How a Boon Wurrung tree inspired teachers and students to connect with Indigenous knowledge

<div><b>See:</b> https://www.monash.edu/education/teachspace/articles/how-a-boon-wurrung-tree-inspired-teachers-and-students-to-connect-with-indigenous-knowledge</div><div><br></div><div><b>Authors:</b> N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs (AM), Geraldine Burke, Melissa Bedford, Charlotte Day, Ginette Pestana</div><div><br></div><div>This article, featured in Monash University's <i><b>TeachSpace</b> </i>archive, shares a story of how we came to re-think taken for granted approaches to pre-service art education, by working with Indigenous knowledge as both a starting point and central concern. Our un-learning story is centred on the <a href="https://vimeo.com/521716010">Boon Wurrung Tree</a>, a culturally marked Tree that formed the impetus for <a href="https://www.monash.edu/muma/exhibitions/previous/2022/tree-story/related-programs/tree-school">The Tree School </a>installation and exhibition in Melbourne, Australia, as conceived by artists <a href="https://www.monash.edu/muma/exhibitions/previous/2022/tree-story/related-programs/tree-school">Sandi Halel and Alessandro Petti</a>. It was this Boon Wurrung Tree that connected our pre-service teachers together through partnership learning with primary school children and the Monash University Museum of Art (<a href="https://www.monash.edu/muma/home">MUMA</a>) and prompted learning across institutions. This Art-Reach experience saw us first come together to experience the Tree School exhibition at MUMA and then explore a Forest of Ideas workshop back at the Monash University studio where pre-service teachers facilitated the same children’s art experiences as inspired by cultural, sustainable and aesthetic knowledge about trees.</div>