Spirits of the Red Sand - Aboriginal cultural experience May 11, 2021
School trips are THE way to spark excitement for learning. To experience something in a hands-on, all-immersive way can be many times more effective than classroom-based learning. Studying Aboriginal Culture is a prime example. Here at Spirits of the Sands, students can meet the local Yugambeh people, smell the smoke and culinary aromas of the campfire, listen to heart-rending and inspiring stories of their ancestors, all against the haunting background music of didgeridoo. It’s a school trip like no other that will change perspectives and leave a lasting impression on students. The below is what you can expect on a school trip to Spirits of the Sands.
Short trip for older students
For older students, we foster a deep understanding of Aboriginal Culture in our 1.5 hour “Daytime Welcome to Country Aboriginal Experience”. Nowhere else in Australia can you experience this ancient ceremony that Australian Aboriginals practiced for thousands of years, which is carried out at Spirits of the Red Sand in a recreated pre-European village atmosphere. In fact, because it’s held in a historical village, this is the only place in Australia where you can combine both Australian history and aboriginal culture in one outing. Students will learn all about Aboriginal Dreamtime beliefs, participate in a formal ceremony, get up close and personal with didgeridoo playing, artefacts, and weaponry, try boomerang painting, bush tucker, dancing, and camp life.
Full-day trip for older students
For an even more immersive school trip, older students can undertake the full-day “Daytime Indigenous & Early Pioneer’s Combo”. They experience the ceremonial tour above, but they’ll also be guided through the recreated old colonial settlement and see what life and interaction was like between the two very different cultures of Europeans and Aboriginals. This is a unique chance to be part of thought-provoking live theatre.
Alternatively, you could chop and change what the students do, to concentrate on study areas of your choice. They could do the colonial settlement tour on its own, or you could add on a 45-minute bush tucker walking tour to your main activity (learn about the herbal, medicinal, spiritual, and edible purposes of the tucker foraged from our natural world, with lots of sampling involved).
Short trip for young children
Young early learners will love the “Daytime Dreamtime Stories and Activities”. In this experience, they can have their face painted in the traditional Aboriginal way, and they will be regaled with ancient stories by our entertaining resident storyteller. Afterward, it’s all hands-on with games, didgeridoo, clapsticks, song, and dance. The children will even be wowed by some of Australia’s amazing native snakes and reptiles with Outback Murray’s reptile demonstration.
Evening experience for all
Of course, there is also the option for any student to do our flagship Evening Experience – where the immersive roving theatre and indigenous song and dance is topped off by an incredible 3-course dinner, and meet and greet of cast and crew.
Resources for the classroom
To keep the experience going back in the classroom, we make it easy for teachers by providing them with education packs, quizzes, and materials as part of the school trip offering.
If you would like to organise a school trip to Spirits of the Red Sand for your students, further information on activities can be found here. Feel free to get in touch with any queries – we would love to bring our history, traditions, and culture to life for your students, and leave them with changed and deepened perspectives, and the experience of a great day out.
