Week 4 - Dust Echoes

According to 'The Australian' earlier this year, under the new National Curriculum there will be a growing emphasis on Indigenous Education in primary schools. It was proposed that Aboriginal dreamtime stories, for example, be included in the science curriculum as a means of teaching students about the Earth and the links between all living things. While this particular element of the draft curriculum has since been removed, Aboriginal culture will feature in other areas of the new curriculum and there will be a cross-curricular focus on indigenous perspectives. With this in mind, I think that the Dust Echoes site will be fantastic resource; the stories are enchanting and the beautiful animations make them really accessible to primary school children. As someone who hasn't grown up in Australia I can really see the benefit of using this type of resource to support my teaching and ensure that I do justice to this aspect of the curriculum.

In the workshop I chose to look at 'Brolga Song'. This is a story about the importance of culture and of knowing ones place in Aboriginal society; Victor never knew his father or grandfather and spends his life searching for their spirits. Eventually as an old man Victor finds his 'dreaming body' in the brolga and is reunited with his fathers; finally he can enjoy happiness. While I think that retelling the story in images was an enjoyable exercise, I would be more likely to use this particular story to explore the importance of belonging and of knowing where you have come from. This theme is something that most primary students will be able to relate to and the story could be used as a powerful stimulus for creating their own story of belonging. It could also be used as a starting point for a unit on family trees and ancestry.