Testimonials and Letters of Support

After taking the time to explore Sharing Culture and what it offers schools and communities, I am impressed at a number of levels.
-   the nature of the activities and interaction between participants and communities is exceptional and invaluable in supporting connections that mean so much to the lives of indigenous youth
-   the preserving culture and language through sharing and a collective building of a sense of united pride
-   the strong link to the intentions of language learning and curriculum in an appropriate context for indigenous and other learners
-   the technical functionality and interactive features of the interface/elements are well designed and both appealing and appropriate to their intended audiences and purposes
-   the excellence in design and publishing/presentation of the web site interface and its resources

Further, after having worked in remote areas of the state for four years, I can honestly say this is so well suited to the ideals of appropriate teaching methods and resources for working with indigenous students, incredibly invaluable to schools and teachers. I wish it had been around when I was working in outback communities!

All in all, highly valuable - one possible answer to the question “If we could place in schools one resource as a potential catalyst for learning to assist in our aims of ‘closing the gap’ what would it be?”
Sel Kerans - Regional Technology Manager, North Coast Region, Department of Education & Training

“All the work’s been done, what a great resource!! It’s practical, engaging, fun and can be adapted for any community and school.”
Sally Johnston - Manager, Indigenous Education Unit North Coast Region

“A fantastic educational resource jam packed with creative ideas. It is extremely user friendly with step-by-step student guides and printable teacher resources. One of the best things about this program is that it contains unique and interesting activities to engage students of all ages, abilities backgrounds and learning styles.”
Jessica Hooyer - Teacher

The State Co-ordinators of Dare To Lead have asked me to write to you to thank you for their copies of “Sharing Culture”. The materials have been used in our workshops across Australia and have received outstanding comments from school leaders, community members, Indigenous workers and teachers.

It is with great excitement we have heard about the “template” features of “Sharing Culture”. Many of our communities, in partnership with their schools, will have an outstanding opportunity to record language, culture and history in a local context. This local resource will assist schools and communities to reclaim, build and maintain language and cultural knowledge.

Certainly from the work we have done with schools and their communities this local input, control and management will be strongly welcomed as an appropriate approach to building cultural knowledge of both Indigenous students and the wider Australian community.

We at Dare To Lead look forward to the continuing partnership we have forged with “Sharing Culture” and extend our unqualified support for this next exciting facet of your work. Please feel free to contact us for any assistance we can render to assist in your projects future development.
Brian Giles-Browne - National Schools Co-ordinator, Dare To Lead

Below is feedback from a workshop held in Canberra for staff at the Centre for Teaching and Learning:

    * Sharing culture was excellent – could be used for ESL, develops a strong link to the community
    * Love to see the sharing culture across all ACT schools to benefit all students
    * It is a great resource – I look forward to being able to use the website
    * Having a chance to get onto the computers and play with the sharing cultures site
    * The web site – very excited to use
    * Great that a web site has been established would like our department to take it on for the kids – in all our schools as a resource
    * Both parts were interesting and varied
    * The sharing culture program is a high quality production suited to all students. The ownership possibilities are impressive. I look forward to early availability to schools

Sharing Culture Education Kit / written by Gadj and Jodie Maymuru.
Subjects: Aboriginal studies, Yolngu (Aboriginal people)
Curriculum areas: Studies of Society and Environment
Review rating: Highly Recommended
Abstract: This accessible Aboriginal culture software package includes student activities, teachers resources and a teachers handbook. The activities and information are engaging and appropriate for early childhood classes as well as being suitable for supporting the Culture and Identity strand of Studies of Society and Environment (Levels 1 - 3).

The student resources provide material that will engage Indigenous students with learning as well as offering a respectful way to expose non-Indigenous students to aspects of Australia’s Indigenous cultures. The development of reading skills is supported by an online dictionary and an early ‘reader’ that can be read and listened to in both English and Yolngu language. Users can also write some text and print off their own book. Puzzles, a map, art and music activities are easy to manipulate providing young students with a satisfying experience. The ‘Traditional life’ section offers information and photographs of many aspects of Yolngu life and culture. The CD for teachers includes a printable Indigenous alternative to the conventional alphabet trace-and-colour book. A font similar to Queensland beginner’s cursive is used for all student activities. The teachers handbook offers suggestions for incorporating the activities into higher-order thinking experiences based on Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (‘Gardner Smarts’) and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. A website offers product description. The costing of this worthwhile package and additional licence options are explained under the ‘For schools’ tab on the site.
Review by Queensland Library Services, Department Education Training and the Arts

This is what we have been waiting for! The Sharing Culture CDROM is a powerful form of information for non indigenous through to Indigenous people. This is something that has never been seen in this part of the world. We are now proudly launching our Sharing Culture CD and learning program. This is our own material. It's learning materials and it's coming directly from Indigenous people of North East Arnhem Land, coming to the rest of the world. This is the chance, let's get together and work and learn from the Sharing Culture CD.
The late Lead Singer, Songwriter of Warrumpi Band

The Sharing Culture Educational Resource is an exciting and educational tool that enables children of all ages within the childcare setting to learn about the Indigenous Culture of the Northern Territory, Australia . It offers staff the opportunity to work through a wide range of diverse activities with the children. It enables staff to not only cover numerous areas of the Quality Assurance System as set out by the NCAC, but to do so at a high standard.

