Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Events that shaped our nation

20 minutes

Part B: Australia's brutal past

20 minutes

Part C: Contemporary links

20 minutes

Part D: Challenging injustice

15 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

why positive race relations are important to reconciliation in Australia
how historical events have made it necessary for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to fight for human rights, equality and equity
the impact of historical and intergenerational injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation of Australia.

Students can...

define racism and provide historical and contemporary examples in Australia.
arrange historical events in chronological order and explain their significance to reconciliation in Australia.
interpret written and visual texts to better understand injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation of Australia
critically reflect on media commentaries and make connections to direct, indirect and institutional forms of racism.

Teacher preparation:

Print and cut up the dates and events for the Significant Events Activity in Part A: Events That Shaped Our Nation. Place each set of dates and events into an envelope and ensure there is one set for each group.

Part A: Events that shaped our nation

Step 1

Introduce the lesson by asking students to assess how much they think they know about important events that have impacted the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation. To do this, invite students to put their hand in the air and use their fingers to identify how much they think they know.

Five = Excellent knowledge and understanding.
I am really interested in this topic and have spent a lot of time reading and learning about it.
Four = Very Good knowledge and understanding.
I’m confident that I know dates, people and places related to the different events and social changes that have impacted the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Three = Good knowledge and understanding.
I know some big events and some changes that have happened, mostly from what I have learnt at school or talking to my family and friends.
Two = Fair knowledge and understanding.
I remember some things about key events but there are big gaps in my understanding of how it all fits together.
One = Poor knowledge and understanding.
I can’t remember learning anything about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
None = I don’t understand what you are asking me.

Step 2

After assessing where students feel their understanding is at, divide the class into mixed ability groups of 3 or 4 for the next activity.

Step 3

Provide each group with an envelope of significant events (Significant Events Activity) that have impacted the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation. These events are based on government policy, rights and freedoms, and the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians.

Encourage all group members to read the event details and move the events into the correct order.

Keep the year attached to the events to make it easier for students, or for additional challenge you could separate the years from events and get students to guess.

Step 4

Once all groups have arranged the dates in order, read through the information about each significant event as a class. Invite students to identify information that they found interesting, important or insightful and encourage them to share their ideas with the class.

Step 5

Invite each group to review their timeline of events and organise them into themes, keeping in mind that there may be some overlap between some themes and events.

It is important to avoid giving too many examples of themes as this is an opportunity for students to use their prior knowledge about First Nations histories and cultures as well as colonial Australia’s government systems.

Example themes could be government policy, land rights, Stolen Generations, human rights, equality, equity and recognition.

Step 6

It is important that students understand there is no correct way to organise these events, rather this is an opportunity to think about how events are connected. Encourage groups to share with the class their process of identifying themes and classifying events.

Part B: Australia's brutal past

Step 1

Explain to the class that they will soon be watching a clip from the documentary The Final Quarter, which focuses on the last three years of Adam Goodes’s AFL career. If the group has not seen the whole film, you may choose to provide students with further background information about who Adam Goodes is and the challenges that he has faced.

Step 2

Invite students to arrange themselves so that they are seated where they can see the screen and remind students that this clip is only a small piece of the Adam Goodes story.

Utopia (https://vimeo.com/348324116/ae2f7a0ad5)

Step 3

After viewing the clip, facilitate a brief class discussion about the message that Adam Goodes was trying to communicate. You may choose to pose the following questions to help guide the discussion.

Have you heard of, or seen, the film Utopia?
Why do you think Adam Goodes was so frustrated that relatively low numbers of non-Indigenous people were choosing to see this film?
Why do you think Adam Goodes included the messages/language/emotions that he did in his opinion piece?

Step 4

Provide each student with a printed copy of Adam Goodes Utopia Article from 2014, 'Hostility to John Pilger’s film a denial of nation’s brutal past’.

Invite students to annotate the opinion piece with examples of events that could connect with what Adam Goodes is referring to. Encourage students to use their understanding of past and continuing injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since colonisation, as well as their learnings from the timeline activity.

Depending on your group, you may choose to read the first couple of paragraphs as a class and annotate it together. For example:

Paragraph 2 - “the great advantages I enjoy today” could be referring to the impacts of events such as the 1967 Referendum, the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and/or Australia’s agreeance to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2009.
Paragraph 3 - “But it also takes courage to face up to our past” could be referring to or related to events such as Kevin Rudd’s Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples (2008) and Paul Keating’s Redfern Address.

Step 5

Invite students to share their annotations in their small groups before reflecting on the impact of the article as a class.

Part C: Contemporary links

Step 1

Introduce the next part of the lesson by explaining that many of the events discussed so far in the lesson highlight the injustices of the past, many of which are based on racism. To ensure all students understand the meaning of racism, write the following definition from the Australian Human Rights Commission on the board.

