Did you know that you can tell a lot about what is happening on land from what is happening in the sky above? Ever wondered how to navigate home when lost in the bush? Or how to use the sky and stars to predict environmental changes? What if I were to tell you that a brief glance at a single constellation in the sky can tell you about current local animal behaviour, seasonal change, the availability of food sources, and impending weather patterns? These topics will soon be easily available to our primary and secondary school students, thanks to the introduction of Indigenous scientific knowledge into our national curricula.

New classroom resources have been announced to help teachers include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems in the classroom.The resources will assist teachers in implementing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures’ cross curriculum priority from the Australian Curriculum.

The new classroom resources provide rigorous and refereed resources to ensure teachers feel confident teaching Indigenous science and astronomy to their students.

The recently released resources are designed for Years 5 and 8; and expose them to topics such as natural indicators of time, measuring spatial distances with their hands and lunar and solar eclipses.

This knowledge has been developed over 65,000 years.

Students will develop insight into how an oral culture has the capability to encode and transmit this level of complex knowledge on the timescale of thousands of years.

The Indigenous scientific method is unique in its ability to integrate many fields of science into a comprehensive knowledge system. This approach to learning will enable students to develop the ability to contextualise what they learn in the classroom and apply it to the real world.

This extraordinary shift has been driven by the tireless efforts of Indigenous knowledge holders and research scientists, and I’m here to tell you why this is not only a massive step forward for Indigenous Australians, but for the entire nation as a whole.

These changes to the curricula are a crucial first step toward correcting the false historical narrative that has been taught in the past.

The widespread myth of Terra Nullius and a land covered by nomadic wanderers who lived without agricultural, economic, or scientific practices is harmful for those of us on both sides of history.

The current lack of understanding of Indigenous culture is detrimental to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, as it leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of each other.

We have long maintained a split narrative of this nation’s founding history, and it is important to understand the true extent of what was lost and embrace opportunities to preserve what knowledge survives.

Our continent is home to the world’s longest continuing cultures, and teaching this knowledge in schools is an important step in enabling us to continue to thrive in the future.