Back to School - Acknowledging Country
CSER Team member and ATSIMA Program Manager, Dr Caty Morris offers some start of the year inspiration for your classroom.
What a great way to herald in the new school year with your class by acknowledging Country! At the same time, you and your students will be showing respect for the Traditional Owners/Custodians of the land on which you teach and learn by recognising the significance of Country and helping students to better understand First Nations Australian histories and cultures. Always seek guidance from Aboriginal educators, your local First Nations group/Community/Elders or regional Aboriginal education consultative groups.
An Acknowledgement of Country is a demonstration and validation of respect for the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which an event or meeting is being held. It recognises the continuing connection and relationship between First Nations Australians and their Country. Learning about Country (and Place) is built into the Australian Curriculum through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority (CCP).
In the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, the CCP content elaborations are all connected to nine rich contexts (illustrated in diagram 1). The activities outlined below connect to the CCP Key Concept of Country/Place and the rich context of Navigation and Mapping.
Image 1: Nine rich contexts in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics
More information, including examples of practice for the classroom, can be found on the Maths in Schools Professional online course for Years 3-6 in the Culturally Responsive Maths Pedagogy section of the Practices and Pedagogies Module. Also, further information about connecting with Communities can be found in the Principles for connecting with First Nations Australians (in the Rich Contexts section of the Connections with Community module).
Image 2: Exerpt from Principles for Connecting with First Nations Australian Communities. Source: Maths in Schools and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance (ATSIMA)
Activities for the classroom
- With your students, explore the AITSIS map of Indigenous Australia and find the area on the map of the First Nations Australian language group where your school community is located.
- For deepening your own knowledge, investigate what an Acknowledgement of Country means and how you can respectfully acknowledge the Country on which you teach and learn by reading the Teacher background information on Acknowledgement of Country on the Digital Technologies Hub. You will also find examples of Acknowledgements of Country in this document. Once you have a deeper understanding about acknowledging Country, you could explore the Hub’s lesson ideas for a binary Acknowledgement of Country or create with your students an Acknowledgement of Country for whose Country you’re on.
- Explore the Indigenous mapping icons created and used by Winyama, an Indigenous owned consultancy that provides mapping services to communities and organisations around Australia. Discuss with students what they represent and how they could be used for mapping.
- Use the content from the Navigating our way through Country resource on the Ngarrngga website to explore navigation and mapping methods of First Nations Australians and showcase these in the classroom through activities relating to measurement and geometry.
- Show students the ABC Behind the News video about Indigenous Place Names, use the AITSIS map or other maps to locate them, and follow this up by exploring and mapping any First Nations Australian place names in your school’s locale.