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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
Respectful relationships education offers opportunities to include a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. For example:
Understanding and respecting ourselves and one another
In HPE students can learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of living and being and develop appreciation and understanding of uniquely Australian connections between People and Country/Place. In HASS, students can also learn to understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experiences before, during and after European colonisation. Through English, students can develop an awareness and appreciation of, and respect for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literacies and literature. Students can also learn to develop respectful, critical understandings of the social, historical, political and cultural contexts associated with different uses of language features and text structures. Through the Technologies curriculum students can identify the interconnectedness between past, present and future technologies and Identity, People, Culture and Country/Place.
Developing effective relationship skills
In HPE, students can explore the importance of family and kinship structures for maintaining and promoting health, safety and wellbeing within their communities. Through the HASS curriculum they can learn about the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander modes of communication and the importance of group belonging.
Identifying and evaluating options
Through HASS, students can investigate the status and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, past and present, including civic movements for change such as reconciliation. Through the Technologies curriculum students can explore, understand and analyse how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples sustain environments, histories, cultures and identities.
Taking respectful action
Through HASS students can take respectful action to progress towards recognition and equality. In Technologies, students can create inclusive, respectful, resourceful and sustainable solutions. Through HPE, students can take action to acknowledge and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to and responsibility for Country/Place.
Australia has two distinct Indigenous groups: Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and within those groups there is significant diversity.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country/Place.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' family and kinship structures are strong and sophisticated.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have holistic belief systems and are spiritually and intellectually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
The significant contributions of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the present and past are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally.