View resources by title (below) or view all Enquiry Questions and corresponding resources further down the page.

The video content has been provided by Uncle Graham Dillon, his three grandchildren: Max Dillon, Justine Dillon, and Emerald Brewer; and his two great nieces: Tess Blundell and Madeleine Pugin. All contributors are members of an extended family network and descendants of Andrew and Jenny Graham. The knowledge and stories shared by these contributors have been passed down through generations of families and provide insight into how Country has always been a place of teaching, research and learning for Kombumerri people. While Griffith University and the Department of Education acknowledge that Kombumerri people own the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property contained in the videos, they understand that versions of the knowledge and stories shared in the videos may vary from that of others within the broader Kombumerri community.

Video titles

● HASS    ● Science    ● English    ● Maths   
● Tech    ● 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●  ●

Enquiry Questions for Learning Areas

Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies Griffith University would like to acknowledge the important role of the PLC3 cluster schools in generating questions that informed the video content. These Gold Coast educators were curious about how to respectfully embed Kombumerri histories and culture sensitively into the classroom.

Now educators can utilise their professional expertise to embed this knowledge into unit planning relevant to their year level, learning area and school context. Likewise, Griffith University aims to incorporate these perspectives into teaching practices and 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.

See all Enquiry Questions and corresponding video resources –

HASS

Q#Enquiry Questions related to HASS
1.

Indigenous family structures and roles and responsibilities.

Corresponding resources –
2.

Commemorating special places and talking about their significance in the past and present.

Corresponding resources –
3.

Aboriginal symbols used in traditional maps and artworks.

Corresponding resource –
4.

Ways to care for a familiar place – Indigenous perspective on how they care for their special places.

Corresponding resources –
5.

Commemoration of local Indigenous events.

N/A
6.

How the Kombumerri cared for Country.

Corresponding resources –
7.

Significant totems or symbols recognised by the Kombumerri people.

Corresponding resources –
8.

Well-known Kombumerri people past and present.

Corresponding resources –
9.

How did the Kombumerri people dispose of their waste?

Corresponding resource –
10.

Were weddings and birthdays important to the Kombumerri people and how did this happen? (Celebrations and Corroborees).

Corresponding resources –
11

How did Kombumerri people know which foods were in season?

Corresponding resources –
12.

Sharing stories about the past and present and passing on to the next generation.

Corresponding resource –
13.

How did the Kombumerri people’s concept of time differ to today?

Corresponding resource –
14.

What were the traditional laws, protocols and customs of the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resources –
15.

What areas/topics are men’s/women’s business?

Corresponding resource –
16.

Was the Kombumerri clan an extended family of their own people?

Corresponding resource –
17.

What important roles did members of the Kombumerri people play within their community?

Corresponding resources –
18.

Compare/contrast: land use/sustainability in the past and present.

Corresponding resources –
19.

Rules in the community, decision making and managing conflict.

Corresponding resource –
20.

How did the Kombumerri people respect the environment?

Corresponding resource –
21.

How did the clans manage their traditional boundaries?

Corresponding resources –
22.

Where did the Kombumerri people live in this area prior to white settlement?

Corresponding resource –
23.

Was the Yugumbeh language the main language spoken and which clans used it?

Corresponding resource –
24.

Were there other dialects of the Yugumbeh language?

Corresponding resource –
25.

How did the Kombumerri people trade with other clans and what was their main source of currency?

Corresponding resources –
26.

What were the spirits and gods significant to the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resources –
27.

Historical timeline of settlement and events?

Corresponding resource –
28.

Did any Kombumerri men fight as black diggers in the World Wars?

Corresponding resource –
29.

Did the Kombumerri people preserve their food and how was it stored?

Corresponding resource –
30.

Are the local significant cultural sites still used by the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resources –

Science

Q#Enquiry Questions related to Science
31.

How did natural disasters in the past affect the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resource –
32.

How weather events are described in Indigenous culture?

Corresponding resource –
33.

How did the Kombumerri seasons differ from the European seasons?

Corresponding resource –
34.

Did Indigenous people predict the weather and organise their lives according to the conditions? E.g. Wet season, food availability.

Corresponding resources –
35.

Where were the popular hunting grounds of the Kombumerri people and what did they catch or collect?

