Consulting Communities
Why consult the community?
It is important in teaching Indigenous Studies that you include the local community wherever possible. Community participation ensures that you will receive an Indigenous Australian perspective. The aim of Indigenous Studies is to present an Indigenous perspective and who better to do this than the people themselves? As well as people, many communities have produced books and videos using local people, histories and knowledge and experiences of communities from the local area.
For many years Indigenous Australians have been denied a history or voice in "Australian History", especially their own history. By liaising with the local community you are not only forming bonds, but also empowering the community members to tell history from each person's own perspective.
Often stereotypes can be broken and myths dissolved by children being able to ask questions of an Aboriginal community member. Often children have preconceived notions that are there because they haven't had the opportunity to hear an Aboriginal people tell their own stories.
It is important when developing your program that you find out as much as possible about your local area to form the basis of your teaching program.
When developing a program to explore the Indigenous history of Australia, the best place to start is within your local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community.
In some of your topic areas there may be times when you don't feel confident. The most appropriate people to call on are your local Aboriginal community members.
