Sharing

Aunty Fay Muir. Fay Stewart-Muir is a Boonwurrung Elder who cares about sharing her culture and stories with all, to enjoy and take on a journey of learning.

Sue Lawson’s award-winning young adult and children’s books are recognised for the sensitive way they explore the exciting and heartbreaking complexities of growing up. Her first book with Aunty Fay is Nganga: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Words and Phrases.

About the Illustrator

Leanne Mulgo Watson is a Darug artist-educator and is the daughter of Aunty Edna Watson. She has been a director of the Darug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation for many years. Cooee Mittigar is her first book. She says “I had always wanted to create books to share our knowledge, as education is the key to our culture staying strong”.

A wonderful resource for the Government of Western Australia School Curriculum and Standards Authority Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines (in DRAFT and will be finalised upon the publication of the revised Early Years Learning Framework early 2023).

Learning Outcome 1.1 Feeling safe, secure, accepted and supported

(b) Building a sense of belonging

Focus: Building a sense of belonging

Children are feeling safe, secure, accepted and supported when they are, for example:

• describing places they live in and belong to, such as their family, community and Kindergarten community
• listening, seeing and using stories, music and symbols of their own culture

Learning Outcome 1.3 Building knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a personal sense of worth

(b) Displaying a positive image of self, their family, culture and communities

Focus: Children are building knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a personal sense of worth when they are, for example:

• aware and respectful of their own cultural background and worldview as well as those of others
• using vocabulary focused on objects, ideas and people that are important to them
• talking about and naming who is in their family and recognising not all family structures are the same
• feeling confident to use their home language at school
• sharing aspects of themselves, their family and culture with others where appropriate
• building an understanding that there are other social and cultural heritages different from their own

Learning Outcome 2.2 Exploring diversity and responding with respect

(a) Exploring the diversity of cultures, heritages, backgrounds and traditions to broaden their understanding of the world

(b) Responding respectfully to diversity

Focus: Exploring the diversity of cultures, heritages, backgrounds and traditions to broaden their understanding of the world

Children are exploring diversity and responding with respect when they are, for example:

• building an understanding that people can speak different languages and dialects, e.g. sing welcome song in Noongar
• describing own family’s festivals, rituals and traditions

 Focus: Responding respectfully to diversity

Children are exploring diversity and responding with respect when they are, for example:

• exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultures and the connection with local places and people, past, present and future including artworks, stories, games and languages, e.g. a daily or weekly yarning circle
• investigating other culture’s language, music, dance, games, artworks and artefacts represented in the community
• listening to others’ ideas and respecting different ways of knowing, being and doing, e.g. 8 ways learning

 Learning Outcome 2.4 Showing social responsibility and respect for the environment

(a) Exploring natural and constructed environments

(c) Respecting, caring for and sustaining the environment

Focus: Investigating the interactions between the environment and its people

Children are showing social responsibility and respect for the environment when they are, for example:

• exploring the basic needs of people, plants and animals, and places where they live
• investigating places where people, plants and animals live and how they interact
• investigating relationships between living and non-living things
• discussing how not caring for the environment might harm it
• inferring, predicting and hypothesising in order to develop an increased understanding of the interdependence between land, people, plants and animals
• exploring how plants and animals provide food, clothing, tools and shelter
• participating in the sharing of stories/knowledge of the interactions between the land on which the Kindergarten and local community sits and the Traditional Owners
• describing the characteristics that makes places special to them.

Focus: Respecting, caring for and sustaining the environment

Children are showing social responsibility and respect for the environment when they are, for example:

• exploring ways to care for and sustain the environment
• exploring how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people traditionally cared for and sustained the land, e.g. identifying local bush plants, seasonal variations and how the plants were used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Learning Outcome 5.2 Engaging in and extending literacy practices in personally meaningful ways

(a) Developing understanding of purpose and meanings of a range of texts

Focus: Engaging in reading, writing and viewing behaviours

Children are engaging in and extending literacy practices in personally meaningful ways when they are, for example:

• enjoying stories and literature valued by the cultures represented in the community and broader Australia, including texts authored by Traditional Owners.

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/kindergarten-curriculum-guidelines