Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Health scare leads Catholic school principal to new indigenous support role

byEmilie Ng
19 January 2018 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Michael Nayler

New position: Former Catholic school principal Michael Nayler is now the secretariat director of Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation (QATSIF).

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Michael Nayler
New position: Former Catholic school principal Michael Nayler is now the secretariat director of Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation (QATSIF).

AFTER surviving a brain aneurysm during Book Week celebrations last year, former Catholic school principal Michael Nayler has decided to spend the rest of his life supporting indigenous students in Queensland.   

Mr Nayler is the newly appointed secretariat director of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation (QATSIF), which last year provided scholarships to 2290 indigenous students across the state.

The career shift for the Catholic educator of 31 years was partly the result of a health scare in October last year that landed the former principal of St Michael’s College, Merrimac, in hospital for two weeks.

Mr Nayler was about to give a Book Week speech on Winston Smith, from George Orwell’s classic book 1984, to the school when he felt a “thunder-clapping headache”.

He was suffering a burst aneurysm, but decided to continue with his speech before being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Parishes and schools across the Brisbane archdiocese offered their prayers for the long-time educator.

The health scare was a “wake-up call” to “re-evaluate my life”.

This led to a new opportunity to pursue a long-time passion for indigenous education, which Mr Nayler found at his first teaching job at San Sisto College 30 years ago.

He eventually landed a job at St Teresa’s College, Abergowrie, a boarding school dedicated to teaching Australian indigenous and Papua New Guinean students.

Mr Nayler spent nine years as the school’s assistant principal for religious education and was instrumental in setting up traditional Aboriginal, Torres Strait and PNG dance troupes, who performed before 70,000 Queenslanders.

Related Stories

Newman Catholic College in Cairns starts to take shape

School leaders at risk of violence, burnout, stress and self-harm

The mystery of love is worth saving souls

Some of Mr Nayler’s high achievers include indigenous Cape York man Dion Creek, who was featured in the SBS television series First Contact.

“I wanted to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to achieve their best and embrace culture,” Mr Nayler said.

“As a non-indigenous man myself, to see young boys have pride in their culture was transformative for me.”

He continued to work with indigenous and non-indigenous students at Mt Maria College, Petrie; St Peter Claver College, Riverview; St Mary’s College, Kingaroy; and finally at St Michael’s.

His teaching career in Catholic education landed him as the inaugural 2014 recipient of the Community Leader Awards’ School Leader of the Year.

“I’m sad to leave the Catholic community after thirty-one years, but I’m excited to be reaching out to indigenous students right across the state and hopefully make a bit of a difference,” Mr Nayler said.

Staff at QATSIF
Creating leaders: Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation members project officers Billy Neagle, Sonia Norbido, Tiana Brockhurst, former QATSIF secretariat manager Narelle Mullins and new QATSIF secretariat director Michael Nayler. Photo: QATSIF.

In his role at QATSIF, he will face the challenge of meeting high demands for scholarships among indigenous students.

Through QATSIF, families of indigenous students can apply to receive $1000 a year during Year 11 and 12 to financially support their education.

Mr Nayler said indigenous families were grateful to receive the QATSIF scholarship, which was drawn from interest earned through the organisation’s trust fund and some donations.

Last year the foundation offered scholarships to 476 indigenous students of Catholic schools, 1658 students in the state sector, and a further 158 students attending independent schools.

Families are encouraged to apply for the scholarship while students are in Year 10.

“One thousand dollars a year doesn’t seem like much but, to an indigenous family, it’s a uniform, or the feeling of pride to be able to wear shoes to school,” Mr Nayler said.

“I’d like to think that we are creating the future leaders of tomorrow.”

As well as providing scholarships, Mr Nayler also hopes the organisation can support indigenous Queenslanders involved in a class action inquiry into historic stolen wages.

Mr Nayler started his new role on January 8.

“And I’m hoping this will see me right through to the end,” he said.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Western Sydney doctor to sail 15,000km solo to close indigenous literacy gap

Next Post

Searching the road to ultimate truth

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

News

Newman Catholic College in Cairns starts to take shape

31 March 2021
Australia

School leaders at risk of violence, burnout, stress and self-harm

16 March 2021 - Updated on 6 April 2021
St Paul writing his Epistles painted by Valentin de Boulogne
Despatch from a Dominican

The mystery of love is worth saving souls

13 March 2021 - Updated on 14 April 2021
Next Post
Great Ocean Road

Searching the road to ultimate truth

VoRTCS tutors and refugee student Salim

Vinnies tutoring program helps refugees embrace new life in Australia

Brian Hudson

Tennis coach Brian Hudson's game is on song

Popular News

  • Health crisis: Referencing the Vatican document, the bishops said “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process”.

    Australian Bishops urge Catholics to get vaccinated amid push for more vaccine options

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • We head for Poland as pilgrims, not tourists

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘They deserve our help’ – Brisbane youth homelessness on the rise with 42 per cent of homeless under 25 years old

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • St Mark’s shows its ‘unity in diversity’ at 65th anniversary Mass

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Faith passage: Navicella (1628), by Giotto di Bondone, depicting the Barque of St Peter.
Faith

Faithful urged to stay the course

by Guest Contributor
22 April 2021
0

UNLESS we enter a church by one of the side-doors, we proceed to the main altar by...

Death penalty: Demonstrators are seen near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., showing their opposition to the death penalty July 13, 2020. Photos: CNS

Global executions dropped in 2020 but fears China’s secret figures remain in the thousands

21 April 2021
Opportunity to help: “As a society we can’t leave them without a place to call home – not when there are urgent and economically sound solutions.”

‘They deserve our help’ – Brisbane youth homelessness on the rise with 42 per cent of homeless under 25 years old

21 April 2021

St Mark’s shows its ‘unity in diversity’ at 65th anniversary Mass

21 April 2021
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is seen near a picture of George Floyd in this courtroom sketch.

Bishops urge racial healing after former US police officer found guilty of killing George Floyd

21 April 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping