Year 7 Ancient Australia & Deep Time: The Dreaming | PowerPoint, Worksheets & Answers

Explore how Dreaming stories connect Aboriginal peoples to Country, preserve knowledge across generations, and teach responsibilities towards people, places and the environment.

This Year 7 Ancient Australia and Deep Time resource combines a teaching PowerPoint with six Dreaming story readings, comprehension questions and source-analysis activities. Students explore stories connected to Budj Bim, the Waugal, Namarrkon, Brewarrina Fish Traps, the Glass House Mountains, and Ngurunderi and Pondi. They compare stories from different Countries and consider what these accounts can reveal about cultural knowledge, values and the past.

Key knowledge and skills

• The Dreaming and continuing connections to Country

• Diversity of Aboriginal nations, cultures and traditions

• Oral traditions and knowledge passed across generations

• Connections between stories, landscapes, animals and seasons

• Cultural values, laws and responsibilities

• Comparing stories and interpreting their meaning

• Considering the usefulness and limitations of historical sources

• Writing historical explanations supported by examples

• Respecting cultural ownership and acknowledging each story’s nation

What is included

• Four-slide teaching PowerPoint with discussion prompts

• Nine-page student PDF booklet

• Introduction to the Dreaming and Country

• Six story readings with nation and place connections

• Comprehension, source-analysis and “Connect to Country” questions

• Story comparison table and follow-up questions

• Guided two-paragraph extended writing task

• Challenge question about cultural ownership

• Seven-page answer key with suggested responses and model paragraphs

Suggested classroom uses

Suitable for explicit teaching, guided reading, classroom discussion, independent work, relief lessons, sub plans, distance learning and absent students. Use individual readings for focused activities or the complete booklet to support comparison and extended historical writing.

Australian Curriculum alignment

Supports Year 7 History within the Australian Curriculum v9.0, particularly the Deep time history of Australia. Activities explore continuing cultures, cultural practices, connections to Country, perspectives and values, and the use of sources to construct historical explanations.

Australian Curriculum v9.0 — Year 7 History

• AC9HH7K06: Cultural practices of early First Nations Australians and their continuity and change over time, explored through Dreaming stories, oral traditions, laws and responsibilities.
• AC9HH7K03: The world’s oldest continuing cultures, explored through knowledge and connections to Country passed across generations.
• AC9HH7S03: Origin, content, context and purpose of sources, explored by identifying each story’s nation, place and teaching purpose.
• AC9HH7S04: Accuracy and usefulness of sources, with activities focusing on what Dreaming stories can and cannot tell historians.
• AC9HH7S06: Perspectives, attitudes and values in sources, including sharing, family responsibility and caring for Country.
• AC9HH7S08: Historical descriptions, explanations and arguments using historical knowledge, terms and source evidence, developed through the extended writing task.

These activities support selected aspects of the listed content descriptions.

Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.