Let us help you to build your team's cultural confidence. The Koori Curriculum develops tailor-made workshops suited to your team's needs and interests.

Duration and participant numbers upon enquiry.

Features:

• Comprehensive list of topics to choose from and cover during your session, including Reconciliation Action Plans, connecting with communities, supporting Aboriginal children and families and programming ideas

• Customised presentation based on your specific needs

• Flexible format allowing your educators to be anywhere to join in

• A link to the recorded session to ensure you maximise your learning

• Day and evening sessions to allow minimal impact on your service         

• Resource recommendations

Koori Curriculum Coaching is tailored mentoring for individual educators or teams wanting specific support to overcome challenges or guidance in delving deeper into Aboriginal programs.

Coaching sessions are delivered virtually and sold in packages that can be individually booked in as required. However, we do suggest that if sessions are intended to be used for RAP working groups that you pre book and lock in dates ASAP to ensure availability.

What Can Be Covered in a KC Coaching Session?

• Mentoring sessions can be used to create a Reconciliation Action Plan from scratch and/or discuss specific actions.

• Koori Curriculum coaching sessions can be used to have the Koori Curriculum guide and support your RAP working group.
  

• The creation of a "Community Connections List".
  

• Supporting relationships and connections between educators and their local Aboriginal community.
  

• Support in the development of cultural learning plans for children.
  

• Curriculum support and development.

“We know we should, but we don’t know how!” is a common statement made by many well-meaning educators in reference to Aboriginal programs. An astounding number of educators are worried about being offensive, tokenistic and stereotypical and often do nothing in fear of getting it wrong.

This workshop is all about growing educators’ cultural confidence and capacity. Jessica will equip educators with practical ideas on how they can embed Aboriginal perspectives in their curriculum all year long and not just during NAIDOC week.

Duration: 2 to 6 hours.

Participant numbers upon enquiry.

Led by the renowned Director of the Koori Curriculum, Jessica Staines, this workshop is your gateway to enhancing your curriculum with Aboriginal perspectives and pedagogies.

What to expect:

• Plan inclusively and thoughtfully to integrate Aboriginal perspectives into your curriculum

• Delve into the rich realm of Aboriginal pedagogies, such as the 8 ways of learning

• Craft meaningful reconciliation commitment statements

• Establish a robust community connections list and grasp the essential protocols for community engagement

Duration: 2 to 6 hours

Aboriginal inspired art experience in an early childhood context is so much more than just collaged red, black and yellow flags and cotton bud dot paintings. This workshop will inspire educators and open them up to the many possibilities of how they can facilitate respectful Aboriginal-inspired art experiences with children.

Educators will acquire knowledge on both traditional and contemporary art practices and will be exposed to children’s literature and resources that support the inclusion of Aboriginal perspectives in their art curriculum.

There will also be an opportunity to engage in a practical hands-on art experience.

Duration: 2 to 6 hours.

Participant numbers upon enquiry.

Koori Curriculum is able to attend staff meetings to support services who are beginning their Reconciliation journey. Facilitators will guide educators through the Narragunnawali platform and give case study examples on how services are meeting their RAP goals and actions.

Duration and participant numbers upon enquiry.

Presented with Bec Burch from Bush Kindy Australia.

We invite you to a powerful and immersive collaboration event, designed to enhance your approach to early years education through two thought-provoking sessions. This is an opportunity to learn from experts in the field and integrate fresh, meaningful practices into your curriculum.

This transformative workshop offers valuable insights into embedding Aboriginal culture into early childhood education. Jessica will demonstrate how to program and plan with authenticity using the 8ways of learning, develop cultural learning plans, and create reconciliation commitment statements. Together, we will explore how Aboriginal perspectives can enrich all aspects of the EYLF, from outcomes to practices.

Bec will offer strategies to foster sustainable practices in your setting, reflect on team sustainability skills, and provide insights into integrating place-based pedagogy into nature play.Join us in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future for early childhood education!

Reconciliation is not the work of any one educator or leader; it's an entire organisation walking forward together. This workshop is about unlearning, relearning and moving forward, together. Two facilitators, two perspectives, one shared journey toward genuine reconciliation.

Session One | Facilitated by Jessica Staines: Historical understanding and acceptance is key to comprehending the current affairs and issues affecting Aboriginal people today. This session explores the traditional lifestyles of Aboriginal people and how they were changed forever by invasion, legislation and injustices that violated the human rights of Aboriginal people and their communities. Together, we'll critically reflect on our own biases and how they've been shaped by negative stereotypes in the media.

