A quality early learning program values and builds on the variety of cultures, languages and practices that children bring from their families and communities. It builds bridges between children’s homes and social contexts, and the early learning program and schooling.

This takes some understanding of the different ways children experience childhood. Using the words of the Early Years Learning Framework, childhood is all about belonging, being and becoming.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, connections to family, community, culture and place are especially important in shaping their identity.  

…our world is always about being related…it is about being related to people, to the sky, the salt water, the animals, the plants, the land…that is how we hold who we are…it is that we are related to everything else.

(Martin, K, 2005, ‘Experiences of relatedness, rites and responsibilities: Aboriginal early childhood realities of present and future, and what research hasn’t been able to tell us.’ Paper presented at Our Children the Future Conference, June, Adelaide, 2005 in Priest, K, 2005 p12)

When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families come to an early learning program, they generally experience a Western world view of childhood, learning and development. This will come through in all aspects of the program, from how the environment looks and feels to the nature of relationships within it — the languages used and how families are engaged in the program.
 
Effective educators build learning bridges with the children and their families through a collaborative, two-way process.