Teacher notes

About this resource

'For the First Peoples of Australia, custodians of the continent for over 60,000 years, Cook’s voyage was the most consequential encounter by early Western explorers as it heralded the beginning of a fundamental change to their way of life.

This anniversary offers a unique opportunity for all Australians to reflect on, discuss and re-evaluate the lasting impact this pivotal event has had on us all and, in particular, the repercussions on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.'

- Australian National Maritime Museum, Encounters 2020

This learning and teaching resource provides a range of viewpoints and works to challenge current perceptions of the arrival of Captain James Cook and the HMB Endeavour at Kamay Botany Bay in 1770. It is an inclusive resource, placing value on the Aboriginal perspective to "balance the history books" by looking both from the ship and from the shore.

The curriculum resources have been designed to be accessible for use in both the New South Wales and Australian curriculum. Syllabus links are available via the Teacher Notes pages located on each learning resource.

This learning resource offers cross curricular activities for Kindergarten to year 10. Although grouped by years, activities may be suitable for other years and subjects.

Resources can be student-centred or teacher-directed, and can act as stand-alone activities that can be selected independently or in a sequence to best suit student needs and interests.

Resource history

This resource was published by NSW Department of Education in 2020 in support of the project, Endeavour - Eight days in Kamay.

Project developed in collaboration with Australian National Maritime Museum; the NSW State Library; the Australian Museum, the Sutherland Shire local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG), the National Museum of Australia, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the department's Kamay Botany Bay Environmental Education Centre.

The header image is a photograph by John Powell | creative commons

Go to learning activities

Transcript of This is Our Country

ABC TV

This Place: View From The Shore - This is Our Country [3:27 mins]

[male voices chanting, and music are heard under the voice. Video of water and land around Botany Bay are shown.]

Male voice speaking:

NAGGANBI, GAMAYDHA NHAY GAMAYNGAL-GULLI NGURA-NHUNG GAMAYDHA NGALIYILANGIIL DHARAWALWULAWALA MADHA NGURANHUNG YAGUN NGALIMANJANG NHAY MADHA NGURADHAWULIWA.

Older male voice speaking:

[male voices chanting and clapping sticks are heard under the voice. Video images of young male dancers having ochre applied to their bodies, aerial views of the shore line, then a group of young male dancers on a beach are shown.]

This is our country. Gamay Botany Bay. Our people have been living here since time began. Our land, waterways and sky are part of what we refer to as our country. Our spirit ancestors created our country and the various lifeforms within it, giving us our kinship, social structures and our laws. Gamay Botany Bay provided GAMAYNGAL, the people belonging to Botany Bay, the resources needed to thrive for many generations. Our responsibility to care for one another and our environment in a spiritual and sustainable way ensured that our people not only survived but thrived.

In this part of our country you may see and hear different ways that Aboriginal people identify themselves, like GWEAGAL, GADIGAL, BIDJIGAL, GARRAMUNGAL [?spelling], DHARAWAL and GARAMBAL [?spelling]. These names describe different layers of identity. Some refer to family, to the region where they were born and lived, the language they spoke, their connection to their spirit ancestors and their cultural status they held.

Our old people taught us that your language and your country go together. They cannot be separated. Our language gives our people a spiritual connection to our country, including all lifeforms within it.

We continue to use our language to assert our ongoing connections to our country. We still describe our country by using the original names, like BUNABI, which means ‘water source’ and is the name for the northern headland of Gamay. Or GURIWAL, which is where the La Perouse Aboriginal community was permanently placed 136 years ago, and means ‘the place of the bush pigeon’.

We call the southern headland of Gamay GIBIA, and GUNDAL is the place where the crew of the HM Bark Endeavour landed. Gundal was adapted by Europeans for Kurnell, which you still use today. Other local names like TABAGAI, YARRA, TOWRA are still used by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people around the bay.

And on behalf of our people, we hope you enjoy your visit to Gamay.

[CREDITS:

Thank you to Raymond Ingrey, Robert Cooley and the Gamay Rangers for sharing their time and knowledge.

Editor Peter O’Donoghue.

Produced by Dayvis Heyne, Carmen Pratap.

Produced on Gweagal and Gadigal country

abc.net.au/thisplace]