These Turkish Kurdish children are learning English through Aboriginal Australian art and culture

Some Turkish primary schools are teaching English to their students through Aboriginal Australian culture and art.

Tunceli Ugur preschool students Source: Supplied

In the Kurdish city of Tunceli, in Turkey, a handful of pre-schoolers are singing for their parents. The song is 'Inanay capuana', an Aboriginal Australian  lullaby. Their faces are painted in Aboriginal style, they play hand-constructed Aboriginal instruments they such as clapsticks and didgeridoos crafted from toilet rolls.

Their parents record the show. There are pictures of Australian and Aboriginal dot paintings on the wall, all painted by the students.

"Their favourite is the kangaroo and snake dance," English teacher Ezgi Nur Kocer tells SBS Turkish.

"When we shout ‘kangaroo!’ they start kangaroo dancing and jumping. When we shout ‘snake!’ They move like a snake."

Turkish primary schools are teaching English to their students through Australian Aboriginal culture and art Source: Supplied

Tunceli Ugur School is one of the 104 primary and 23 high schools operated by Ugur private schools on 13 campuses throughout Turkey.

Australian Aboriginal culture and art is a theme taught in English classes for the group’s primary and preschools. Although it’s a project for English classes, it is integrated with other subjects.

Source: Supplied

Tunceli is a small Kurdish-Allawi city in Turkey with the population of 34,000. There is just one main street and one cinema, which is often closed.

The city is one of poorest yet it is known as the “most educated city” in Turkey with the highest rate of literacy.  Its students top the university entrance scores - equivalent to the Australian HSC and VCE, every year.

It is also in the war zone where the Government fights the against PKK, the Kurdish rebel that has fought the Turkish Government since 1980s.

Tunceli City Centre Source: Muhammed Karadoğan

Teaching English through Aboriginal art and music was the idea of Oya Liz Onguc, head of the primary school English language department at Ugur.

She designed the project and asked all schools to implement it. “It’s a different culture and a different country," Ezgi Nur Kocer tells SBS. "Kids learn and integrate art and music into their English learning."

“Aboriginal people respect nature," she says. "They love nature and animals a lot and respect them.

"Even the materials they use for their art are natural paints and wood.

“While we aim to introduce a different culture to our students we also want them to love and respect nature and animals like Aboriginal Australian people."

The 'Aboriginal music' Facebook page shared SBS Turkish's video of the children singing Source: Aboriginal Music Facebook page

The project has attracted Australia’s attention too. Deputy Head of Mission in the Australian Embassy in Turkey, Daniel Emery, recently visited Ugur Schools in the Turkish capital Ankara, during their Australia and Aboriginal culture and art week.

At the beginning, students thought Australian Aboriginal people were an ancient civilisation that no longer exists. Now they have learned that the people and the culture are very much alive.