English, thus creating a language in its own right (Os-
borne, 2009; Shnukal, 2004). This language is identified as
unifying, that is, it is the one that everyone in the Torres
Straits can speak, whereas the western traditional lan-
guage speakers cannot speak and understand the eastern
language speakers (Osborne, 2009; Shnukal, 2004).

Participants

Twenty adults and eight children took part in the com-
munity consultation meeting. All reside at the site where
the meeting was held. The identities of participants are
protected (Queensland University of Technology, 2011).
For ethical reasons pseudonyms have been used to protect
the identity of participants. The location is referred to as
the Island.

Data Collection Techniques

For the purposes of this article, the data collection tech-
niques included digital photography, field notes, and email
documents. Digital photography as a non-written source
of data allowed for the capturing of visual images that
were central to the preliminary process and which served
as a reminder for me (Stringer, 2004). They also assist au-
diences to more clearly visualise settings and events. Field
notes provide descriptions of places and events as they oc-
cur. They provide ongoing records of important elements
of the setting and assist with reporting and reflecting back
over events. Email documents provided an efficient and
easy form of communication between participants, who
then networked with their community. Each technique af-
forded the value of insight into the important preliminary
planning of the project (Stringer, 2004).

Analysis and Discussion: Engaging with
Communities
In recent years, building on what communities bring to
particular contexts and on their strengths has been shown
to be effective with engaging with communities (González
& Moll, 2002). How does this occur? A way to engage
community was to draw them in with knowledge that was
already familiar to them, and which then served as a ba-
sis for further discussion and learning (González & Moll,
2002). However, with this process there was a challenge
and dilemma. How did I know about the knowledge that
they brought to the meeting without falling into stereo-
typing their cultural practices? How did I address the dy-
namic process of the lived experiences of the community?
Smith (1999) argues the responses to these questions have

emerged from community-based research that relies on
the community’s definitions and discussions.

The Community Meeting

The process of networking within the community to in-
form them of the meeting developed through several steps:
(1) discussion of the project with school campus leader;
(2) discussion with the Island Councillor and to seek
permission to meet under the ‘Omei Tree’ (Tree of Wis-
dom), which was suggested by Denise, a senior community
woman; (3) a chance meeting with the radio announcer
for the Island radio that resulted in a radio interview that
was broadcast to the Island community; (d) with sup-
port from Denise and a parent from the community, a
paper-based flyer was delivered in person to the homes of
Island parents to inform them face-to-face about a pro-
posed community meeting; and (4) a community meeting
held under the Omei Tree.

The content of the flyer was brief and aimed to provide
succinct information for ease of reading and clarity. As per
the flyer schedule, the meeting was held for 1 hour under
the Omei Tree, with a number of community members in
attendance. The fig tree is believed to be over 100 years
old and has been a significant meeting place for the Island
community. During the meeting I explained the project
and how participants might be involved. Gaining consent
was respectful of the community’s place and environment
as also was that as a visitor, I needed to be mindful of
my actions and presence in the community and conduct
myself in an ethical manner. I asked the community group
where they use mathematics in their daily lives and what
mathematics they use specifically.

The responses included buying food at the supermar-
ket, cooking and counting fish and shells, indicating that
it emerges through daily activities. As the discussion pro-
gressed, I explained some of the early number ideas such as
sorting/classification using shells, sticks, leaves, and Poin-
ciana pods gathered from the community. These items
were gathered after seeking permission from Julia, a senior
community leader, whose home was near the beachfront.

Children learn to sort objects from their environments
into groups, such as shells. They learn to identify sameness,
which defines the characteristics of groupings (Sperry
Smith, 2009). In the meeting, Denise volunteered to sort
shells into groups (see Figure 2). The group and I had to
identify what criteria were used for the grouping. The idea
of creating and naming sets continues throughout life and
is a way of creating and organising information and mak-
ing connections with peoples’ experiences. Before young
children can learn to count sets, they begin the process of
defining a collection using the objects in their daily lives
(Baroody & Benson, 2001). In Figure 2, Denise established
the features of each of the sets of shells. If the criteria for
membership to a set are vague, it is more challenging to de-
cide whether the shells belong to a particular set. Meeting

134 THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION



Networks of Exchange in a Torres Strait Island Community

FIGURE 2
(Colour online) Sorting shells into sets.

members talked among themselves, with Denise allowing
them time to identify the features of the sets.

From my experience, I could not identify the criteria
that defined the sets; however, there was consensus among
community members that criteria had been established —
edible and non-edible shell creatures. In this example, the
community used their daily lives and activities as an op-
portunity to talk about sorting using their home language
— Yumplatok and English. When I asked when children
learn about edible and non-edible shells there was con-
sensus that this occurs at a very young age — for ex-
ample, 1 to 2 years — and during times when families
walk along the shores of the Island, and when fishing or
playing in the water. This example reinforces what Nakata
(2007) and González and Moll (2002) state, that learn-
ing can be rich and purposeful when it is situated within
that which already exists — the culture, community and
home-language of the group. Gonzalez (2005) explains
this further by stating that mathematics is embedded in
social knowledge and mediated through language and the
activities of the community. It is not learned, nor is it
disembodied from its social meaning and context as hap-
pens within formal schooling and becomes a linear process
of dialogue. The learning about sorting edible and non-

edible shell creatures was distributed among the group.
It was a shared collective construction of mathematical
knowledge.

