Shades of Grey- a Reconciliation
Webquest
by Sally Paton
Introduction · Question · Background Info · Individual
Roles · Group Process
Rubric · Conclusion · Teacher's Guide
In all forms of media we are confronted by different commentary on the reconciliation process between aboriginal and other Australians. Depending on where you live, you will be presented with discussion amongst your families, friends and other community members that contains fact and opinion, in a variously heated context. Remembering that history is a composite of various viewpoints and experiences, some recorded and most unrecorded in any formal sense, the facts concerning the background to reconciliation are unclear to many of us.
You have read and viewed some texts in English that explore the experiences of different Australians and the relationships between them. In small groups you are going to explore the topic of Shades of Grey/It's only black and white. Each member of your team will become versed in one point of view of this topic. Then you will come back together to answer a question that gets to the heart of reconciliation and who says so.
Labels that include: coexistence, destruction, assimilation, reconciliation, are bandied about as defining government/white interaction with Australia's indigenous population over the years of white settlement.
Taking on different roles each member of the group will research information that reflects their viewpoint. Then you will regroup and develop a coherent presentation to the rest of the class that reflects your findings. Your presentation MUST involve significant use of information communication technologies.
What's the truth and who says so? In the old days (say just before you were born), people could read books, study, and feel pretty sure they knew what was going on. Then things started changing. We realized everyone had an opinion and if we listened, we could learn something. We also found that a lot of topics weren't separate, but connected to each other. So thinking in little boxes didn't work so well. Then along came the Web. Ah-oh... Because anyone can publish a Web page and passionate people tend to want to get their ideas out there, almost any interest, concern or issue has its online community.
Guess what: you're going to use the Web for learning. And grabbing someone else's ideas without giving them a close look is worse than silly. Think of it as intellectual slavery. So let's break the chains.
As a group you're going to explore the topic of Reconciliation. Each member of your team will become an expert in one part of the topic. Then you'll have to come back together to answer a question that gets to the heart of 'what's the truth and who says so?' We want you to do a good job, so why not read the evaluation rubric for this WebQuest?
The main question you will be asked to find an answer for is:
Consider the issues involved in indigenous and non-indigenous interactions from European Settlement until your time. Is reconciliation an important issue for the average Australian? Is it clearly black and white or only shades of grey?
Before becoming an expert on one aspect of this topic, we'd better make sure that everyone on your WebQuest team knows the basics. Use the links below to answer the six general questions: who? what? where? when? why? and how? Make sure everyone on your team can answer all the questions before moving into your individual roles.
National Library
White Australia has a black history
Monash Uni
Now and in the future
Government
Reconciliation Australia
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
Religious discussion - Aborigines and the Australian Church
Christianity
Koorie web resources
History and law
Other indigenous populations
Racism
Statistics
White Australia
Now that you have some overall background knowledge, it's time to return to the main question for this WebQuest. Questions this big and important are better answered when a few people are working on it at one time. Things work even better when a group of you decide to look at the question from different perspectives. This way team members can become experts on different aspects of the question and then come together to poll their learning. This is where team work pays off. So are you ready to divide and conquer this question?
Liberal party spokesperson
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
current Liberal policy and practice in the area of indigenous Australians
legal outcomes and issues in the history of interactions between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians
achievements by the government in the areas of equity for indigenous Australians - health, land rights etc
Government
Government
Racism
ATSIC representative
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
the role of ATSIC
political barriers to achieving equity for indigenous Australians
current issues of equity for indigenous Australians - health, housing, employment, education,land rights, mandatory sentencing, deaths in custody
ATSIC
Racism
Genocide
Rights
Youth Detention
Indigenous Australian Community spokesperson
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
the importance of saying 'sorry'
the stolen generation
traditional land rights
genocide
mandatory sentencing and deaths in custody
equal conditions and opportunities for all Australians-health, housing, education, employment etc.
valuing traditional indigenous culture and spirituality
Yukon
Australian/NZ/Canadian Indigenous
Aborigine News
Current news
Health
Genocide
Koorinet
http://www.koori.usyd.edu.au/
Newspaper
Racism
Labor party spokesperson
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
inadequacies of current government policy
Labor's proposals and achievements for indigenous Australians
Equality for all Australians - legal, health, economic etc
the need to say 'sorry'
Genocide
Judicial representative
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
history of indigenous legal interaction
land rights
mandatory sentencing
deaths in custody
current legal inequalities
ANU
Colonisation
ANU
Laws
Deaths in custody
Rights
Non-indigenous Australian
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following:
Australia for all Australians
Rights and responsibilities
land rights
Differences between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians - culture, ability to use opportunity, contributions of both groups to the nation
Noble savage
Government
White Australia
White Australia
White Australia
Origins of Racism - A Marxist Perspective
Equal Australians
KKK in Australia.
Congratulations! Your team is now full of expertise. Each person on your team has become an expert on the topic of Reconciliation. You've all learned a great deal of information. But guess what, gathering useful information isn't the same as truly understanding a topic. What experts in the field of learning suggest is that you now use that information in a new and challenging way. Then you'll really know about this topic.
a) You will be assigned a role as part of the webquest. Other class members with the same role will join with you to investigate the QUESTION from the perspective of your role. You will research the issues and events involved and as a group you will cooperatively present your response to the class using Powerpoint and other visual resources. You will submit your individual research before your group presentation. You will be assessed on both the depth of your individual research and the coherence of the presentation.
b) You will now form a new group with a representative from each of the groups in a), eg. an ATSIC person, a Liberal person etc. With your team members all gathered together, carefully read and try answering the main question for this WebQuest. See where you all agree and where differences arise. You will each present your point of view and as a group develop a consensual or summary statement. Use information, graphs pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion). Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.
c) Thirdly you will return to your original group of same role people and develop your views, arguments etc to debate the question as a whole class. You will select one of your group to represent your viewpoint and you must have provided this person with full information and examples.
At the beginning of this activity, you were asked about the truth. Did you discover it? Was there only one? Did everyone on your team think so? How did you answer the main question for this WebQuest? Have you checked the evaluation rubric to guide what you did?
You deserve a lot of praise for all the work you've done. And so does your brain. You've sure put that gray stuff to the test. You gained background information, developed expertise in one particular area and got into some pretty expert analysis. At times, you must have felt confused with ideas spinning every which way. That's normal when you're building new mental connections. It's funny, with each link between what you already knew and the new learning going on, you broke another different kind of link, remember the intellectual slavery we spoke about earlier? You're free! How will you use these ideas and strategies as you continue to grow and learn? It's all up to you. Good luck.
was at:
http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/spaton/folder2/webquest.htm