Robert McCormack LIBRARY

Our Place

Why was the NAIDOC Week 2021 theme selected?

 


The NAIDOC 2021 theme – Heal Country! – was chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee.
It calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.
The theme invites the nation to embrace First Nations cultural knowledges and understanding of Country as part of Australia’s national heritage,
and to equally respect the cultures and values of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as they do the cultures and values of all Australians.
Heal Country, heal our nation.

Key Questions

  • What does it mean to redress a historical injustice?
  • What was the assimilation policy?
  • Are there ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are still affected by the assimilation policy today?
  • How do we include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in conversations about redressing past injustices, and why would this be necessary?

Mabo

Activities

Read the policy of assimilation with your students. Ask them to prepare a different policy they feel the government at the time should have written about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. When they have written their amended policy, ask them to reflect and write a paragraph on what Australia would look like, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today, if their policy had been passed in parliament.

Divide your class into three groups and allocate one of the below sources to each group. Have each group read/view their source then prepare a two-minute report for the class about the Stolen Generations.
Timeline of the Stolen Generations
Who are the Stolen Generations
Apology to the Stolen Generations

Library Help

Year: Year 10, Year 11, Year 12, Year 7, Year 8, Year 9
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Last Updated: Nov 8, 2021 1:45 PM