Bringing Indigenous Perspectives into your National Science Week
This week is National Science Week! The school theme of National Science Week this year is Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans . It is about highlighting the innovative technologies, capabilities and skills needed to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability of our oceans. It is also a great opportunity to talk with children about what makes a healthy ocean, and what role we can play in keeping our oceans and the ecosystems within the oceans, healthy.
Water is important to all people, but it holds special cultural importance to Indigenous people. Throughout all time, water has played a critical role for Indigenous people — for survival but also in regards to its significance in culture and identity. Water helps in defining language boundaries and ceremonial places and also underpins many land management practices.
This theme provides the perfect platform to introduce children to the amazing work being done through the Indigenous ranger projects, which support Indigenous people to combine traditional knowledge with conservation training to protect and manage their land, sea and culture.
Some examples of Indigenous water management activities include:
Intensive turtle research
Seagrass monitoring
Data collection on sea animals like dugongs, dolphins and crocodiles
Assessments and maintenance of wetlands
Marine debris management
Recording and protection of cultural heritage sites
Supporting traditional knowledge transfer through community and school education programs including a Junior Ranger program.
Here are some great resources to reflect on when exploring Indigenous rangers:
Indigenous Rangers Helping to Protect the Reef
Indigenous Rangers (Country Needs People)
Here’s also a list of some great Indigenous authored picture books relating back to water:
