1 Diverse Indigenous resources

Download the resource: Digital Professional Learning Resource 1

This resource was created to address teacher concerns about how to source local knowledge and stories that local Indigenous students understand.  The current resource is a broad collection of websites that are diverse and rich in possibilities. There are many wonderful resources available for educators to draw information from, however it is important that, to truly meet teacher concerns that a relationship is established personally and directly with their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations. To do this teachers need to specifically research their local area.

Research has consistently shown that there are multiple benefits to being inclusive of diverse cultures in schools (Aguiar, 2019).  More importantly, in the context of Indigenous Australian peoples, there has been a history of attempting to expunge this culture from mainstream society (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1997; Hogarth 2016; Hogarth 2019).  The United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples (2007), as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),  state that Indigenous and minority children need protection of the right to their own “language” and “culture”. Enabling Australian Indigenous peoples’ rich heritage to be easily available to all Australians will contribute to ‘closing the gap’ (2017), reconciliation and healing in education.

By seeking to gain knowledge, making connections (Martin, 2005), and building relationships with the local Indigenous community organisations, educators have an opportunity to discover more about themselves, their Indigenous students and how they can be culturally responsive (Krakouer, 2015), thus supporting  ‘being’ and  fostering ‘belonging’ for all children.