Parent 1: I definitely feel connected to this preschool. Throughout the years, we've made so many friends.

Elder: Culture is a good thing for people to learn about it.

Coordinator: The confidence that they have now is it's just amazing to see, they've come so far.

Kelly Humphrey: In June 2023, the department celebrates the midpoint of the First Steps Strategy. The New South Wales Department of Education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Education and Care sector is excited to celebrate this very important milestone. This important strategy was co-developed with our Early Childhood Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee and it sets out a department's vision for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander little learners in New South Wales to access quality, early childhood education and care, and for them to be supported and embrace their culture and identity for a strong start to lifelong learning.

Lliam Findlay: The strategy has 3 key goals and number 1 of those goals is about the child. This is really about all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families in New South Wales, having that support to enrol and this is the important bit in culturally inclusive early childhood education and care.

Educator: I think the kids enjoy most being able to spread the culture and language, being able to take it back to their families and being able to use it not just at school but in the community as well.

Elder: When we start to talk and like sing nursery rhymes, I start them out in English and she starts them in Dharawal. So it's like ‘oh ok, we’re singing in Dharawal first and then English.’

Lliam Findlay: One way the department achieves this goal is through the Ninganah No More Aboriginal Languages Program.

Kelly Humphrey: Did you know that Ninganah No More is delivered across 43 ECEC sites across New South Wales? Providers of this program are Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations who get in and work with their local community to design and deliver this program in their local communities. Ninganah No More means to be quiet no more. Ninganah is actually a Bundjalung word, and the aim of this program is to ensure that our Aboriginal languages are heard and flourish across our communities. The program provides an opportunity for children to learn an Aboriginal language and for Aboriginal culture and identity to be developed and nurtured.

Parent: What Kailey loves about being here at the preschool is the language. She definitely comes home and she's teaching me different words and stuff. She's picking up so much stuff and she's actually enjoying it. She's coming home and she's wanting to show me stuff. It just makes me so proud to see that she's learning that here.

Educator: Who can say Gudhamaang (Sea Turtle)? Gudhamaang (Sea Turtle)!

Lliam Findlay: The department also contributes to the Strategies’ goal around The Child through the Aboriginal Families as Teachers program. This program is delivered at 29 sites across New South Wales. Program is delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations that provide early childhood education and care, and these organisations work really closely with the community to design and deliver a program that reflects their local cultural uniqueness.

Educator: They love their whole day here. The way we plan it, throughout the whole week, they love every step of it. From the Aboriginal puzzles, the painting, the craft, and seeing our Teachers and Educators. There's nothing we can say that they don't love.

Gillian White: The Aboriginal Families as Teachers program strengthens and empowers Aboriginal partnerships within communities by offering holistic wrap-around services and referral pathways in collaboration with other local Aboriginal services. Aboriginal languages and cultures celebrated through the development of rich numeracy and literacy resources that support the development of our jarjums, our littlest learners in their first five years of life in a culturally safe way.

Kelly Humphrey: So I know you want to know more about the First Steps Strategy and our other programs and initiatives, so please visit our website or shoot us an email to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Education and Care Team. We look forward to hearing from you.

Parent: I think it's cool. The kids have been coming home singing language.

Educator: It’s helping them connect a lot. A lot of the kids that have grown up and still speak it.

Educator: I find parents and families do get involved with the program.

Kelly Humphrey: In June 2023, the department celebrates the midpoint of the First Steps Strategy. The New South Wales Department of Education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Education and Care Sector is excited to celebrate this very important milestone.

Lliam Findlay: The second goal in the First Steps Strategy is about Family and Kinship, and that means all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children in New South Wales really feeling respected in early childhood education services and knowing that their culture is celebrated and nourished. One way the Department achieves this goal is through the Aboriginal Families as Teachers Program.

Kelly Humphrey: The Aboriginal Families as Teachers Program is delivered at 29 sites across New South Wales. Aboriginal Families as Teachers provides a holistic wrap-around service to support children's early education and care, attendance and engagement. Aboriginal Families as Teachers is developed and implemented by qualified Aboriginal Teachers and Educators to ensure that we are taking a culturally safe and inclusive approach.

Educator: AFaT is helping the children embed the language and culture inside the centre as well as outside engaging with the families.

Educator: These preschool staff, they’re the most amazing educators through the curriculum, through Dhurga, through everything. They teach you anything and everything. Whatever you need to know, like these guys are my role models.

Elder: Your culture’s all around you, you live it every day. And I want kids to know our culture because it's a beautiful culture and it needs to be handed around.

Parent: I think I enjoy just being around their cousins and their family, people that they grew up with, like the teachers I even worked for at one stage. So yeah, it's like a big family.

Coordinator: AFaT has allowed us to go out into the community and co-design with the community to build something for them instead of us going out and saying, ‘we're doing this,’ we've all co-designed it together and this is what they've come up with. We've given the family their voice to have their say in a playgroup, they want.

Educator: Parents love to enjoy the culture and the Dhurga language and the children learning it as well as the parents learning it all together.

Educator: Not only that, but they relate. They understand, we connect with them on a deeper level where they feel safe and comfortable to enter our environment and just feel respected and involved and participate throughout the class.

Kelly Humphrey: So I know you want to know more about the First Steps Strategy and our other programs and initiatives, so please visit our website or shoot us an email to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Education and Care Team. We look forward to hearing from you.

Educator: I think it's important for kids to learn their language, to help them with identifying themselves and who they are and what culture they're from and to make them feel proud.

Language tutor: I think it's important for all kids to learn language, Indigenous or not, to pay respects to the Country that they're learning on and to understand the culture.

Parent: It makes our ancestors proud to see our young ones that are re-learning that language.

Kelly Humphrey: In June 2023, the department celebrates the midpoint of the First Steps Strategy. The New South Wales Department of Education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Education and Care Sector is excited to celebrate this very important milestone. Learning is the third goal in the First Steps Strategy. The goal is, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are provided access to early childhood education, driving stronger outcomes through strengths based approaches, and that all children have a sense of pride in Aboriginal peoples, cultures and histories, across New South Wales. We will know we've achieved this goal when all children in ECEC Services have a knowledge, understanding and a sense of pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.

Lliam Findlay: One way the department achieves this goal is through the Ninganah No More Aboriginal Languages Program. Ninganah No More is delivered at 43 sites across New South Wales. Ninganah No More embeds the learning of Aboriginal languages and cultures within early childhood education and care.

Educator: Oooo Bujari.

Lliam Findlay: Ninganah has had strong success so far. Early childhood education and care providers delivering Ninganah No More, have started to see an increase in enrolment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Educator: So when we teach the kids the language and the culture, they take it home to their parents and they explain to the parents that we teach them the Dharawal language and they sing the songs like Crabs and Sea Shells and they feel very proud to be involved in that.

Gillian White: Ninganah No More language hubs are led and managed by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations. They provide culturally safe and welcoming environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. As a department, we are committed to investing in these and other programs into the future so that we can achieve even greater outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities across the state.

Kelly Humphrey: So I know you want to know more about the First Steps Strategy and our other programs and initiatives, so please visit our website or shoot us an email to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Education and Care Team. We look forward to hearing from you.