Activity Three
This activity is introducing the idea of role models. Role models are found in all different areas of life and it is important to encourage the role models in these areas. This could be sport, arts, education, hospitality, defence, medicine and family.
Ask the class to think of a person in their head, that is a personal role model to them. As a class, discuss the characteristics of their role model. Some ideas that the students might come up with are:
· Cooperative
· Friendly
· Positive attitude
· Determined and motivated
· Skilled in their field
Get the students to brainstorm ways in which they could take on responsibilities and take on the characteristics of their role models. From here we need to focus on family. Ask the students if any of their role models was a family member and the meaning behind it. If the students do not have a family member as a role model then use your own family as an example and give reasons as to why.
You are trying to teach the students that in Indigenous culture, all aunties and uncles are considered to be your parents. And all your cousins are considered to be your brothers and sisters. The children in a family are the responsibility of all family members. A woman may not have any children of her own, but if her brothers and sisters have children, she is considered to be a parent of these children.
Try and relate this to children by asking if they have a toy, game or sport they love. Ask the children what it is they really love, and take pride and have a responsibility to look after this thing. Then ask them to reflect on how they treat this thing they love. Give an example for them to relate to, such as, if a child loves the game soccer, they go to training during the week, and play a game every weekend, they also like watching soccer games on television, and practice at home whenever they can. When a friend comes over they may want to share their love, and show them how to play, and play with them, and are sharing this love of soccer they have. Or if a child has a toy that they absolutely love, they have a responsibility to look after it, make sure it does not get lost, or dirty, they play with it as much as possible, and wanting to share this with friends or family.
This is similar to a parent in the Indigenous culture. When parents have a child, they love that child unconditionally, they feed them, they shelter them, they do things, you praise them, you keep them safe, you spend time with them. Except they share this love and responsibility with their own brothers and sisters. Now that child has not just a mother or father to look up to as role models, but many more. You are trying to show this sense of family of the Aboriginal peoples.
Ask the students if they look up to any famous Indigenous in pairs or individually. Here is an example of a website to look at, but the children may know of famous Aboriginal sports stars or other role models they may want to look for. Finding out this information will be helping their research skills. The students now need to research famous Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders and consider why they are role models to young Australians. They need to write up a report with a little bit on their background and why they are considered to be a role model. This can be done in dot points, or in paragraphs, depending on the student ability.
To be culturally sensitive in this activity, you must explain this family system correctly. It is important to have the terminology correct when explaining kinship. It is imperative that respect is shown to the Aboriginal Peoples culture and way of life.
Ask the class to think of a person in their head, that is a personal role model to them. As a class, discuss the characteristics of their role model. Some ideas that the students might come up with are:
· Cooperative
· Friendly
· Positive attitude
· Determined and motivated
· Skilled in their field
Get the students to brainstorm ways in which they could take on responsibilities and take on the characteristics of their role models. From here we need to focus on family. Ask the students if any of their role models was a family member and the meaning behind it. If the students do not have a family member as a role model then use your own family as an example and give reasons as to why.
You are trying to teach the students that in Indigenous culture, all aunties and uncles are considered to be your parents. And all your cousins are considered to be your brothers and sisters. The children in a family are the responsibility of all family members. A woman may not have any children of her own, but if her brothers and sisters have children, she is considered to be a parent of these children.
Try and relate this to children by asking if they have a toy, game or sport they love. Ask the children what it is they really love, and take pride and have a responsibility to look after this thing. Then ask them to reflect on how they treat this thing they love. Give an example for them to relate to, such as, if a child loves the game soccer, they go to training during the week, and play a game every weekend, they also like watching soccer games on television, and practice at home whenever they can. When a friend comes over they may want to share their love, and show them how to play, and play with them, and are sharing this love of soccer they have. Or if a child has a toy that they absolutely love, they have a responsibility to look after it, make sure it does not get lost, or dirty, they play with it as much as possible, and wanting to share this with friends or family.
This is similar to a parent in the Indigenous culture. When parents have a child, they love that child unconditionally, they feed them, they shelter them, they do things, you praise them, you keep them safe, you spend time with them. Except they share this love and responsibility with their own brothers and sisters. Now that child has not just a mother or father to look up to as role models, but many more. You are trying to show this sense of family of the Aboriginal peoples.
Ask the students if they look up to any famous Indigenous in pairs or individually. Here is an example of a website to look at, but the children may know of famous Aboriginal sports stars or other role models they may want to look for. Finding out this information will be helping their research skills. The students now need to research famous Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders and consider why they are role models to young Australians. They need to write up a report with a little bit on their background and why they are considered to be a role model. This can be done in dot points, or in paragraphs, depending on the student ability.
To be culturally sensitive in this activity, you must explain this family system correctly. It is important to have the terminology correct when explaining kinship. It is imperative that respect is shown to the Aboriginal Peoples culture and way of life.