Aboriginal Art Educational Resources

Free Lesson Plans, Worksheets and Articles for Australian Classrooms

Free teaching materials on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, culture, history and symbols, written for Australian primary and secondary classrooms. Resources include lesson plans, flash cards, worksheets and in-depth articles.

If you find these resources useful, please link to this page. Links help an ethical business like ART ARK rank above the unethical traders who dominate search results for Aboriginal art.

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Primary School Lesson Plans

1. Understanding Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country
2. The History and Diversity of Australian Indigenous Peoples
3. Understanding The Dreaming and Dreamtime Stories
4. Understanding Aboriginal Art Symbols

Secondary Education

Some of the best secondary learning on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture comes from films, documentaries and podcasts. Students hear the story from the people who lived it, in their own words and often their own languages, and see the places where it happened. A single documentary can open a class discussion that a textbook can't, about evidence, perspective, and whose voices have been left out of Australian history.

View our guide to Aboriginal films, documentaries and podcasts, with lesson ideas for each

In-depth guides for secondary students and educators:

1. Aboriginal Art History: From Ancient Origins to Today
2. Understanding Aboriginal Art Symbols and Their Meanings
3. What is The Dreamtime, Also Known as The Dreaming
4. The Evolution and History of Aboriginal Dot Painting
5. Aboriginal Art Regions and Their Variations
6. 25 Famous Aboriginal Artists Everyone Should Know

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Aboriginal Symbols Downloads

Aboriginal Symbols Flash Cards: Two sets of printable flash cards introducing common symbols used in Aboriginal art and what they represent.

Aboriginal Symbols Matching Activities: Two printable activities where students match symbols to their meanings.

These work in art and humanities (HASS) lessons, and during NAIDOC Week.

Download the Aboriginal Symbols Flash Cards (PDF)

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The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags

The two flags are a simple starting point for discussions about identity, history and recognition.

The Aboriginal Flag

The Aboriginal flag was designed by Luritja artist Harold Thomas and first flown in Adelaide in 1971. The black represents Aboriginal people, the red represents the earth and the spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow circle represents the sun, the giver of life and protector. In 2022 the copyright was transferred to the Commonwealth, so the flag can now be freely reproduced, including on classroom materials.

The Torres Strait Islander Flag

The Torres Strait Islander flag was designed by Bernard Namok of Thursday Island and adopted in 1992. The green stripes represent the land, the blue represents the sea, and the black lines represent the people. The white dhari (headdress) in the centre represents Torres Strait Islander culture, and the five-pointed star represents the island groups and the importance of navigation. White is a symbol of peace.

Flags Activity

In this printable activity, students write what they think each colour and symbol on the two flags represents, then compare their answers with the meanings above.

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Aboriginal Art and Ethics

For many Aboriginal communities, art carries stories and knowledge between generations and is also a major source of income. How it is made and sold matters.

1. The Importance of Aboriginal Art Centres
2. Ethical Considerations in Aboriginal Art

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Short Articles on Aboriginal Art and Culture

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Australian Indigenous History: Key Topics

Short introductions to topics that shaped the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, many of which are left out of general histories.

Migrations and Arrival to Australia

Archaeological evidence places people in Australia at least 50,000 years ago, and possibly 65,000 years ago at Madjedbebe in Arnhem Land. Most scientists think the first people arrived by sea from island South-East Asia, crossing open water even when sea levels were low. Many Aboriginal people hold that their peoples have always been here, and both accounts are part of how this history is told. Tools, shell middens, hearths and ochre show people living in every environment on the continent, from desert to rainforest.

Environmental Changes and Ice Ages

Sea levels rose and fell through the ice ages. When the sea was low, Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania formed a single landmass known as Sahul. As the sea rose at the end of the last ice age, New Guinea and Tasmania were cut off. Aboriginal people adapted to these changes and developed land management practices such as cultural burning, often called fire-stick farming. People lived alongside megafauna, including diprotodons, giant kangaroos and marsupial lions. Most megafauna had disappeared by around 40,000 years ago. Whether humans, climate or both were responsible is still debated.

Rock Art and Cultural Histories

Australia has some of the oldest rock art in the world. Dating it is difficult. The oldest directly dated rock painting is a kangaroo in the Kimberley, about 17,300 years old. Engravings at sites such as Murujuga in Western Australia are thought to be much older but are harder to date. Rock art shows ancestral beings, animals and people, and later records contact with Macassan and European visitors. Sites in Kakadu, the Kimberley and Murujuga remain sacred and ceremonial places.

Language Groups Across Australia

At the time of colonisation there were more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, with many more dialects. Language carries knowledge of country, law, kinship and ceremony. Colonisation and assimilation policies, including bans on speaking language in missions and schools, caused many to stop being spoken. The 2020 National Indigenous Languages Report counted around 123 languages still in use, with only about 12 still being learned by children as a first language. Communities are reviving languages through teaching, recording and everyday use.

