Education

Wanju wanju, Kaartdijin Noongar. Welcome to the Noongar Knowledge EDUCATION page

This Education resource assists teachers by providing links between Kaartdijin Noongar website and the Australian Curriculum. There are detailed links for History, English and Geography from Pre-Primary to Year 10. Detailed links for Science and Mathematics are under development.

It was produced by South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council in collaboration with the Association of Independent Schools of WA (Inc).

Organising ideas: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture

The Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face.With these considerations and the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to these three priorities:

For each cross-curriculum priority, a set of organising ideas reflects the essential knowledge, understandings and skills for the priority.  The organising ideas are embedded in the content descriptions and elaborations of each learning area as appropriate.

Culture
OI.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies have many Language Groups.
OI.2 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
OI.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years and experiences can be viewed through historical, social and political lenses.
Country/Place
OI.4 Australia has two distinct Indigenous groups, Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
OI.5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country/Place throughout all of Australia.
OI.6 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have unique belief systems and are spiritually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
People
OI.7 The broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations across Australia.
OI.8 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have sophisticated family and kinship structures.
OI.9 Australia acknowledges the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people locally and globally.

Australian Curriculum: HISTORY

The Australian Curriculum: History values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories as part of the shared history belonging to all Australians. Students will examine historical perspectives from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewpoint. They will learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples prior to colonisation by the British, the ensuing contact and its impacts. They will examine key policies and political movements over the last two centuries. Students will develop an awareness of the significant roles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in Australian society.

Kaartdijin Noongar links to AC History
F – Year 2
Year 3-6
Year 7-10
Australian Curriculum: History

Australian Curriculum: ENGLISH

The Australian Curriculum: English values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It articulates relevant aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, literatures and literacies. All students will develop an awareness and appreciation of, and respect for the literature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples including storytelling traditions (oral narrative) as well as contemporary literature. Students will be taught to develop respectful critical understandings of the social, historical and cultural contexts associated with different uses of language and textual features. Students will be taught that there are many languages and dialects spoken in Australia including Aboriginal English and Yumplatok (Torres Strait Islander Creole) and that these languages may have different writing systems and oral traditions. These languages can be used to enhance enquiry and understanding of English literacy.

Kaartdijin Noongar links to AC English
F – Year 2
Year 3-6
Year 7-10
Australian Curriculum: English

Australian Curriculum: GEOGRAPHY

The Australian Curriculum: Geography values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. Geography emphasises the relationships people have with place and their interconnection with the environments in which they live. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures priority provides the opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of these concepts by investigating the thousands of years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to land, water and sky and the knowledge and practices that developed as a result of these experiences. Students will examine the effects of European colonisation on people and environments. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures priority also contributes to an understanding of spatial inequalities in human welfare, sustainable development and human rights.

Geography also enables students to learn that there are different ways of thinking about and interacting with the environment. It integrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ use of the land, governed by a holistic, spiritually-based connection to Country and Place, with the continuing influence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples on Australian places, and in environmental management and regional economies.

In including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and practices, and engaging with communities and local and regional environments, students develop a wide range of critical and creative thinking skills. Students explore ways of experiencing landscapes by conducting fieldwork with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and reading, listening to, or performing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ explanations of the origins of particular landforms.

Kaartdijin Noongar Links to AC Geography
F – Year 2
Year 3-6
Year 7-10
Australian Curriculum: Geography

Australian Curriculum: SCIENCE – under development

The Australian Curriculum: Science values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have long-standing scientific knowledge traditions. Students will have opportunities to learn that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have developed knowledge about the world through observation, using all the senses; through prediction and hypothesis; through testing (trial and error); and through making generalisations within specific contexts. These scientific methods have been practised and transmitted from one generation to the next. Students will develop an understanding that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have particular ways of knowing the world and continue to be innovative in providing significant contributions to development in science. They will investigate examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander science and the ways traditional knowledge and western scientific knowledge can be complementary. .

Australian Curriculum: MATHEMATICS – under development

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It provides opportunities for students to appreciate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies have sophisticated applications of mathematical concepts. Students will explore connections between representations of number and pattern and how they relate to aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. They will investigate time, place, relationships and measurement concepts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts. Students will deepen their understanding of the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples through the application and evaluation of statistical data.

 Source: ACARA Australian Curriculum v5.0 2013

Professional Learning

For information about Professional learning workshops and assistance using the Kaartdijin Noongar website for classroom use, please contact:

Association of Independent Schools of WA (Inc)
Email: reception@ais.wa.edu.au
AISWA Curriculum Phone: (08) 9441 1632

 

aiswa

 

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