ENGAGING WITH INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES IN SCIENCE CLASSROOMS

Michael Michie and Lorraine Williams

A workshop presented at CONASTA 60, the 60th Conference of the Australian Science Teachers Association, Darwin NT, 11-14 July 2011.

We acknowledge the Larrakia people as the traditional owners of the lands around Darwin.

The workshop starts with a discussion about incorporating indigenous perspective in teaching science. The workshop then heads outside and examines a 'bush tucker walk' close by in the Darwin Botanic Gardens. After the walk, discussion refocuses on the range of possibilities for engaging with Indigenous knowledge. Walking shoes should be worn.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures – a cross-curriculum perspective in the Australian Curriculum: science (2011, pp.12-13)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are strong, rich and diverse. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Identity is central to this priority and is intrinsically linked to living, learning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, deep knowledge traditions and holistic world view. A conceptual framework based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ unique sense of Identity has been developed as a structural tool for the embedding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures within the Australian curriculum. This sense of Identity is approached through the interconnected aspects of Country/Place, People and Culture. Embracing these elements enhances all areas of the curriculum.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander priority provides opportunities for all learners to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. This knowledge and understanding will enrich their ability to participate positively in the ongoing development of Australia.

The Australian Curriculum: science values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have longstanding scientific knowledge traditions.

Students will have opportunities to learn that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have developed knowledge about the world through observation, using all the senses; through prediction and hypothesis; through testing (trial and error); and through making generalisations within specific contexts. These scientific methods have been practised and transmitted from one generation to the next. Students will develop an understanding that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have particular ways of knowing the world and continue to be innovative in providing significant contributions to development in science. They will investigate examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander science and the ways traditional knowledge and western scientific knowledge can be complementary.

One of the difficulties with implementing indigenous perspectives is because there are many Indigenous languages in Australia and thus many Indigenous knowledges (see map). As many of the languages are either no longer used or of limited extent, it means that the associated knowledge has usually been lost or poorly recorded in the western knowledge system.

Culturally responsive science (Stephens, 2000)

• Culturally responsive science curriculum attempts to integrate Native and Western knowledge systems around science topics with goals of enhancing the cultural well being and the science skills and knowledge of students.

• It assumes that students come to school with a whole set of beliefs, skills and understandings formed from their experiences in the world, and that the role of school is not to ignore or replace prior understanding, but to recognize and make connections to that understanding.

• It assumes that there are multiple ways of viewing, structuring, and transmitting knowledge about the world—each with its own insights and limitations.

• It thus values both the rich knowledge of Indigenous cultures and of Western science and regards them as complementary to one another in mutually beneficial ways.

What are the characteristics of culturally responsive science curricula?

• It begins with topics of cultural significance and involves local experts.

• It links science instruction to locally identified topics and to science standards.

• It devotes substantial blocks of time and provides ample opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of culturally significant knowledge linked to science.

• It incorporates teaching practices that are both compatible with the cultural context, and focus on student understanding and use of knowledge and skills.

• It engages in ongoing authentic assessment which subtly guides instruction and taps deeper cultural and scientific understanding, reasoning and skill development tied to standards.

What are some strengths of culturally responsive curriculum?

• It recognizes and validates what children currently know and builds upon that knowledge toward more disciplined and sophisticated understanding from both indigenous and Western perspectives.

• It taps the often unrecognized expertise of local people and links their contemporary observations to a vast historical database gained from living on the land.

• It provides for rich inquiry into different knowledge systems and fosters collaboration, mutual understanding and respect.

• It creates a strong connection between what student’s experience in school and their lives out of school.

• It can address content standards from multiple disciplines.

What are some difficulties associated with culturally responsive curriculum?

• Cultural knowledge may not be readily available to or understood by teachers.

• Cultural experts may be unfamiliar, uncomfortable or hesitant to work within the school setting.

• Standard science texts may be of little assistance in generating locally relevant activities.

• Administrative or community support for design and implementation may be lacking.

• It takes time and commitment.

I want to describe simply some of the areas of science from which students would benefit from inclusion of indigenous knowledge. These include weather and climate, ecology and land management, and astronomy where there has been collaboration between indigenous and non-indigenous scientists worldwide.

Indigenous weather knowledge has been synthesised in a number of localities from around Australia and some of it is readily available on the internet (e.g. the Bureau of Meteorology’s Indigenous Weather Knowledge site, http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/). Such sites invariably show a more complex local understanding of the seasons rather than the four evenly-timed seasons adopted from Europe or the simplistic wet-dry season binary of tropical Australia. Other information is often presented graphically in circular diagrams which reflect an Indigenous understanding of the cyclical nature of the seasons rather than the western linear perspective of ‘time’s arrow’. This other knowledge includes wind directions and rain patterns associated with the seasons, and seasonal plant and animal abundances. Such local knowledge reflects positively the environmental education slogan, “Think globally, act locally”.

