440
S. Emery et al.
At the EfS Tasmania professional forum in October 2017 the students from the
school travelled to Launceston at the invitation of EfSTas to co-present a workshop
for Tasmanian educators. The students began by delivering an Acknowledgement
of Country in palawa-kani, “the revived form of the original Tasmanian Aboriginal
languages” (http://tacinc.com.au/programs/palawa-kani/). The Acknowledgement is
an important custom of showing respect to Aboriginal Elders past and present and
honoring that a gathering is taking place on land which Aboriginal people never
ceded and of which Aboriginal people have been custodians for millennia.
During the workshop the school students also led participants in a workshop activity of learning how to make string, sharing the technique they had learned through
the cultural arts program using dried and softened river reeds. String making is one
of the enduring crafts of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania (and Australia
more widely). Through this initiative of inviting students to present the Acknowledgement of Country and a skills workshop for teachers, the school students were
recognized as cultural citizens, continuing the traditions and practices of Tasmanian
Aboriginal peoples in a contemporary gathering. This can be viewed as a practice
of decolonizing curriculum and reinhabitation of Aboriginal culture in education
(Lincoln and González y González 2008).
5 Case Study 2: Partnerships in Community-Based
Environmental Sustainability Education
The second case study details a community engagement event, ‘Don’t Mess with
Burnie’ (DMWB), which was led by two SRs who are co-authors of this paper (KB
and BC). This event was designed to involve children in taking action to address local
environmental concerns, including marine debris, pest and problem animal control
and recycling and waste management. The Don’t Mess with Burnie activities were
conducted over a full-school day and involved over 300 primary school children
(aged 8–11 years) and their teachers. The event included a beach clean-up, found
object art, participation in science experiments and tours of local waste management
facilities. Through this event, school students were empowered to make a difference to the local beach foreshore where they play and to their regional community
more generally. Likewise, the hands-on activities also provided professional learning opportunities for teachers. Teachers were able to engage with these activities
alongside their students and they discovered how environmental and sustainability
education could be meaningfully achieved in their own classroom contexts and local
community.
5.1 Burnie as the Site for ‘Don’t Mess with Burnie’
The opportunity for the SRs to facilitate a community engagement event in collaboration with the state government department of education arose when their univer-
S. Emery et al.
At the EfS Tasmania professional forum in October 2017 the students from the
school travelled to Launceston at the invitation of EfSTas to co-present a workshop
for Tasmanian educators. The students began by delivering an Acknowledgement
of Country in palawa-kani, “the revived form of the original Tasmanian Aboriginal
languages” (http://tacinc.com.au/programs/palawa-kani/). The Acknowledgement is
an important custom of showing respect to Aboriginal Elders past and present and
honoring that a gathering is taking place on land which Aboriginal people never
ceded and of which Aboriginal people have been custodians for millennia.
During the workshop the school students also led participants in a workshop activity of learning how to make string, sharing the technique they had learned through
the cultural arts program using dried and softened river reeds. String making is one
of the enduring crafts of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania (and Australia
more widely). Through this initiative of inviting students to present the Acknowledgement of Country and a skills workshop for teachers, the school students were
recognized as cultural citizens, continuing the traditions and practices of Tasmanian
Aboriginal peoples in a contemporary gathering. This can be viewed as a practice
of decolonizing curriculum and reinhabitation of Aboriginal culture in education
(Lincoln and González y González 2008).
5 Case Study 2: Partnerships in Community-Based
Environmental Sustainability Education
The second case study details a community engagement event, ‘Don’t Mess with
Burnie’ (DMWB), which was led by two SRs who are co-authors of this paper (KB
and BC). This event was designed to involve children in taking action to address local
environmental concerns, including marine debris, pest and problem animal control
and recycling and waste management. The Don’t Mess with Burnie activities were
conducted over a full-school day and involved over 300 primary school children
(aged 8–11 years) and their teachers. The event included a beach clean-up, found
object art, participation in science experiments and tours of local waste management
facilities. Through this event, school students were empowered to make a difference to the local beach foreshore where they play and to their regional community
more generally. Likewise, the hands-on activities also provided professional learning opportunities for teachers. Teachers were able to engage with these activities
alongside their students and they discovered how environmental and sustainability
education could be meaningfully achieved in their own classroom contexts and local
community.
5.1 Burnie as the Site for ‘Don’t Mess with Burnie’
The opportunity for the SRs to facilitate a community engagement event in collaboration with the state government department of education arose when their univer-