NAIDOC Week 2023: Craft ideas to celebrate Indigenous culture
These fun paper craft activities will help kids learn and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
This year, July 2 to 9, is NAIDOC Week. The theme for 2023 is For Our Elders. This theme highlights the invaluable role and significant contributions of our Elders, acknowledging their guidance, strength, and cultural preservation. It encourages us to listen, learn, and support our Elders as they continue to guide and inspire future generations. You can support and get to know your local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities through activities and events held across the country.
To help spark conversations in your own home we’re sharing a fun craft idea from Gunditjmara-woman Bayley Misfud, Officeworks’ National Indigenous Engagement Lead. Her paper craft projects include animals that are significant in Indigenous Australian stories and culture.
As kids create their paper animals to make these crafts, they can learn more about First Nation, Indigenous languages and the animals’ significance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
We’re lucky enough to be able to share one of those fun ideas with you below!
Make a Turtle – Gurlibil in Yawuru language
Up in the beautiful Kimberley region, five of the world’s seven species of marine turtles inhabit Roebuck Bay. Turtles are so special to the Yawuru nation that, in the six seasons of the year they recognise, one coincides with when turtles lay their eggs. In the Yawuru language, a turtle is called gurlibil.
With so many little pieces to cut out, this is a fantastic project to really flex fine motor skills. Children can tailor the trickiness of the shell to suit their scissor skills and experience.
What you’ll need:
- Kadink Construction Paper A4 Assorted 500 Pack
- Keji Graphite Pencils HB 5 Pack
- Studymate Glue Stick 8g
- Studymate Soft Grip Scissors 6″/152mm
- Kadink A4 Coloured Card 180gsm 30 Pack
How to make your turtle:
- Download and print out our template, below, and cut out the gurlibil, tracing it onto a piece of light green cardboard. Use scissors to trim around the pencil outline of your gurlibil.
- Cut out its shell on another piece of cardboard, using a darker green.
- Then take a piece of brown paper, and cut out shapes to glue onto the shell of the gurlibil. Hexagon shapes fit together nicely!
- Glue all the shapes onto the gurlibil shell, and try to fit them together neatly. If your shapes don’t fit together, trim them and have a play – it’s like a homemade puzzle.
- Once all the shell pieces are glued down, make two small cuts on either side of the shell.
- Carefully bend one side of the cut under the other, and glue to the inside of the shell, repeating on the other side. This will make your shell bend upwards.
- Now make some small shapes out of green and brown paper and glue onto the gurlibil’s flippers to give it texture.
- Then add glue around the edges of the gurlibil’s middle and press the shell piece down onto the glued area, to hold it in place.
- Add eyes by cutting our small black and white paper circles and gluing on. Your gurlibil is complete – and completely cute.
Use this template to get the shape of your gurlibil.
Head to Officeworks to see more paper craft ideas including how to:
- Make a Pelican – Junggar in Mibiny dialect of Bundjalung language
- Make a Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo – Weelan in Gunditjmara language