The encounter

• The most important part of the game is the students' reflections on their thoughts, feelings and experiences when encountering another culture. You should devote at least 20 minutes to this discussion.
• Stress that the cultural attributes of the bilby and rabbit cultures are fictional and are not based on any one particular group of people. It is intended to reflect the differences in the way various cultures do things, see things and understand things in the world around us and to challenge individuals to see things (and experience things) in different ways. This activity is not intended to stereotype groups but rather to challenge individuals within groups to see things from a different perspective.

1. Students should first consider how people from the other culture are different to them. Ask members of one culture to describe the other. Students can make notes in the T-chart in Student Activity Sheet H23.2: First contact game: Rabbit and bilby cultures.

2. Next, ask students to reflect upon how they felt interacting with the other culture. How did they feel about visiting the other group? How did they feel when they were visited? Student responses can lead into a discussion of the following issues:

a  What problems did people from your culture have when visiting the other group?

b  How did you solve these problems?

c  Did you fit in or did you manage to remain separate?

d  Was the behaviour of your visitors appropriate?

3. Lastly, ask students to consider their judgements of members of the other cultural group. Allow each group to explain the actual rules of their culture. Ask students to consider whether they misjudged the other culture and whether they feel that they were fairly judged.

Point out to students that the prejudices they developed have arisen over just one or two classes. Ask them to contemplate how deeply entrenched such views might be if held for many years or centuries. Explain that cultural differences develop because different peoples have invented different ways of solving the problems presented to them by living. You can draw on the experiences of students in this activity when examining historical interactions between Indigenous groups and European settlers when the First Fleet arrived in Australia.

Student Activity Sheet H23.1: First contact game: Card template
Student Activity Sheet H23.2: First contact game: Rabbit and bilby cultures

• The cow that Waruwi encounters seems a strange addition to the landscape. The European colonists brought with them many things, beliefs, practices and ways of thinking that fit better with the home they remembered than with the new environment in which they found themselves. Indigenous ways of life, by comparison, were based on deep respect for the Australian climate and environment, and local knowledges passed down from generation to generation. The clip displays the differences in culture, principles of ownership and authority.
• As a class, view the clip and discuss Waruwi's reaction to the cow. Look at the contrast between where and how Dan lives compared to Waruwi.
• In order to arouse student interest in the sustainable patterns of land use that are practised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, invite students to investigate Indigenous weather knowledges. In recent years, scientists interested in long-term environmental change and weather patterns have turned to Indigenous weather knowledges to better understand the seasons and weather in Australia.
• Students can use the following websites to explore the reasons why scientists are investigating Indigenous meteorological views:

1. ABC Science, 'The Lost Seasons', www.abc.net.au/science/features/indigenous/
   Although this is called the 'lost' seasons, and the site is written as if this knowledge is from the past and has been lost, Indigenous people from across Australia still maintain and use their knowledge about the weather and the seasons in their local areas in their daily lives.
2. Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, 'Indigenous Weather Knowledge', www.bom.gov.au/iwk/climate_culture/index.shtml
3. Living Knowledge, 'Yolngu Sea Country: Observing the Seasons' livingknowledge.anu.edu.au/learningsites/seacountry/10_observing.htm
4. Queensland Studies Authority, 'Indigenous Perspectives Support Materials', www.qsa.qld.edu.au/3035.html
5. ——'Torres Strait Islander Seasonal Calendar' http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach/indigenous_read011_0801_2.pdf
6. Twelve Canoes, 'Seasons', www.12canoes.com.au/

• Using these resources, students can complete the table provided in Student Activity Worksheet H23.3: Local knowledge. Ask students to record the names of the seasons in the Kakadu region, noting local indicators which signal the beginning of a season and when each season occurs. See if students can find the names and times of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander seasons in your local area. Students should consider the differences between European understanding of the seasons and that of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They should also consider whether the seasonal cycle is described the same way by various Indigenous people from different language groups and in different locations.
• Connect with local Indigenous families at your school or neighbouring schools, local groups and organisations from the region or surrounding areas. You could contact Indigenous Education Units and resources centres in your state or your nearest university's Indigenous unit. Talk about the seasons and weather in the local (and neighbouring) language/s and see what you can find out about your local area.
• Ask students to consider whether the European settlers should have adopted Indigenous seasonal patterns in your local area. To do this, they should fill in a SWOT Analysis chart to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this choice. This will require students to critically analyse and evaluate the choices made by the European settlers, and the importance of Indigenous knowledges. Once all students have filled in the table, ask them to make a final decision on the issue.

