Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Historical depictions of First Nations peoples in disaster reporting

20 minutes

Find Out: Understanding disaster reporting in the media

20 minutes

Take Action: Why media representation matters

15 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Student will

investigate and compare how First Nations peoples and communities have been depicted in disaster reporting in the media
understand the ways that media representation can impact how people view themselves and others.

Students can:

recognise how language and depictions empower and disempower First Nations peoples and communities
explain how empowered communities lead to better resilience outcomes
analyse the historical and contemporary representation of First Nations peoples and communities in disaster reporting in the media and its impact.

Tune In: Historical depictions of First Nations peoples in disaster reporting

Ensuring psychological safety and inclusivity:

Before beginning this lesson, it is essential to account for the experiences of any First Nations students in your class. It is important not to isolate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in how the material is taught. Some First Nations students may have important insights or contributions which should be welcomed. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should not be expected to contribute any more than other students.

Step 1

Write the headline below on the whiteboard and ask students for initial responses to this depiction of First Nations peoples in disaster reporting:

VEGETATION AND BUSH FIRES – Antiquity of the Australian Aboriginal

Ask probing questions:

When do you think this headline (and article) was published?
Would you be surprised to see this headline now? Why/why not?
Is the language used here positive or negative?
What disaster resilience or bushfire mitigation strategy do you think the headline is referring to?

To support students’ responses, draw their attention to ‘antiquity’ and its meaning (historical objects or periods of ancient times). You can suggest that the use of this word frames First Nations practices as distant rather than a living culture; ‘antiquity’ can be interpreted as pejorative in the context of the headline, framing ‘bush fires’ as an outdated First Nations practice; ‘bush fires’ in this context suggests this headline was written by a non-Indigenous person because it is likely referring to cultural burning.

After discussing this headline, point out that it is from an article from The Daily Telegraph, 1907 (trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/238072121?searchTerm=aboriginal%20bush%20fires).

Step 2

Explain to students that we’re going to examine the impact of depictions and representations of First Nations peoples and communities in media disaster reporting, including:

how this reporting has changed over time (or not)
how First Nations peoples’ cultures, disaster mitigation and land management knowledges are valued (or not)
how reporting in the media affects community resilience (such as self-perception and empowerment).

You may want to scaffold this introduction to the lesson by asking your students the following question: Why are we looking at how First Nations Australians, in particular, are depicted in disaster reporting? They might suggest:

• as Traditional Custodians they have been managing disaster events for over 30,000 years
• historically First Nations land management strategies have been critiqued (as seen in the first article)
• statistically, First Nations peoples are more impacted by disaster events.

Remind students that these 'phases' of disaster are blurred i.e. it is not a linear process; there is overlap and often can occur at the same time. E.g. Communities were recovering from the 2019/2020 bushfires whilst responding to COVID-19 and preparing for the next fire season.

Step 3

Divide students into think-pair-share groups to discuss these questions on their Student Worksheet:

How can words be used to shape people’s views of a topic?
What is the impact of how groups and individuals are depicted in the media?

Invite pairs to share their responses, making notes on the whiteboard. You may want to discuss how the media represents different groups of people and how this shapes views, and creates stereotypes, prejudice and biases.

Step 4

If time allows and you think your students require a recap or introduction to critical thinking about communication in the media, particularly in the context of First Nations representation in the media, show the Critically Thinking About Media Reporting Visual Explainer, which covers bias, the difference between fact and opinion, inclusion and exclusion of perspectives, and deficit versus strengths-based language. Explain that an awareness of these elements of media reporting is important for understanding its implications and effects.

Find Out: Understanding disaster reporting in the media

Step 1

Outline to students that we’re going to look at some excerpts of disaster reporting. Divide the class into three groups (one excerpt per group). Once students have completed their reading, they should work together to discuss and take notes to answer the accompanying questions in their Student Worksheet.

