Ideas To Teach Aboriginal Activities All Year Long

–Not just Aboriginal activities during Reconciliation week, Sorry Day and NAIDOC week.

Obviously special events like National Reconciliation Week, Sorry Day and NAIDOC week are important opportunities for teachers to provide students with engaging Aboriginal activities and the chance to learn and reflect on Aboriginal culture and history. But it is also important to integrate teaching and learning about Aboriginal culture and history throughout the school year and in our classroom curriculums not JUST during the special event weeks. Particularly learning should be an ongoing process of teaching, learning, reflection and action. 

Ideas for Aboriginal Activities

Firstly I wanted to share some Aboriginal activities that I have used in the classroom for Sorry Day, Reconciliation and NAIDOC week, as well as throughout the school year. Please note, that I have taught in remote Aboriginal communities for 13 years and all the activities and lessons we did, were always planned and carried out with the consultation of an Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer (AIEO). In most circumstances lessons were delivered in two-way with an AIEO (I have a blog post about working remote here).

Although I do understand that this is not always possible to have access to an AIEO, but I highly recommend consulting Aboriginal staff or community members where possible. Also that what may be culturally appropriate in one community may not be in others. Therefore, I suggest that with the following activities, use them as inspiration to plan culturally appropriate activities for your students and area.

Acknowledgement to Country

Creating an Acknowledgement of Country together as a class is the perfect opportunity to show respect for the Traditional Owners of the land. And the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country.

Reconciliation Australia have a great guide to help with this here .

This is the Acknowledgement to Country I did with a foundation / year 1 class. We wrote it and read it in 2-way (Kriol & English) with actions. To write ours we watched this play school episode ‘Acknowledgement to Country’ (which is definitely worth a watch!). There are also teacher notes, with lots of ideas, songs and information that come with it that you can find here.

Next we brainstormed what was important to acknowledge in our class Acknowledgment to Country and what parts we liked from the play-school one and other examples we had. Then my AIEO and I put it together and wrote it in Kriol and English. The students were very proud of the work and loved reading it!

My Country

Another powerful lesson I taught last year was ‘My Country’. Firstly we read some Indigenous picture books with a focus on Country and belonging. Then students wrote about what Country they live on and what they like to do on Country. This lesson will help bring awareness to the land that they are living on and the traditional owners of the land. Click here for a free template you can download straight away and use for this lesson.

Aboriginal Activities set up in my classroom

Indigenous Picture Books we Love

There are SO many amazing Indigenous picture books, I couldn’t include them all! So I have just chosen 5 of our favourite books to read aloud from last year:

• My Culture and Me, by Gregg Denise
• You and Me: Our Place, by Leonie Norrington
• Why I Love Australia, by Bronwyn Bancroft
• I saw, We Saw, by Yolŋu students at Nhulunbuy Primary School
• Colour Me, by Ezekiel Kwaymullina

A fabulous book shop to find Indigenous books is Magabala books, an Aboriginal owned and led Indigenous publishing house.

Helpful websites and links:

*I will continue to update and add links that I find useful

This Australian First Languages Map is amazing! The map showcases over 780 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. The map includes teachers’ notes that have been developed to assist teachers to teach about Indigenous languages across key subjects and are linked to the Australian curriculum. It covers each year level from foundation to 10 and is inline with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Histories and Cultures Cross-curriculum priority.

This map of Indigenous Australia is great to refer to with students too!

Little J and Big Cuz animated TV show – Little J and Big Cuz, 2 Indigenous Australian kids who find out all about culture, community and country. There are great teaching notes and resources that go with each episode and are linked to the EYLF.  

https://www.naidoc.org.au/resources/teaching-guides

https://aiatsis.gov.au/education

https://www.narragunnawali.org.au/curriculum-resources

https://www.deadlystory.com

https://australianstogether.org.au/education/curriculum-resources/

https://nrw.reconciliation.org.

Resources for Aboriginal Activities that you may like:

FREEBIE – ABORIGINAL SYMBOLS GAME!

I created a fun find it game using Aboriginal symbols (similar to eye spy). I’m hoping the symbols will create some great discussions around Aboriginal culture and how the symbols are used in the community as they are used in different ways depending on the community. Sign up below to download and play straight away!