Lessons on Indigenous Studies

Indigenous Studies: Lesson One
Pastoralism and the destruction of the Aboriginal culture

Lesson one

Lesson one: Duration is one hour
Teacher: Belqees Aboss
Subject: Aboriginal People and Their Culture
Scope and sequence: Kindergarten, year 1 &2



1. Content: Pastoralism and the destruction of the Aboriginal culture, standard of living before and after the arrival of European, including Aboriginal culture, languages, man and woman’s duties and weapon for hunting, from www.aboriginalartonline.com. Plan an excursion to Excursion, Visit Aboriginal Cultural Center, to ‘Muru Mittigar Aboriginal Cultural Centre’ near Penrith, NSW
2. Pre-requisites: It important to teach students to find and locate Australia’s continent on the world map, and Australia’s weather, discuss for 15 minutes
3. Instructional objectives: Students will learn about Aboriginal people’s culture and daily life before and after the arrival of Europeans. Furthermore they will learn to describe Aborigine’s peripatetic way of life, Aboriginal tribe, languages, and their situation when European arrived.
4. Instructional procedure:
· Lesson initiating: The lesson will start by locating Australia’s continent on the world map. Question students first if they know, then get one of the students to point and locate it on the map. Display Australia’s map on the board. Then question the students what they know about Aborigines. Write their answers on the white board. Discuss for 10 minutes. Teacher point and explain eight Regions of Australia.
The list of regions of Australia
1. Multi-state/territorial
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia
http://www.atlapedia.com/online/maps/political/Australia.htm
· Core activities: The teacher needs to describe how an Aboriginal people’s culture and lifestyle from the past have been like. Teacher needs to display Aborigine’s people’s pictures. The pictures should show their past and current culture and traditions. Then the teacher need to discuss it for 10 minutes;
v Aboriginal tribes, that there were 500 different tribes with their own languages.
v Aborigine’s standard of living was nomadic way of life.
v Dream time and story telling.
v Women’s duty, together small hunt.
v Men’s duty, to hunt and bring food.
v Aboriginal weapon, boomerang.


Traditional Aborigines
The photos above, Aboriginal children and Aboriginal men
Bring out the boomerang and show it students. Students can see and touch an example of Aborigines tool in hunting that is made by Aborigines. A boomeranged is a piece of hard wood used in every day life. Men to hunt animals for food use it. They are also used as musical instrument to keep the beat (like clap sticks)
Soon after discuss how European involvement with Aborigines. Then show a picture of modern Aborigines. Discuss how they are now and how government including their culture helps them. Show Aborigines episode or documentary clip for ten minutes. Display a few Aborigines’ paintings on the board. Ask students to focus on them.
Watch the episode of Aboriginal Art, from http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/education/default.htm. Then give students an activity to do dot painting on the paper, and say some thing about what they think about Aborigines. Give them ten minutes. Then discuss for 15 minutes.
Materials and equipment:
§ White board
§ Markers
§ Over head/ projector
§ Transparencies of Australia
§ Boomerang
§ Episode about Australian Aborigines for 10 minutes
§ Picture Aboriginal people (traditional Aborigines)
§ Pictures of modern aborigines
§ World map
§ Aboriginal dot painting
Assessment and evaluation: Get the students to describe Aborigine’s people.
Follow up activities: Give them Australia’s map for coloring.
Self assessment: How much student learned about Aborigines of Australia


Lesson Two
Lesson Two: Duration is one hour
Teacher: Belqees Aboss
Subject: Aboriginal and the Land Right Act
Scope and sequence: Kindergarten, year 1 &2

Content: Aboriginal and the Land Right Act, including the land means to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Furthermore students will learn about Aboriginal people’s style of living, temporary shelters, before the arrival of European as well as Aboriginal houses after the arrival of European and Aboriginal flag.
Pre-requisites: It important to discuss Australia’s continent on the world map and its weather. Discuss for five minutes
Instructional objectives: Students will learn about Aboriginal people’s houses and living style before and after the arrival of Europeans. The students will learn to describe Aborigines nomadic way of life. Aboriginal people belief in relation to the land that they are born into the responsibility to care for their land, today and with future generations.

Lesson initiating: The lesson will start by locating Australia’s continent on the world map. Teacher point and explain Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1976 was first established by Australian government. Teacher needs to describe that Aboriginal people did not buy or sell land. They believe that the land was given to them long a go in the Dream Time. Then question the students what they know about Aborigines land. Write their answers on the white board. Discuss for 15 minutes
Core activities: Discussion for 10 minutes, the teacher need to describe what land means to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Teacher needs to display Australian natural trees, forests, and vegetation’s, dry and farm lands. Then the teacher need to discuss that;
Land means to non-Indigenous people and land owners,
· a commodity to be bought and sold,
· an asset to make profit from,
· a means to make a living off it,
· Simply 'home'.
This picture shows Land of the Ancestors.
For Aboriginal people the health of land and water is central to their culture. Land means that it is;
· their 'home',
· their mother
· steeped in their culture
· Gives them the responsibility to care for it.
Bring out a picture of Aboriginal shelter before the arrival of Europeans. Then discuss how Aboriginal people’s temporary shelters were before the arrival of European settlement. Australia's first white visitors assumed that Aboriginal people did not build permanent houses or shelters. Aboriginal people were 'nomads' and never built permanent shelters.
Then explain how Aborigine’s people made their houses. Soon after, explain show a picture of modern Aborigine’s house. Discuss how they are now and how government including land rights helps them. For ten minutes
After the European settler arrived, the Aboriginal people build their house based on climate, natural environment, resources available, family size and their particular needs in that area.