Excerpt	Questions
Excerpt 1: The Inquirer, Perth, Wednesday, July 3, 1850, pg 3. ‘The bush fires caused by the natives this summer have been so ruinous to every branch of farming, that I think it is quite time some steps were taken by the Government to put a stop to them, before the ensuing summer. They are a curse to the colony; not only the stockholder suffers, but the whole community feel it more or less, though the grazier is by far the greatest loser by this iniquitous system, pursued by the natives. Instead of the poor sheep and cattle having plenty of feed, they are obliged to wander through the country, licking up the ashes, the only remains of the grass they ought to be feeding upon. And whose fault is it? Who are we to blame for allowing the natives to burn the country in the way they do every summer? I remain, Sir, yours very obliged, A York Settler York, June 10, 1850.’ Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/65739257?searchTerm=%22Aboriginal%20burning%22	What type of language is used to describe First Nations peoples in this article? Why do you think the author explains things from this perspective? How might a First Nations person respond to this article today? Does the article appear to support First Nations peoples' perspectives or their resilience to bushfire disasters? Why/why not?
Excerpt 2: The Guardian Australia 18 June 2020 ‘The royal commission into national natural disaster resilience heard 15 witnesses on cultural burning on Thursday at the end of three days of hearings focused on hazard reduction. Bhiamie Eckford-Williamson, an Euahlayi man and academic from the Australian National University, told the royal commission that 96,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including 35,000 children, were affected by the fires that burned in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia this summer. That amounts to 29% of the Indigenous population in affected states, and 12% of the national Indigenous population.And the Indigenous population in areas hit by bushfires was 4.6%, double the population in the state as a whole, meaning that Indigenous people were “disproportionately affected”. Despite this, he said, there had been an “extraordinary absence of Aboriginal people'' from post-fire inquiries, and a lack of recommendations or policies specifically geared to acknowledging or reducing the impact on Aboriginal people. “They are often relegated to a historic footnote,” he said. Eckford-Williamson gave evidence in a panel alongside the University of Wollongong researcher Vanessa Cavanagh, a Bundjalung and Wonnarua woman and former firefighter researching the role of women in cultural burning; associate professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher, a Wiradjuri man and paleo-ecologist from the University of Melbourne; and Dr Timothy Neale from Deakin University. Eckford-Williamson said that the cool-burn techniques used by Aboriginal people could not be appropriated into western fire management processes, or divorced from the context of other Indigenous land management practices.’ Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/18/unprecedented-australian-bushfires-directly-affected-one-in-eight-indigenous-people	What type of language is used to describe First Nations peoples in this article? Why do you think the author explains things from this perspective? How might a First Nations person respond to this article today? Does the article appear to support First Nations peoples' perspectives or their resilience to bushfire disasters? Why/why not?
Excerpt 3: The Conversation January 10 2020 How do you support people forever attached to a landscape after an inferno tears through their homelands: decimating native food sources, burning through ancient scarred trees and destroying ancestral and totemic plants and animals? The fact is, the experience of Aboriginal peoples in the fire crisis engulfing much of Australia is vastly different to non-Indigenous peoples. Colonial legacies of eradication, dispossession, assimilation and racism continue to impact the lived realities of Aboriginal peoples. Added to this is the widespread exclusion of our peoples from accessing and managing traditional homelands. These factors compound the trauma of these unprecedented fires.Resilience in the face of ongoing trauma The long-term effects of colonisation has meant Aboriginal communities are (for better or worse) accustomed to living with catastrophic changes to their societies and lands, adjusting and adapting to keep functioning. Experts consider these resilience traits as integral for communities to survive and recover from natural disasters. In this way, the resilience of Aboriginal communities fashioned through centuries of colonisation, coupled with adequate support, means Aboriginal communities in fire-affected areas are well placed to not only recover, but to do so quickly.The community characteristics that enable effective and timely community recovery, such as close social links and shared histories, already exist in the Aboriginal communities affected. Source: https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448	What type of language is used to describe First Nations peoples in this article? Why do you think the author explains things from this perspective? How might a First Nations person respond to this article today? Does the article appear to support First Nations peoples' perspectives or their resilience to bushfire disasters? Why/why not?

Step 2

Reorganise the class as a jigsaw, so each group comprises of students who read excerpts one, two and three. Students should discuss and share their responses.

Step 3

Invite the class to report back when they have finished and make a list of their responses on the whiteboard. You can highlight commonalities and differences e.g. in representations, language use, and/or time of publication, and discuss what this suggests.

Take Action: Why media representation matters

Step 1

Lead a class discussion to build on students’ learning from the previous activity by asking:

Why does media representation of particular groups, cultures, individuals, knowledge, etc, matter?
What do you understand might be the links between representation and resilience?

Step 2

Explain to students that they are going to analyse two media articles to compare and contrast the representation of First Nations peoples in disaster reporting – one historical and one contemporary. Students can choose from the list below (depending on time or students’ abilities, students could search for their own, or you could provide ones to add to this list or select ones that are better suited to your class’s needs).

Historical articles:

Bushfire Habit Causes Great Damage	Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/181012719?searchTerm=aborigine%20bushfire
Bushfire Control Policy Criticised	Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47871728?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FW%2Ftitle%2F30%2F1950%2F06%2F29%2Fpage%2F3787802%2Farticle%2F47871728
Making Fire in Central Australia	Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205069860?searchTerm=aborigine%20fire#
Aboriginal Burning	Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/65739257?searchTerm=%22Aboriginal%20burning%22
The Native Fires	Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/642203?searchTerm=aboriginal%20bush%20fires

Contemporary ones:

Scientist investigating Australia's past says Indigenous cultural burning key to controlling bushfires	Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-26/cultural-burning-to-protect-from-catastrophic-bushfires/100241046
Northern Australia's fire management and mapping: How the integration of 'old and new' has led to success	Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-08/fire-mapping-northern-australia-history-controlled-burning/101071214
'Unprecedented' Australian bushfires directly affected one in eight Indigenous people	Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/18/unprecedented-australian-bushfires-directly-affected-one-in-eight-indigenous-people
Australian First Nations women travel to US to exchange knowledge on cultural burning practices	Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-15/indigenous-women-travel-united-states-cultural-burning-exchange/101533778

Step 3

Outline to students that they will need to write approximately 200-300 words about how First Nations peoples are represented in disaster reporting based on the articles they’ve chosen. Students can refer to the Media Analysis of Representations Rubric to help write their responses on their Student Worksheet. Their analysis should aim to address some of these points:

Is the representation and depiction of First Nations peoples/communities positive or negative?
Is the language used deficit or strength-based in relation to the role of First Nations peoples/communities?
Whose perspective is included and/or excluded from the reporting?
Why does the way communities are represented in the media have the potential to empower or disempower their people?
How do media depictions and representations build or affect community resilience?

Step 4

Encourage students to share and discuss their analyses in pairs, small groups, or as a class.

Extension opportunity: Students could rewrite one of the historical media articles to accurately represent First Nations peoples and communities in disaster reporting, or conduct some research on disaster reporting in their local area and identify any changes that should be applied based on what they’ve learnt in this lesson.

Reflection

Prompt students to reflect on:

How have representations in disaster reporting changed or not changed since colonisation? Why?
How have the analyses of the articles changed your thinking about the representation of First Nations peoples in disaster reporting?
What experiences do you have of the culture/people/Country you identify with being represented in the media? (First Nations or otherwise).
What impact has this had on you as an individual?

Representations of First Nations Peoples in Disaster Reporting

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