Session Two | Facilitated by Shan Morrison: Lead facilitator at Ochre Crest Consulting, a Koori Curriculum partner, Shan brings together authentic lived experience, historical insight and community-centred storytelling to help your team build a meaningful foundation for reconciliation. This isn't a lecture. It's an honest, accessible and often personal conversation about Australia's complicated relationship with racism, the strength of Indigenous communities, and what it truly means to be a thoughtful ally.

In order to provide quality care to Aboriginal children and families early learning services should seek to work in partnership with other stakeholders and service providers in their community. This workshop guides educators to map their local community and identify key services, people and places to connect with.

We will discuss community protocols and develop strategies so educators feel confident in how to begin their journey upon return to their early learning service.

Duration: 2 to 3 hours.

Country doesn’t belong to us, we belong to her. Fostering a relationship with country and having reciprocity is a value instilled by traditional custodians and one that we must instil in children during the early years.

This workshop unpacks what it means to be a custodian and the ways in which educators can practice stewardship in their every day programs and practice. Jessica will use a range of case studies showing how early learning services are privileging traditional agricultural techniques in their curriculum.

Duration: 2 to 3 hours.

This practical and reflective workshop supports educators to move beyond one-off cultural experiences and develop meaningful, ongoing partnerships with community members, organisations, Elders, families, and local knowledge holders.

Participants will explore how to map their existing networks by creating a Community Connections List, identifying the people, places, services, businesses, organisations, and cultural sites that can strengthen children's learning and sense of belonging.The workshop will also unpack important protocols for community engagement, including who to approach, how to make initial contact, appropriate ways to invite participation, the importance of consultation and permission, and strategies for building reciprocal relationships that are respectful, ethical, and sustainable.

Through a series of real-world case studies, participants will examine successful examples of early childhood services connecting with community and explore practical ways to translate these ideas into their own settings.

For more than four decades, anti-bias education has challenged educators to move beyond simply celebrating diversity and instead create learning environments that actively promote equity, inclusion, and social justice.

This thought-provoking workshop explores how educators can intentionally support children to develop a strong sense of identity, respect diversity, recognise unfairness, and develop the confidence and skills to stand up and take action when they encounter bias or discrimination.

Participants will examine diversity in its broadest sense, exploring how age, culture, language, ability, family structure, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, religion, and lived experiences influence children's identities and their sense of belonging.

The workshop also explores the complexity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identities, acknowledging that identity is multifaceted and shaped by factors such as Country, kinship, community, language, culture, lived experience, and individual choice.

Aboriginal pedagogies are far more than a collection of teaching strategies. They are deeply connected to culture, relationships, identity, community, storytelling, and ways of knowing, being, and doing that have been developed and refined over tens of thousands of years.

Participants will examine a range of Aboriginal pedagogical frameworks, including the 8 Ways of Learning, and explore how these approaches align with contemporary educational theories and frameworks. Rather than viewing Aboriginal perspectives as an additional curriculum requirement, educators will be encouraged to recognise Aboriginal pedagogies as valuable teaching and learning approaches that can enhance practice for all children.

Importantly, this workshop acknowledges that there is no single Aboriginal pedagogy. Teaching and learning practices vary between communities, language groups, and cultural contexts. Educators will be encouraged to approach Aboriginal pedagogies with curiosity, humility, and a commitment to ongoing learning.

The updated Early Years Learning Framework recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives as a standalone principle, acknowledging that embedding First Nations perspectives is no longer an optional addition or a curriculum "extra." Instead, it is a core element of quality practice that should influence every aspect of early childhood education.

This workshop supports educators to unpack the intent behind the principle and explore what it looks like in practice. Participants will move beyond tokenistic approaches and develop a deeper understanding of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives can be meaningfully embedded across curriculum, pedagogy, policy, reconciliation, and community engagement.

Participants will explore practical, achievable strategies that can be implemented immediately, while also reflecting on the long-term changes required to create culturally responsive and inclusive learning environments.

Developing educator’s cultural confidence and knowledge is essential in order to ensure the meaningful and respectful inclusion of Aboriginal culture in early learning programs. For many Australians, Aboriginal culture and history was a token nod in the curriculum during their formal schooling and consequently many educators today still do not know the truth about our nations blak history.

Historical understanding and acceptance is key in being able to comprehend current affairs and issues that effect Aboriginal people in the present. This workshop will provide participants with information regarding the traditional lifestyles of Aboriginal people and how this was changed forever by invasion, legislation and injustices that violated the human rights of Aboriginal people and their communities.

Educators will be guided to critically reflect on their own biases and how these have been shaped by negative stereotypes of Indigenous people in the media. This workshop is about unlearning, relearning and moving forward.

Duration: 2 to 4 hours.

The Koori Curriculum can facilitate a curated retreat experience just for you and your team. Reach out to our team today to discuss your needs and vision, and we will tailor a bespoke experience just for you.