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Digital Classroom

Explore Australia's history at the National Library's Digital Classroom, aligned with the Australian Curriculum. With over 10 million items, we support diverse learning styles, fostering inquiry-based learning for students to analyse sources and draw conclusions about the Australian story.
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Page from 'maamangku mgurriningi palumpa yuntalpaku', line art depicting a group of three watching community

Sabrina Ferguson Nakamarra, Dennis Nelson and Papunya Literature Production Centre, Maamangku ngurriningi palumpa yuntalpaku, 1987, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3285693260

Family, care, and responsibility

Family, kinship, care, responsibility

Arts
English
Humanities
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
A black snake, with red and yellow snake emerging from the darkness a white and yellow glow surrounding it

Charlotte Phillipus Nupurrula, Thomas Stevens Tjapangati and Papunya Literature Production Centre, Yara waṉampitjarra, 1984, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3286350047

Reading the Papunya Readers – themes and purposes

What stories do, and why they exist.

Arts
English
Humanities
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Green book cover, with a kneeling man painting, someone is talking to him, book is titled Palulanguru kungka ngalyankula wangkangu tjilpi palumpakutu

Kuḻaṯa Dennis Nelson and Papunya Literature Production Centre, Piḻkaṯi anta rikuta [The snake and the recorder], 1990, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3286644847

Storytelling ways: oral, written, visual

How stories are shared and remembered.

Arts
English
Humanities
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Orange cover titled Rumiyakamu Lungkata

Charlotte Phillipus Nupurrula, Abraham Stockman Tjungarrayi and Papunya Literature Production Centre, Rumiyakamu lungkata, 1987, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3285463123

Papunya, Country, and Community

Focus: place, people, languages, everyday life 

Arts
English
Humanities
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Red text reading 'Wangka Wakanutja' on a yellow background
Wangka Wakanutja – The Papunya Readers

This Digital Classroom module invites students and teachers to explore the Papunya readers. Aligned with the Australian Curriculum: HASS, English and The Arts and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority, this resource encourages students to learn about Country, language, storytelling and the purposes stories serve.

Arts
English
Humanities
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Ballerina Justine Summers strikes a pose for the camera. She is standing en point wearing a black tutu. She is standing infront of a textured curtain. She is staring directly at the camera.

Jim McFarlane, Justine Summers in "Divergence", the Australian Ballet, 1994, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136367403

On stage

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: The Arts for years 5 & 6 students.

Arts
Year 5
Year 6
Performing arts
A black and white photograph of a billboard advertising the 'Big Show of 1936', a variety performance

(1936). Frank Neil presents new international variety stars in the Big show of 1936. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2404782107

Performing arts

Topic

Sydney’s first theatre was said to be opened in 1796 and was managed by Robert Sidaway.

Arts
Year 5
Year 6
Performing arts
A photograph of the Sydney Opera House during the day. The Opera House is framed by the hanging branches of a large tree. In the foreground is a wrought iron fence.

Don McMurdo, [Sydney Opera House], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-146290294

Stage performance

Topic

Drama in Australia is celebrated at all levels of skill and involvement. 

Arts
Year 5
Year 6
Performing arts
Dancers standing, crouching, and laying down holding balloons

Samuel Cooper & Adam Linder, Dancers on stage during dress rehearsal of Sydney Dance Company's Are we that we are, Sydney Theatre, Sydney, 2010, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-132086627

Dance

Topic

The history of dance performance in Australia, as with all the performing arts, precedes the arrival of settlers from other nations.

Arts
Year 5
Year 6
Performing arts
Kylie Minogue wearing a red dress and with her arms in the air

Matthew Sleeth, Australian singer Kylie Minogue performs at the Tour of Duty concert at Dili Stadium, East Timor, 21 December 1999, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-147368307

Music

Topic

One of the world’s oldest music traditions that is still performed is the bunggul ceremony. This can be seen annually at the Garma Festival held in Gulkula, a sacred site in north-east Arnhem Land. The Garma Festival runs for four days and observes the traditions and customs of the Yolngu people.

Arts
Year 5
Year 6
Performing arts
painting of small house in the Australian bush

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

A Nation Imagined: The artists of the Picturesque Atlas

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts for Year 9 and 10 students. It adopts an inquiry approach to develop students’ skills as art historians.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
sketch of a man smoking a pipe

Frank Mahony, [Self-portrait] [picture] / F.P.M., 1900, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136050024

Personalities

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and its principal Sydney-based artists - Julian Ashton, A. Henry Fullwood and Frank Mahony - transformed the way settler colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration

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