Django includes

Another problem which has irked me in recent days is including another file within the one I am displaying.
If I use the include statement in a page which is used by django like
this;
{% include "includes/footer.html" %}
I need to change it to look like;
{% include "static/includes/footer.html" %}
What do I need to edit within django so it can represent or look
similar to changes I have made to the app.yaml file?
- url: /includes
static_dir: static/includes

While this is something of a fixable problem it is exacerbated when theapplication is loaded onto the Google appspot and the the file to include is ignored even though the file is present.