Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

25 minutes – Part A: What Rights do Children Have?
25 minutes – Part B: Children’s Rights in In My Blood It Runs
40 minutes – Part C: Speaking Up for Children’s Rights
10 minutes – Reflection

Part A: What Rights do Children Have?

Step 1.

Provide students with a basic overview of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) using the following key facts:

The UNCRC is a legally binding international agreement setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities.
The UNCRC consists of 54 Articles that set out children’s rights and how governments should work together to make them available to all children. Under the terms of the convention, governments are required to meet children’s basic needs and help them reach their full potential.
Since it was adopted by the United Nations in November 1989, 196 countries have signed up to the UNCRC. All countries that sign up to the UNCRC are bound by international law to ensure it is implemented. This is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child
Australia became a signatory of the convention on 17 December 1990.

Step 2.

Play this video about the UNCRC:

CRC30: For every child, every right (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB1j7XAGpcs)

Step 3.

Display or provide each student with a digital or printed copy of this simplified version of the UNCRC:
https://www.unicef.org.au/Upload/UNICEF/Media/Our%20work/childfriendlycrc.pdf

Allow students time to scan through the document and ask any questions they might have.

Note: The language in this document is modified from the original version to make it easier for children to understand. You can find the full UNCRC here.

Step 4.

Let students know that they will be focusing on three of the 54 Articles today. These are:

Article 12, Respect for Children’s Views
Children have the right to say what they think should happen when adults are making decisions that affect them and to have their opinions taken into account.
Article 29, Aims of Education
Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children to respect their parents, their cultures and other cultures.
Article 30, Minority and Indigenous Groups
Children have the right to learn and use the language and customs of their families, whether or not these are shared by the majority of the people in the country where they live, as long as this does not harm others.

If your students have already seen the full documentary, In My Blood It Runs, you can choose to add this fourth Article:

Article 37, Children in Detention
Children who break the law should not be treated cruelly. They should not be put in a prison with adults and should be able to keep in contact with their family.

Note: If your students haven’t yet seen the film, you will have an opportunity to investigate Article 37 in Part C of this lesson.

Step 5.

Invite students to think of an example for each of the three listed rights where they have seen this right being upheld in their community or school. They can write these examples on their Student Worksheets - make sure to distribute one to each student.

Step 6 (optional).

You might like to also refer to the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). For an overview of this document please see the teacher content information in this lesson. We recommend using the resources provided by the Australia Human Rights Commission and examining:

Article 5 (Our Own Institutions)
Article 8 (Freedom from Assimilation and Destruction of Culture)
Article 13 (Our Ways of Being and Knowing)
Article 14 (Education)

We recommend that you introduce the UNDRIP to students prior to this lesson so that you don’t interrupt the flow of this content. We recommend the following lesson, which provides an Australian perspective on the UNDRIP and has been reviewed by Reconciliation Australia: The Final Quarter – The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples – Civ & Cit – Year 10.

Step 7.

Invite students to complete a THINK PAIR SHARE on the following questions using the Student Worksheet:

Why is it important that children's rights are met and protected?
Why do you think it is important for young people to have their voices and perspectives actively listened to?
Why do you think it’s important for children to learn the languages and cultures of their families?
(Optional - only use if introducing the UNDRIP) Why do you think it is important to separately recognise the rights of Indigenous peoples?

Part B: Children’s Rights in In My Blood It Runs

Step 1.

Explain to students that they are now going to explore a case study to help them establish whether the three (or four) listed rights are currently being equally and equitably extended to every child in Australia. Read the following:

The case study we are going to use is the story of Dujuan whose story is told in the documentary, In My Blood It Runs. At the time of filming, Dujuan was a 10-year-old child. He is from the Arrernte/Garrwa peoples from Central Australia. Since the making of the film, he has advocated for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Step 2.

Choose one of the following options:

Option 1 - If students have not yet watched the full film, In My Blood It Runs:
Provide this overview of In My Blood It Runs:

Ten-year-old Dujuan is a child-healer, a good hunter and speaks three languages. As he shares his wisdom of history and the complex world around him we see his spark and intelligence. Yet Dujuan is ‘failing’ in school and facing increasing scrutiny from welfare and the police. As he travels perilously close to incarceration, his family fight to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education lest he becomes another statistic. Through the film, the audience walks with him as he grapples with these pressures, shares his truths and somewhere in-between finds space to dream, imagine and hope for his future self.

Introduce the trailer to In My Blood It Runs and invite students to watch the trailer through the lens of the three Articles they are exploring.

Each student should use the Student Worksheet to record examples from the trailer where they think these rights are being met or denied. They can work in pairs if they wish.

