Over the last eighteen months, we have been working with an Aboriginal Education Consultancy, Koori Kinnections. This partnership was established following our successful grant application to engage an Aboriginal educator to lead an Aboriginal cultural program at Styles Street. Since then, we have collaborated closely with founder Jess Sinnott and her team. This year, Jess further deepened her involvement by joining the working group for our Reconciliation Action Plan.
We sought feedback from Jess and her team on our learning environments to see if there was anything we could improve on. While they knew we were incorporating Indigenous perspectives and demonstrating respect for First Nations People within our practice, Jess felt this was not immediately visible to visitors to our service.
Building visibility and strengthening respect
Initially, we felt somewhat disheartened by the feedback that our respect for culture was not immediately visible. As a team, we believed we were putting significant effort into this within our program. However, if it wasn’t apparent to Jess, it was clear there was more work to be done.
To enhance the visibility of our work and respect for culture, Jess offered a range of fantastic suggestions. These included engaging the children in creating handprint artwork using the colours of the Aboriginal flag, acquiring more Indigenous resources, displaying land maps, incorporating Aboriginal language into our practices and written materials, and introducing the children to Aboriginal symbols and artists.
.png)
Collaborating to make Culture visible through art
When the suggestion was made to create artwork using the colours of the Aboriginal flag, we came together to discuss the idea and ensure it aligned with our philosophy of engaging children in meaningful and deeper art-making processes. Following this meeting, the Wumbat Room proposed developing the concept further by involving the children in creating an Aboriginal flag artwork using their handprints. The finished piece would then be respectfully framed and displayed. This idea resonated as a beautiful, bold, and proud expression of our commitment to embedding Aboriginal perspectives within Styles Street.
The excitement about this idea was building, and during a staff meeting in April, it was shared with the wider team. It was important to engage the team, hear everyone’s perspective, and critically reflect on the action we were going to take.
Team discussions and debates allow educators to challenge one another and leverage their combined knowledge and perspectives to enhance their practice (ACECQA, 2016).
Reflecting on practice: using art as a provocation
During this meeting, we were encouraged to move beyond simply asking the children to recreate another artist’s or culture’s work—such as the Aboriginal flag. Instead, we were challenged to use art as a provocation, inviting the recognition of symbols, colours, patterns, places, and ideas inspired by reflecting on this artist and their work.
- Would immediately jumping into recreating the Aboriginal flag, as initially proposed, truly embody the principles of slow pedagogy and value slow knowledge, as articulated by Alison Clark (Clark, 2023)?
- Would it provide the necessary time for listening, collaboration, and the creation of opportunities to deepen and extend the children’s understanding of Indigenous culture?
- And would it foster meaningful engagement with art materials and processes, as we learned through our professional development at the Museum of Contemporary Art?
This reflective discussion highlighted how challenging it is to develop a critical perspective of our practice. Talking about new ideas with others often helps to clarify them, allowing us to come up with a way forward that holds true to our teaching intentions and incorporates our professional development and knowledge of new pedagogies.
This team meeting and subsequent reflections allowed us to engage in further discussion, where we challenged each other to use our collective knowledge and perspectives to consider how we could visibly demonstrate respect for First Nations Peoples. Looking at our RAP and the curriculum resources, we decided to engage the children in an exploration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. We aimed to slowly and collaboratively explore the cultural meanings and significance of the colours that make up these flags, while staying true to our ambition to engage the children in slow pedagogy and meaningful creative arts exploration.
The project was inspired by a recent professional development experience at the MCA, where we engaged with artworks by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, learned from artist educators who guided us through the gallery, and delved into the creative use of art materials, processes, and visual expression.

A journey of discovery through flags and symbols
Over three months, we immersed ourselves in an exploration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Together with the children, we observed, discussed, deconstructed, reflected, revisited, shared, and created, building a deep understanding of how symbols and colours convey meaning. This process allowed us to remain true to our commitment to slow pedagogy, engaging children in deliberate and meaningful creative exploration.
The children’s stunning flag-inspired artworks, now proudly displayed in our room, are a vibrant testament to our dedication to embedding Aboriginal perspectives within Styles Street and fostering a culture of reflective learning.
References:
Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority. (2016). Developing a culture of learning through reflective practice.
Clark, A. (2023). Slow knowledge and the unhurried child : time for slow pedagogies in early childhood education. Routledge.