An introduction to our First peoples for young Australians Teachers’ notes edition by Melinda Sawers Welcome to Country teachers’ notes About these teachers’ notes These teachers’ notes have been written to align with each chapter of the bookWelcome to Country: Youth Edition and to assist teachers to prepare and present lessons and activities that draw on the main book. To use this material, teachers are advised to read the chapter in the main book, Welcome to Country: Youth Edition and then the associated material in these notes. Each chapter in the teachers’ notes follows the same format, and is designed to give teachers a summary of the chapter, background information helpful for teaching the content and then a list of the relevant Organising Ideas from the Cross-Curriculum Priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. Following this are suggested teaching activities for a variety of subjects with references to resources, links to the relevant Content Descriptions and Content Elaborations for each subject and, finally, an extensive resource list. The Learning Activities range from short and simple, such as watching a three-minute YouTube video that presents new and interesting information to the students, to research topics that can fill an entire unit, such as understanding Australia’s Constitution. There are a wide variety of suggested student outcomes from singing, dancing, art and media productions, to debates, public presentations, scientific field explorations, conversations with historical figures and students producing their own webpage resources to assist others to learn about these topics. Teachers are encouraged to explore the resources listed at the end of each chapter to enrich their own knowledge and to develop their students’ understanding and enjoyment of learning about Australia’s First peoples. About the teacher Melinda Sawers BAMus(Hons) GradDipEd MEd is a primary and secondary classroom teacher who has taught at all year levels in four states and territories of Australia. Over the past twenty years, she has brought Indigenous Elders and musicians into her schools to help educate students about the rich intellectual and cultural traditions of Australia’s First peoples, and their languages, histories and cultures. She has worked as a Director of Performing Arts specialising in choral and orchestral conducting, and has written several books on music curriculum. She is currently the Director of Music for Wadhurst at Melbourne Grammar School. Any references to the Australian Curriculum are © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2010 to present, unless otherwise indicated. Welcome to Country teachers’ notes 2 Author’s note to teachers Australia is alive with the long history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, our cultures and our stories. Nowhere else in the world can you see and experience the oldest living cultures of humankind. There are two Indigenous cultural groupings in Australia: Aboriginal peoples on the mainland and most islands; and the Torres Strait Islanders, whose homelands are in the Torres Strait, between the northern tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea. People are believed to have settled on the Torres Strait islands about 20,000 years ago. Scientific research carried out in the past few decades has shown that Aboriginal people have been living on the mainland for more than 60,000 years. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of people living in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, 65,000 years ago. As new evidence and more advanced dating technologies become available, archaeologists in the future may discover that this number goes back much further. Learning about Aboriginal life and culture The impact of Aboriginal life can be found across the Australian continent and its islands, but it is often invisible until it is pointed out to you. In Welcome to Country, I hope to show how Indigenous people cared for this land and developed their knowledge, cultures and stories over thousands of years. Then you will begin to see the country around you differently. Indigenous people are finding ways to reach out to all Australians to tell them about their knowledge, cultures and histories. They want school students to know that the Indigenous communities are strong, resilient, rich and diverse. They want young Australians to go out into the world with a respect for the First peoples and everything they have achieved. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, grandparents and great-grandparents have a burning desire for their young people to learn about their own rich cultures and achievements, so they can feel proud of them. Indigenous students should be able to learn about their cultures in every year at school. That way, they can take part fully in all their subjects and build their self-esteem. Understanding the present Many Australians think that the only ‘real’ Aboriginal people are those who live in the deserts. This idea is based on two centuries of racist views that were wrong and should have no place in modern Australia. The official population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will reach one million in the next decade. Over the last century, Indigenous people, like many other Australians, have moved from the rural and remote areas and now the majority live in cities and towns. The rest mainly live in small towns and Aboriginal settlements and communities scattered across the country. Author’s note to teachers 3 Even in the largest cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, many Aboriginal people have kept many of their traditional customs and, in some cases, have gained the right to own and manage their land and waters. Also, they have found ways to keep their languages and cultures alive and to remember their history. Hope for the future My generation of Aboriginal people want young Australians to be taught more about our history and culture than we were. I have met very few Australians in my generation, or even among younger people, who learnt anything in school about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Many have told me that if they were taught anything at all about our peoples, it was inaccurate and often racist. In 2006, I wrote the Prologue for First Australians,1 the book that accompanied the award-winning television series on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history produced, written and directed by Rachel Perkins. I explained in the Prologue how learning Australian history in school in Queensland, more than fifty years ago, was painful and boring: The occasional Aboriginal characters represented bore no resemblance to the people I knew and had grown up with. Gradually, there was a dawning realisation that I was seen by my teacher and classmates as one of ‘those’ Aborigines. History was for me a terrible burden, because it was in this class that I learnt that people like me were hated; and that the only stories that were told about us provided a steady stock of evidence about our supposedly shockingly violent tendencies, savagery, and most importantly – our innate tendency to steal and pilfer. When Rachel Perkins and I looked at how Australian history was taught in the past, we found that most textbooks made it seem that our people disappeared or died out completely in the early nineteenth century. If the writers of those books did say that there were a few survivors, they wrote about those Indigenous people in ways that were disrespectful and dehumanising. They did not acknowledge our ancient and important history. Gradually, the attitude started to change as new historians began to write our history. They understood that it was important to record the lives of ordinary, as well as extraordinary, people. Rachel Perkins is one of Australia’s most well-informed and creative television and film producers; she is also an award- winning director and writer. She was surprised that, while the school and university textbooks generally didn’t include anything about the Indigenous peoples’ cultures and knowledge, there are mountains of historical sources about our stories. That is, history books, journals and research documents, for example. When SBS first came to ask me if I were interested in doing a major documentary series on Indigenous history I enthusiastically agreed although I had no idea what it would be. In making First Australians it has been common for many to ask why hasn’t this story been told? The truth is these stories have been told, at least in print, by the historians we feature in our series. There is more being written all the time and there is a substantial body of work to be found in good libraries if you have the interest.2 Learning resources There are thousands of resources that can help you understand the great and positive impact the First peoples have had on this country. For information about some of these, go to the Resources section at the back of the book. 1 SBS, Blackfella Films, Screen Australia, First Australians; retrieved 18 February 2019; sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/ 2 SBS, First Australians, Producer’s Statement; retrieved 18 February 2019; sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/about Author’s note to teachers 4 Sharing our knowledge and stories While it is impossible to cover the wealth of Indigenous knowledge in one book, I want to show you that we have thousands of years of history, customs and stories that we are proud of and we are pleased to share with other Australians. I encourage you and your students to use the book as a way to begin to explore the world of Indigenous Australians, to learn about our important and fascinating past, and our many contributions to modern Australian life. Your own sense of pride for the Indigenous cultures that have made this country will grow, and you will be well-informed ambassadors for the long history of Australia, most of which was Aboriginal.