independent organization. Funding provided to Stronger Smarter Institute In July 2013 $497,000 was donated to the Stronger Smarter Institute by coal-seam gas company QGC. Learning Communities project assessment A major assessment of the Learning Communities program was led by Allan Luke and published in 2013. The report described the operations and analysed the effects of the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities, addressed major issues facing Indigenous education by collecting and analysing new data, and provided a large scale picture of what is occurring in classroom pedagogy for Indigenous students. Regarding educational and attendance outcomes the report said: In the article Chris Sarra stretches the gap on credibility Janet Albrechtsen of The Australian wrote regarding the report: After this newspaper put questions to Sarra as to why there was no link to the report, a link was added with a summary of the findings. Views on indigenous education Chris Sarra's PhD, published in 2011 as 'Strong and Smart - Towards a Pedagogy for Emancipation' draws on Roy Bhaskar's theory of Critical Realism to demonstrate how Indigenous people have agency and can take control of their own emancipation. The book compares and contrasts white perceptions of what it is to be Indigenous and Indigenous views of what it is to be an Aboriginal Australian. In the book, Sarra called for Indigenous Australians to radically transform and not simply reproduce the identity that Mainstream white Australia has sought to foster for them. Sarra showed that it is important for Indigenous students to have confidence in their own strength and ability to be as 'able' as any other group within society. In 2008, Sarra said that Aboriginal Australia was being 'let down by 'white trash' workers in education, health, policy and public services who hide in remote communities knowing they would never last in mainstream centres'. Sarra said Aboriginal people were blamed and held to account for the dysfunction in their communities, but the standard of services and the people providing them were not subject to the same scrutiny. Sarra said, Later, Sarra expressed regret about using the term, and explained his comments were born out of frustration and he did not intend to undermine the hard work and dedication of many white teachers working hard in remote communities. In his autobiography (page 310), Sarra explains that things have changed since then, and it is now understood that for remote schools a teacher must be