Sharing Culture is an enjoyable new way for children to develop multiculturalism, to experience creative expression, enhance spatial awareness and to develop confidence through the completion of self-directed tasks. As each child learns at an individual rate, this interactive CD provides activities with varying degrees of difficulty. The resource allows children to discover more about a culture while teaching them computer skills that will enhance their learning throughout their school years. I have personally seen children who prior to using the Sharing Culture Educational Resource had never used a computer, to in just a short time learnt the basics of being able to use a mouse and navigate.

After being in the child care industry for 12 years it is refreshing to be able to find just one resource that enables me to teach children so many new skills and information.
Annette Bewert - 12 years Child Care Industry Experience

My name is Richard Browne. I am writing this testimonial for the Educational resource, "Sharing Culture", produced by Sharing Culture Pty Ltd. I am currently Principal of the Yirrkala Homeland School, servicing 7 small Homeland communities in the remote Laynhapuy region of North-East Arnhemland. English is to all our students a "Foreign Language". Teaching English Literacy and Numeracy is our core business.

After trialing the "Sharing Culture" interactive teaching resource I believe it to be a valuable educational tool in meeting those goals. By using this resource, students in Early Childhood are able to develop and enhance critical fine motor skills by learning to manipulate the computer mouse, while working with culturally relevant topics and activities.

Primary students have displayed more interest in classroom literacy tasks and enjoyed acquiring and applying various skills using this tool. Our students see in this resource, that their language and culture is celebrated along with the acquisition of English.
I believe this resource would also be valuable for students in "mainstream" schools as an ideal introduction to Aboriginal culture and language.
The user-friendliness and colourful imagery add to the overall suitability of this product for teaching Literacy and numeracy skills, as well as cultural knowledge, in all Australian schools.
Ric Browne - Principal Yirrkala Homelands School

As a teacher Librarian I have used Sharing Culture programs across the curriculum. While I use the software as a teaching tool with my Stage1 students I have found that students from K-6 find the resource hard to resist. The very sound of the introduction attracts students to the computer like bees to honey.

I have found the programs useful for teaching mouse control with special needs students as the activities are visually stimulating and maintain student interest longer than any other software I have tried. The language Program is very popular with gifted and talented students of all ages and I often use this as an extension activity.

Comments from the Indigenous community involved with the School (northern NSW) have been positive. One parent, a mother of four, was so overwhelmed that she became emotional, stating that she had not seen anything on the software market that met the cultural needs of her children in such a positive way and she felt proud that her people were involved in creating such a wonderful program.

Students are captivated by the visual and sound presentation of this wonderful interactive software package. The joy they derive from Sharing Culture is evident by the number of requests I have to use the program outside class time.
Maree Denning - Teacher Librarian

Have just been through the CD and it is wonderful. We are so pleased. You have obviously done a lot of work to get it to this standard. It is so accessible for young children and has lots of variety. Great.
Jo at Noah's Ark Childrens Library

OTHER QUOTES FROM TEACHERS AND PARENTS

Sharing Culture products are a great classroom resource with fantastic artwork, an excellent motivator for story writing.
Phil Snape - Stage 2 teacher

Sharing Culture would be great for any early childhood class in Australia- mainstream and Indigenous.
Wayilu Wunungmurra - Teacher and Yolngu Elder from Yirrkala

When I first brought a set of the Sharing Culture programs home my children aged 4 and 6 loved them. They would argue over who was going to be first and played them every morning before school. We have had them for 5 months and they still get a great deal of enjoyment from them. I would recommend these programs to any parent who wanted to give their children a learning experience that is fun and rewarding. My four year old has learnt to use the mouse with ease. They both call me with huge grins to come and see what they have created. The non violent and simple to use programs are refreshing and worth every cent.
Trudi Walker - mother of 2

Aboriginal Language Activities: I enjoyed learning Aboriginal language. I learnt a couple of Aboriginal words such as ‘way in’ means magpie and ‘bapi’ means king brown snake. I read a story about two brothers and also, I saw a map of Aboriginal language groups. This was interesting looking at the different languages.
Aboriginal Culture Activities: I had fun of dressing Aboriginal people and making Aboriginal music. I liked making a traditional life where I chose a beach and a bush as the background.
Aboriginal Art Activities: I enjoyed colouring animals, painting a butterfly and two tadpoles. The puzzles were fun to do and my favourite one was a dolphin with a fish.
Hamish age 8

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