20 February 2008 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION Stolen Generations 1. What was the main point of this story? 2. Why do you think the Indigenous children taken from their families are known as the “Stolen” Generations? 3. It was Government policy that Indigenous children be removed. Why do you think they thought this was necessary? 4. “They thought they were doing the right thing.” How has social policy changed? 5. What does the sentence “a gross violation of human rights” mean? 6. What is assimilation? 7. Imagine being taken away from your family. How does it make you feel? Government Apology 1. Why do you think the current government has chosen to apologise? 2. Describe how Indigenous people may have felt when the Prime Minister was apologising. 3. Why is it considered one of the most important speeches in Australian history? 4. It’s been described as an important part of the healing process. Discuss. 5. Do you think it’ll help the reconciliation process? Why or why not? 6. Should the Stolen Generations receive compensation? 7. The government has stated there will be no compensation fund. Discuss. 8. Is it ever too late to say sorry? 9. There was ‘bi-partisan’ support for the apology. What does this mean? FOLLOW-UP TASK: VOTE ONLINE: "Should the government have apologised about the Stolen Generations?" Yes or No East Timor 1. Where is East Timor in relation to Australia? 2. Who is East Timor’s president? 3. What important prize has he won? Why is this significant? 4. When was East Timor declared independent from Indonesia? 5. Australia is a good neighbour to East Timor. Do you agree? 6. How many Australian troops have been deployed to East Timor? Why? 7. Why would some East Timorese people still want to belong to Indonesia? 8. Why would rebel soldiers go so far as attempting to assassinate the president? 9. Predict what would happen if UN troops left East Timor. 10. Why is East Timor likely to continue to depend on Australia in the future? FOLLOW-UP TASK: Send a message or tell us what you think about this issue on the Behind the News Guestbook Organ Donor 1. What organs and tissues can be donated? 2. Why is it difficult to find donor organs? 3. Why did Demi’s doctors label her a ‘miracle’? 4. What does the immune system do when a transplant occurs? 5. How might doctors transport a donor organ? 6. Where do most donor organs come from? 1 7. Where else can donor organs come from? 8. How many Australians need a transplant at any one time? 9. How do doctors decide whether donor organs or tissue will be suitable? 10. What happened to Demi’s blood type after the transplant? FOLLOW-UP TASK: Test your knowledge in the online quiz about Organ Donation. http://abc.net.au/tv/btn/goodies/quizzes.htm Surfing Battler 1. How old was Bede Durbidge when he could first stand up on a boogy board? 2. Where did Bede grow up? Do you think this played a part in his surfing ability? 3. What is considered the most prestigious competition in the World Championship? Why? 4. Bede says ‘you’ve got to believe in yourself or things won’t happen’. What part does attitude play in a person’s success? 5. Why do you think Australia is such a powerhouse in surfing? 6. Who are the current male & female world surfing champions? 7. Why are sponsors important in sport? 8. Bede is described as a ‘giant killer’. What does this mean? 2 Organ Donor Curriculum outcome links: Health and Physical Education Society and Environment Student learning outcomes Students will: Develop an understanding of organ donation and how it impacts on individuals Identify ethical issues associated with organ donation Develop research skills. Focus questions 1. What organs and tissues can be donated? 2. Why is it difficult to find donor organs? 3. Why did Demi’s doctors label her a ‘miracle’? 4. What does the immune system do when a transplant occurs? 5. How might doctors transport a donor organ? 6. Where do most donor organs come from? 7. Where else can donor organs come from? 8. How many Australians need a transplant at any one time? 9. How do doctors decide whether donor organs or tissue will be suitable? 10. What happened to Demi’s blood type after the transplant? Teaching and learning follow-up suggestions In small groups, discuss how a donor’s family may be feeling including concerns they may have. Share the main points of your discussion with the rest of the class. Create/design a poster encouraging people to become organ donors. Discuss with a partner whether you would choose to donate organ/s and why or why not. Brainstorm in small groups the issues that impact on organ donation. Develop a concept map with organ donation at the centre. Record your ideas. Use the internet to research how people register as organ donors. Do you think the registration process is effective? Why or why not? Retell Demi’s story in your own words. Present her story to the rest of the class. Related links http://www.australiansdonate.org.au/ http://www.organdonation.sa.gov.au/ http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Organ_Donor_Registry 3 TRANSCRIPT 29/2/08 Episode 1. On this week's show… Saying sorry stops the nation. The 15 year old stunning the science world. And the battler who became a champion. Hello I'm Nathan Bazley. Welcome to Behind the News. Also on today's show we're going to see how Rusty the python came home after being lost for a month. But first let's have a look at our top story. STOLEN GENERATIONS Sarah Larsen, Reporter INTRO: Last week we saw one of the most important days in Australian history. The Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generations might have sounded like just another speech... but it meant an enormous amount to a lot of people and it might change the country forever. So why is it so important? Well first Sarah will explain what the Stolen Generations are. SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Can you imagine being taken away from your home and family, being given a new name, even a new religion and maybe never knowing who you are or where you come from? That's what happened to a lot of kids who belong to what are called the Stolen Generations. In the 1900s the Australian government took thousands of Indigenous children away from their families and put them into missions or orphanages or with white foster families. That's what happened to Helen Moran and her brother and sister. HELEN MORAN: Mum and Dad had heard that the welfare was going to come and take the children. TRISHA MORAN: And next minute we were bundled into two cars and I can remember trying to get out of the police car and screaming and getting into trouble. We had to sit down and be quiet and we saw this dear old lady standing at the gate with tears waving to us and next minute we were just driven away. HELEN MORAN: We were a family of eight, we lost everybody, we lost each other, we lost our grandparents, my aunts were looking for us. My aunts were knocking on doors and ringing the welfare. We lost our whole family. They changed our names, they changed our whole heritage, our identity. How could this have happened? Well mostly, it was a lack of understanding. REPORTER: You've probably read books like this or seen movies telling the stories of Aboriginal people. You might even learn about things like the Dreamtime at school. But you probably know heaps more about Aboriginal culture than your mum and dad did when they were kids. Now there are Indigenous television stations, authors, artists and filmmakers telling their side of the story. But it hasn't always been that way. When European settlers first came to Australia they thought their own way of life was the only way and Aboriginal people should try to behave more like them. They thought taking Indigenous kids away from their families would help them blend in with non- Indigenous Australians. Many didn't realise how much pain they were causing. The Prime Minister says up to 50 thousand kids were removed from their homes. In the 1960s people began to campaign for Aborigines to get better rights. There were protests and Indigenous people started to get their stories heard. 4 JIMMY LITTLE, SINGER: Tonight I'm not appearing as Jimmy Little the singer but as Jimmy Little the member of a very proud race, the Aborigines. Australia's first people. In the late 1960s the government stopped taking away Indigenous kids and Australia started to learn about the Stolen Generations from people like singer Archie Roach. ARCHIE ROACH: I don’t want people to feel guilty, I just want them to feel. Something should be done. This history should be told, it's part of Australia's history. Members of the Stolen Generations like this have been campaigning for many years for an apology and they see the speech by the federal government as a huge step in their lives - a chance to build a new future with the rest of Australia. GOVERNMENT APOLOGY Nathan Bazley, Reporter INTRO: So now we know about the Stolen Generations let's talk about the apology. It was a huge event with hundreds of people making a special trip to Canberra to hear the speech.