As the meeting progressed, the discussions focused on
an introduction to early algebra — patterning. Patterns
are a way for people to recognise and organise their lives.
In the early years, two particular pattern types are ex-
plored: repeating patterns and growing patterns. They are
used to find generalisations within the elements them-
selves (Warren & Cooper, 2006). What comes next? Which
part is repeating? Which part is missing? Repeating pat-
terns are patterns where the core elements are repeated
as the pattern extends. Young children recognise patterns
when singing songs, dancing, learning how to weave and
when playing. Some examples of repeating patterns are
shown in Figure 3.

Repeating patterns can also be represented with ac-
tions: jump, hop, jump, hop; as sounds: bell ring, clap
hands, bell ring, clap hands; as geometric shapes: trian-
gle, square, triangle, square; and as feel: soft, hard, soft,
hard. Generally children explore patterns in a sequence:
copy a pattern, continue the pattern, identify the elements
repeating, complete the pattern, and translate the pattern
to a different medium (Warren & Cooper, 2006).

FIGURE 3
(Colour online) Examples of repeating patterns.

THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS EDUCATION 135



Bronwyn Ewing

Using two Poinciana pods, I tapped them together to
create a repeating sound pattern. The community was then
asked to continue the pattern and identify the repeating
elements, using clapping. They were then asked if they
would like to offer a repeating pattern. One community
member clapped a pattern, to which the remaining mem-
bers responded. The community were then asked where
they might see or use patterns in their communities. Re-
sponses included: the seed pattern inside the Poinciana
pod (ABABAB), the weaving pattern used to weave co-
conut leaves together (ABABAB), when singing songs to
the children, the seasons of the year, and how the winds,
seas, sea life, plant life, and bird life work in a repeating cy-
cle with many core elements. It was this final response that
reminded me of my place within the community, a visi-
tor who had a great deal to learn from community about
patterns and how they exist in their natural environment.
It taught me that the community has extensive knowledge
of patterns because they exist in their everyday lives in
very rich ways — funds of knowledge, knowledges that
are historically and culturally accumulated and shared.

The community was asked if they would like some early
mathematics workshops to be organised for and with the
parents and children. Of importance was that the com-
munity needed time to network and discuss whether they
wanted me to return and work with parents and chil-
dren on the Island and if there were any benefits for their
community.

Conclusion
The process of networks as exchanges of funds of knowl-
edge within the Island community has been significant
for engagement with the community and to respond to
research as described by Smith (1999). I found this as-
pect challenging because I had to rely on the community’s
networks, which I did not belong to. However, what did
become evident was that the networks comprise of parents
and they use such networks for communication. What was
also evident was that the networks were used as valuable
sources for nurturing local knowledges and practices. At
the meeting, the community validated their definitions of
knowledge — sorting and patterning. In doing so, this
process provided a rich way to represent their knowledge
and competence to support their children.

From this initial experience and through the process
of theoretical refinement, I argue that going beyond the
simple dichotomy between community funds of knowl-
edge (experience, out-of-school, intuitive, tacit) and aca-
demic (in-school, linear, deliberate) is critical. The expe-
rience demonstrated that the meaning-making in which
the community engaged can be described as the principles
that should underpin classroom instruction — authen-
tic engagement in productive activities, drawing on prior
knowledge and complexity and the dialogical emergence
of instruction. What this means for educational practice

is that by inviting children into a world of motivating ac-
tivities where the everyday and spontaneous comes into
contact with school, the children’s and their parents’ en-
gagement with both the activity and the social context are
foregrounded (González et al., 2005). That is, the class-
room becomes an information exchange that draws on
multiple funds of knowledge that are activated and tied
with mathematics curricula.

At this stage, I can report that after providing time for
the community to network and consult about whether to
permit me to conduct the parents and children mathe-
matics workshops, the process has allowed me to:

1. have confidence in the way that I had consulted with
community and the community with me;

2. continue to work with community for as long as they
see that there are benefits;

3. continue to work with the materials similar to those
gathered for the community meeting;

4. frame the project’s agenda that situates research as re-
flexive engagement with the real — the community’s
funds of knowledge as well as my own; and

5. understand how pluralism is about respect for diversity
and a willingness to explore and change in ways that
continues to remain diverse for situated learning.

These points relate to the processes of engagement and
community consultation and research, which are envis-
aged as continuing once the project officially commences.

Acknowledgments
I respectfully acknowledge the support, enthusiasm and
engagement of the Island community. Without their con-
sent the project would not have commenced. I acknowl-
edge the digital photograph taken by Vicky Sun, who trav-
elled with me for another project at the same site and was
requested to take digital documentation of the meeting.

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About the Author
Dr Bronwyn Ewing is a numeracy education researcher at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in the YuMi
Deadly Centre, specialising in the pedagogy of numeracy classrooms from the early years to VET contexts. She
was previously a lecturer in Early Childhood Numeracy for 8 years in the School of Early Childhood at QUT. She
has visited and taught in Indigenous communities across Queensland, particularly in the far North and Torres
Strait Islands. She has a special interest in the teaching and learning of numeracy to Torres Strait Islander students,
and the role of Torres Strait Islander women in their children’s prior-to-school numeracy education. She oversees
the research conducted at the Centre. She is the major writer of materials developed to teach measurement in the
Torres Strait Islands and vocational numeracy material for Indigenous VET students in Year 11 and 12 and in
TAFE Institutes.

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