Indigenous Perspectives

A variety of approaches, activities and resources

Coral Way & Trish BairdCatholic Education

Diocese of Rockhampton

Practical experiences• Prepare a Kup Mari, invite a person from the

Torres Straits to participate • Beadwork/Jewellery making using the traditional

colours ( red, yellow ,black, blue green, white) with discussion around the symbolism of the colours

• Dance/Song. Many schools have their own Indigenous dance groups. Invite these older students to teach younger ones about the dances and the music and to model cultural pride

• Art activities such as sculpting, painting, stencilling, sand painting, body decorations, masks and head-dresses.

• Cooking with Indigenous ingredients eg wattle seed damper, BBQ Kangaroo steaks or sausages. Invite an Indigenous catering business to demonstrate and participate

Preparing a traditional Island feast

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/food-lovers-guide-australia-53/clip3/

Iconography in desert art http://www.jintaart.com.au/iconography/iconhmpg.htm

Creating an Aboriginal Mural in our school web quest

http://questgarden.com/34/00/9/060827172047/

Art of Australia lesson plans, links and ideashttp://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/austral.htm

Learn about contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their

experiences

• Interacting with biographies, autobiographies, novel and poems (written,& visual)

• Listening to oral histories and personal recounts

• Analysing and interpreting oral stories

• Using resources produced by or in conjunction with Indigenous people

Screen Australia has a data base of short clips in categories http://australianscreen.com.au/education/indigenous/

Voices of Australia secondary modulehttp://www.humanrights.gov.au/education/voices/index.html

Mission Voices has elders telling the stories of their experienceshttp://www.abc.net.au/missionvoices/

Hidden Historieshttp://museumvictoria.com.au/hidden_histories/histories/Shadow.htm

Create genuine relationships with community

• Invite guest speakers to share their experiences. Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are reluctant to discuss money but they should not be expected to participate for free. They should be compensated for time and transport.

• Members of the local community- Adopt an elder to be a genuine member of the school community and to participate in decision making

• Representatives of Indigenous organisations Indigenous students’ family member

• Professional Indigenous Culture presenters Throughout the year, not just NAIDOC (tokenism)

• Consider protocols

Interpretation of Indigenous forms of expression and communication

• Dance performances• Plays• Art exhibitions• Craft displays• Museum exhibitions• Cultural centres• Indigenous organisations• Indigenous languages and code switching

Audio/visual and technological experiences

• Photography exhibitions• CD-ROMS, DVDS• Accessing recommended www sites• Listening to or viewing audiovisual

materials• Listening to music • Making short films• Editing skills

ABC interactive Indigenous maphttp://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/default.htm

Frontier online http://www.abc.net.au/frontier/

Frog and Toad , written and researched by Indigenous peoplehttp://indigenousaustralia.frogandtoad.com.au/index.html

Mura Gadi, National library of Australia data basehttp://www.nla.gov.au/muragadi/

Dust Echoes

http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/

Learning with local community members through

Field trips to places of significance to Indigenous

peoples• Invite a member of the Traditional Custodians

to attend a school camp• Indigenous astronomy• Sketching special places (with permission)• Visual diaries• Mapping of natural environment• Observation exercises with an Indigenous

theme• Collecting and recording information about

significant places

Astronomy and Australian Indigenous peopleshttp://www.assa.org.au/nacaa/aaaip.pdf

Plant use in Bush Medicinehttp://www.bri.net.au/medicine.html

Nourishing Terrainshttp://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/

ahc/publications/commission/books/pubs/nourishing-terrains.pdf

a critical literacy approach to resources

• Interpreting tables, graphs, maps and statistics

• Interpreting Indigenous forms of visual representations

• Multiple readings of text

• critically evaluating a variety of viewpoints

• Analysis of newspaper and magazine articles, television programs and films

A statistical overview of Indigenous Australiahttp://www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/face_facts/chap1.htmlKoori Mailhttp://www.koorimail.com/National Indigenous Timeshttp://www.nit.com.au/Torres Newshttp://www.torresnews.com.au/Message stick ABC Indigenous portalhttp://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/using feature film http://www.natsiew.edu.au/site/resources/education/using_feature_film.aspxevaluating cultural biashttp://www.neutralbay-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/library/infobias.htm

Develop research skills with Indigenous perspectives

• Devise questionnaires• Formulate hypotheses and test them• Recording and note taking• Research from primary and

secondary sources

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education website

http://www.natsiew.edu.au/site/home.aspx

Personal reflection on issues

• reflective dialogue journals

• Critically evaluate a variety of perspectives

Involvement in significant Indigenous events

• NAIDOC week activities• ANZAC Day - contribution of Indigenous members

of the armed forces• National Day of Healing activities• “Cultural Awareness” training

http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/reconciliation-resources/cultural-awareness/cultural-awareness-training-register

• Share our pride• http://www.shareourpride.org.au/pages/topics/

welcome-to-share-our-pride.php• Create a school reconciliation action plan (RAP).

A RAP starts a new conversation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Visit www.reconciliation.org.au/raps

Physical school environment• Fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

flags either on important days in the Indigenous calendar or every day. They are free from your local Federal member

• National Indigenous calendarhttp://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/education/

NIC.htm• Place Indigenous art work in the foyer of

your school• Decorate class rooms with Indigenous

posters, free from community organisations• Create a school mural, mosaic, bush tucker

garden, in a prominent position• Always acknowledge the Traditional

custodians in any formal gathering. Have students develop and present their own acknowledgment

• Cultural awareness and sensitivity are vital so seek PD and cross cultural experiences

• Look, listen and learn with respect and humility. Indigenous knowledge is a privilege not a right

• IP’s in the curriculum should encourage a sense of wonder and appreciation of similarities and differences

• The involvement of Indigenous people is important. Know when to seek advice-network

• Be brave, IP’s are one small step in the direction of reconciliation and social justice