Teaching about convicts? Check out the array of online digital resources on this State Library NSW Pinterest board.

This site can be used as a resource to further build on the work done using the interactive indigenous language map. The resource is a section of The Australian Museum’s website entitled Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney. There are various categories on the page including ‘Introduction to Aboriginal Sydney’, ‘Research Projects’, ‘Fish and fishing’, ‘Canoes’ and ‘Food from the sea’.

Of particular interest though, in relation to the indigenous language map, are the categories ‘Place names’ and ‘Clan names and language groups’. In the ‘Place names’ category there is a place names chart. This chart gives the names of current locations in and around Sydney such as Manly Cove or Chowder Bay and provides the Aboriginal name equivalent for that location. Teachers could provide students with a blank map of Sydney and get groups of students to identify a number of different locations and provide the Aboriginal name for those locations. Then each group could contribute their findings to a large blank map on the wall to provide a detailed map of Sydney with Aboriginal names of every location.

This site is also a great resource for painting a broader picture of Aboriginal culture in coastal Sydney in the sense that it explores what the diet of these people were like and how they went about catching their food with traditional fishing gear such as net bags, spears and canoes.

To follow on from this activity teachers could invite an Aboriginal community leader form the local area to the school. The community leader could potentially teach the class a traditional song, sung in their native language. Once students had learned the traditional song, they could perform it to another class or in school assembly. This activity would satisfy outcomes in the creative arts syllabus under MUS3.1. Students could then hold an interview with the community leader, asking any questions they have in regards to Indigenous culture. This activity would also satisfy ‘Speaking and Listening’ outcomes for stage 3 in the English syllabus.

This is a video about the first fleet and British colonisation in Australia. It focuses on information about Aboriginal ownership of the land and an Aboriginal perspective of first fleet arrival and subsequent settlement by the British by conducting interviews with historians of Aboriginal heritage. The video covers Arthur Phillip’s role briefly. It then goes on to explain that the settlers saw the land as a British territory, not owned by the Aboriginal people who already lived there. The video covers some aspects of early colonial life and then ends with a short reference to the impact of small pox on the Aboriginal population.  

This would be a good resource to use to introduce a unit about British Colonisation to students while providing a strong focus on Aboriginal perspective. The Aboriginal perspective on British colonization is one which can be easily overlooked in a classroom, however by introducing the topic with a resource that emphasizes their experience students should be able to see and remember how much of an impact early British settlers had on the lives of the first Australians.

Another way in which this video may be used is (in conjunction with supporting information) to work with the students as a class to create a timeline of British settlement/colonization from the perspective of the Aboriginal people. As a reflection exercise (or assessment) ask the children to replicate the timeline made as a group in their individual workbooks from memory or with only minimal prompts. 

Evaluate and select curriculum resources for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective using 5 key criteria.

Teachers should consider:

1. Authenticity

2. Balanced nature of the presentation

3. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander participation

4. Accuracy and support

5. Exclusion of content of a secret or sacred nature.

Along with the British Colonisation of Australia came the convicts too. No longer accepted in America after The War of Independence ended, NSW was the answer to the problem for Britain.This site from Sydney Living Museums in conjunction with Historical Houses Trust of NSW focuses on convict life at Hyde Park Barracks. Hyde Park Barracks is heritage listed as one of the most significant convict sites in the world.This is an excellent resource for teachers and students. Children will enjoy this site which includes lots of photos, clear and concise accounts of the daily life of the convicts, actual newspaper articles about them and videos . Excursions can be  arranged to Hyde Park Barracks to visit the convict museum which runs educational programs that are directed at stage 2 and 3 and are  aligned with the HSIE curriculum.

There are numerous teaching activities that can be inspired by this subject. Recording the differences between a convicts clothing and our own today looking at the food they ate and  the food we eat, setting up a mock trial in small groups and determining punishments for the crimes, are but a few suggestions. For a more formal assessment children could research female convicts ( as Hyde Park Barracks was home to male convicts only) and present their findings to the class in a short five minute oral presentation where they would report on the female convicts clothing, crime and punishment, what type of labour they were sentenced to and what became of them if and when they were released ( The National Library of Australia, 2014).

References.

The National Library of Australia. (2014). Retrieved from

Treasure Explorer http://treasure-explorer.nla.gov.au/explore/treasures

What was life like for the First Fleet? Great background information for primary teachers. The historian Grace Karskens will give a lecture at the State Library NSW in April. Click on link for details.

there were many different methods that they used to get here. some of them include maps photos and books.

this sight is useful because it has the journals of the first fleet

Diarys' and Pictures made by convicts. in 1788 and beyond.