The Ngarrngga Project – Bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures into Australian Classrooms

The task for the team was to bring innovative curriculum resources and Professional Development (PD) made by educators, for educators, in conjunction with Indigenous Knowledge Experts, into a single online resource. The initial build would bring everything together into a simple, easy to use resource, with the end goal to ensure all teachers are confident and inter-culturally competent in showcasing Indigenous Knowledge throughout the curriculum. There have been numerous attempts to create a digital resource that’s widely accepted by the Elders and communities to impart Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge - but nothing of this scale had previously been conceived.

Honest Fox conducted in-depth research activities with educators across Australia to understand our key challanges: Our key barrier was fear: Helping educators overcome this ‘fear’ to learn and impart knowledge became our key focus for the digital experience. Curriculum standardisation: States and Territories have different curriculum requirements so we deployed a user-guided filter system and built a preference centre to give educators the ability to update their credentials making content always relevant. Inclusiveness: We needed to consider classrooms of all shapes, sizes and connectivity across Australia so we chose experiences that were compelling with both high and low speed connections.

Ngarrngga aspires to create a transformative ripple effect across the landscape of Australian education. It envisions a future where Every Student Thrives and all Australian students have the enriching opportunity to connect with the wisdom, histories, and vibrant cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This connection fosters a deeper understanding of the land they live on and its rich heritage, fostering a sense of national identity and respect for the world’s oldest living culture.

Beyond the standard metrics such as traffic, engagement, time on site, one of the critical features we built into the digital experience was the ability for Educators to indicate their level of comfort in imparting knowledge to their classroom. This question is asked upon account set up and over time will be used to benchmark Educator Confidence in teaching classrooms these materials. This is a unique feature to these resources and gives the Ngarrngga Project team a long term focus on truly impacting classrooms positively across the country.