Indigenous Perspectives into National Recycling Week
National Recycling Week, established by Planet Ark in 1996, is held every year during the second week of November (7th to 13th of November 2022).
This year, National Recycling Week explores the idea that Waste isn't Waste until it's Wasted. This theme focuses on quality over quantity; it is not about recycling more, but recycling better. Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The concept of recycling also provides the perfect platform to introduce children to the sustainable practices associated with Aboriginal ‘caring for Country’.
‘Country is everything. It’s family, it’s life, it’s connection’. — Jude Barlow, Ngunnawal Elder
Country is the word often used by Aboriginal peoples to describe the lands, waterways, seas, rocks, mountains; everything to which they are connected. It encompasses lore, place and identity, custom, language, spiritual belief and cultural practice.
National Recycling Week is all about sustainability, and is a great opportunity to extend on these ideas by exploring with children the various ways that Aboriginal groups have cared for their Countries for thousands and thousands of years. You could look at things like traditional fire management practices, land and waterways management and totems and kinship (linking to sustainable plant and animal populations).
For the younger kids, great books for this topic include Looking After Country with Fire, The Last Dance, Dingo’s Tree and Benny Bungarra’s Big Bush Clean Up.
Tales from the Bush Mob is a series of books about the Bush Mob, a group of animals who work together to solve problems. Each book shares a rich landscape of characters and places, including Dingo, Willy-willy Wagtail, Eagle, Platypus, Koala, Wombat, Kookaburra, Echidna and Kangaroo. These stories emphasise the value of respect for First Nations culture and country, as well as the importance of courage, perseverance and wisdom to bind communities together.
Dingo keeps dreaming there is someone in distress, but who? Dingo checks on everyone in his community but they’re all fine. With the help of the Bush Mob he mounts a search and rescue mission. Platypus draws up a search map and they search all over until Dingo reaches his homeland that he hasn’t visited for many years and is now an empty landscape. There is a strange animal at the bottom of a ravine and the field mice have been helping the stranger. They devise a plan: they weave a basked from the mangrove vines and lower Koala (the best climber) down the ravine – but they need Wombat (the best digger) to dig him out. So Dingo, Kangaroo and Koala pull the stronger out – it’s a Tasmanian devil called Tassa who has lost its way. Tassa is rescued and all the eagles guide Tassa home.
Dingo remembers the dingoes who used to sing at sunrise and sunset long ago and he goes back and sings, and soon many dingoes are singing at sunset again. It was Dingo’s country that called him to rescue the stranger and to bring the Dingo’s back to his Country
Format: Flexibound
Pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1-922142-73-3
Release date: 9 December 2025