After a refreshing two weeks of holidays, drama resumed with Aboriginal Theatre Studies. A new area of study that encompasses many traditional Indigenous forms such as dance. We began the lesson with a pop quiz on famous Aboriginal identities. It was surprising to note that only a small portion of our class could come up with answers to 4 or more questions. I only knew the answers to 3 of the questions- which honestly, is quite dismal.
Later we were handed booklets containing Indigenous theater material including poems, plays and songs. Many of these focused on abuse, The Stolen Generation and the Dreamtime.We also practised proper acknowledge of the "Darug" people. Our school is built on the Darug region and therefore by paying our respects to the Darug people, we acknowledge their possession of the land. An acknowledgment is along the lines of "We are gathered here today on the land of the Darug people. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land both past and present."
We will continue to acknowledge the Darug people every lesson through the Aboriginal Theatre Study Unit.
Map showing location of Darug region.