Read more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages

Tasmanian Aboriginal People

Tasmania was cut off from the mainland by rising seas about 12,000 years ago, and Tasmanian Aboriginal people developed their own cultural practices and technologies over that time. Colonisation from 1803 led to the Black War of the 1820s and early 1830s, followed by the removal of most survivors to Wybalenna on Flinders Island, where many died. The colonial claim that Tasmanian Aboriginal people died out was false. The Tasmanian Aboriginal community is strong today, with ongoing work in land rights, cultural practices such as shell necklace making, and the revival of language through palawa kani.

The Dreaming

The Dreaming, also called the Dreamtime, is an English term for Aboriginal systems of law, knowledge and belief, known in Warlpiri as Jukurrpa and in Pitjantjatjara as Tjukurpa. It tells how ancestral beings shaped the land, animals, plants and people, and set down the laws for living. These stories are held in country and passed on through song, dance, ceremony and art. The Dreaming is not only about the past; it continues to guide identity, responsibility to country and social life today.

Kinship Systems

Aboriginal kinship systems set out how people are related, who they can marry, and what they owe each other and their country. Systems vary between language groups but often include moieties and skin names (subsections), which place every person in relation to everyone else. Kinship decides responsibilities for ceremony, land and the care of family, and remains central to community life.

Macassan Traders

From at least the early 1700s, and possibly earlier, fleets from Makassar in present-day Indonesia sailed each year to the coasts of Arnhem Land and the Kimberley to collect and process trepang (sea cucumber). Yolŋu and other coastal peoples traded and worked with them, and some travelled to Makassar. The contact brought metal tools, cloth, tobacco and dugout canoes, and Macassan words remain in Yolŋu languages. The voyages ended in the early 1900s, when the South Australian government, which then administered the Northern Territory, stopped issuing licences. It was one of the longest periods of regular contact between Aboriginal people and outsiders before British colonisation.

European Expeditions Before Colonisation

The first recorded European landing was by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in the Duyfken on Cape York in 1606, and the encounter with local people turned violent. Other Dutch ships charted the west and south coasts through the 1600s, and Abel Tasman reached Tasmania in 1642. James Cook charted the east coast in 1770 and claimed it for Britain. These voyages mapped the coastline and paved the way for colonisation.

Colonisation and Expansion

The British established a colony at Sydney in 1788, followed by Hobart (1804), Launceston (1806), Moreton Bay (1824), Perth (1829), Melbourne (1835) and Adelaide (1836). Colonisation spread outward from these settlements, bringing land dispossession, disease and violence. Aboriginal people resisted and adapted, maintaining culture and asserting their rights to land.

The Frontier Wars

The frontier wars were conflicts between Aboriginal people and colonists from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, as Aboriginal people defended their land. Resistance leaders included Pemulwuy around Sydney and Jandamarra in the Kimberley. The wars caused great loss of life and were left out of most Australian history for over a century.

Missionaries and Religious Influence

Christian missions were set up across Australia from the 1800s, among them Hermannsburg in Central Australia (1877). Missions provided food, schooling and medical care, but often banned language and ceremony and separated children from their families. Many Aboriginal people combined Christianity with their own beliefs, and some missions became the communities that exist today.

Cattle Expansion

Pastoral expansion through the 1800s pushed Aboriginal people off their lands, which were converted into pastoral leases. Many Aboriginal people worked on cattle stations for rations or little pay, often on their own country. In 1966, Gurindji stockmen and their families, led by Vincent Lingiari, walked off Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory. What began as a strike over pay and conditions became a claim for the return of their land. In 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam handed back part of the land, and the walk-off led directly to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

Massacres

Massacres of Aboriginal people took place across Australia from the late 1700s into the 1920s. They include Waterloo Creek (1838) and Myall Creek (1838) in New South Wales. After Myall Creek, seven colonists were hanged for the killing of 28 Wirrayaraay people, the first time colonists were executed for a massacre of Aboriginal people. The Coniston massacre in the Northern Territory in 1928 is the last known large-scale massacre; the official count was 31 people killed, and Aboriginal accounts put the number much higher. The University of Newcastle's Colonial Frontier Massacres map documents hundreds of sites.

Aboriginal Rights Movement

Aboriginal people have campaigned for their rights since colonisation. Milestones include the 1938 Day of Mourning, the 1965 Freedom Ride through New South Wales led by Charles Perkins, the 1966 Wave Hill walk-off, the 1967 referendum and the 1972 Tent Embassy. The campaign for land rights, treaty and self-determination continues.

Stolen Generations

The Stolen Generations are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their families under government policies from the late 1800s to the 1970s. The 1997 Bringing Them Home report found that between one in three and one in ten Aboriginal children were removed between 1910 and 1970. Children were placed in institutions, missions and non-Aboriginal homes, often with the aim of assimilating them, and many suffered abuse and lost connection to family, language and culture. The effects continue across generations.

Assimilation Policies

From the 1930s to the 1960s, assimilation was official government policy. Aboriginal people were expected to give up their language, culture and community and live like white Australians. Some were issued exemption certificates, sometimes called "dog tags", which granted certain rights only if they cut ties with family and community. The effects of these policies are still felt.

