We acknowledge and respect the Traditional Owners of lands across Australia, their Elders, Ancestors, cultures and heritage, and recognise the continuing sovereignties of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which the ACTF is based and pay our respect to their Elders past and present.

We are honoured to have the opportunity to learn from the oldest cultural storytellers in the world and seek to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to share their rich culture and perspectives with children in Australia and around the world via stories on screen.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings or text.

Learn Together: Join us for First Nations conference presentations

Join the ACTF Learning team at two upcoming national conferences to experience a range of professional development workshops that explore First Nations histories, cultures and stories in children’s television.

ACTion to ImpACT: AATE/ALEA 2023 National Conference

Canberra, ACT

On 1-4 July, join ACTF Learning at the ACTion to ImpACT AATE/ALEA 2023 National Conference which will bring together educators, academics, leaders and authors to explore the role English and literacy play in empowering ourselves, our learners and our profession. Teachers can join the conference both virtually or in person at The Cultural Centre Kambri at the Australian National University, Canberra.

ACTF will present three workshops at this conference with one of these workshops focusing on the engaging First Nations series, Thalu. Learn more about this workshop below.

Thalu: Interactive First Nations storytelling in action

Kids, Eight Stones and a Masterplan!

How might we include First Nations perspectives in storytelling formats to build culturally competent students? How can we move beyond the assumptions and barriers we unknowingly place on First Nations texts? What tools and pedagogies can we use to respond to First Nations stories in the classroom?

Featuring 10-part screen story Thalu as an exemplar, the ACTF will facilitate an engaging workshop style session to demonstrate how to build a lesson to include student analysis and hands-on responses.

Thalu is an adventure story set on Ngarluma Ngurra, in the Pilbara region of WA. Under the direction of the Elders, the young characters have been tasked to rescue their country. The Country and people are sick - under threat from a huge dust cloud and the mysterious Takers that lurk within. The kids must make their way to the Thalu, a place of great power, to stop the cloud before it destroys everything in its path. Along the way, they encounter friends and foe alike as they search for eight sacred petroglyph stones and a special key that will unlock the power of the Thalu and, they hope, stop the Takers in their tracks.

Screen Horizons: Australian Teachers of Media National Conference, Gold Coast, QLD

From 7-9 July, the ACTF Learning team will be at Screen Horizons, ATOM’s National conference which encourages delegates to think critically and with anticipation about the issues, skills and qualities on the Horizon of Screen and Media education and industry in Australia, and globally. Teachers can join the conference both virtually or in person at Bond University, Gold Coast.

ACTF Learning will present four workshops at this conference including two workshops that focused on First Nations children’s content and the new Media Arts Curriculum. These workshops include:

Across All Levels: First Nations perspectives in Media Arts V.9

Join the ACTF Learning team to explore First Nations perspectives in The Arts (Media Arts), as presented in Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. This session spotlights television series and shares discussion tasks and activities to support teachers to embed media artworks produced with and by First Nations Australians.

Join us in conversation with ACTF’s First Nations Learning Designer, Wiradjuri-Scottish woman April Phillips and Creative Learning Manager, Bridget Hanna to examine the opportunities and diverse ways that teachers can meet the revised content of the curriculum.

Across All Times: First Nations perspectives of time in diverse screen stories

How might time as a key element of First Nations stories impact students' literacy understanding as audiences and telling as creators? Sequences play an important role in the structure of powerful stories, with a range of possibilities including circular time, overlapping moments, futurism and living memory.

In this workshop, we will highlight and actively engage with First Nations screen content from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) and respond by creating a non-linear and flexible story sequence in small groups suitable for adaptation as a classroom activity.

Learn more about these conferences and workshops presented by ACTF Learning here:

ACTion to ImpACT

Screen Horizons