Play the trailer:

In My Blood It Runs - Official Documentary Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmahNqD3Dvw)

Article	Evidence of rights being met	Evidence of rights being denied
Article 12, Respect for Children’s Views	Possible answer: Dujuan narrates and gets behind the camera.	Possible answer: Dujuan’s concerns about his schooling aren’t taken seriously by his schools.
Article 29, Aims of Education	Possible answer: Dujuan’s grandmother is determined for Dujuan to learn ‘both ways’.	Possible answer: Dujuan is being taught ‘white people’s’ history at school. It doesn’t show respect for his culture.
Article 30, Minority and Indigenous Groups	Possible answer: Dujuan is learning his culture through bush medicine and healing powers.	Possible answer: Dujuan’s school doesn’t teach him his own culture.

Option 2 - If students have already viewed In My Blood It Runs in entirety:
Invite students to work in small groups of 4-5 and use their knowledge of the film to identify how they think the three chosen Articles are relevant to Dujuan’s story. Using the Student Worksheet they can provide evidence for how the rights described in the four Articles are being met or denied. You might like to play the trailer to jog their memory.

Article	Evidence of rights being met	Evidence of rights being denied
Article 12, Respect for Children’s Views	Possible answer: Dujuan narrates and gets behind the camera. His family listens to his concerns.	Possible answer: Dujuan’s concerns about his schooling aren’t taken seriously by his schools.
Article 29, Aims of Education	Possible answer: Dujuan’s grandmother, Carol, is determined for Dujuan to learn ‘both ways’.	Possible answer: Dujuan is being taught ‘white people’s’ history at school. When his culture is being taught at school, it is not always done respectfully or given enough time.
Article 30, Minority and Indigenous Groups	Possible answer: Dujuan is learning his culture through bush medicine and healing powers. He goes to Country to learn about the land and his culture.	Possible answer: Dujuan’s schools don’t allow much time for studying his culture and language. Even the community school designed specifically for this has only a small amount of time allocated to his language and culture.
Article 37, Children in Detention	Possible answer: Don Dale is a juvenile prison. It does not have adults in prison there too.	Possible answer: Children in Don Dale are shown on the news being treated cruelly and tortured. Dujuan’s Aunty expresses a dark warning about Don Dale.

Step 3.

Invite students or groups to join with another student or group or swap half their group members. In their new group or pair, they should discuss the evidence they listed and the merits of each point on their list.

Step 4.

Display these quotes from the trailer as examples of evidence:

“The history that we’re told at school; that was for white people.” ~ Dujuan
“Do you wanna get locked up with those other kids? This is your last chance.” ~ School Principal
“I want our kids to grow up learning in both ways.” ~ Carol
“We want our language, we want our stories told to our children.” ~ Protestor
“What I want is a normal life, of just being me.” ~ Dujuan

Step 5.

Lead a class discussion using these questions as prompts:

Do you think Dujuan’s rights were being met, based on what you know of his story?
Who did you see standing up for Dujuan’s rights?
(Optional - ask only if students have seen the full film) In the In My Blood It Runs documentary, did you think Dujuan’s voice was being heard and valued? How? Why?
Based on what you know now, do you believe that children’s rights are being actively extended to every child in Australia? As a nation, do you think Australia is living up to its commitment to the UNCRC? Why? Why not?
To what extent do you think children’s views and voices – including the diverse views and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children – are currently being heard and taken into consideration in Australia? How? Why?
What questions do you have at this point? What would you like to investigate further?

Step 6 (optional).

Allow students to voice their questions and take time to help them find some answers.

Note: You might find at this stage, that students start to bring in various views on controversial issues. Ensure you monitor these conversations and maintain safety for all students in the room, without silencing any voices. You may find it useful to ask provocative questions such as, ‘What makes you think that?’, ‘What rights is this related to?’, ‘Where is your evidence?’, ‘Who or what has influenced your thinking?’. If students feel the UNCRC is not sufficient protection for children, allow them to voice this too.

Part C: Speaking Up for Children’s Rights

Step 1.

Read the following to students:

Following the making of In My Blood It Runs, Dujuan had the opportunity to speak in Geneva at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
He is the youngest person to ever do this.
Dujuan used his voice to appeal to members of the United Nations Human Rights Council to help bring an end to the jailing of 10-year-old children in Australia.

Explain these key facts:

In all Australian states and territories, ten years is the uniform age of criminal responsibility (Source: Wikipedia).
The Australian Medical Association (source), the Law Council of Australia (source), the Human Rights Law Centre (source) and Amnesty International (source) have been calling on Australian governments to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 to bring Australia into line with international law.
The Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory in 2017 recommended that the age be lifted to 12 years, but the Northern Territory Government is yet to do so despite accepting the final report recommendations.

Step 2.

