Prep - Year 12
1 - 1.5 hours at your school or environs nearby
Big idea
Appreciate, respect and celebrate Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander cultures and ways to stay healthy through physical activity by playing Indigenous Traditional games.
Curriculum links
- HPE
- General Capabilities
Personal & social capability; intercultural understanding; literacy, numeracy, critical and creative thinking - Cross-curriculum priorities: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories & Cultures, Sustainability
Program overview
This incursion fosters appreciation and respect for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander cultures and celebrates the diversity of these cultures across our country. While playing Indigenous games may fit with your curriculum intent at the time, this is a great activity to run with your whole school during National Reconciliation or NAIDOC week.
Introduction
Our teachers begin with an Acknowledgement to Country, then share an Australian Indigenous language map to help students understand that the traditional custodians live in all corners of Australia. The reasons why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children play these games is also discussed.
Playing indigenous games
The class is then divided up into groups (depending on the number and age of students) to set up the rotation between games. Before each game is played, teachers share the games':
- background, language group and purpose and
- rules of engagement for that game.
Clap sticks signal the next rotation.
The games chosen are sourced from the Australian Sports Commission:
For example:
- Gorri – Central Australia
- Kai – Wed - Torres Strait Islands
- Juluhya – Bundjalung people of South East Queensland, Northern New South Wales
- Kolap – Mer Island, Torres Strait
- Walbiri – Central Australia
Curriculum Activity Risk Assessments
for this program you will need to refer to the relevant Curriculum Activity Risk Assessment.