NAIDOC education resources support teachers and communities
A new suite of online education resources will help tell the story of Australia’s Indigenous history in classrooms around the country, bringing to life the culture and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The National NAIDOC Committee has today released new resources to support teachers and local communities build knowledge and celebrate Australia’s Indigenous culture.
The resources have been developed by Dr Lynette Riley, Wiradjuri & Gamilaroi woman, NAIDOC Committee member and Senior Lecturer in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at University of Sydney.
Dr Riley developed these resources with two purposes in mind, to enable all students to engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures and to support young Indigenous children to build self-esteem through seeing their identity, culture and history reflected in the classroom.
Reflecting on the development of these resources, Dr Riley said, “Education is central to all we do in ensuring truth telling and making sure all people have the real facts about Aboriginal people’s cultures and histories of contact in Australia.”
The teaching guides aim to address the need to support communities and teachers wishing to learn and teach Indigenous history and culture, but who are not often in a position to create this content, or connect with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The resources are available for download on the NAIDOC website.
In 2018 educational resources were downloaded in excess of 30,000 times from the NAIDOC website.
NAIDOC Committee Co-chairs John Paul Janke and Patricia Thompson noted the importance of the teaching guides saying, “The resources build on the enormous interest in learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, lifestyles and history.”
The Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS) is also producing education resources in the lead up to NAIDOC. These resources will be available to schools nationally as printed resources and accompanied by an online suite of materials via the SBS Learn website. These resources also feature the 2019 NAIDOC poster ‘Awaken’ by Charmaine Mumbulla.
Media contact: National NAIDOC Secretariat, NAIDOC@pmc.gov.au