Indigenous i-Book to be launched at Warrnambool

An innovative iBook tracing south-west Victoria's Indigenous history is being launched at the Deakin University Warrnambool Campus Warrnambool on Friday July 24.

The iBook, Tiiamanno (to know), has been researched and produced by Brauer College teacher William King and will give local students in an insight into local Indigenous history and culture.

It is designed to appeal for students' penchant for digital learning opportunities, especially when combined with visits to local places of historical significance guided by Peek Whurrong Elder, Rob Lowe Snr.

The iBook is the first up-to-date written resource for Warrnambool students to use in response to the new Australian curriculum. It contains and documents and provides commentary on the local history. It is written for junior secondary students and to align to their curriculum but will also appeal to a broad audience.

Deakin University researchers Terri Redpath and Dr Julianne Lynch supported the research and place-based learning, and arranged funding for the iBook through the Telematics Course Development Fund.

Ms Redpath said that as we head toward a national debate about constitutional change to recognise traditional owners, texts such as Tiiamanno become crucial in educating as wide an audience as possible about their wonderful, ecologically sustainable association with our continent.

Director of Deakin's Institute of Koorie Education Professor Liz Cameron will launch the iBook at the Deakin University Warrnambool Campus.

"I believe the textbook to be truly informative as it captured the many traditional life events and ongoing contemporary struggles faced by Aboriginal peoples surrounding Warrnambool," Professor Cameron said.

"Tiiamanno highlights the cultural strengths of past practices and processes by illustrating the sophistication of farming, building and making, accompanied by a breakdown of challenges and struggles that left a nation of peoples being denied access and freedoms within their own lands."

"Tiiamanno also offers an insight into traditional sustainable practices of balancing the harmonies within living and maintaining the land including the sacredness of cultural place and spiritual space. Such knowledge needs to be reinvigorated and embraced to ensure a future remains for all living things."

Tiiamanno is now available online and will be launched at Ginger Kitchen, Deakin University Warrnambool Campus, Friday July 24, 4.30-5.30 pm