Search
Close this search box.

Cultural Awareness Training

Savannah Guides offers anyone the opportunity to join our cohort studying the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Online Cultural Awareness Course.

Exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history and society will enhance your cultural understanding, fostering a deeper sense of self-awareness and critical reflection, and enhancing your personal and professional capacity to engage respectfully, and effectively, with others in intercultural contexts.

Environmental Education

THE DETAILS

Our next cohort will open in June 2024. Expressions of interest and payments are now welcome. The cohort will commence together in late June and have 12 months to complete the course. 

Anywhere! This is an online course, which you can complete at your own pace.

Each Module takes around an hour to complete.

  • Module 0             Introduction
  • Module 1             Thinking about Cultures and Identities
  • Module 2             My Country, Our Country
  • Module 3             History Lives in Us
  • Module 4             Too Much and Not Enough Change:  Commonwealth Indigenous Affairs
  • Module 5             Communities in Control:  Recognising the Role of Community Organisations
  • Module 6             Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s Rights to Country
  • Module 7             Self-determination and Autonomy
  • Module 8             Engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
  • Module 9             Contribution to the Nation
  • Module 10           Continuing Your Journey

$110 per person

Simply EMAIL Sam to enrol.

REGISTER NOW


Savannah Guides Limited acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Australia. We also acknowledge that the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their lands, the dispersal and relocation of communities, the erosion of traditional customs and languages, and the removal of children from their families have resulted in the disconnection of generations of families from their traditional homelands, languages and culture.

As protectors and interpreters of the outback, we recognise our role in building awareness of these issues among our membership, our professional networks and the visitors we connect with.  This includes creating more opportunities for Traditional Owners to tell their stories.

The inaugural 1988 Savannah Guides’ Board included Indigenous Ranger, John Clark.  Since then we have continued our strong history of Indigenous engagement and respect including Individual and Enterprise Indigenous Members, development and training projects and many long-term friendships.  These have included various projects across Australia delivering training, developing operational and interpretive manuals, building marketing strategies and mainstream tourism engagement.

Savannah Guides Limited’s Indigenous Peoples Policy was developed in 2003 and Suggestions for Cultural Protocols in 2013.  We registered our support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2018.

Some Links for Further Information:

https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/pdf/5_Cultural_Diversity_EN.pdf

https://aiatsis.gov.au/

https://www.indigenous.gov.au/ 

https://www.qld.gov.au/atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts

https://www.waitoc.com/culture-experiences/aboriginal-culture

https://www.amnesty.org.au/cultural-learning-hub/

https://www.whywarriors.com.au/

More Suggested Reading and Listening:

Bruce Pascoe & AIATSIS: The Little Red Yellow Black Book

Bruce Pascoe: Dark Emu and Dark Emu for Children

Bruce Pascoe: Convincing Ground

Henry Reynolds: Why Weren’t We Told?

Henry Reynolds: This Whispering in Our Hearts

Richard Trudgen: Why Warriors Lie Down and Die

Stan Grant: Talking to My Country

Tony Roberts: Frontier Justice – A History of the Gulf Country to 1900

Nonie Sharp: Stars of Tagai – The Torres Strait Islanders

Tom Griffiths: The Art of Time Travel

Marcia Langton: Welcome To Country: An Introduction to Our First Peoples for Young Australians

Billy Griffiths: Deep Time Dreaming

Nick Brodie: The Vandemonian War

Torres Strait Regional Authority Resources 

Traditional Knowledge of the Ngadjonji and Yidinji Rainforest People

ABC News: Watershed Moments in Indigenous History  

Henry Reynolds: The Conversation

The Guardian: The Killing Times 

ABC Radio National Podcasts: Rear Vision – In The Shadow of Terra Nullius 

Noel Pearson at Garma Festival on the Uluru Statement

Uluru Statement Support

Connecting Locally

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups and communities range from urban to rural to remote, with traditional and modern influences. Contact your local groups to understand their history and perspectives, and how you can build connections:

  • NAIDOC Week and National Reconciliation Week have celebrations around Australia.
  • Land Councils, Prescribed Body Corporates or other Indigenous Organisations such as Health or Legal Services are well connected in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Your Local Government will also have Traditional Owner community contacts.  A quick Google search and a phone call or two is usually all it takes to make the connection. 

Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement

Everywhere in Australia is the country of Traditional Owners.  Savannah Guides’ Field Schools and events feature a Welcome to Country from Traditional Owners.  We encourage all Australians to seek a local Welcome to Country for their events, and tourism operators to acknowledge Traditional Owners in their tour experiences.

Savannah Guides encourages you to continue to research and share information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, provide opportunities for them to tell their own stories and encourage reconciliation across Australia.  

Our Certification

Savannah Guides is certified under Ecotourism Australia’s Respecting Our Culture program which encourages the tourism industry to operate in ways that respect and reinforce Indigenous cultural heritage and the living cultures of Indigenous communities. We encourage all tourism operators to undertake this program which has a range of benefits for communities and businesses.