one family’s perspective


Griffith University’s School of Education and Professional Studies is pleased to produce this project in collaboration with Kombumerri Traditional Custodians, and the Queensland Department of Education. The shared vision is to engage Gold Coast students in reconciliation, respect, and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

The project has gathered Kombumerri knowledge and stories in a series of fifty short videos. Six Kombumerri Traditional Custodians share their perspectives, passed down through generations of families. Versions of the knowledge and stories may vary from that of others within the broader Kombumerri community.

Now educators can utilise their professional expertise to embed this Indigenous knowledge into unit planning relevant to their year level, learning area and school context. Griffith University will incorporate these perspectives into teaching practices to increase awareness and appreciation of local cultural knowledge and recognise the Kombumerri people’s custodianship of the land on which our Gold Coast campus is located.

Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies


Video titles

● HASS    ● Science    ● English    ● Maths   
● Technologies    ● HPE    ● The Arts   

1.How to Tell What is in Season     
2.The Nerang River Love Story
3.Yarning Circles
4.Significant Totems and Symbols   
5.Weddings and Birthdays
6.A Boy’s Coming of Age
7.Waste Disposal
8.Kinship and Skin Lore
9.How did Time Differ? 
10.Caring for Land 
11.Plant Resources   
12.Spiritual Wellbeing 
13.More Natural Resources
14.Gwondo     
15.The Story of Javreen (Jabreen)   
16.Family Structures 
17.How Decisions are Made
18.Sorry Business
19.The Site of the Marriott   
20.Trading and Ceremony
21.Before White Settlement
22.The Timber Industry
23.Black Diggers
24.Preserving Food
25.The Seasons
26.Protocols for Art and Instruments
27.Music and Instruments
28.Managing Boundaries
29.Care for Special Places
30.Yugambeh Language 
31.Important Roles 
32.Did the Kombumerri Farm?
33.Paint and Ochre
34.Respecting the Environment and Totems 
35.Cultural Sites
36.Natural Disasters
37.Predicting the Weather 
38.Hunting Grounds   
39.Caves 
40.Respect Elders
41.Hygiene   
42.Protocols for Young and Old 
43.Women’s Business
44.Extended Family
45.The Importance of Dreamtime Stories
46.How the Kombumerri Communicated     
47.The Goomp Goomp
48.Songs and the Songman 
49.What Shelters did the Kombumerri Make and Use 

View Digital Resources and associated Enquiry Questions by Learning Area