• Invite all students who agree that the European settlers should have adopted Indigenous seasonal patterns in your area to go to one side of the classroom and all those who disagree to go to the other side of the classroom. Ask a selection of students from either side of the room to offer the reasons for their decision. Allow students to change sides as they listen to each response. Record responses on the whiteboard and allow students to write these down.
• Ask students to write a report for their local newspaper about how Australia might have developed differently if European settlers had used local Indigenous knowledges when establishing the colony. 

Student Activity Sheet H23.3: Local knowledge

• Prior to watching this clip, have students find out about Indigenous peoples in their local area by inviting local Indigenous people to speak to students about their heritage and family histories. 
• Consider the lifestyles of Indigenous peoples in your local area prior to 1788 and reflect on how these lifestyles have changed. Investigate the importance of the land and seas in the lives of Indigenous peoples, past and present. Consider the following in respect to the past:

1. Food - what was eaten and what technologies were used to find and prepare different food types? 
2. Shelter - what materials and technologies were used?
3. Types of clothing that were worn for particular seasons and purposes
4. Languages spoken in the area and neighbouring areas 
5. The diversity of customs and beliefs between different groups.

• Images or stories that relate to their research could be written up as a report or story and presented as part of a local history project or slideshow presentation. Refer to My Place for Teachers, 'Decade timeline' for more information or some weblinks about Indigenous histories and cultures. Be sure to also discuss with local Indigenous families, groups and individuals.
• Consider Indigenous educational frameworks that might guide your work in developing local histories, for example:

1. Holistic Teaching and Learning framework, 'My Land My Tracks' (Uncle Ernie Grant), http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/indigenous/educators/cultural-aware-localstory.html
2. 8 Aboriginal ways of learning, http://8ways.wikispaces.com/
3. Ask students to think about life skills. Ask them to list ten skills they have that help them live in the modern age. Encourage students to consider a role-reversal in which Waruwi reflects on the students' daily activities, to raise awareness about the skills students use on a day-to-day basis. Compare the two lists. Which skills are the same and which are different?

• As a class, watch the whole episode and then ask students to write a list of the skills that Waruwi demonstrates. Focus their attention on the fact that she can move silently through the bush; that she can climb trees barefoot; that she can make a fire without matches; that she can see any changes that occur in the surrounding landscape, such as noticing footprints in the earth; and that she knows how to get rid of footprints. Also ask the students to add to their list, in a separate section, the skills that Waruwi's Nana has, such as using smoke to keep mosquitoes away, and also to think about roles and responsibilities in the family. Refer students to Student Activity Sheet E23.1: Life skills.

• Form students into pairs. With their partner they are to imagine a meeting with Waruwi. Ask students to write a script for a scene in the episode which takes place before or after the episode time. Role-play a conversation between them in character: one is Waruwi, and one a new character that the pair have devised. The new character could be Indigenous from the same language group, or from a different language group with different ways of doing things; they could be a colonist or a convict. Students should consider the age of the character; whether they are male or female; their position of power, etc. Encourage students to consider the different impacts these attributes will have on how the two characters relate. Ask students to focus on Waruwi and her thoughts and feelings about 'her place', as well as how she thinks about the new character's feelings of belonging to 'their place'.

Student Activity Sheet E23.1: Survival skills

• Focus the students' attention on the start of the clip, in which Waruwi sees the cow for the first time. Ask students to respond to the following questions:

1. Why has Waruwi never seen a cow before?
2. How does she describe the cow to her Nana?
3. What does Waruwi call the marines?
4. Why do you think she uses these words to describe them?
5. What do these words make you think of?
6. How does her Nana refer to the soldiers? (She describes them in more than one way.) 

• Refer students to Student Activity Sheet E23.2: New arrivals.
• Ask students to think about the power of words and the effect names have in influencing how we see people and objects. Ask students to list 10 naming words (nouns) used in the episode and their meanings. 
• Ask students to find the meaning of these words in a foreign language. Using a dictionary or translator they are to also find the words for the following: house, sister or brother, food, water and dog.

• Ask students to imagine they are Dan. What would he say to his family in England about his first encounter in the new country? Ask students to imagine they are Waruwi telling her friends about her encounter with the cow and the young marine. How do they communicate with no knowledge of the other's language? Ask students to write a short note from each character, describing the events of their day's encounters.
• Play a game of charades where students use non-verbal gestures and expressions to communicate.

Student Activity Sheet E24.2: New arrivals