What is an Aussie childhood? Sausages on a barbecue under the stars in a national park. Chips with chicken salt, a seasoning that was invented in Australia and apparently has not gone further. Childhood in Australia is backyard cricket, TV cricket, cricket in the park with friends and even on the beach. Childhood in Australia is the ubiquitous “no hat no play” and “slip slop slap”. In this episode, we talk about an Aussie childhood. What cartoons do kids watch? How do they study at school? Where do they run barefoot?
Listen to the episode here:
Lia Paramonov is the author of a popular Instagram blog Mother Australia. In her blog, Lia shares aspects of life and parenthood in Australia, and also talks about what it means to be a modern matushka, a wife of an Orthodox priest. In this episode, we spoke with Lia about the freedom to play and learn and how toddlers in kindergarten appreciated her daughter’s borscht.
Shelley Ware is a TV presenter and educator. Shelley is passionate about embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History and culture into classrooms and the national curriculum. Shelley told us about some of the important steps and the educational projects that are helping to improve access to education for children from Australia’s Indigenous communities.
Mila Snegurova is the head of the Tip-Top Harmonious Development Studio in Sydney for Russian-speaking children, and a specialist in working with bilingual children. For this episode, we spoke with Mila about the diverse backgrounds of children in Australia and the challenges families face when trying to keep their mother tongue.
Tatyana Davydova is a certified TAFE lecturer, an educational consultant, and the founder of the “Schools of Australia” project. Tatyana helped us in understanding the grading system in the Australian schools and explained the key aims of the Australian school system.
Fifth episode about sport in Australia:
What's ‘footy’? All you need to know about Australian sport
All of the episodes of the series can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. Australia Explained was originally created by Maram Ismail for SBS Arabic24. You can also listen to the podcast in Filipino, Mandarin, Persian, Punjabi, Thai and Turkish.
