Australia History, Civil Rights Aboriginal Tent Embassy usefulness

Engage your students with this no-prep, print and digital source usefulness worksheet activity exploring the significance of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, one of the most powerful protest movements in Australian history.

This resource guides students in evaluating two historical photographs—one from the Tent Embassy’s founding in 1972 and another from 2020—to explore the evolving message, purpose, and symbolism of the movement. It’s ideal for teaching source analysis, critical thinking, and historical interpretation in middle and high school classrooms.

Product Purpose and Benefits

✔️ Develops source analysis and historical thinking

✔️ Provides rich content for exploring Aboriginal activism and civil rights

✔️ Engages students with real primary sources (visual & contextual)

✔️ Promotes structured responses using content and provenance

✔️ Editable digital format for flexible classroom use

What’s Included in This Resource:

1. Editable Slide Deck – “Understanding Source Usefulness”

The lesson begins with a teacher-guided slide deck that introduces key concepts of source usefulness, including content and provenance, bias, perspective, and purpose, with sample questions, sentence starters, and modelled examples to support discussion and explicit teaching of historical thinking skills

2. Source Evaluation Worksheet

After the slide deck, students apply their learning to a structured, scaffolded worksheet focused on two real sources.

Students are guided to:

• Evaluate each source’s content (what is being said/shown)
• Analyse the provenance (who, when, where, why)
• Make informed judgments about usefulness for understanding the event
• Use evidence to support their evaluation in a clear, written format