Skip to main content

Birds and totems

Posted , updated 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Watercolour painting of duck
Birds and totems

Subjects: Geography, History, Science, Technologies
Years: 5–6, 7–8, 9–10

Bruce Pascoe introduces us to totems and tells us about the importance of black duck to Yuin people.

Bruce Pascoe shares his delight in encountering birds on Country. We take a walk on Country and learn how birds can signify a change in the seasons.

Pascoe explains the significance of Umburra, or black duck, and his obligation to care for the species. Pascoe explains that his brothers and sisters look after other animals, such as kangaroos, bream, wallabies, flathead and eagle hawks.

Totems are part of a complex spiritual system interwoven into some Aboriginal cultures. A totem can be a plant or an animal inherited by a language group or family. Those people then have a responsibility to care for their totems.

Things to think about

  1. 1.How does Pascoe know that summer has arrived?

  2. 2.

    Pascoe teaches us a Yuin word. What does Umburra mean?

View the full Bruce Pascoe: Aboriginal Agriculture, Technology and Ingenuity collection.

Teachers

In 2014, Bruce Pascoe wrote a book called Dark Emu that challenged the belief that the First Australians were hunter-gatherers. In researching his book, Bruce examined the journals of the early explorers and found evidence of a complex civilisation that was using sophisticated technologies to live, farm and manage the land.

Researchers continue to discover new evidence of the earliest human occupation of Australia.

Acknowledgements

All videos produced by Tim Purdie and Beth Shepherd for ABC Education.


Production Date: 2019

Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2019 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Posted , updated