Early Years Learning Framework / Learning Outcome 2
Children are connected with and contribute to their world.
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NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life.
NAIDOC originally stood for 'National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee'. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.
Local community celebrations during NAIDOC Week are encouraged. Ideas include:
• Hold a flag raising ceremony;
• Display Indigenous posters around the room;
• Invite local Indigenous elders to speak;
• Listen to Indigenous music;
• Study a famous Indigenous Australian;
• Research the traditional Indigenous owners of your area;
• Study Aboriginal arts and crafts;
• Read a Dreamtime story;
• Start your own Indigenous hall of fame featuring any local role models and achievers;
• Create your own Aboriginal art;
• Visit Indigenous websites on the Internet;
• Make your own Indigenous trivia quiz;
• Visit local Indigenous sites of significance or interest;
• Learn the meanings of local or national Aboriginal place names.
For more information see:
Each annual NAIDOC week has a different theme.
See the website for information about the current year’s theme.
Aboriginal Games and Pastimes
Resources can be found on many websites including below:
Spin ball
This game was played by people of the Lower Tully River in Queensland. A small gourd was selected, two holes drilled in each side, and a loop of string passed through them. The thumbs were inserted into the loops and the string twisted by spinning the ball. When the hands are pulled apart, the string unwinds, spinning the ball. Then the tension is quickly released, allowing the spinning ball to twist the string again. The ball can be kept spinning as long as you like.
The game was known as ngor-go after the type of gourd they used. Any sort of ball or disc will do, as long as it’s not too light.
Memory
A game which helped children remember and identify the surrounding landscape is played by the Walbiri tribe of the Northern Territory.
- A large circle is drawn on the ground and the leader places sticks and stones on it, each one named after a prominent landmark in the area.
- After studying the arrangement of the objects, the players turn their backs on the circle.
- The first player calls an object at a given point and continues to call each article on the line until he or she makes a mistake. Then another player tries.
- The first player to correctly name all the objects has the honour of arranging the pieces for the next game. If they all fail, the leader rearranges the objects and they try again.
Start with just a few objects, but sometimes the Walbiri children had as many as fifty placed on the circle. You could use place names from around your town, or locations within the centre grounds.
Top spinning
One observer remarked that Aboriginal Australians “are fond of spinning any suitable objects which fall into their hands.” Small pebbles, nuts, shells and fruits, together with manufactured spinning tops, were spun on any level surface by children and adults.
A small top was made, in many areas, by piercing a large seed with a twig.
The people of Cape Bedford in Queensland passed a small splinter through a flattened disk of beeswax
The Cooper Creek people moulded clay tops around small wooden pegs.
Elaborate tops were made by the Murray Island people in Torres Strait. These were carved out of stone, with a hole drilled through for a stick, and sometimes weighed up to 4 kg. The stone was 10-25 cm in diameter, decorated with paintings, and the stick 15-45 cm long. They held elaborate top-spinning competitions where onlookers sang special “top songs” while the competitors balanced their spinning tops on pieces of melon skin. Some could spin for up to 35 minutes!What natural materials can you find to make a top?
Catch-ball
There were many variations on ball games played in different regions. In north-west Queensland a popular game was played by two teams. One team threw the ball back and forth between its members while the opposition tried to intercept it. The ball was thrown high in the air, and interceptions could only be made while the player was in the air. The game was known as “kangaroo-play” because the competitors resembled kangaroos in flight.
Hunt the Object
This game from the Northern Territory is played on a smooth, flat sandy area about 60 cm in diameter. The players cover their faces or walk away while the leader hides a small object about the size of a match head in the sand, carefully blowing to remove any disturbance in the sand. They must leave part of the object showing. The other players, each holding a long grass stalk, are given two chances to point it out, but are not allowed to scratch the surface. The person who finds it has the next turn at hiding it. If it is not found, the one who hid it is challenged to find it, but only after walking twice around the area. If they cannot find it someone else is chosen for the next turn.
Riddles
Riddle telling was a popular pastime at adult gatherings. Brief songs were used to describe the things to be guessed, with the singer acting out various parts of the song.
Some examples:
Q. What is it that says, “You cannot help it; you will have to go and let me take your place; you cannot stay when I come”?
A. The grey hairs in a man’s beard to the black ones.
Q. What is it that goes along the creek, across the creek, underneath it, and along it again, but has left neither side?
A. The creeping water-weed.
Q. Who says, “You cannot leave me behind. You cannot walk or run away without me”?
A. A person’s feet.
Source:
Salter, A.S. “Games and Pastimes of the Australian Aboriginal”, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1967.