Indigenous Australian ways of learning

This resource is about Indigenous Australian ways of knowing, being, and doing as applied to education and learning.

Ways of learning
These eight ways of learning are based on "Yarning up Aboriginal pedagogies: A dialogue about eight Aboriginal ways of learning" (Yungaporta & Kirby, 2011).

This model is being used within education in Australia to help guide and inform endeavours to "indigenise the curriculum".



Tell a story
Story sharing. Approaching learning through narrative. We connect through the stories we share. Personal narratives (stories) are central.

Make a plan
Learning maps. Explicitly mapping/visualising processes. We picture our pathways of knowledge. Images or visuals are used to map out processes for learners to follow.

Think and do
Non-verbal. Applying intra-personal and kinaesthetic skills to thinking and learning. We see, think, act, make and share without words. Kinaesthetic, hands-on, non-verbal learning is characteristic.

Draw it
Symbols and images. Using images and metaphors to understand concepts and content. We keep and share knowledge with	art	and	objects. Symbol, image and metaphor are central to pedagogy.

Take it outside
Land links. Place-based learning, linking content to local land and place. We work with	lessons	from land and nature. Ecological and place-based, drawn from the living landscape within a framework of profound ancestral and personal relationships with place.

Try a new way
Non-linear. Producing innovations and understanding by thinking laterally or combining systems. We put different ideas together	and	create new knowledge. Non-linear ways of learning are complementary, not oppositional.

Watch first, then do
Deconstruct/reconstruct. Modelling and scaffolding, working from wholes to parts. We	work from wholes to	parts, watching	and	then doing. Begin with the whole structure, rather than a series of sequenced steps. Holistic, global, scaffolded and independent learning orientations of students.

Share it with others
Community links. Centring local viewpoints, applying learning for community benefit. We bring new knowledge home to help	our	mob. Connections to real-life purposes, contexts, communities, and teams.