Four Indigenous school students from around Australia helped launch the breakthrough educational series they feature in at Australian Parliament House on Tuesday, 30 July, 2019. Our Land, Our Stories was developed over three years with more than 35 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people contributing stories to the ground-breaking primary school resource.
Josie, Shae, Orlando and Jayde share aspects of their lives and cultures in the media-rich educational package developed for lower, middle and upper primary. The series will immerse students in historical and contemporary stories of Indigenous Australia, and empower educators to confidently teach students about the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures.
Our Land, Our Stories was produced by Nelson Cengage, leaders in educational publishing from Foundation to Year 12, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the only national cultural institution with an exclusive focus on the stories of Australia’s First Peoples.
AIATSIS CEO Craig Ritchie said Our Land, Our Stories will provide a new standard of educational resources, addressing gaps in the traditional syllabus and creating more informed future citizens.
“It is vital that we create opportunities for young people to engage with the rich, diverse and enduring heritage of Australia’s First Peoples. An historical absence of this teaching in the Australian Curriculum, coupled with a legacy of misrepresentation and continuing deficit discourses makes it all the more crucial that we build the knowledge of current and future generations,” Mr Ritchie said.
The content has been written by, and in consultation with, First Australians and is supported by rare photographs and audio-visual material including over 450 images drawn from the AIATSIS Collection.
Nicole McCarten, Vice President of the School Division at Nelson, A Cengage Company, said the new educational series provides a complete framework for educators to deliver the rich content according to the requirements of the Australian Curriculum.
“One of our greatest achievements is developing Our Land, Our Stories. Through using this resource, we hope students and educators will embrace Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia histories and cultures. We believe it provides teachers with the confidence to bring these living cultures into primary school classrooms nationwide,” Ms McCarten said.
“Our Land, Our Stories offers an opportunity to not only enrich the understanding of future citizens about our nation’s history and identity, it offers an opportunity to deepen our understanding about what it means to be an Australian.”
Our Land, Our Stories is now available to order from Nelson, A Cengage Company.
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