Fishing

• As a class, view the clip and note the solutions that the brothers come up with for catching fish. The clip illustrates the education of the boys in the ways of bushcraft, bush medicine and working as a team. Ask students to list the skills, knowledge and technologies that the boys are learning to use.
• Indigenous fish traps and weirs can be found throughout Australia and showcase the ingenuity of the traditional custodians of the land and waterways. They also represent cultural sites of great significance. Show the class two clips:

1. Youtube, 'Baiames Ngunnhu - The Story of the Brewarrina Fish Traps' www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYKg1M6PRk
2. Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 'Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps (Baiame's Ngunnhu)', www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/about/pubs/national-heritage-brewarrina.pdf

• Ask students to find Brewarrina on a map. Next ask them to find Sydney on a map. Explain that the Ngemba people of Brewarrina have a different language and culture to Bunda's people. 
• Ask students to research the different types of fish traps, weirs and other technologies for catching fish from around Australia. Investigate how fish traps and weirs utilise the natural ebbs and flows of water bodies. Ask students to investigate other technologies for catching fish in their local area, among their families, in their heritage and/or around the world. Discuss some of the similarities and differences.
• Indigenous groups around Australia have intricate understandings about their environment: the climatic conditions and weather patterns, and the landforms and materials found there that have developed over tens of thousands of years. Reflect on the different locations, physical environments such as coastal or river country, styles, designs and materials used in their fish traps and weirs. Name the language groups associated with the different technologies and ask students to find the associated areas on a map.
• Useful websites include:

1. Burarra Gathering, burarra.questacon.edu.au/home.html
   Students can complete an interactive activity setting up a traditional fish trap as used by the Burarra people in rivers and creeks. This site can be downloaded and made available offline if internet connection is a problem.
2. —— 'Catching Barramundi' burarra.questacon.edu.au/pages/fish_trap.html
   Students should read through the explanation of how such fish traps worked. 
3. Queensland Government Department of Environment and Resource Management, 'Fish Traps and Weirs', www.derm.qld.gov.au/register/p02307aa.pdf
   A good account of fish traps and weirs. 

• Using their research findings, students should draw a diagram explaining how the different types of fish traps were used to catch fish.

• Divide the class into small groups and ask students to design their own fish trap based on the ones they have investigated. Allow groups to gather natural materials such as wood, stone and flexible plant material from the local area. Research local weather conditions and environmental features, such as tides on the coast, which will influence the success of catching fish in your area or neighbouring areas. Discuss how weather conditions will affect your closest rivers and creeks.
• Provide each group with an alfoil tray. Groups should create their fish trap in the centre of the tray, using the materials that they have gathered. Simulate high tide by filling the tray with water. Float sequins in the water to represent fish. Drain the water from the tray to simulate low tide and see how many 'fish' have been caught in the fish trap.
• Ask students to consider why the Brewarrina Ngunnhu is a significant cultural site for Aboriginal people of Brewarrina. Sites such as stone fish traps help to preserve valuable information about Aboriginal knowledges, lifestyles, cultures and economies of the past, present and the future. For this reason, many fish traps are heritage listed and protected by state Cultural Heritage Acts and cultural management plans. As a class, examine the cultural management plan which is in place for the Brewarinna fish traps at:

1. NSW Government, Heritage Branch, 'Brewarrina Fish Traps', www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5051305

Student Activity Sheet H25.3: To catch a fish

• As a class, view the clip and note the solutions that the brothers come up with for catching fish. The clip illustrates the education of the boys in the ways of bushcraft, bush medicine and working as a team. Ask students to list the skills, knowledge and technologies that the boys are learning to use.
• Bunda is extremely clever and inventive. Another famous Australian inventor is David Unaipon, a Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia who features on the Australian fifty-dollar note. 
• David Unaipon patented ten inventions in his lifetime and is credited with drawing the first sketches of the helicopter propeller based on his observations of boomerang flight. Have students investigate the inventions of David Unaipon and list them. Here are some websites to assist you with information:

1. ABC, 'Didj "u" Know - Stories', Who is David Unaipon?, www.abc.net.au/messageclub/duknow/stories/s888637.htm
2. State Library of New South Wales, 'Discover Collections', David Unaipon - Legendary Tales, www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/indigenous/unaipon/unaipon.html

• Students could organise their notes in the 'biography wheel' provided in Student Activity Sheet H25.4: An Australian inventor, arranging their information under the following headings for David Unaipon:

1. Inventions
2. Indigenous rights activist
3. Writing and poetry
4. Legacy

• In the centre of the wheel, students can draw a sketch of David Unaipon based on his image on the fifty-dollar note.

