The Last Daughter - The Road To Reconciliation

The Last Daughter - The Road To Reconciliation

Lesson 10 of 10 in this unit

  • Secondary
  • Year 9
  • English
  • Learning through film
  • Text Analysis
  • Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
  • Social
  • Indigenous Education
  • Social Action
  • ...

Lesson summary

The full length documentary, The Last Daughter, is so powerful in part due to how it shows different aspects of Brenda Matthews’ families uniting in the face of traumas they experienced at the hands of government policies. In this lesson, students focus on each family’s path to healing. Students also consider what it means to be an ally to Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Learning intentions:

Students will...

  • explore how Brenda Matthews’ experience is relevant to broader political movements 
  • reflect on each family’s path to healing 
  • explore strategies that are used to aid in reconciliation and healing. 

Success criteria:

Students can...

  • explain the link between Brenda Matthews’ experience and its relevance to broader political movements 
  • explain the similarities and differences between each family’s path to healing 
  • identify strategies they could personally use to aid in reconciliation and healing. 

Lesson guides and printables

Student Worksheet
Teacher Content Info
Lesson Plan

Lesson details

Curriculum mapping

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content descriptions:

English:

Students learn to:

  • analyse representations of individuals, groups and places and evaluate how they reflect their context in literary texts by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors (AC9E10LE01)

General capabilities: LiteracyPersonal and Social CapabilityIntercultural Understanding

Syllabus outcomes: EN5-8D

Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

Resources required

  • Access to The Last Daughter
  • Butcher’s paper or access to an online mindmapping tool like bubbl.us
  • Device capable of presenting audio and video to the class
  • Student laptops or access to schools’ devices (laptops, iPads etc) 
  • Student Worksheets – one copy per student.
  • Writing materials 

Skills

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

  • communication
  • cultural understanding 
  • community engagement
  • empathy
  • social skills

Additional info

Teachers wanting to watch The Last Daughter in the classroom with their students can register and purchase the film here.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium - facilitate class discussion and supervise student research.

Australians Together is a not-for-profit organisation that brings together non-Indigenous and First Nations staff, consultants and collaborators located across Australia. Their mission is to help non-Indigenous Australians listen and learn from First Nations people. Building a greater awareness of our shared history and its ongoing impact, gain a deeper respect for First Nations perspectives, and help pave the way for meaningful actions for an Australia together. You can learn more about Australians Together and their Learning Framework here.

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  • Year 9 - 10
  • English
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