NAIDOC Week is here. Explore the theme “Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud!” with our easy-to-use ARTS:LIVE courses ready to incorporate into your class activities. Explore fire as a symbol of connection to Country, to each other, and to the rich tapestry of traditions that define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Celebrate NAIDOC Week with ARTS:LIVE lessons and activities that provide accessible, culturally responsive teaching strategies for you and your students. Learn about and honour the enduring strength and vitality of First Nations culture through the arts. Bring the curriculum to life using a variety of artforms from Visual Arts, Drama, Music and Dance. Teach General Capabilities and explore cross curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander Histories and cultures.
Whether you are celebrating NAIDOC Week in the final weeks of term, or setting up for activities when you return in Term 3, ARTS:LIVE has an abundance of resources suitable for teachers to deliver curriculum-aligned arts learning lessons. Use them as stand-alone lessons or incorporate them into your existing NAIDOC Week plans.
Here are three courses to get you started…
Tell the story through art with Visual Storytelling
Visual Arts Years Foundation – 6
Visual storytelling is one of the oldest forms of storytelling. Across nine lessons, students will use a range of art forms and activities including Talking Circles, song, dance, sign language and visual arts to bring narratives to life. Explore the theme of fire using rock, bark and canvas painting, the creation of message sticks, drawing a story in sand, and body art.
Be Loud and Proud with Together We Sing on Noongar Boodja
Music Years Foundation – 6
Be loud and proud by learning about the Noongar six seasons. Noongar Teaching Artist, Rickeeta Walley, provides inspiration for students to listen to and explore their own environment before they compose and perform their own seasonal poem about the country they are on. Your students can then use this to write a school Acknowledgement song. First Nations artists explain the importance and significance of Acknowledgment songs and singing in First Nations languages. Students will develop their music skills through fun collaborative music games, reflect on the role music has on communities, and consider how they can encourage people to sing in First Nations languages.Together We Sing on Noongar Boodja is part of The Deadly Arts Collection on ARTS:LIVE.
Delve in deeply with the Deadly Arts Collection
Drama, Visual Arts, Music & Media Arts Years Foundation – 6
This collection of 63 curriculum-aligned lessons will help teachers and students to develop cultural understanding and respect for Country through the arts. Led by First Nations Teaching Artists from The Song Room, your students will explore key curriculum concepts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
Explore Culture and Country with Too Many Cheeky Dogs
Drama, Dance, Visual Arts & Music Early Years and Years 3 – 4
Students will learn about Indigenous culture, Australian animals, and what it’s like to live in remote Australian communities like Northern Territory’s Tennant Creek when they step inside the pages of Johanna Bell and Dion Beasley’s children’s book ‘Too Many Cheeky Dogs.’ This resource explores Process Drama techniques and also introduces young people to sign language, exploring disability through the book’s presentation and translation into Auslan.