Message sticks: rich ways of weaving Aboriginal cultures into the Australian Curriculum

• This is useful background information for teachers. It is relevant to a range of content descriptions in the year 1 English curriculum and the years 2-4 history curriculum, including those about: how people use different systems of communication for different purposes; how people communicated in the past; the diversity of Australia's first peoples; the importance of Country to Aboriginal peoples belonging to a local area and the implications for their daily lives.
• The resource is equally useful for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority. It is particularly relevant for the priority's organising ideas that Aboriginal societies have many language groups and that Aboriginal communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country. Not only does Narinda Sandry describe the function of message sticks in an environment of many different languages but she also includes a discussion of the significance of Country and the ancestral beings connected to it.
• The suggestion that children create their own message sticks is likely to engage students in the early and lower primary years. It may also enable them to develop and enhance their historical skills in using a range of communication forms including graphic forms.

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