Blue Water Empire

This Unit offers resources on the history of Torres Strait Islander (Zendath Kes) peoples. These are designed to support teachers in creating lessons around the 3-part documentary series, Blue Water Empire. This series highlights a comprehensive history of the Torres Strait Islands, from the pre-colonial era to contemporary times. It explores how Torres Strait Islander peoples have sustained their cultural heritage in the face of 200 years of European settlement.

The lessons have relevant curriculum links for each episode to guide planning and background information about the Torres Strait Islander peoples and their countries. There are also additional links to help plan classroom activities and tips on setting classroom guidelines to ensure a supportive environment during the investigation of this topic.

If your school has access to ClickView, you can view the Blue Water Empire series here.

NOTE - This series has been given an M rating. You should follow your school protocols for screening an M film when viewing this series.

Cool.org and Bunya Productions would like to acknowledge the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Queensland and The Indigenous Department of Screen Australia for developing these teaching resources.