Professor Chris Matthews

The numbers add up for Dr. Chris Matthews, a Noonuccal man from Quandamooka country, who’s passionate about connecting culture and mathematics, having developed a highly awarded method of teaching maths to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

His work is transformative, using creativity as a form of cultural expression and allowing students to take a mathematical concept and create their own expression of that concept. “Maths is storytelling,” Chris explained. “So I encourage students can take a mathematical expression and turn it into their own story that models the dynamics of adding, or multiplying or any other maths concept.”

Chris advocates the importance of engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in mathematics to ensure they are prepared for life beyond school. “Mathematics can be a barrier to many professions,” Chris said. “I want to ensure students are afforded the full breadth of opportunities life has to offer.”

A Bachelor of Science graduate in 1991, Dr Matthews obtained First Class Honours for his Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Applied Mathematics in 1993. He completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Griffith, in 2003 before undertaking a Postdoctoral position in the Centre for Environmental Systems Research (2004-2006).

But it was his desire to educate students about maths and science that drew him to a career in education and mentorship, firstly among his own schoolmates.

“I had a group of high school kids who couldn’t understand Maths Two course at the time, which was the computing part of mathematics. And they asked me to run a class which I did during a lunch break.

“I taught this group who was having trouble understanding the connection between maths and computers and how to do stuff like numerical integration. Obviously, a light must have come on for one or two of the kids because at the end, one of them said you should become a teacher.”

He did, with a newfound mission to transform mathematics education so that the teaching and learning of mathematics is more relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and more connected to who they are. Next stop was running his first education project back at his own community on Stradbroke Island

“It was a bit scary to go back to community and people you know because if you make a mistake people are going to remember. There was also a lot of fear about mathematics from some community members but because they knew me, they were very pleased I was doing the project at the local school

“That was the first step towards building the connection between culture and maths as well as allowing me to create the learning model I still use today, which has had national and international interest”

Known as the Goompi model, this method of teaching mathematics to Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander students focuses on creativity and how they can create their own expressions of maths.

“The maths as a storytelling approach allows students to understand maths expressions as a story connected to their world to build an understanding of arithmetic symbolism,” Dr Matthews said

Considered a national leader, Dr Matthews is the founding Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance (ATSIMA), a position he continues to hold. He also relentlessly lobbies governments and decision-makers to make learning and Science, technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects more accessible for Indigenous students across Australia.

Another proud moment was in 2015 when Dr Matthews helped pioneer Indigenous STEM camps around NSW, a collaboration between NSW Aboriginal Education consultant and researcher to Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement) University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Chair, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance (ATSIMA).

The inaugural camp at Dubbo attracted 130 kids from around the state, travelling hundreds of kilometres to be involved.

“From Burke, Borornia, Collianembroy, Kernobul, Inverell, Moree, Neramoyne, Tirie, Toronto, Waldut, and Wakenia. Some of those kids were travelling nine hours.

“They desperately wanted to be part of it”.

Awards have been mounting, with one of his proudest achievements being the recipient of the inaugural CSIRO’s Indigenous STEM Professional Award in 2017.

“The CSIRO award allowed me to travel to an international conference in Norway on Indigenous people and mathematics, which has led to other international opportunities and open doors to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mathematicians, which ultimately led to the formation of ATSIMA.”

There may not be much time for other pursuits, but his passion is his work and it’s a labour of love.

“I want to see people value Aboriginal culture more and see how mathematics manifests itself within Aboriginal culture.

“There's a lot of work to be done in the connection between mathematics and our kinship systems, which for me, should be treasured as one of those great innovations, like one of the seven wonders of the world, because it's such a brilliant system that has been given to us by our ancestors and maintained by our people.”

Not content to just be building a learning and teaching bridge, Dr Matthews sees the potential for education systems and mathematics education to have a role in language revival for our Communities.

“I’ve seen kids more connected to this country after learning and being able to speak the local Aboriginal language, and this gift can be given for all students in Australia”.