The Meaning of Welcome

In this project-based unit, students will learn how First Nations peoples have maintained and passed down cultural knowledge about traditional foods, medicine and tools for successive generations. Students will then share their learning by creating plant posters, prints, or T-shirts, that brings bush tucker knowledge to life.

Students will watch several films which reveal both the harsh realities of exclusion and the resilience and joy found in family and community. Students will consider how these stories help us understand the impact of racism on identity and belonging, and why truth-telling is so important. Through yarning circles and visual mapping activities, students examine these themes before researching and gathering their own local stories from family histories, community accounts or national movements such as the Freedom Rides. These stories are then transformed into creative works such as biographies, poems, portraits or collages, which are brought together as a class story collection that honours resilience, identity and community voice.

Students investigate how harmful government policies shaped child removal, including forced adoptions and institutional care. They’ll learn how these decisions still impact families, community, culture and identity today. Students will watch survivor films, explore living-memory sources, yarn, take shared notes, and draft written responses.