Noosa District State High School Indigenous Liaison Officer Kajal Charlton ran two workshops for Year 9 Humanities students on colonialism and the impact of European settlement on Australia’s Indigenous people.
Year 9 Humanities students are studying the historical movement of people this term, and the focus over the past few weeks has been on the arrival of the European settlers to Australia and the impact this had on Indigenous people.
Mr Charlton worked with the students analysing Indigenous art that formed a symbolic timeline of important events for Australia’s Indigenous people.
Year 9 student Megan Webberley enjoyed engaging with the art pieces supplied by Mr Charlton.
“There are a lot of take home messages embedded in this art. The more you look at it and think about it, the more you understand and see,” Megan said.
The Year 9s discussed difficult and challenging concepts with Mr Charlton who assisted them by providing an Indigenous perspective.
Mr Charlton shared some personal insights into his experience, especially the difficulties he faced as an adolescent.
“The drawing of the Aboriginal man who is struggling between the two worlds – the Indigenous world and the white European world – really spoke to me. I was just like him, I desperately wanted to fit in and belong somewhere,” Mr Charlton said.
The students found Mr Charlton’s insights, anecdotes and the texts he brought into the workshop most helpful for their upcoming assessment in Humanities where they are to required to write a page of an Australian history textbook.
Mr Charlton will also run an Indigenous history professional development workshop for all NDSHS Humanities teachers later this term.