Racism is "prejudice, discrimination or hatred directed at someone because of their colour, ethnicity or national origin." (Source)

Expand on this definition to explain that racism can take a number of different forms - direct (overt), indirect (covert) and institutional (systemic). For more information view the State of Reconciliation Discussion Guide or use the Different Forms Of Racism Worksheet with students.

Step 2

To gain an understanding of what students already think and feel about racism in Australia, invite them to complete a Think-Pair-Share on the Student Worksheet by responding to the following question:

Do you think Australia, as a society, still has racist attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples? Why/why not?

Allow students 2-3 minutes to think about their ideas and write them on the Student Worksheet in the first column of the Think-Pair-Share table.

Step 3

Once students have had an opportunity to think and record their responses to the questions, encourage them to pair up with another student and discuss the similarities and differences in their response to the question.

Ask students to list key ideas from their pair discussions in the second column of the Think-Pair-Share table.

Step 4

Bring the class back together and invite students to share their ideas and responses to the questions, linking back to examples to justify their thoughts.

Step 5

Explain to students that they will now watch another clip from the documentary The Final Quarter which shows different people in the media making comments about Adam Goodes’ war cry celebration during the 2015 Indigenous Round. It is important for students to understand that the AFL’s Indigenous Round is hosted precisely to recognise and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players and cultures.

We boo our discomfort (https://vimeo.com/369740655/b1e4327be0)

Step 6

Using the Commentary Table on the Student Worksheet (included below), invite students to critically reflect on the attitudes and messages that the clip shows and how these reflect more generally on Australian culture and the understanding and acceptance of cultural differences in Australia.

Commentator & Program	Main Target Audience	Attitude/Message of Comments	Evidence of direct, indirect and/or institutional racism
Charlie Pickering The Weekly
Sean Kelly The Bolt Report
Andrew Bolt The Bolt Report/ The Herald Sun
Caroline Wilson Footy Classified
Garry Lyon Footy Classified
Waleed Aly Offsiders

Step 7

In table groups, encourage students to share their reflections and discuss the representations using the following questions (included on the Student Worksheet):

How and why do you think the target audience might impact the commentary made by each person?
What are the messages and attitudes presented in the clip? Why do you think they have been represented in these ways?
What are the similarities and differences in the messages and attitudes presented in the clip?
What factors do you think might account for the similarities and differences?
Can you identify any evidence of direct, indirect and/or institutional racism?

Invite students to re-watch the clip so they can pull out examples to use in response to the questions.

Step 8

Once students have had an opportunity to discuss their responses in their table groups, invite them to report back to the class their key ideas and the direction that their discussion headed in.

Part D: Challenging injustice

Step 1

Display on the board Waleed Aly’s statement from Offsiders (also provided on the Student Worksheet) and read through as a class.

“Australia is generally a very tolerant society until its minorities demonstrate that they don’t know their place. And at that moment, the minute that someone in a minority position acts as though they are not a mere supplicant, then we lose our minds. And we say 'no, no you gotta get back in your box here'. The backlash is huge and it is them who are creating division and destroying our culture. And that is ultimately what we boo. We boo our discomfort”.

Step 2

Explain to students that Waleed Aly’s statement describes how many members of mainstream Australian society often react when minority groups challenge inequalities and inequities, as evident in historical events of Australia’s past. However, as demonstrated through Adam Goodes’s story, such reactions are not confined to the past.

In pairs, invite students to identify contemporary examples of when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have challenged or are currently challenging injustices and list them on the space provided on the Student Worksheet. Encourage students to use the following as a starting point for their research:

Step 3

Once students have identified a range of examples in their pairs, invite each pair to join with another pair to create a group of four. In this new group, encourage students to collaborate and refine their examples for sharing with the class.

Create a shared digital document such as a Padlet or Google Doc for each group to add their examples to. This will encourage collaboration and ensure all students are exposed to a wide range of examples.

Reflection

Invite students to reflect on their understandings from the lesson by thinking about the following questions:

How has learning about past injustices in Australia helped you understand the current and/or continuing injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today?
What inspired or surprised you about the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been taking action to challenge contemporary injustices?
What contemporary social justice issue faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would you like to learn more about? How might you go about this learning and what will you do with this new knowledge?

Ask students to use the sentence starters 'I used to think …' and 'now I know…' to show their understanding of Australia’s past and present attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' histories and cultures, and the challenges that they continue to face. Encourage them to consider the efforts and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists and role models in their responses.

Students should aim for a minimum of three sentences for each sentence stem to show different areas of understanding.

Differentiated Learning

Extension - In Part D, provide students with an opportunity to select one issue to research in detail. Students can then create a report outlining the historical events and government policies that have contributed to the continued injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. This report should also include examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resilience in the face of these injustices and the outcomes of any action taken to improve the situation.

Provisions for Learning Support - In Part B, Adam Goodes Utopia Article can be read and annotated as a class. Alternatively, students requiring additional literacy support may go through a worked example with the teacher.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

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

The Final Quarter - Challenging Injustices

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students understand...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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