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Humanities and social sciences / Year 6 / Knowledge and Understanding / Civics and citizenship

Curriculum content descriptions

The shared values of Australian citizenship and the formal rights and responsibilities of Australian citizens (ACHASSK147)

Elaborations
  • investigating how people become Australian citizens
  • discussing the Australian citizenship pledge and comparing it to the former oath of allegiance to the monarch to explore notions of allegiance
  • clarifying the formal rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship and comparing these to the rights and responsibilities of non-citizens
  • exploring how laws protect human rights (for example, gender, disability, race and age discrimination law)
  • exploring the experiences of people who have migrated to Australia and who have taken up Australian citizenship (for example, those of Asian heritage)
General capabilities
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Australian culture,  Migration,  Citizenship

Video

BTN: Why is citizenship important?

What makes an Aussie an Aussie? Is it loving Vegemite, playing cricket or maybe wrestling crocodiles? Find out about Australian citizenship and the ways someone can become a citizen of a country. What rights does citizenship afford you in Australia?

Interactive

An introduction to human rights and responsibilities

This is a unit of work for years 5 and 6 on human rights, the responsibilities that accompany them, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The unit consists of two interactive lessons for students and a teacher lesson plan, also in two parts. The interactive lessons include quizzes, short answer and ...

Interactive

Quizzes

Test your students with these quizzes about the Australian Parliament. Topics include the three levels of government, separation of powers and the Australian Constitution.

Video

The House In Session, Ep 3: The Westminster system and borrowed traditions

In this 5-minute video, Annabel Crabb explains interesting traditions that the Parliament of Australia has borrowed from the parliament of Westminster in the United Kingdom. Who is Black Rod, and what is a serjeant-at-arms? What is the Mace, and why is a hood placed over it when entering the presence of the Governor-General? ...

Interactive

Magna Carta: The story of our freedom

This is a resource about the Magna Carta (Great Charter) agreed between King John and his rebellious barons in 1215, and its influence on the development of human rights and democratic freedoms to the present day. The resource consists of an animated chronological infographic, a video (4:11 min) with audio description and ...

Interactive

Discovering democracy: making a nation

Students interact with a simple slideshow of images and text to explore the similarities and differences between the political systems of Australia and the United States of America. Students also complete a related task.

Interactive

Interactive posters - Parliamentary Education Office

Explore the key features of Australia’s system of government and the Australian Parliament with these interactive posters. Topics include Australia's Constitution, forming the Australian government, and making Australian law. Each poster is supported by teaching notes and student resources including interactive activities ...

Text

Queensland Parliament: Classroom activities

This webpage includes resources specific to the Queensland context as well as more generic resources applicable to a broad range of Australian classrooms. Find role plays about how Bills are made, about how Parliamentary Committees function and a template for a Parliamentary Inquiry role play.

Interactive

Gold rush: level 2

Dig for gold on the Ballarat goldfields in 1865. Try your luck at alluvial or shaft mining. Buy a miner's permit, tools and enough supplies to last a month. Discover how hard life was on the goldfields. Explore a map showing the countries migrants left to join the gold rush in Australia. Find out which towns developed due ...

Image

'Panorama of Challicum, No. VI', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 17.2 cm x 26.2 cm showing the twin peaks of Mount Langi Ghiran rising behind the smaller tip of Conical Hill. Two distant mountains on the right are Ben Nevis and Mount Buangor. A camp of Indigenous Djapwurrong people, consisting of two bark and wood dwellings, is situated on the edge of ...

Image

Enrolling in the Land Army, c1944

This is a posed black-and-white photograph, measuring 24.7 cm x 19 cm and taken around 1944 in Drouin, Victoria by Jim Fitzpatrick. It shows a formally dressed young woman seated in front of a desk labelled 'War Agricultural Committee'. A man, seated behind the desk, is handing her a book entitled 'Food front'. The furniture ...

Image

Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s

This is a black-and-white photograph made from a glass negative. It shows a woman washing clothes by hand in a galvanised iron tub outdoors, beside a high fence made from sheets of galvanised iron. A cane laundry basket and washed clothes hanging on a clothes line can be seen.

Video

Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, c1942 - item 1 of 2

This clip from a silent black-and-white home movie shows Torres Strait Islander servicemen undertaking army training drills on Thursday Island (Weiban) during the Second World War. It opens with a long shot of barefoot uniformed men marching in formation, and passing behind a squad of stationary men. It then cuts to shots ...

Image

'Poultry house, Challicum', 1851

This is a watercolour by Duncan Cooper that depicts the poultry house at Challicum, a sheep run west of Ballarat in western Victoria. Two of the Djapwurrong people (the Indigenous inhabitants of this region) are shown sitting by a smoking fire next to a temporary bark shelter. Various chickens are also shown pecking in ...

Image

Indigenous Australians defending their land, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm watercolour showing about 40 Indigenous Australian people attacking a rowboat carrying five colonists. Most of the warriors are on a steep, rocky headland and those close to the water have spears raised. Two appear to be picking up stones while those further up the cliff watch on. About ten Indigenous ...

Image

Concert room at Ballarat, 1855

This is a watercolour, measuring 22.8 cm x 31.9 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows Charles Thatcher (1831-78), a comic singer well known on the gold fields, performing popular songs on stage at the Charlie Napier Hotel in Ballarat with a female accompanist. The painting has the artist's ...

Image

Female emigrants bound for Australia, 1834

This hand-coloured lithograph, measuring 36.0 cm x 22.7 cm and consisting of seven panels of an original ten, depicts in cartoon form the deprivations suffered by single women migrating to Australia in the 1830s. Titled 'FEMALE EMIGRATION!', the scenes follow the story of the women leaving Britain, their rough crossing ...

Audio

Brian Manning recalls the Wave Hill walk-off, 2007

This is an edited sound recording of Indigenous rights activist Brian Manning talking about the Wave Hill walk-off in the Northern Territory in 1966, when Gurindji workers on the Wave Hill cattle station went on strike. Manning tells how he was involved in organising the walk-off, assuring the Gurindji that, unlike previous ...

Video

The Australian Dream: Introducing Adam Goodes

To get to really know people, it's important to learn about their lives and the impact they've made on the world. As you watch this clip, you'll learn all about Adam Goodes and who he is. You'll gain a deeper understanding of Adam’s path to becoming an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and why standing ...

Video

Examining Australia's Constitution

In this clip, reporter Stan Grant visits the National Archives of Australia to revisit the moment when Australia became a federation, on 1 January 1901. Stan examines the original Australian Constitution and reads out Section 127. What does it say? To try to understand why Indigenous people were so excluded, Stan considers ...