The big idea of the ‘Selecting’ phase of the information process is: “What information do I really need to use?”
The key steps and questions of this phase are:
– What information can I leave out?
– How relevant is the information?
– How credible is the information?
– How will I record the information?
(NSW Department of Education, 2023a)
Once again, it’s important to go back to the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria (L.I.S.C.). If any information is off-topic, or not related to the L.I.S.C., it doesn’t need to be included.
If the information you’ve gathered from different sources is repetitive, you can just include it once, rather than taking note of it again and again. (But remember, information being similar across a lot of different sources is usually a good sign that it’s accurate!)
When analysing whether or not a particular source is credible (trustworthy), and right for you, use the S.M.A.R.T. method we’ve been learning about in class. Is the resource Suitable (right for your age and reading level)? Manageable (easy to view)? Accurate (fact-checked)? Reliable (from an official source e.g. government website, museum, archive, scientific study, fact-focused rather than opinion-based)? Timely (e.g. from the last 5 years. Note: While this is particularly important for research on Science, technology and current event-based topics, it is not AS essential in History-based research topics such as our current one. However, when browsing older sources on History topics, be mindful that language used, opinions expressed, or references to related events may be out-dated or not reflect the values of the present day. Therefore, it is still best to find sources that are as recent as possible).
Braxton, B. (n.d.). S.M.A.R.T. website evaluation. 500 Hats: The Teacher Librarian in the 21st Century. https://500hats.edublogs.org/s-m-a-r-t-website-evaluation/
Kunyi is a non-fiction book with illustrations. It has a foreword at the beginning of the book, where the author, Kunyi June Anne McInerney, shares a summary of her personal experience of being taken away from her family when she was a child. The rest of the book then provides a lot of details about what everyday life was like for her and other Aboriginal children at the Oodnadatta Children’s Home in South Australia, where they lived after being removed from their families. The blend of descriptive non-fiction and story-like anecdotes in Kunyi makes this a great resource for both gathering facts and connecting emotionally with the topic. When learning about the Stolen Generations, it is important to prioritise developing and displaying respect and empathy. It was an extremely traumatic time in history, lasting many decades. It had (and still has) long-lasting negative impacts on the families involved, as well as future generations that were (and are still) to come.
Q: Is it ‘Suitable’ for you? A: Yes! It fits the success criteria, as it is about the Stolen Generations. It is aimed at students your age, and has illustrations to help with comprehension.
Q: Is it ‘Manageable’? A: Yes! As mentioned above, the picture-book style blend with non-fiction makes it easy to read. The information and personal experiences in Kunyi are also organised under various headings related to her time at the children’s home. This not only breaks the information down into manageable chunks, but it also means that you can browse for specific information you may be looking for.
Q: Is it ‘Accurate’? A: Yes! It’s based on the author’s personal lived experience of being part of the Stolen Generation. It’s a first-hand account, or ‘primary source’ of information.
Q: Is it ‘Reliable’? A: Yes! As mentioned above, the author was part of the Stolen Generations. While there is likely to be some subjectivity in personal recounts and stories, these do have a place in this research. Learning about the impact of the Stolen Generations from people who were actually part of and/or impacted by the Stolen Generations makes texts like these very valuable for your purposes. Also remember that books that are published usually go through processes of fact-checking.
Q: Is it ‘Timely’? A: Yes! Kunyi was published in 2021, making it recent and timely. Of course, since we’re dealing with historic events, other personal accounts of people impacted by the Stolen Generations would still be valuable even if they were published outside the range we would normally want for resources.
Here are some more resources to help get you started:
Stolen girl by Trina Saffioti and Norma MacDonald is a picture book aimed at readers in Years 3-6. It is a fictionalised imagining of what life might have been like for the author’s grandmother before and after she was taken away from her family. It is a great way to get a sense for the overall idea of and experiences of some of those who were part of the Stolen Generations (see glossary on the ‘Defining’ page), connect emotionally with the topic, and build empathy. Stories about particular characters or people can help us try and put ourselves in someone else’s shoes (consider what they might have been thinking and how they might have been feeling). Stolen girl also contains factual information about the Stolen Generations after the title page, before the ‘story’ starts.
Australian Museum entry about the Stolen Generations
This is a good starting point for researching factual general information about the Stolen Generations. Though there are some topic-specific and difficult words in the article, most of them are covered in the glossary section, and will be explored further in other sources. Therefore, it can be considered Suitable and Manageable for you, with the right support from the research guide and your teachers (but for now, focus on general information about who the Stolen Generations were, as well as important dates and events). Since it is a museum website, we can expect it to be an Accurate and Reliable source of information. The entry was updated in 2020, making it a recent source of information and passing our Timely test.
AIATSIS Stolen Generations overview
This website provides a great overview of the topic, as well as information about key related historical events, such as the Bringing Them Home Report, Sorry Day initiatives, the Reconciliation Walk, and the National Apology. This information is ordered under clear headings, making it easy to access and organise.
This website is an excellent source for learning about the impact of the Stolen Generations, through both the main page as well as the tab called ‘intergenerational trauma’. Please be mindful, however, that it contains some difficult, emotionally mature, and upsetting topics/themes, so we will explore this one carefully altogether as a class. Please reach out to us, or other trusted adults, if you find the content upsetting and want emotional support. You can also call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or reach out to them on their website. This website also contains pop-ups seeking donations, which means it’s not ideal or suitable for your age group. This resource does not pass the S part of our S.M.A.R.T. test, and can be questioned in terms of what it is asking of you. But it IS an excellent source for exploring the impact of the Stolen Generations, which is why your teacher-librarians will guide you through this one with sensitivity and care.
