The Australian Aboriginal Flag

By Julie Kemp

Brief History
Early Years Learning Framework Links
Templates
Activity Suggestions
Julie Kemp (C) 2013

The Australian Aboriginal Flag

Thank-you for purchasing this product and I sincerely hope you
find it useful in your classroom.
I welcome any feedback regarding this resource. If you have
any concerns please contact me at juliekemp@gmail.com
If you like this resource please leave feedback
at my TpT store:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/TeachingResources-Australia-Julie-Kemp
For more Aboriginal resources please visit my TpT store.
Enjoy, kind regards
Julie
Notes:
All activities and images are my own and
are not to be reproduced. Photocopying
of templates (p. 4 & 14) for classroom
use is acceptable.
Julie Kemp (C) 2013

The Australian Aboriginal Flag

Contents
Description

Page Number

Brief history and small template

EYLF links

Activity 1: Painting the Aboriginal

Flag

Activity 2: Drawing the Aboriginal

Flag

Activity 3: Aboriginal Flag Hand

Print

Activity 4: Aboriginal Flag Collage

Activity 5: Aboriginal Flag Visual

Colour Representation Project

10-12

Activity 6: Dot painting the

Aboriginal Flag

13

Aboriginal Flag Blank Template

14

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

The Aboriginal Flag

The Aboriginal Flag was designed in 1971 by Harold Thomas. It was originally
designed for the land rights movement and it has now become an important symbol
of the Aboriginal people of Australia.
Black(top half) represents past, present and future Aboriginal people of Australia.
Yellow(circle) represents the sun, the giver of life.
Red(bottom half) represents the earth, Aboriginal spiritual connection to the land
and the red ochre used in ceremonies.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

The Australian Aboriginal Flag

Links to the Early Years Learning Framework
Children have a strong sense of identity:
The Aboriginal Flag plays an important part in the Aboriginal
childs identity. It represents their mob (family), their people,
their ancestors, their spirituality and their culture.
Children are connected with and contribute to their world:
Presenting intentional learning experiences on the Aboriginal
Flag builds connections between the early child setting and
Aboriginal families of the centre. It shows that the centre
values Aboriginal culture and community relationships.
Children have a strong sense of wellbeing:
Talking with children about the Aboriginal Flag and respecting
its significance to Aboriginal identity promotes the Aboriginal
childs social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. It shows that
educators are genuinely interested in the Aboriginal childs
culture and spiritual lives.
Children are confident and involved learners:
Intentional learning experiences based on the Aboriginal Flag
allows children to develop learning dispositions to explore
diversity and difference in a safe environment.
Children are effective communicators:
Just by seeing the Aboriginal Flag children will be able to
identify it as a symbol for the Aboriginal people of Australia.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

Before setting up any Aboriginal cultural activity it is important
that children have an understanding of Aboriginal culture. For
the following activities educators must talk with children about
the Aboriginal Flag, such as, the importance it has to the
Aboriginal people, the meaning of the Aboriginal Flag and what
the colours represent.
1. Painting the Aboriginal Flag:
Set the learning environment up with black, yellow and red
paint with paint brushes. Display the Aboriginal Flag near-by
and see what the children do with the paint. If children do
paint a representation of the Aboriginal Flag talk to them about
the meaning of the colours.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

2. Drawing the Aboriginal Flag:
Place an Aboriginal Flag in the writing/drawing area with
pencils, crayons and markers. This activity follows the same
guidelines as the painting. If children draw a representation
of the Aboriginal Flag talk to them about what they are doing
and the meanings of the colours.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

3. Aboriginal Flag Hand Prints:
This activity is an intentional learning experience where the
educator paints the Aboriginal Flag on the childs hand while
talking about the colour representations.
The educator can ask the child what the colour represents
while painting the other hand to see if they have an emerging
or competent understanding.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

4. Aboriginal Flag Collage:
Set the craft table up with black, yellow and red collage
papers. Suitable papers include: crepe paper, tissue paper
and cardboard snippets. A glue mixture of clag glue and
pva glue works best to adhere the papers.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

5. Aboriginal Flag Visual Representation of Colour Meanings:
This was a project that I did with the children at my centre.
The project came about from the childrens responses about
their understanding of what the colours represent on the
Aboriginal Flag. Many children could identify that the yellow
on the flag represented the sun, however identifying the other
colour meanings, many children were unable to verbalise
them. After discussing the observations with other educators
the project was born to make a visual picture representation
of the Aboriginal Flag.
Steps:
Paint the flag. Materials used included: large brown paper,
red paint, black paint, yellow paint and a variety of brushes,
sponges and rollers. Each colour was painted on individual
paper.

Make the flag. During a yarning (discussion) gathering we

talked about how to put the colours together to make the
flag. The children took the lead and worked together to put
the flag together. There was lots of problem solving taking
place such as: How to join the flag together, where do the
colours go and how to make a circle for the sun?
Julie Kemp (C) 2013

10

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

Making and finding pictures that represent the meanings of

the flag.
People representation we painted people shapes
using dowel rods.
Sun representation we used google images to find
sun pictures.
Land representation we used pictures of local land
features and Australian landscape pictures from
magazines.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

11

Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

Displaying the flag. We displayed the flag in a prominent

position in the room where everybody could easily see it. A
learning story was put with the flag project for parents to
read about the learning that took place. The learning story
was also printed up and put in the childrens journals.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

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Australian Aboriginal Flag Activities

6. Dot painting:
Dot painting is a contemporary Aboriginal art style that was
introduced in the early 1970s. Dot painting can be made by
using finger prints, dowel rods, sticks or cotton buds.
Provide small trays of black, yellow and red paint with
shortened dowel rods, cotton buds or shortened thick sticks.
For a more sensory activity encourage children to use their
fingers to make finger prints.

The following Aboriginal Flag was painted using finger prints.

Julie Kemp (C) 2013

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Julie Kemp (C) 2013

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