Aboriginal Studies through Active Education

Week 4 Index

Year 3 Camp each year is two days staying near Aldinga Beach. The program is run by Active Education and is based around Aboriginal Studies.  On the first morning, before leaving school, Bevan Baxter came and spoke to the children. He talked about how the dreaming stories have a particular setting (the land that is special to the Aboriginal people), characters in the story (often including animals of the region) and actions (something happens that has a lesson for the people - the moral of the story). The children were particularly interested to learn that different groups of Aboriginal people might tell the same story in a slightly different way. This is probably because there were aboriginal men who travelled great distances to other clans trading things like didgeridoos and obviously stories. One such story was about the how the crow turned from white to black. Both stories involved fire and smoke and teaching the crow a lesson. In the story from the aboriginal people in WA, the fire was controlled burning. In the story from the people in SA the fire is part of a celebration in a cave.

Bevan Baxter originally from the Yamatgy clan near Geraldton, WA

CAMP ACTIVITIES related to Aboriginal life on the Adelaide Plains.

Peter Watts is employed by the Tauondi Cultural Guides. Tauondi is a Kaurna word meaning to 'break through'. Peter works at the SA Museum and the Botanical Gardens as well as running activities on school camps.

Michelle Olivier is a facilitator for Active Education. She coordinated the camp activities and helped the children with their Aboriginal Studies.

Cooking fish in a clay wrap in hot coals On the bush walk Peter showed  the children how to identify  traces of animals. He also  introduced the children  to a man who was monitoring feral birds in the area.

Exploring  Aldinga Beach

Michelle talked to the  children about how the Kaurna  people burnt out the inside  of huge old red gum trees  up in the foothills and sheltered  in the trunks for winter.   In the summer they moved down near  the beach and built shelters  like these below.

Peter showed the children how dreaming stories are told in symbols and pictures. Then students used these idea  to paint their own boomerang.

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