Sharing and learning about Australia’s oldest culture is being brought into the modern-age in Tasmania, thanks to a new resource – The Orb.
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The Orb is a website and resource hub launched in August that gives teachers and the community access to materials to teach and learn about Tasmanian Aboriginal culture.
Education Department project officer inclusive curriculum Todd Sculthorpe worked on the project before its launch and said the website was designed to offer a seamless experience.
“What we’ve done is try to bring the barriers down; there has been a history of fear when we’re talking about teaching Indigenous culture,” he said.
While the resource is aimed primarily at teachers, Mr Sculthorpe said the resource could be accessed by anyone, which is deliberate.
He said the teacher resources, which include learning plans and links to interactive modules and videos, could be found online, the experience is a user-friendly one for the whole community.
The information is not behind a paywall or a login system, to ensure anyone who was interested in the information could gather it.
Mr Sculthorpe said the resource had already been used at St Helens District School in the North, and by several schools in the south, but hoped there would be more take up this year.
“It’s really opened up a whole new perspective on the untold stories of Aboriginal Tasmanians,” he said.
Of Aboriginal descent himself, Mr Sculthorpe said he had emotionally invested in ensuring The Orb was as current as possible.
He said it was important to him that people were able to access up-to-date information and engage with the culture more frequently.
The Orb focuses on six “living cultures” or aspects of Tasmanian Aboriginal life: dance, fibres, mutton-birding, ochre, shelters and stone tools.
Each “living culture” offers a multimedia presentation and teacher resources to connect teachers with the Australian Curriculum.
Mr Sculthorpe said The Orb was an interactive and evolving resource and new living cultures would be added over time.
The presentations are made up of videos and information screens drawn from interviews and workshops with Tasmanian Aboriginals and the Indigenous community.
The Orb can be found online and is an initiative of the Education Department.
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