In 1940, the Western Mail newspaper published a series of photographs of students from the Thomas Street State School engaging in education that involved them learning about Australian Aborigines and the history of this state.
The school was situated on land that was opposite King’s Park where the Aboriginal people had and still have a special connection to the land and a history of interaction and conflict.
The photographs published show the students engaging with the content in a variety of ways other than reading books. They read books for pleasure and information and supplemented their learning by reenacting aspects of Aboriginal cultural for example, hunting kangaroos and family meal times, building models of fish traps and camps and drawing significant local events like the Aboriginal attacks on Shenton’s Mill.
In the past two years an article and photographs were published in local newspapers about the students engaging in relevant and practical education writing and producing a local newspaper called the ‘Thomas Street Tattler’. This story was published on the previous post called ‘Greetings From Subiaco : The School Children’s Club’.
The photographs are from the Western Mail on Trove the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Western Mail, 3 October, 1940.
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