• Explore David Unaipon's life, work, writings and the context of the time. Unaipon was born in 1872 and some of his significant inventions were made in the early 1900s. Reflect on the situation for Indigenous people at the time. You may want to refer to My Place for Teachers, 'Decade timeline', from the 1870s to the 1910s. 
• As a class, discuss some of the challenges that David Unaipon faced. Consider what he might write about on a blog, the events he might discuss and who he would be talking to.
• To explore this idea as well as other ways to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the classroom, go to Leesa Watego's slideshow presentation at: 

1. Google Docs, 'The Critical Classroom', 5 Deadly Ways to Explore Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Perspectives of Democracy, Politics and Civics in Your Classroom,  https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AZZThDCu3oJRZGdrdmdjanhfNjYzZGdzdmZncHI&hl=en&authkey=CMiJjooE

Student Activity Sheet H25.4: An Australian inventor

• Prior to watching the clip Fishing, discuss with the class that the segment focuses on the father's attempt to educate his sons and teach them particular skills needed for their relationships and operation in their local environment. Ask the students to consider and list the types of life skills that their own father, mother or other close person teaches them today, outside the classroom. As a class, make a list of all the different skills that students have learnt outside the classroom, such as sports, games, cooking, camping, road rules, acceptable behaviour in public and values.
• As a class, watch the clip Fishing and discuss the following questions:

1. What technique does Garadi use to catch a fish?
2. What technique does Bunda use to catch a fish?
3. What is the lesson their father wants to teach them? 

• Ask the students to research Indigenous fishing techniques for a type of fish in particular areas across Australia. Have students find information based on the following:

1. Choose one fishing technique and a location where it is used.
2. Describe the fishing technique, including the materials and technologies used.
3. Find out the Indigenous language group and/or Indigenous Country to which this fishing technique is connected.
4. Who passes this knowledge on?
5. What other knowledge and information are known, such as maintaining fish numbers and seasonal information?
6. How are the fish distributed among Indigenous people (family members and those from other groups/languages) and how is this done over time (eg some fish are dried and stored)?
7. What are some different ways the fish can be cooked and eaten?

• Using the information they found while researching Indigenous fishing techniques, ask students to write an instruction manual for how to catch these fish using local Indigenous knowledges. Students should cover all aspects, including what is used for bait, how Indigenous people make hooks, the different types of fish they catch and how they cook these fish. They are to write in an informative and instructional style. 
• Use these websites to guide you:

1. Australian Government, 'Australian Indigenous Tools and Technology' australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-tools-and-technology
   Includes stone fish traps
2. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 'Aboriginal Fish Traps and Weirs of Queensland', www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/about_us/great_barrier_reef_outlook_report/outlook_report/evidence/01_standard_evidence_page309
3. National Gallery of Australia, 'Fish Trap Sculpture' nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Tactility/Detail.cfm?IRN=121378&BioArtistIRN=20430
   Based on Burarra and Kuninjku peoples' fish traps
4. Screen Australia Digital Learning, 'Fish Traps', www.nfsa.gov.au/digitallearning/mabo/xk_fishtraps.shtml
5. You Tube, 'Baiames Ngunnhu - the Story of Brewarrina Fish Traps', www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYKg1M6PRk

Student Activity Sheet E25.3: Learning new skills 

• As a class, watch the clip Fishing and ask the students to observe the relationship between the two brothers, Bunda and Garadi. Discuss how the boys speak to each other, how they react to each other and why each brother feels he is superior and can impress their father. Ask students to think of a time when they had conflict with a sibling or a friend. Have them write down why they think they were 'right' and share this story with a partner.
• Refer students to the My Place for Teachers website (www.myplace.edu.au) to read Bunda's journal and note what he thinks about his relationship with his father and brother. 
• Focus the attention of the class on the segment in the clip when Bunda finally catches a fish. Ask students to respond to the following questions:

1. Who actually catches the fish?
2. Why does Garadi want to claim the fish as his?
3. What does Garadi do with the fish?
4. How do you think Garadi's actions and language might make Bunda feel?
5. What does their father do with the fish?
6. Why do you think Bunda's father does this with the fish?
7. What lesson did the brothers need to learn through this survival exercise?

• Ask students to draw a family tree or ladder that illustrates the relationships in their family (mother, father, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc). Discuss with students how being the eldest or first-born child in the family can bring more responsibility. They should consider how the order of being born into a family can have consequences on how you are treated or how you act. Ask students to assess whether this perception of 'first born responsibility' could explain Garadi's apparent dislike for his younger brother.
• Students can then write a short paragraph on whether knowing this information changes their opinion of how the brothers treat each other.

Refer students to Student Activity Sheet E25.4: Sons and brothers