Life on the Station

• Watch the Pitta Pitta Welcome to Country by Traditional Custodian, Marian Radecker.
• Using the Map of Indigenous Australia | AIATSIS, identify where Pitta Pitta Country is on the map and where your school community is located. 
• Form a yarning circle to discuss the Welcome. Some questions to support your discussion are as follows:
  What is the purpose of a Welcome?
  How is the landscape different from or similar to the Country on which your school community is located?
  How do you think this might impact what people do for recreation and employment? What do you know about sheep and cattle stations in Australia?
  What do you know about laws and policies in Australia that have been unfair or challenging for Aboriginal people and immigrants?
  Do you feel these are widely known and understood? 

Task 

• Complete a KWL Chart to explore what you know and want to know about the experience of First Nations peoples on cattle stations, or the laws and policies that created an unequal distribution of wealth in Australia.

Reflection 

• What factors might influence your perspective when it comes to what you know and feel about the experiences of First Nations peoples in Australia between 1939 and 1972? Think about the media, family histories and access to education. 

• Watch Uncle Brian and Uncle Alf share their experiences of working on cattle stations from the 1950s to the 1970s https://jajoowarrngara.org/resource/lifeonthestation
• Share the suggested videos below to deepen student understanding of the importance of the cattle industry and how it contributes to Australia's economy. 
• What is an Outback Ringer? | Outback Ringer
• A tough crew muster feral cattle in outback Australia | Outback Ringer
• Cowboy heroes: wild times on Indigenous cattle station | First Nation Farmers Ep3 | ABC Australia
• Chasing after a wild bull in the outback | Outback Ringer
• Why the world wants to buy a slice of Australia's Top End | 60 Minutes Australia
• The Cattle Story
• Moving the mob (2014) - The greatest cattle drive in 100 years | 60 Minutes Australia
• The lure of the life of a jackeroo | The lure of the life of a jackeroo | 7.30

Task 

• Investigate the roles of those who lived and worked on cattle stations. In your notebooks, define each of the following roles and responsibilities:

• Station Manager 
• Jackeroo 
• Station Cook
• Stockman
• Ringers 

• Do the same job titles exist on cattle stations today? How can you find this out? Share your responses with a partner. 
• In pairs, investigate and discuss the following:
• How the cattle industry contributed to the wealth of the Australian economy.
• The working conditions for First Nations peoples on stations.
• The confiscation of wages from First Nations peoples on stations.

Reflection 

• What modern technology might be used on cattle stations today?
• How does this impact the working roles on the stations? Consider what other employment skills might be needed to fulfil these roles now. For example, would any special licences and educational qualifications be needed? What social and political changes may affect the roles and responsibilities of these titles?

• Following on from the last lesson, share the following clip(s) with students:
• Cowboy heroes: wild times on Indigenous cattle station | First Nation Farmers Ep3 | ABC Australia 
• https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/.
• Indigenous History - BTN Special (at 4:21 Wave Hill Walk-Off) 
• Research the government policies which oppressed aboriginal peoples - such as  'exemption letters', 'stolen wages', 'Palm Island punishment', and 'Wave Hill walk-off'. 
• Some links to support your research as follows: 

• INDIGENOUS STOLEN WAGES Historical exploitation and contemporary injustice
• The Forgotten Struggle of Australia's Aboriginal People | Cultural Survival
• Squattocracy | Australian agricultural and rural life | Stories | State Library of NSW
• https://aiatsis.gov.au/ 
• It's 55 years since the Wave Hill walk-off, and Aboriginal workers are still fighting for their stolen wages - ABC News  
• The Ongoing Legacy of the Wave Hill Walk-Off | Common Ground 

Task 

• Students find a space in the room. Listen to the song 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' by Paul Kelly. Students yarn about the song and its meaning. 
• In response to the famous image of Vincent Lingiari and Gough Whitlam featured here: https://www.commonground.org.au/article/wave-hill-walk-off students write a poem, a speech, a diary entry, short piece of prose or a visual expression of the feelings this image invokes.

Reflection 

• Share or display the responses around the room 
• Students think about what it would have felt like for both Vincent and Gough during this historical moment in Australian history. Students explore the perspectives of the others present and what this historical moment still means today. 

• Following on from the last lesson, revisit the film where Uncle Brian and Uncle Alf discuss life on the station. https://jajoowarrngara.org/resource/lifeonthestation
• Students draft a 'response to stimulus' in relation to the following quote by Uncle Brian: 'The coppers controlled your life, you were like a marked pigeon'. 
• Students demonstrate their understanding of this simile by creating a response in the form of a poem, a diary entry or short piece of prose. Ask them to think about what it would have felt like to be controlled by a force you may not be able to trust, to be working as hard as everybody else but not receiving equal pay. 

Task 

• After writing their individual responses, students are to get into groups of three to five.
• Students begin developing a short script based on one of the stories they learned about throughout the unit. They are to demonstrate their understanding of the historical events  - with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of either the settlers, immigrants or First Nations peoples living and working in Australia from 1939 to1972.
• Students must ensure their scripts are historically accurate based on their research. 
• The script must make reference to the following aspects of history: 

• Living and working conditions of station workers; 

• Geography/location of where they lived, the landscape, how this affected daily life; 
• Wage equality or inequality and how this affected daily life; 
• Laws and policies which saw oppressive practices predominate, such as the stolen generation, stolen wages, assimilation, the Aborigines Protection Act. 

• Some suggested scenarios/characters or events students may wish to explore:
• Life on the station; 
• The Wave Hill Walk-Off;
• A modern-day lawyer, defending the rights of an Aboriginal jackeroo in court, whose wages were stolen from 1940 to1948; 
• A station manager's son, who inherits the station and is best friends with a local Aboriginal ringer; 
• The Australian Government - explore scenes of their discussions before passing any of the bills on the stolen wages timeline. 

Reflection 

• As you collaborate on this script, think about the perspectives of all involved. Be sure to consider music, costume and setting to create the atmosphere of your scene in history. 

• Students practice their performances and set up the classroom or a larger space to present their scenes. 

Task 

• Students perform their scenes. 
• As part of the reflection, students provide feedback to each other about their performances. 

Reflection 

• Some discussion questions to support the reflective feedback process are as follows:  Did you learn anything new from a particular performance?
  When researching your scene or character, were you shocked or surprised about anything?
  How can theatre or film create empathy and understanding for other people's situations? How might what you learn affect the way you see Government policy in the past and its effect on various people?
  How do you think this has shaped Australian culture and society?