Secondary Schools

First Nations Perspectives Across the Curriculum

First Nations Incursions provides engaging, curriculum-aligned learning experiences

for secondary students across Years 7–12.

Our secondary programs support the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority, bringing First Nations perspectives into learning areas including History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, Science, The Arts and senior secondary studies.

Delivered by First Nations educators, programs connect curriculum learning with living culture, Country, knowledge systems, identity, history and contemporary perspectives through storytelling, artefacts, music, discussion and interactive learning.

Curriculum areas supported:
Humanities & History
Geography
Civics & Citizenship
Science & Sustainability
The Arts & Music
VCE & Senior Secondary Studies

Explore these topics through:

Aboriginal Culture & Artefacts

Indigenous Product Design

First Nations Music & Instruments

Secondary School Program Options

History: Deep Time History, Culture & Knowledge Systems

Recommended Years: 7-8

Explore the world's oldest continuing cultures and develop an understanding of First Nations connections to Country, identity and community.

Students explore:

Deep Time history
continuity of the world's oldest living cultures
artefacts and technologies
cultural practices
kinship and social organisation
moiety
language and cultural diversity
symbols and body designs
trade and knowledge exchange

Focus:

How were Aboriginal societies organised, and what can objects and technologies tell

us about their knowledge systems?

Explore this topic through:

Aboriginal Culture & Artefacts
Indigenous Product Design
First Nations Music & Instruments

Geography: Country, Place & Caring for Country
Recommended Years: 7-9

Explore the deep relationship between First Nations peoples, Country and the environment, and how knowledge of place informs sustainable practices and cultural responsibility.

Students explore:

connection to Country and Place
cultural landscapes
seasonal knowledge
environmental indicators
land and water management
sustainable resource use
caring for Country
local Country and Traditional Owners where appropriate
the relationship between culture, environment
and responsibility

Focus: "How does harvesting relate to sustainability?", "How does technology reflect

the Country where it was developed?", "Why was it made this way?", "How did people

know when eels were moving?"

Explore this topic through:

Aboriginal Culture & Country
Indigenous Product Design: Eel Traps & Weaving
First Nations Music & Instruments (where the focus includes Country, materials
and regional cultural practice)

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Civics & Citizenship: Culture, Identity, Belonging & Community

Recommended Years: 7-9

Explore how First Nations identity, belonging and community are shaped through Country, family, language and cultural responsibility.

Students explore:

Country and identity
father's Country and mother's Country
language groups
family and kinship
moiety and skin systems where culturally appropriate
belonging and community
cultural responsibilities
Aboriginal Nations and cultural diversity
different perspectives on identity and citizenship

Focus: "What does it mean to belong to Country, family, language group

and community, and how do these relationships continue today?"

Explore this topic through:

Aboriginal Culture, Identity & Kinship
First Nations Music & Contemporary Cultural Expression

Science & Geography: First Nations Knowledge, Science & Sustainability
Recommended Years: 8-10

Discover how First Nations knowledge systems demonstrate sophisticated understandings of the natural world, sustainability, science and innovation.

Students explore:

traditional ecological knowledge
seasonal observation
environmental indicators
astronomy and navigation
sustainable land and water management
traditional engineering and technologies
fish and eel traps
stone arrangements and cultural landscapes
sound, music and storytelling as knowledge systems

Focus:

How First Nations peoples use knowledge of Country, materials and the environment

to develop sustainable technologies and practices.

Explore this topic through:

Indigenous Product Design: Eel Traps & Basket Weaving
First Nations Music & Instruments
Aboriginal Culture & Caring for Country

History & Civics: Colonisation, Resistance, Rights & Freedoms
Recommended Years: 9-10

Explore the impacts of colonisation alongside the strength, resistance, resilience and ongoing advocacy of First Nations peoples.

Students explore:

first contact and colonisation
dispossession
frontier conflict and resistance
protection and assimilation policies
the Stolen Generations
the Day of Mourning
the Wave Hill Walk-Off
the Freedom Ride
the 1967 Referendum
Aboriginal activism
Mabo and Native Title
reconciliation and continuing movements for justice

Focus:

How colonisation and government policies have affected First Nations peoples,and how

individuals, families and communities have resisted, survived and advocated for change.

Where appropriate, our First Nations educator draws on her own family's experience

of the Stolen Generations, connecting historical events with their continuing impacts

on family, identity and culture.

Explore this topic through:

Stolen Generations, Resistance & Rights
Aboriginal Culture & Contemporary Perspectives

More programs to be added - page under construction!

More to see soon :)

Our First Nations Specialist consultants can work directly with you to initiate Inquiry Based Projects with your Secondary School students. We will work with you to help your students get the most our of their Inquiry Topic with hands on immersive sessions designed specifically with your class in mind.

An example of our Inquiry Based sessions: