An innovative new educational initiative is set to revolutionise science and literacy learning for students in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt.
Learning on Country: A Two-way Integrated Science and Literacy Program for Wheatbelt Schools merges Western scientific approaches with Indigenous ecological knowledge, providing an enriching, place-based educational experience for students in Years 1 to 10.
Developed by semi-retired environmental biologists Honorary Research Associate Felicity Bradshaw and Emeritus Professor Don Bradshaw from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences, with help from some of UWA’s best known researchers, it is founded on the idea that cultures can listen to one another and learn.
“The Wheatbelt, a region the size of Britain that sits in the south-west corner of Australia, was once described as having one of the richest floras on Earth,” Ms Bradshaw said.
“However, since the arrival of Europeans, around 94 per cent of the area has been cleared of natural vegetation to make way for agriculture and grazing.
“This has had a catastrophic effect on the plants, animals, soil and local First Nations People, who were systematically dispossessed from their lands and, subsequently, their way of living.”