Government Policies

Government policy towards Aboriginal people has moved through protection, assimilation and, from the 1970s, self-determination. Key laws and bodies include the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, the first law to allow Aboriginal people to claim land based on traditional occupation, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), an elected body that ran from 1990 until it was abolished in 2005.

Forced Settlements and Reserves

Under protection laws, Aboriginal people were moved onto government reserves and settlements such as Cherbourg and Palm Island in Queensland. Residents' movement, work, wages and marriages were controlled by officials, and people from many language groups were forced to live together. Many of these places are Aboriginal communities today.

Stolen Wages

Under government control, Aboriginal workers' wages were often paid in rations, paid at lower rates, or held in trust accounts they could not access. Much of this money was never returned. In 2019 the Queensland Government settled a class action over stolen wages for $190 million, and claims in other states continue.

1967 Referendum

In the 1967 referendum, 90.77 per cent of Australians voted to change the Constitution. The changes allowed the federal government to make laws for Aboriginal people, and removed a section that excluded Aboriginal people from being counted in the national population. The referendum did not give Aboriginal people citizenship or the vote, which is a common misconception. All Aboriginal people gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1962.

Tent Embassy

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on 26 January 1972 on the lawns opposite what is now Old Parliament House in Canberra. Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams and Tony Coorey established it in response to the McMahon government's rejection of land rights. It was removed and re-established several times, and has stood continuously since 1992. It remains a centre of protest for land rights, sovereignty and treaty.

Land Rights Movement

The land rights movement seeks recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ownership of land. In 1992, in the Mabo decision, the High Court rejected the idea that Australia was terra nullius (land belonging to no one) at colonisation. The case was brought by Eddie Koiki Mabo, a Meriam man from Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait. The decision led to the Native Title Act 1993. Land rights and native title claims continue across the country.

Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap began in 2008 as a government strategy to reduce differences in life expectancy, health, education and employment between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. In 2020 it was reset as the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, negotiated with the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community-Controlled Peak Organisations. Annual reports show progress on some targets, but most are not on track.

Education System and Access

For much of Australia's history, Aboriginal children were excluded from schools, taught separately or given only basic schooling. In 1966, Margaret Valadian and Charles Perkins became the first Aboriginal people to complete university degrees, at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. Bilingual programs, Aboriginal teachers and the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures in the national curriculum have since widened access, but gaps remain.

Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal art runs from ancient rock art to contemporary painting, sculpture, fibre and print. Ernabella Arts in the APY Lands, founded in 1948, is the oldest continuously running Aboriginal art centre. The painting movement that began at Papunya in 1971 led to community-run art centres across remote Australia. Art carries stories and knowledge, and art centres are a major source of income for many communities.

Aboriginal Culture and Traditions

Aboriginal culture includes law, ceremony, song, dance, storytelling, art and knowledge of country. Practices differ between language groups and regions. Despite colonisation, many traditions have continued unbroken, and others are being revived.

Torres Strait Islander People

Torres Strait Islander people are culturally distinct from Aboriginal people, with their own languages, laws and traditions, and a strong connection to the sea. The Torres Strait Islands lie between the tip of Cape York and Papua New Guinea, and many Torres Strait Islander people also live on the mainland. Their history includes colonisation, missions and the pearling and bêche-de-mer industries. It was a Torres Strait Islander, Eddie Koiki Mabo, whose case overturned terra nullius.

Health and Wellbeing

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have lower life expectancy and higher rates of chronic disease than other Australians, a result of dispossession and long-term disadvantage. The first Aboriginal community-controlled health service opened in Redfern in 1971, and there are now more than 140 across Australia. Health services run by communities, with care that respects culture, have better outcomes.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Aboriginal people hold detailed knowledge of plants, animals, seasons, water and fire, built up over thousands of years. Cultural burning is now used alongside modern land management, and Indigenous ranger programs care for land and sea country across Australia.

Contemporary Aboriginal Politics

The Uluru Statement from the Heart, issued in 2017, called for a First Nations Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution, and a Makarrata Commission to oversee agreement-making and truth-telling. In the 2023 referendum, Australians voted against the proposed Voice, with no state returning a majority Yes vote. Work on treaty and representation continues at state level, including South Australia's First Nations Voice to Parliament and Victoria's treaty process.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation is about building relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians, based on truth about the past. National Reconciliation Week runs from 27 May to 3 June each year, the anniversaries of the 1967 referendum and the Mabo decision.

NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week is held each July, from the first Sunday to the following Sunday, to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It grew out of the 1938 Day of Mourning, and each year has a national theme, poster and awards.

Indigenous Sporting Achievements

The 1868 Aboriginal cricket team that toured England was the first Australian sporting team to travel overseas. Since then, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes have excelled in AFL, rugby league, boxing, tennis and athletics, including Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Cathy Freeman, who won gold in the 400 metres at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

National Apology

On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a formal apology in federal parliament to the Stolen Generations and their families for the laws and policies of past governments.

Cultural Revitalisation

Communities across Australia are reviving language, ceremony and cultural practice through language programs, return-to-country trips, cultural festivals and passing knowledge from Elders to young people.

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Contact

We welcome feedback from educators on how you use these resources and what else would help. Email Guy at guy@artark.com.au.