Indigenous Voices: Listening to and learning from our First Australian People Sattler Christian College T3, 2018 yr 8/9 English assignment
Opening: Who Is Your Average Australian? https://www.reconciliation.org.au/national-reconciliation-week/#
Due in the last week of Term 3. Get a display folder or another way of presenting your collection. They may be in any order, but please put this assignment in the front so that I can tick off each item as I find it there.
1. In class, we will watch the movie “Satellite Boy”. (Persevere through the slow- ish start and I hope you’ll find it as powerful and enjoyable as almost every other student who has watched it.) a) Glue in the map of the film’s setting in WA and b) fill in the 1 page “Film as Literature” graphic organiser sheet about it.
2. Choose any ONE of the personal recollections from the Stolen Children book to read (either emailed to you, or read one of the class copies). a) What things, in this person’s experience, were done wrongly at the time, and b) Is there anything that can be done now to speak peace, reconciliation and healing into this current situation, which is often a direct or indirect result of what happened because of government policy and social attitudes towards Aboriginal people?
3. “12 Canoes”: Watch these film clips from the web page http://www.12canoes.com.au/: a) The Macassans; b) Thomson Time; c) One other clip of your own choice; d) Nowadays. What TWO things struck you most about EACH of the presentations you watched?
4. Find a song online that deals with any issue to do with Indigenous perspectives. Print it, highlight the most powerful or effective lines in your opinion, and include it in your folder. (Some possibilities could be “Took the Children Away” - Archie Roach (1990, about his own experience of being taken by authorities from his parents to a mission as part of the “Stolen Generation”); “My Island Home” - Warumpi Band (1987) – later made famous by Christine Anu; “Blackfella, Whitefella” - Warumpi Band (1985); “Solid Rock” – Goanna (1982) See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjzCDNOBicw&list=RDqjzCDNOBicw#t=269 version with footage from 1971 film “Walkabout” starring 15 year old David Gulpillil; “From Little Things, Big Things Grow”- Paul Kelly (1991) & Paul Kelly w/ Kev Carmody (1993); “Treaty” - Yothu Yindi, with Paul Kelly & Midnight Oil (1991); Thou Shalt Not Steal- Kev Carmody; Mainstream- Yothu Yindi.)
5. Watch the animated story “The Bat and the Butterfly” and explain TWO things that you learnt about the system of two moieties (look it up!), Yirritja and Dhuwa, of central Arnhem Land:
http://education.abc.net.au/home#!/media/2570424/bat-and-butterfly
(Note: There are several other beautifully-illustrated animated stories on this ABC webpage if you want to watch them: http://education.abc.net.au/home#!/digibook/2570774/dust-echoes)
6. Find a poem (in a book, textbook – eg Pearson English 9 pp162-168 - or online) from an Indigenous perpective. Again, print it, highlight the lines that you think are the most powerful or effective, and include it in your folder.
7. Find and read a short biography or a webpage about an Australian indigenous person who has shown leadership or character in their area of involvement (and no, it can’t be Cathy Freeman or someone obvious! Try to find someone new to you and to the class! E.g. ONE person could do https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/09/28/remembering- david-unaipon-man-fifty-dollar-note ). Write your answers to these questions: a) Did they come up against particular obstacles as a result of their Aboriginality? b) What admirable qualities stand out about this person?
8. Watch any TWO of the short film clips from “40 Stories” at http://40stories.com.au/ (you don’t have to register – just scroll down and click on any of the names and you should find both the film and the script of the film.) Explain: a) how the person became a Christian, and b) what is most important to them in their relationship with Jesus.
9. Go to https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/ a) Copy down TWO of the most depressing statistics about Aboriginal health that struck you. b) Read any ONE of the articles further down the page, and explain in three sentences the key things you learnt from the article. (e.g. 1 about the situation, 1 about the difference between Aboriginal and white Australian statistics/outcomes, and 1 about places where they are seeing improvements/hope for change).
10. Follow this ‘journey’ on the interactive website http://www.shareourpride.org.au/ Hopefully it will reinforce what you have learnt during this unit, but I want you to come away from this final activity with: a) ONE new certainty; b) ONE nagging question which you will follow up (and say how you will do that); c) ONE story, event or section of the Bible which you think is relevant to this topic. (Write them all down!)
------CHOICE OF ONE ONLY ------
Choose ONE item from the following ‘research’ options to include in your folder: a) Mabo – what event and place does this word refer to, when and why did it happen, and why was it so significant then? Is it still significant now, do you think? (e.g. http://mabonativetitle.com/ or other sites)
b)The Wave Hill Walk-Off in 1966 involved Vincent Lingiari and others in the NT. What event and place does this word refer to, why did it happen, and why was it so significant then? Is it still significant now, do you think? https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/land-rights
c) Pemulwuy – Who was he? Why was he significant at the time, and why are people more interested in him nowadays? E.g. Read http://www.convictcreations.com/history/pelmulwy.htm
d)Archaeology, geology, geography, DNA and Dreamtime stories all confirm the oldest living culture: KAKADU!!: https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new- history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021 and https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/22/indigenous- australians-know-were-the-oldest-living-culture-its-in-our-dreamtime and https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/21/indigenous- australians-most-ancient-civilisation-on-earth-dna-study-confirms
Name at least 5 types of ‘evidence’ they have found which confirm what the Australian Aboriginal people have been saying for centuries about their long history.
e)Aussie Rules Footy is an Aboriginal game??? Skim read http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian- reveals-marngrook-influence-on-afl/8439748 and check out https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/marngrook-footy- show . List approximately 5 “clues” from the development of AFL that Sherlock Holmes would use to prove that it originally came from the Aboriginal game called Marngrook.
f)What? The first international cricket tour was by who? www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-15/first-xi-aboriginal- cricket-team-tour-of-england-150-years-on/9547492 Write down a 3-sentence summary of how this came about, what the response was at the time, and what the result was. How do YOU feel now that you know about this?
g) Politics matters: The 1967 Referendum: what was it and why was it significant? http://www.abc.net.au/rightwrongs/
h) The Frontier Wars: Read about them at https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/explainer/what-were-frontier-wars.
Then, describe in a sentence each: one of the causes; one of the massacres; one of the main characters; one of the reasons so many more Aboriginal people died compared to white people; and one of the unfinished issues (see slide 7).
i)Agriculture, fire and farming – the Aborigines managing the whole of Australia BEFORE the white people arrived! https://theconversation.com/the-biggest-estate-on-earth-how- aborigines-made-australia-3787
Name at least 5 things they have evidence for to show that Aboriginal people were ‘farming’ and managing the land carefully for years prior to European invasion. What does the Latin term “Terra Nullius” mean?