Australians all: A history of growing up from the ice age to the apology, by Nadia Wheatley, is a detailed non-fiction book providing a timeline of key events in Australia’s history. It includes personal histories of specific individuals as well as general information on a range of events and topics. Like most non-fiction texts, there is a glossary at the back, to help with definitions of words. There is a LOT of information in this text, and the majority of it isn’t relevant to your research project. For a text like this, you will want to use the index at the back to find the page numbers of sections relevant to you. For example, by looking at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sections of the index, I was able to find information about “Apology” on page 250. There is also mention of pages about assimilation policy, and the Stolen Generations. It’s a large index, so let us know if you need help! This resource can be used as a starting point to learn a little about various topics, as a way to fact-check information, and as a way to finish off your research by adding further details.
About Bringing Them Home Report
This website discusses the 1997 Bringing Them Home Report, and why it was important. This was an important lead-up to National Sorry Day, the first of which was the following year. This website states that it is supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission, as well as the Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Therefore, we can feel confident that it will be a Suitable, Accurate and Reliable source of information.
BTN Sorry Day video news broadcast
BTN (Behind the News), is a news station that focuses on delivering news to children and students. It is aimed at people your age, so is a very Suitable and Manageable resource for you. They are also an Accurate and Reliable source of information. This particular video is from 2023, making it Timely as well. This resource definitely passes our S.M.A.R.T. test! This is a good resource for getting an overall sense of the topic, as well as learning about specific historical events that are related to the Stolen Generations, e.g. Sorry Day and Kevin Rudd’s famous apology speech. It also explores the impact on Aboriginal people who were part of the Stolen Generations, as well as looks towards the future of what further work needs to be done to help “make things right”.
This Reconciliation Australia news article discusses Sorry Day and the 2000 Walk for Reconciliation. It’s quite short, so is a very Manageable source of information. You should make note of these events to fulfil your success criteria about exploring events related to the Stolen Generations.
Walk for Reconciliation information
The linked website above provides information about the 2000 Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is a National Museum Australia teaching and learning resource, designed for students (Suitable, Manageable, Accurate, Reliable). This source gives you information an important event that showed support for Indigenous peoples and an apology to the Stolen Generations. This will lead in to another key historical event, the 2008 formal Government apology.
This is a video recording of Kevin Rudd (who was the Prime Minister of Australia at the time), in Parliament in 2008, apologising to Aboriginal people, in particular, the Stolen Generations, on behalf of the Australian Government. This was a key event in history, as the government had previously refused to apologise for something that had happened in the past. Kevin Rudd’s speech acknowledged that removing children from their families in the past had been wrong, and that it was important to apologise because what happened in the past continued to have an impact on future generations. If this speech seems familiar to you, it’s because the speech was printed on a large sign attached to our old school office building (before we moved to our temporary school this term)! This source can be found on the Encyclopedia Britannica website, an online encyclopedia where you can also find further articles related to specific individuals impacted by the Stolen Generations.
This an Australian Parliament website containing the transcript of Kevin Rudd’s National Apology speech, as well as some information about it. Being a Government website about a formal Government apology, we can trust that it is a credible source. The National Apology is an extremely important historical event related to the Stolen Generations. Making note of this event will help you achieve your success criteria about related historical events.
Be mindful that some of the above sources may focus on objective presentation of facts, while others express some personal opinions in relation to direct experiences of being impacted by the Stolen Generations. For a topic such as this, a mixture of objective fact AND human experiences, viewpoints and empathy are important.
The above sources and links include things like books, websites, articles, videos, and news stories. It is important to get your information from a variety of sources. While we have checked them using the S.M.A.R.T. test, you should also have a go trying to check a few of them yourselves as well!
Referencing Guide
It’s extremely important to keep track of where you’re getting your information, and create your bibliography/reference list as you go.
Here are some examples of how to reference books and websites.
Books examples:
Authorsurname, first letter of first name. (Year of publication). Title of book. Name of Publisher.
e.g.
Gallagher, L. (2023). Being a teacher-librarian. Darcy Road Publications.
Elton, C., & Gallagher, L. Being teacher-librarians. Darcy Road Publications.
Website examples:
Authorsurname, first letter of first name OR Name of Organisation. (Year of publication/last updated, or n.d. if no date is provided). Title of page. Website Name. Website link.
Gallagher, L. (n.d.). How to reference. Darcy Road Librarians. https://
If the name of the organisation/author is the same as the website name, don’t include the website name.
e.g.
Darcy Road Librarians. (2023). How to reference. https://
Pay very close attention to where to use capital letters, or not, whether to use commas or full stops, whether to use italics, etc. If you need help, or want us to check your referencing, we are more than happy to help!
Use the Referencing Template to help you reference accurately. You will get a physical copy, as well as the editable digital copy in your Google Classroom assignment. You can find a read-only version here.
As you select the sources you want to use, reference them in the template.
Be sure to include any websites/sources of information you accessed from the previous ‘Locating’ phase as well!
You can also take notes in a Google Doc at this stage, organised for now under WHERE you got the information.
Next will come the ‘Organising’ phase, where you’ll be given tips and a template for organising and grouping information under relevant sub-headings. This will help you later when you go to organise your Google Slides presentation.