Indigenous knowledge of plants and animals, their interactions and land management practices have been acknowledged by some scientists and science educators and terms such as traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) have been critiqued in the literature (Snively & Corsiglia, 2001). Frances Bodkin, an Indigenous woman who is also trained in western science, makes the point that Indigenous knowledge represents at least 35 thousand years of accumulated knowledge which has been modified as the environment has changed (Bodkin, 2010). Two hundred and twenty years of occupancy, relatively stable environments and the imposition of western ways of thinking from Europe would hardly seem to compare yet western science has had the upper hand. This has started to change as some western scientists, primarily ecologists and land managers, have started to collaborate with Indigenous countrymen in local ethnobiological and land management projects.

The nature of Indigenous astronomy has been explored sympathetically by a number of astronomers (Bhathal & Bhathal, 2006; Norris & Norris, 2009). Others have worked collaboratively with Indigenous people (Cairns & Harney, 2003), while Morieson has been working on reconstructing Boorong astronomy from north-west Victoria. Late in 2009 there was a conference on indigenous astronomy held with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra.

References

Bhathal, Ragbir, & Bhathal, Jenny. (2006). Australian backyard astronomy. Canberra: National Library of Australia.

Cairns, Hugh, & Harney, Bill. (2003). Dark sparklers. Merimbula, NSW: Hugh Cairns.

Snively, Gloria, & Corsiglia, John. (2001). Discovering indigenous science: Implications for science education. Science Education, 85(1), 6-34.

Stephens, Sidney. (2000) Handbook for culturally responsive science curriculum. Fairbanks, AL: Alaska Science Consortium and the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative.

Science as a human endeavour (collated from Australian Curriculum: science, 2011)

Year level Sub-strand ElaborationsFoundationYear 1 Use and influence of science

People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE022)

• considering that technologies used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people require an understanding of how materials can be used to make tools and weapons, musical instruments, clothing, cosmetics and artworks

Year 2 Use and influence of science People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE035)

• finding out about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use science to meet their needs, including food supply

Year 3 Use and influence of science Science knowledge helps people to understand the effect of their actions (ACSHE051)

• researching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s knowledge of the local natural environment, such as the characteristics of plants and animals

Year 4 Nature and development of scienceScience involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE061)

• considering how scientific practices such as sorting, classification and estimation are used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in everyday life

Year 5 Nature and development of scienceImportant contributions to the advancement of science have been made by people from a range of cultures (ACSHE082)

• learning how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people used observation of the night sky to assist with navigation

Year 6 Nature and development of scienceImportant contributions to the advancement of science have been made by people from a range of cultures (ACSHE099)

• learning how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, such as the medicinal and nutritional properties of Australian plants, is being used as part of the evidence base for scientific advances

Year 7 Nature and development of scienceScience knowledge can develop through collaboration and connecting ideas across the disciplines of science (ACSHE223)

• investigating how land management practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can help inform sustainable management of the environment• recognising that traditional and Western scientific knowledge can be used in combination to care for Country and Place

Use and influence of scienceScience understanding influences the development of practices in areas of human activity such as industry, agriculture and marine and terrestrial resource management (ACSHE121)

• investigating how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge is being used to inform scientific decisions, for example care of waterways

Year 8 Use and influence of scienceScience understandings influence the development of practices in areas of human activity such as industry, agriculture and marine and terrestrial resource management (ACSHE136)

• investigating how Aboriginal people recognise relationships in ecosystems by burning to promote new growth, attract animals and afford easier hunting and food gathering

Year 9 Use and influence of sciencePeople can use scientific knowledge to evaluate whether they should accept claims, explanations or predictions (ACSHE160)

• considering the impacts of human activity on an ecosystem from a range of different perspectives

Year 10

LARRAKIA COASTAL PLANT USE WALK

Scientific name Common name Larrakia name

Ficus virens Banyan Galamarra

Canarium australianum Canoe tree

Flacourtia territorialis Cherry tree

Ficus racemosa Cluster fig

Erythrophleum chlorostachys Ironwood Deleynggwa

Carpentaria acuminate Cabbage palm Binbirrimba

Grewia asiatica Plum Willwil

Alstonia actinophylla Milkwood Apuwa

Bambusa arnhemica Bamboo Gwarikgwa

Sterculia quadrifida Peanut tree Dundil

Mangroves Moerrerrma

Ipomea pes-caprae Beach morning glory

Casuarina equisetifolia Casuarina

Pouteria sericea Plum

Scaevola taccada Pipe tree

Hibiscus tiliaceus Beach hibiscus Larlwa

Morinda citrifolia Rotten cheesefruit