Braiding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge into 21st century science education

The Australian Curriculum has Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures as one of three cross-curriculum priorities that are integrated across eight learning areas including Science. The cross-curriculum priorities broaden contexts in an otherwise siloed curriculum, helping students to better understand their world. However, authentically embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures into mainstream school science presents an unfamiliar challenge to many science teachers. Tendencies to focus on content more than process threaten authenticity and invite tokenism. Yunkapora [1] documented the Eight Ways of Knowing as a suggested pedagogical framework that sits at the cultural interface between Indigenous and Western cultures. Snively and Williams [2] proposed that braiding Indigenous Science and Western Science can allow indigenous students to connect with science in the classroom without devaluing their cultural heritage. This article presents some practical examples of how Indigenous scientific knowledge can be braided into 21st century science education. This has implications for teachers and educators to be inclusive of the cultures of all students they teach.