Bring out the Aboriginal Flag and describe that Harold Thomas, an artist and an Aboriginal, designed it in 1971. It has become a symbol for modern Aborigines in their fight for land rights and equality. Black is for the color of the people. Red is for the land and for the blood that has been shed since the European invasion. Yellow is for the sun, the life-giving source uniting both the land and the people.
Materials and equipment:
§ White board
§ Markers
§ Over head/ projector
§ World map
§ Pictures of Aboriginal houses
§ Aboriginal flag
§ Picture natural trees, forests, vegetation’s, dry and farm lands
Assessment and evaluation: get the students to describe Aboriginal people’s flag.
Follow up activities: give them plain drawing of Aboriginal flag for coloring. Duration 15 minutes.
Self assessment: how much student learned about aborigines land right in Australia


Lesson Three

Lesson Three: Duration is one hour
Teacher: Belqees Aboss
Subject: Aboriginal Dreaming Stories
Scope and sequence: Kindergarten, year 1 &2

Content: The students will learn about “Aboriginal Dream Time “, which it is describing the time of creation in their religion. Aboriginal people belief that Ancestral and things were created during the creation period. Students will learn that Aboriginal people interpret dreams as being the memory of things that happened during this ‘creation period’ and it relates to their culture.

Students will learn that each Aboriginal tribe has their own stories. These stories have moral tale to be learned. Furthermore, Students will act a story and draw their own tale.

The stories form Aboriginal religion, behavior, law and order in society. These stories are being told to children during ceremonies around campfire, which includes dancing and songs. Students will be familiar to Aboriginal dreamtime stories and how it is passed from one generation to another. This gives the students the opportunity to learn about Aboriginal story telling tradition through spoken words and visual culture such as paintings and dances. Students will also have the chance to hear stories of Aboriginal dreamtime and investigate these stories in Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art often use Australian animals to convey a massage.

Pre-requisites: watch for 10 minutes the episode of aboriginal Dream Time stories from Australian Museum web address, http://www.dreamtime.net.au. Follow by class discussion about storyline of the episode. It important to get the students to focus on the aboriginal story telling, on how Spirit ancestors made all the hills and rocks, tree, rivers and every thing.
Instructional objectives: students will learn about Aboriginal Dream Time stories. Students will be able to discuss Australian Aboriginal culture through story telling and aboriginal art and painting.
Instructional procedure
Lesson initiating: the lesson will start by watching the episode of Aboriginal dream Time stories.
Teacher point and explain how story telling are among Aboriginal people pass from one generation to another. Students will also learn about:
v Aboriginal culture through story telling
v Aboriginal culture through art or painting
v Student will be able to define the term aboriginal dream time
v Students will be able to explain the purpose of story telling
v Students will recognize aboriginal paintings
v Students will identify some animals and how they relate to Aboriginal art
Question students first if they know any story, or any story from their parents or grand parents. Ask students if they hear story from an elder. Ask students to sit in a large circle and explain that the class forms the talking circle whenever issues need to be discussed. Teacher explains the importance of talking circle in Aboriginal culture. Get some picture books about Aboriginal Dreaming stories from www.australianmuseum.net.au and show it to students. Then display Australia’s animal’s pictures on the board. Then question the students what they know about aborigine’s dreamtime stories. Write their answers on the white board. Discuss for 10 minutes
Core activities: get the students to draw their own stories on the paper. Their story should relate to nature and their surroundings such as animals, birds and etc. Then collect the stories and make them as a book. The teacher needs to describe the story and its massage. Discuss how this story is relevant for to day. Make simple face and capes for costumes and act out the story. Teacher emphasize that the source of the story.
Teacher needs to display Australian animal’s pictures on the board. Then the teacher needs to discuss;
v Aboriginal Dream Time stories
v Aborigines art, and how teaches a lesson
v Australian animals as a character in Aboriginals paintings

Bring an Aboriginal dot painting and show it to students. And view Aboriginal art on www.wentworthgalleries.com.au. Students can see an example of Aborigine’s story telling method. Soon after discuss how spoken stories, Aboriginal songs, and dances and dot painting tell similar narratives. Ask students to describe the paintings including lines, shapes, and colors. Explain to students that this type of painting is very common in aboriginal art. These types of paining t narrate a story line, which has a character. This character is often an animal whose actions teach a lesson. Give them ten minutes. Request an Aboriginal guest speaker to speak in the class.

Materials and equipment:
§ White board
§ Markers
§ Over head/ projector
§ Aboriginal dot painting
§ Picture books about aboriginal dreaming stories
§ 10 minutes of video clip about Australian aborigines
§ Picture Australian animals

Assessment and evaluation: get the students to describe Aboriginal dot painting Follow up activities: give them Australia’s animals drawing for coloring to color it and use Aboriginal colors such as red, yellow, black and so on.
Self assessment: how much student learned about aborigines dream story telling