Abstract
This chapter presents research from a project collaboration undertaken in New South Wales, Australia, between a rural primary school, local Aboriginal Gumbaynggirr Elders and Southern Cross University. The research responded to an expressed school and community need for teacher professional development on local Aboriginal culture. The aim was to understand food values at the core of Australian native food and plant knowledge systems, coupled with developing transferable teaching strategies for the classroom. Exploring and understanding natural food sources were triangulated between Australian Aboriginal science and Western science, visualised through nature journaling. Accordingly, the research methodology assigned three settings of engagement: (1) the embedding of local Gumbaynggirr perspectives in curriculum delivery across years K-6 in an integrated, culturally sustaining and cross-curriculum manner (cultural literacies), (2) the embedding of sustainability perspectives to better understand earth’s natural systems and food supply sources (ecological literacies) and (3) the embedding of food technology and design applications, to enhance student learning on Australian native plants as a science, an art, and a sustainable, healthy lifestyle (food technology and design literacies].
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Notes
- 1.
‘“Aboriginal” and “Torres Strait Islander” refer to different groups of peoples. Aboriginal refers to the original peoples of mainland Australia. Torres Strait Islander refers to the original peoples of the 274 islands located north of Australia between the tip of Cape York in Queensland and Papua New Guinea’ (Common Ground, n.d.). ‘The term “Indigenous” is used to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ (Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d.).
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge that this work was undertaken in Gumbaynggirr, and I thank the Gumbaynggirr people who so generously gave their time and shared their stories with the teachers and students. Without your valued collegial support and guidance, this project would not have been possible. I would also like to acknowledge the principal of the school, Gillian Stuart, for her continued enthusiasm and commitment on forging research collaborations between the local Gumbaynggirr people, the public school and Southern Cross University.
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Turner, A. (2020). Learning Cultural, Ecological and Food Literacies Through the Gumbaynggirr Pathway of Knowledge Project. In: Rutland, M., Turner, A. (eds) Food Education and Food Technology in School Curricula. Contemporary Issues in Technology Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39339-7_20
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