Indigenous Culture and Languages
In this course, students explore the complexities, diversity and unifying characteristics, as well as the rich opportunities of shared worlds and cultures. In studying Indigenous Culture and Languages, students will explore identity, social justice and human rights issues relevant in local, national and global contexts with particular reference to the world’s oldest continuing culture, the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The course provides learning that allows students to examine and reflect on how indigenous culture impacts on their own learning, and on the development of their knowledge and attitudes.
In this course, students explore the complexities, diversity and unifying characteristics, as well as the rich opportunities of shared worlds and cultures. In studying Indigenous Culture and Languages, students will explore identity, social justice and human rights issues relevant in local, national and global contexts with particular reference to the world’s oldest continuing culture, the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The course provides learning that allows students to examine and reflect on how indigenous culture impacts on their own learning, and on the development of their knowledge and attitudes.
This course makes provision for students to engage with Ngunnawal culture and language in their own community. In addition, students will engage with indigenous language and culture in a range of contexts.
The Indigenous Culture and Languages course is written under The HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES FRAMEWORK 2019: BSSS HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Framework
Achievement Standards for HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES courses can be found within the Framework.
Humanities and Social Sciences is the study of how people process and document the human experience and their place in it. It empowers students to better understand humankind, society and culture and communicate ideas for the future.
Communities, Cultures and Identities
In this unit, students will explore the diversity of indigenous peoples and communities. Students will learn through local, national and global contexts, building understanding of historical, socio-political, socio-economic, linguistic and cultural concepts. This will have a strong community context with students learning to explore and reflect on the complexities of identity and the individual experience. Students will gain an appreciation of the resilience of the world’s oldest continuing culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia and other global indigenous cultures.
Representations and Perspectives
In this unit, students will explore the representations and misrepresentations of indigenous peoples and communities through local, national and global contexts and perspectives. Students will learn about the conflicts and triumphs of various communities and peoples over time. They will examine how narratives and language have positioned indigenous people throughout history. Students will explore social justice and human rights issues.
Ways of Knowing
In this unit, students will develop insights into Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples through comparison with local, national and global communities. Students will explore the complexities and rich opportunities of the concept of shared worlds and cultures, considering the personal experiences of community members. Students will investigate traditional and contemporary ways in which communities transfer language, knowledge, beliefs and values including protocol, roles and responsibilities. Students will engage with the arts, literature and story-telling.
Language and Wellbeing
In this unit, students will study the diversity and relatedness of languages in local, national and global contexts and the extent to which language connects people to land and culture. Students will explore the connection between language and identity. Students will learn the history and complexities behind loss of language in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities and the consequences that flow from the loss of language. Students will come to appreciate the benefits, including wellbeing and connection to country, that come from language maintenance, recovery, revitalisation, and newer languages and language change.
Independent Study
An Independent Study unit has an important place in senior secondary courses. It is a valuable pedagogical approach that empowers students to make decisions about their own learning. An Independent Study unit can be proposed by an individual student for their own independent study and negotiated with their teacher. The program of learning for an Independent Study unit must meet the unit goals and content descriptions as they appear in the course. Students must have studied at least THREE standard 1.0 units from this course. A student can only study a maximum of one Independent study unit in each course. An Independent Study unit requires the principal’s written approval. Independent study units are only available to individual students in Year 12. Principal approval is also required for a student in Year 12 to enrol concurrently in an Independent unit and the third 1.0 unit in a course of study.
(703 KB)