Activities to celebrate NAIDOC week

NAIDOC Week is an occasion for all Australians to come together to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

NAIDOC Week will run nationally from 7-14 July 2019, which falls during the July school holidays.

This is a great opportunity to educate and entertain kids with some hands-on history and help them connect with culture through games and activities celebrating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

Craft

Indigenous art is centred around story telling with the use of symbols to convey stories.

Download and print our craft activity sheet and get the kids to decorate the boomerang or kangaroo using the symbols to tell a story or set a scene.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Other craft activities could include:

• Decorating small terracotta pots using the Aboriginal dot style painting.
• Plant a small native species into the pot such as a Tea Tree or a Bush Gem Kangaroo Paw for the kids to enjoy at home.
• Use black, red and yellow paper to make a collage of the Aboriginal Flag

Cooking

Damper, also known as bush bread or seedcake, has been made by Australian Aborigines for thousands of years. Millstones for grinding seeds into flour have been discovered which have dated to be 50,000 years old. It was made by crushing a variety of native seeds, and sometimes nuts and roots, into a dough and then baking the dough in the coals of a fire.

Making damper is a great way to get kids cooking whilst learning about traditional Aboriginal cooking. Try making Wattleseed and Thyme damper for a more authentic flavour than the plain damper they may have tried before. Here is a great recipe: https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/wattleseed-and-thyme-damper

Image and recipe via HERE

Games

At LaserWarriors, we have developed a modern-day take on the Aboriginal game called Puloga (‘pul-o-ga’). It can be play by kids from K-2 and all the way up to Year 12!

The original game is a type of tag/dodgeball game with 2 teams. See the attached information sheet by the Australian Sports Commission.

For your LaserWarriors NAIDOC Incursion, our briefing will include an overview of how this game was played originally by different indigenous groups.

The aim is to educate children about traditional Aboriginal games and their similarities to modern ones!

For our equivalent of Puloga:

• Each player has a limited number of tags (equivalent to the balls in the original game), which the opposing team needs to “dodge”
• When a player runs out of tags, they run to get more at a tagging base (equivalent to picking up more balls)
• Play is continuous with players tagging and getting more throughout the game.
• Players cannot prevent themselves from being tagged, other than by running away or hiding behind an obstacles.
• Each player can be tagged 5 times before needing to go to a specific point (their team base) and counting down to rejoin the game.

In addition, we also do the adrenaline filled Capture the Flag variation.

• This requires a bit more instruction for the players, and is virtually identical to the variation mentioned by the Australian Sports Commission .
• Each team has a circular area with a team flag.
• The defending team defends this flag from capture, but may not stand in their own circular area or physically block access to it.
• Attacking players attempt to enter the opposing team’s circle and to “steal” the flag.
• They then need to return to their own team area with the flag to “capture” it, but must evade the defenders!
• Each capture gets the team points.
• If a player with the flag is tagged, the flag is automatically returned to the circle
• All players who are tagged (including the one carrying a flag) must return to the team circle and do a count down to rejoin the game.

Take a look at this information sheet provided by the Australian Sports Commission about Puloga.

Give us a call today if you’d like to book a LaserWarriors NAIDOC Incursion over the July School holidays for your vacation care or club program.