From Roebourne to Australia’s classrooms: Indigenous children teach the nation through NEO-Learning

Since its launch in August last year, Indigenous children from Roebourne have now taught country and culture to thousands of other children nationwide through an education platform focused on digital art. The NEO-Learning education platform, co-created by First Nations young people from Leramagadu with Big hART, provides smartboard-ready resources, live virtual experiences, on-demand lessons and original films and podcasts for primary schools around Australia. Inspired by Big hART’s internationally acclaimed futuristic comic NEOMAD, the platform was designed to support inquiry-based learning and to give Australian primary school teachers and students access to high quality First Nations content and lessons. More than 100 schools across Australia are now taught by First Nations young people through the platform. “We made sure to work with schools in every state and territory as much as we could and since then it’s grown and evolved,” he said. “All the feedback has been highly positive and the connection to Roebourne has been really well embraced and the Roebourne students have really enjoyed making and co-creating content as well.” Mr Leahy said the the live delivered units based on the NEOMAD comics called ‘People, Places and Futurism’ have been the most popular as they prepare to release fresh new content. Among the new release will be season two of the podcast and a new smartboard resource called ‘Big Apple’ which teaches young children the importance of healthy eating.