[Calm music]
[On-screen Text: Cultural Knowledge Story: The Yam Daisy
The Early Years Planning Cycle
Cultural Knowledge Stories created by Dr Sue Atkinson
AM (Yorta Yorta) and read by Annette Sax (Taungurung)
Image credit: Robert Barnett (of Yorta Yorta descent) with Dr Sue Atkinson AM (Yorta Yorta)]
Annette Sax: The yam daisy, widely known as the Murnong from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language, is used to represent planning, highlighting the complex and sophisticated process professionals engage in when delivering programmes for children.
The petals outline the various components which are all connected. Meanwhile, the yam which grows below Country symbolises the foundations and nourishment of the thinking that is needed when planning along the continuum.
Connection to Country, kin, culture, and identity that First Nations people in Victoria have must always be considered. These aspects should be at the forefront of professionals’ minds when they draw on their knowledge of child development research and learning theories.
The yam daisy was a significant staple food for First Nations Victorians for tens of thousands of years, and is known by a variety of First Nations languages across the state. Women would dig up the yams with digging sticks and carry them away in dilly bags.
Through colonisation and the introduction of sheep, the yam daisy almost became extinct, as the sheep would walk on the daisies and compact the land, making it difficult for them to grow back. More recently, there has been a revival and recultivation of the plant, signifying the survival of a strong First Nations identity and culture.
Sue Atkinson: Thank you for listening to my Cultural Knowledge Stories and connecting to Annette Sax’s, Taungurung, and Robert Barnett’s, of Yorta Yorta descent, artworks, throughout the VEYLDF.
[On-screen text:
The Education State
Victoria State Government Logo
Department of Education]
[End of transcript]
Updated