Overview | Mission | Programs | Activities | Facilities | Cultural Sessions

Group Building/Leadership skills

RUBICON COUNTRY Year Level
Goals
Experience a role in traditional Aboriginal life before European settlement
Promote co-operation with others to ensure ‘survival’
Encourage moral and strategic thinking

Potential
This instructive and interactive exercise places participants into different imaginary roles within traditional Aboriginal family and tribal groups. The common aim is to gain the tools and food required to survive the harsh Rubicon Valley winter. Best suited to a large group of students (50-100) who will find and trade laminated picture-cards symbolising weapons and tools amongst themselves. Food can only be obtained by possessing the correct weapon (Kangaroo – Spear) and submitting it to the Elder Council (staff & teachers). For additional difficulty, the spirit Bunjil can remove family members if they stray more than arms’ length from the group, and demand food and tools as sacrifice for their return - an incomplete family cannot finish the game. In the debrief discussion students reflect on who survived and how, how they felt in their struggle, and the fairness of the system.

CSF
Health&PE HIP (3.1) S&R (4.3) (5.1) (5.2)
SOSE Economics (4.1) History (4.1)

VCE
International Studies
Politics