“Playing to be in Dja Dja Wurrung Country: A Learning Program Creating Locative Games” presented by Nguyen and Riley
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Creative Placemaking (short papers)
Presentation Title:
- Playing to be in Dja Dja Wurrung Country: A Learning Program Creating Locative Games
Presentation Subtheme:
- Ecologies of place
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
This paper examines the design and delivery of a learning program with First Nations students, their teachers, community, and non-Indigenous educators that created experimental locative games in the Dja Dja Wurrung region of Bendigo in Victoria, Australia. We discuss the programs experiential, place-based and relational ways of learning and how these were enacted through a reflexive approach embedded in local community and cultural engagement and participation. The games are analyzed in relation to how players connected to Country through playing in Country, demonstrating how their situated and embodied interactions invited a multisensorial engagement with place to support social and physical well-being. The program is critically reflected on as a case study for a two-way learning approach supporting young First Nations people’s connection to, and expression of Country through locative games as place-making experiences.