Ask students to identify which of the UNCRC Articles this topic might relate to.
(Suggested answer: Article 37, Children in Detention: No child shall be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. No child should be unlawfully arrested or detained.)

Step 3.

Play this video recording of Dujuan speaking at the UN:

‘Stop putting kids in jail’: Indigenous boy asks the UN to help end youth incarceration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWOppPEoqDM)

Step 4.

Invite students to discuss their thoughts about children as young as ten years old going to jail.

Step 5.

Play this clip from In My Blood It Runs:

In My Blood It Runs - 'Kids in Country, not in Custody' (clip) (https://vimeo.com/466034622/444fadf3a1)

Invite students to complete a SEE THINK WONDER activity using the Student Worksheet using the following prompts:

I SEE:
What I THINK about this is:
I WONDER...

Invite students to share their thoughts about the clip. Encourage them to provide evidence in the form of quotes, shots or scenarios.

Step 6.

You might like to mention that there are regularly government reports and articles published in the media about the issue of Youth Detention, along with various beliefs embedded into the Australian mainstream psyche. Films like In My Blood It Runs are an important vehicle for challenging how issues such as Youth Detention are viewed. Invite a discussion about how this clip flips the conversation around Youth Detention so that viewers can understand the perspective of those who have been in detention, rather than the ‘observer's’ perspective.

Step 7.

Invite students to conduct some independent research into Youth in Custody in Australia. Students can take notes using the Student Worksheet.

The following links are provided to get them started:

After UN speech, Indigenous 12-year-old takes his message of change to PM
Behind The News: Raise the age?
#RaiseTheAge (https://www.raisetheage.org.au/about)
'Gross over-representation' of Indigenous people in NT jails a 'crisis of devastating proportions': Hamburger report
Youth detention population in Australia, 2018
'System is broken': all children in NT detention are Aboriginal, officials say
Ten-year-olds do not belong in detention. Why Australia must raise the age of criminal responsibility
Voices from inside Don Dale

Students should aim to find out the following information:

The percentage of First Nations children aged 10-17 in custody in the Northern Territory (and Australia more broadly), based on the most recent report
The percentage of children in custody in the Northern Territory (and Australia more broadly) who are First Nations, based on the most recent report
The percentage of children in Australia aged 10-17 who are detained, but not yet sentenced, based on the most recent report
Anything else of interest.

Step 8.

Explain the following task for students. It is also on the Student Worksheet under UN Speech: Amplify Your Voice:

Based on what you learnt in this lesson and from watching/analysing In My Blood My Runs, you will write a two-minute speech that you could deliver to the United Nations on a relevant issue. You will need to include references to at least ONE Article from the UNCRC and you can choose one of the following topics, or choose one of your own:

The rights of children from any background to have their culture and identity respected at school
The rights of Australian children to be able to express their opinions and be listened to
First Nations youth in custody in Australia or any state or territory of Australia
Youth in custody in Australia, more generally
The rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be educated in their own culture and language.

Students should use the framework on the Student Worksheet to build out their speech. This framework is based on Dujuan’s address to the United Nations. It includes the following prompts:

What is the issue?
How does, or how could, the issue affect you or someone you care about?
What changes do you want to see in order for the issue to be better addressed into the future?
What would the intended outcomes of these changes be, and why?

Step 9.

Allow students time to make their notes and complete their speech.

Learning support:

Students could make dot points only and then record their speech using a voice or video recording device or app.

Extension opportunity:

Students should provide up-to-date statistics relating to their issue, along with a personal story and refer to the various human or children’s rights that are still needing to be delivered upon. They could also include persuasive devices.

Step 10.

Break students into small groups of 4-5 and have each student share their speech in their small group. Students should then provide feedback using the following stems:

I really liked…
I noticed how you…
Maybe next time…

Note: Students are invited to share their speeches with the team at In My Blood It Runs. If they would like to do so, they can record a video of themselves delivering their speech and send the video, along with a transcript to hello@inmyblooditruns.com. They should aim to refine their speech based on their peers’ feedback. In their submission email, ensure students indicate whether they (or their parents/guardians) give permission for this video to be published online. If students can submit their videos before November 9, 2020, they could be included in an edited clip for the 70th anniversary of the UNHCR that is due for release on International Children’s Day, November 20, 2020.

Reflection

Invite students to respond individually to these questions:

How has Dujuan’s story challenged, changed or expanded your perspective on children’s and/or human rights?
Why do you think it is important for individuals, educational institutions and governments to actively listen to and consider the views, experiences and stories of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?
What do you think about allowing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities more control over education or legal systems that affect them and their children?
What could our government do differently to ensure children’s rights are being better met, respected and protected?
What could our school community be doing differently to ensure that children’s rights are being better met, respected and protected?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

In My Blood It Runs - The Rights of the Child

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