Students learn to play indigenous games

Dr Ken Edwards (right) with Pialba State School students Reece Tass and Leilani Clarke

A group of Pialba State School students has been taught to play traditional Indigenous games by the man who wrote the manual on the subject.

Dr Ken Edwards visited Hervey Bay this week (February 17-19) to instruct the children on the culturally-correct way of playing the games.

Dr Edwards spent five years travelling Australia to research and learn the games from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

He complied them into a 260-page book called Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games, which is available on the Australian Sports Commission’s website.

USQ Fraser Coast runs a professional development workshop each year to show staff and education students how to teach the games to school students.

Dr Edwards, who is a senior education lecturer at USQ Toowoomba, was joined this week by local University staff and students, Department of Health staff from the Wide Bay Public Health Unit in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg, and Boystown Indigenous Project Officer Derek Collins, of Brisbane.

They were able to practise their newly-acquired skills on the 25 Year 7 students from Pialba.

The children were taught a range of games which use modern equipment to replicate traditional items such as spears. For instance, they used tennis balls as spears to throw at a gym ball, which represented a kangaroo.

USQ education lecturer Sharon Louth said the games had been modified for safety and ease of use to cater for all ages.
She said they give children the opportunity to experience and appreciate aspects of Indigenous culture.

'These games and activities have been played by Indigenous people for thousands of years, passed down from one generation to the next,' she said.

'It’s possible to see elements of our modern games in these games. Keentan is like basketball, and Wana is much like French cricket. Kokan is a hockey game and Koolchee is like 10-pin bowling.'

Indigenous games were recorded by explorers, early settlers and scientists in the nineteenth century.

Contact Details:
Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media, +61 7 4194 3167