SUPPORTING FIRST NATIONS VOICES

2021 BETWEEN STORIES WEBINARS

In December 2021 Dr Rosalie Chapple represented the BMWHI in a collaboration with UNSW and the Anthropocene Transition Network to host TransCultural Conversations for Troubling Times.

The public was invited to hear North American cultural ecologist David Abram in conversation with the leading voices of Australia’s First Peoples as they explored our place in the more-than-human world. Taking place online on December 6, 8 and 10, the series of three yarning circles probed how our thinking and acting in the world is shaped by cultural understandings of language, place and time.

The video recording of each webinar is available to view below.

Session 1: LANGUAGE & CULTURE • 6th December 2021
Guests: Mary Graham, Jakelin Troy, Payi Linda Ford, David Abram
Moderator: Tema Milstein, UNSW Environment & Society Group

Session 2: COUNTRY & CULTURE • 8th December 2021
Guests: Bruce Shillingsworth, Bruce Pascoe, Kevin Lowe, David Abram
Moderator: Rosalie Chapple, Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute.

Session 3: DEEP TIME • 10th December 2021
Guests: Anne Poelina, Tyson Yunkaporta, David Abram
Moderator: Kenneth McLeod, Anthropocene Transition Network

2008 EDUCATION RESOURCES PACKAGE

DETAILS

Team: Bronwen Maxwell, Teekee Marloo and Chris Tobin.

Funding: Natural Heritage Trust.

Partner: This project was conducted in partnership with the World Heritage Unit in the Parks and Wildlife Division of the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC).

OVERVIEW

This project intended to support the principle that it is of increasing importance for children to know the cultural heritage - the stories, songs, dances and games - of their local area.

During 2007 and 2008, the World Heritage Unit (DECC), in collaboration with the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, managed a series of projects under the core project title, Indigenous Cultural Co-management of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GMBWHA). The overall aim of the project is to support the effective implementation of the GBMWHA Aboriginal Co-management Strategic Plan (an outcome of the GBMWHA Indigenous Consultative Forums project).

The Indigenous Education Resource Package Project is one of the specific outputs. This project offered an opportunity to investigate and support an already identified need for the development of a comprehensive local indigenous resources package. The creation of a user-friendly, local resource package that will be readily used within children's classrooms is the desired outcome of this project, as well as a longer-term objective to embed local knowledge in the primary school curriculum in public and private schools.

Funding was jointly obtained from the federal Natural Heritage Trust, and used as seeding for a research and consultation process to address the creation of and subsequent development of a prototype World Heritage Aboriginal education resource package. The project team facilitated this process and consulted with cultural educators and practitioners within the local Aboriginal community.

The project was managed in two stages, the first (August 07 - December 07) involving an assessment of existing Indigenous educational resources within the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney region, drafting a survey questionnaire and consulting with local Aboriginal cultural educators and practitioners, and teachers from selected primary schools in the region. Stage two (January 08 - June 08) involved collating the data from the survey, reviewing instructional design options, developing a prototype resource package and testing it as a curriculum-relevant product within selected schools.

The resource package initially focuses on the two local languages, within the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney region, the Dharug and Gundungurra. Once this prototype package has been developed, further financial support will be sought to support replicating it for the other language groups, within the GBMWHA, the Wanaruah, Wiradjuri, Darkinjung and Tharawal Nations.

PUBLICATIONS

2008. Indigenous Education Resources Package. Final report for the National Heritage Trust.