Challenges Facing First Australians Today and Getting involved!
Challenges facing First Australians today
Students are to look into the current and future issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Where have these issues stemmed from? What has been done in the past to counteract them? What is continuing to happen? Is there any progress? These are questions students may consider when exploring this topic. Students are encouraged to think forward about the impacts of today and what could happen if nobody steps up to advocate and fight for justice in these issues.
Specific issues to have students start to think about the topic (but not limited to) include:
• First Nations voices being heard (Uluru Statement from the Heart)
• Closing the Gap (health and educational inequalities)
• Sovereignty / Treaty
• January 26
• Rising Sea Levels and the impact on the communities in the Torres Strait Islands
Getting involved!
Following on from the last activity, students are to explore opportunities they have as individuals to get involved in advocating and taking action for the selected issue. Ideally, this activity could be done in collaboration with peers.
Students in groups can form a Yarning Circle to discuss their thoughts and their background understanding from the previous activities. This provides an opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other and empathise with other perspectives.
Practical Activity
Once in small groups, students start to explore opportunities they can enact on. How can they get up, stand up, show up? A couple of ideas students can use but are not limited to include:
Students ask if they can learn from Traditional Custodians of the Country they live on and community members?
Is there an event within the local community they can be a part of?
Can they write a letter to a local member of parliament voicing their concerns?
Can they advocate at a school level, coordinating a small event within that context?
Students and their families come together to knit or crochet blankets for the NATSICC Palliative Care program
Are there any native seed planting groups hosting events in their local area?
Seek out your local Aboriginal Catholic Ministry and become involved with their programs or initiatives
Attend Mass and be present on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday
These are practical activities they can be a part of and physically make a difference towards working the harvest.