Deep time history of Australia resource

The Version 9.0 Australian Curriculum: History for Year 7 includes the sub-strand Deep time history of Australia. This resource is designed to support teachers to develop their teaching and learning program to address the knowledge and understandings in the Deep time history of Australia sub-strand and the most relevant skills described in the Skills strand.  

This resource should be seen as the starting point, acting as a stimulus to get you thinking about the curriculum content to be covered as you plan for implementation.  

It is recognised that the best approach to developing your teaching and learning plan is to work with your local First Nations Peoples.

Deep time history is a study of early First Nations Peoples of Australia, a period defined by the development of cultural practices and organised societies. It is a framework to describe immense scales of geological time used by geologists, archaeologists and anthropologists to investigate the past lives of First Nations Peoples. 

The Year 7 Deep time history of Australia sub-strand ensures that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ 65,000 years of connection to this place is taught to all young people. 

This resource has been designed around 3 themes. These themes support teachers to organise the knowledge, understanding and skills described in the content descriptions and achievement standard into a coherent sequence of lessons.  

The themes are: 

We are here – this examines the creation stories, and timelines of arrival and connection to locations across Sahul. 

We survive change – this examines the survival knowledges used to adjust and thrive during environmental changes happening over extensive timeframes.  

Our Cultures continue – this examines the ongoing use of technological and ecological knowledge systems. 

Refer to Attachment 1 in the downloadable document, which maps the 3 themes against the 7 knowledge and understanding content descriptions, the 3 most relevant skills content descriptions and the related extracts from the achievement standard.

Teachers may experience some nervousness about teaching this content. Students have been taught about other ancient cultures in History for a long time, and teachers have been comfortable to cover this content. When teaching about deep time history of Australia, you are on the land that you are talking about and the First Nations Peoples of Australia are the longest living continuous culture in the world, so they are here. This presents many opportunities but it also brings some additional responsibilities. Teachers need to be confident that what they are teaching is authentic. A significant consideration in teaching Deep time history of Australia is asking about how this information has been shared and passed down from one generation to the next.   

The guide provides 2 clear ways to consider the knowledge systems (or knowledge to be shared):  

• Cultural knowledge is the responsibility of the local Indigenous community knowledge custodians and it is therefore essential that, when covering this content, teachers are using materials endorsed by First Nations Peoples. Teachers can source this information from across various organisations and websites. It is the teacher’s responsibility to ask if there are local knowledges and voices to incorporate.
• Archaeological knowledge is also the responsibility of the local Indigenous community knowledge custodians. Teachers are able to access and examine the archaeological and scientific information from various organisations and websites but check this has endorsement of the local knowledge custodians. 

This guide provides teachers with a curated list of resources that are developed and endorsed by First Nations Australians. This list is not exhaustive, and teachers are encouraged to source further resources appropriate to their location and context. There will be times that you may not be able to access local Deep time histories and cultural knowledges. This resource provides several diverse examples from across Australia.  You can implement these examples into your teaching unit.  You can also share these examples with local First Nations community members to assist with building a relationship to learn and implement permissible local knowledges and stories. Strategies to authenticate resources such as websites and other sources will be provided in additional professional learning modules.  

For more information about developing relationships with local First Nations Australian community members, consider the FIRST Framework developed by ACARA. This framework contains 5 stages and considerations: 

F – Find out about 

I – Indigenous knowledges and voices 

R – Respectful partnerships 

S – Supporting student learning 

T – Time 

The FIRST stages are not always sequential, but each does need to be considered. All good partnerships take time, but the rewards are many.  

It is important to get started and acknowledge that you will continue to learn and grow in confidence as you develop stronger relationships with the local First Nations community.

Some teachers may be unsure where to start in developing a teaching and learning program for Deep time history of Australia. This guide provides an outline of things to consider when planning and highlights a wide range of freely available resources that could be used with students. These resources could also act as valuable background information for teachers, to support and extend understandings and help shape the next steps.  Skills identified in this resource are not exhaustive but provide teachers with suggestions to consider when planning specifically for this content.  You can address remaining skills content with other content in year 7 Knowledge and Understanding sub-strands.  

These resources have been selected because they have been developed with or endorsed by First Nations Australians. Some teachers have expressed concern that they are not knowledgeable about the content, and that is exactly why this resource has been developed. There is a unique opportunity for teachers in delivering this content. You can connect your students with the longest living continuous cultures in the world – First Nations Australians – and students can learn knowledge that has been passed down thousands of generations and is still important today. 

Teaching about Deep time history of Australia is best when it uses your local context. This is the ideal approach, but it does take time. If this is the first time an individual teacher or the school is reaching out to work with First Nations Australians in the local community, consider using the FIRST framework to develop a reciprocal relationship with local Indigenous knowledge custodians.  Be curious; step outside your comfort zone. Refer to the FIRST framework to support your work with the local First Nations community members.