Corresponding resources –
36.

Were there farming or cultivation techniques used by the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resources –
37.

How did the Kombumerri people use the sun, moon and constellation patterns? And if so, how?

N/A
38.

How was paint made and what was it used for?

Corresponding resource –
39.

Were there any parts of the Kombumerri country where people resided in caves?

Corresponding resource –
40.

Were there any specific medicinal remedies that the Kombumerri people used?

Corresponding resources –

English

Q#Enquiry Questions related to English
41.

Dreamtime stories and traditional local stories.

Corresponding resources –
42.

Why were Dreamtime stories and other stories told, important to the Kombumerri people?

Corresponding resources –
43.

What was the importance of yarning and yarning circles?

Corresponding resource –
44.

Do Indigenous cultures have rhymes and poems?

N/A
45.

Besides oral language, how did the Kombumerri people communicate?

Corresponding resource –
46.

What were the Indigenous protocols when communicating with different age groups, e.g. Elders and children?

Corresponding resources –
47.

How are sentences structured in the Yugumbeh language?

Corresponding resource –
48.

Examples of Indigenous slang.

N/A
49.

Yugumbeh names for common words (Yugumbeh dictionary): people names, places names etc.

50.

Did the Kombumerri people have special songs?

Corresponding resources –

Maths

Q#Enquiry Questions related to Maths
51.

How do you count in Yugumbeh language?

N/A
52.

Names of the days of the week?

N/A
53.

How do you count in Yugumbeh language?

N/A
53.

Are calendars in the Indigenous culture?

N/A
54.

Looking at traditional counting and how it was used.

N/A
55.

Traditional number names and symbols.

N/A
56.

How Indigenous people measure time?

Corresponding resource –
57.

Is there a specific language of direction? E.g. moving from place to place.

N/A
58.

How did the Kombumerri people calculate distance?

N/A
59.

Did the Kombumerri people use the concept of shape?

N/A
60.

How did the Kombumerri people represent quantities?

N/A
61.

How were tides used and measured?

N/A

Technologies

Q#Enquiry Questions related to Technologies
62.

What shelters do Indigenous people make and use?

Corresponding resource –
63.

How did Indigenous people communicate over long distances before technology (instead of email/phone/text)?

Corresponding resource –
64.

Did the Kombumerri children play with toys and what were they made from?

N/A
65.

Which plant materials or animal products were available to the Kombumerri people that assisted them in the creation of clothing, tools and other items? (types of trees used in this area)

Corresponding resources –
66.

What were the main implements use for hunting and gathering? Were the Kombumerri people assisted by other animals in the hunting process?

Corresponding resources –
67.

How did the Kombumerri people transport food, water and belongings when moving from place to place?

Corresponding resource –
68.

What did the Kombumerri people eat? How did they grow it, gather it, harvest it? Who prepared the food?

Corresponding resources –

HPE

Q#Enquiry Questions related to HPE
69.

What emphasis was placed on health and wellbeing in terms of mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing?

Corresponding resources –
70.

Traditional foods – meals, rituals, eating times?

Corresponding resources –
71.

Hygiene – how did Indigenous people manage hygiene?

Corresponding resources –
72.

How do Indigenous families communicate health needs to their children?

Corresponding resources –
73.

How healthy were the Kombumerri people before white settlement?

74.

Were there any sports or specific games that the Kombumerri people played?

N/A

The Arts

Q#Enquiry Questions related to The Arts
75.

Indigenous music and instruments and who is allowed to play them.

Corresponding resources –
76.

Visual Arts – Where and why did Indigenous peoples make artworks? What were the symbols and what did the symbols mean?

N/A
77.

Is there a particular art technique, colours or patterning that are specific to the Kombumerri people? (Are there any protocols surrounding Indigenous art?)

N/A
78.

Which dances were significant to the Kombumerri people and where were these performed?

N/A
79.

What is aesthetic for the Indigenous people? What is beauty? (hair, jewellery, art)

N/A

General Questions

Q#General Questions
80.

What protocols/sensitivities do teachers need to be aware of when teaching Indigenous students and teaching about Indigenous culture?

N/A
81.

How do we not create misconceptions about Indigenous culture for our students?

N/A
82.

Age appropriate acknowledgement of country for daily practice?

N/A