SPIRIT -Supporting Play and Intergenerational Relationships with Indigenous Tradition project is a five-year global initiative aimed at improving child development and well-being in First Nations communities.
Led by Johns Hopkins Centre for Indigenous Health (USA) and supported by Batchelor Institute (Australia), The University of Otago (NZ), and First Nations Health Authority (Canada), the project is funded by the Lego Foundation’s “Build a World of Play Challenge”.
The project aims to achieve its objectives through delivery of an evidenced-based early childhood program to support caregivers during pregnancy and early childhood: The Family Spirit Program.
The SPIRIT project will also build community-designed nature-based intergenerational play spaces to benefit families and communities with the power of communal play.
Professor Kathryn Gilbey, Head of the Higher Education and Research Division at the Batchelor institute and Australian lead researcher for the SPIRIT project explained that in the first 12 months of the initiative in Mparntwe they have supported the Pertame Language Nest, an immersion playgroup for babies up to 5 years and their parents.
This project allows us to work with our Elders and children in meaningful and proper ways and will plant the seeds of strength in culture that will flourish for generations to come.Professor Kathryn Gilbey
She also highlighted how the Nest is doing the important work of supporting transmission of the endangered Pertame language and culture from Elders to the next generation.
"This project allows us to work with our Elders and children in meaningful and proper ways and will plant the seeds of strength in culture that will flourish for generations to come, " Professor Kathryn Gilbey says.
Professor Gilbey further explained that through this initiative they have also supported Early Years Learning on Country sessions provided by local partner organisation Children’s Ground out at Burt Creek, Sandy Bore and Hidden Valley.
“In year two we will be expanding into other parts of Australia”.
Batchelor Institute continues to enhance its commitment to Both-Ways Learning, integrating traditional knowledge with Western education concepts, and reinforcing its mission to support the rights and recognition of First Nations people through education.
