This week, students explore texts that strive to reconcile, move forward and promote acceptance and tolerance. At the beginning of the unit, students were exposed to texts that used the language of difference to marginalise. The following texts are powerful examples of texts in which difference is challenged and a sense of common humanity is underlined. Students are challenged to identify and discuss language that reconciles and collapses binary oppositions.
FOCUS QUESTIONS:
1. What is the role and significance of the language of reconciliation in relations between Self and Other?
2. How is this language different from the language of exclusion and protest?
3. What practical steps have been taken to connect the Self to the other?
4. What can we do now to tell our story?
5. What do you think our story looks like, feels like, sounds like?
Students research the inspiration for Kev Carmody's original version of "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
What does the song celebrate?
What is the purpose and message of this song?
Students listen to extracts from Kevin Rudd's 2008 Sorry Day speech.
Discuss why the video clip begins with an extract from Kevin Rudd's speech.
Explain the symbolism of the sand being passed from one hand to another. What does it allude to?
Yesterday, tomorrow and today are all mentioned in the song. What is the significance of time in the song? What is the role of memory?
Why do you think The Get Up Mob appropriated Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly's song?
How do the pronouns used in this song support the purpose/ message?
Read the extract below from Paul Keating's Redfern Address.
Why do you think this particular speech was alluded to?
At the end of this song, how is the language of the coloniser, of difference, challenged?
Paul Keating
The Redfern Park statement
Extract of an address by Paul Keating (former Prime Minister), 1992
As I said, it might help us if we non-Aboriginal Australians imagined ourselves dispossessed of the land we had lived on for fifty thousand years – and then imagined ourselves told it had never been ours.
Imagine if ours was the oldest culture in the world and we were told it was worthless.
Imagine if we had resisted this settlement, suffered and died in the defence of our land and then were told in history books that we had given up without a fight.
Imagine if non-Aboriginal Australians had served their country in peace and war and were then ignored in the history books.
Imagine if our feats on the sporting fields had inspired admiration and patriotism and yet did nothing to diminish prejudice.
Imagine if our spiritual life was denied and ridiculed. Imagine if we had suffered injustice and then were blamed for it. It seems to me that if we can imagine the injustice we can imagine its opposite. And we can have justice.
Jack Davis - Integration
Let these two worlds combine,
Yours and mine.
The door between us is not locked,
Just ajar.
There is no need for the mocking
Or the mocked to stand afar
With wounded pride
Or angry mind,
Or to build a wall to crouch and hide,
To cry or sneer behind.
This is ours together,
This nation-
No need for separation.
It is time to learn .
Let us forget the hurt,
Join hands and reach
With hearts that yearn.
Your world and mine
Is small.
The past is done.
Let us stand together,
Wide and tall
And God will smile upon us each
And all
And everyone.
Questions for discussion
1/ What are some of the similarities and differences between this poem and The Get Up Mob song?
2/ How is metaphor used to convey the message?
3/ How do the pronouns used throughout the poem support the message?
Moving forward - Making connections
1. Use a Venn diagram to think about five things in Australian and Indigenous culture that you found to be common or different.
2. On the scale* provided, consider where you would place these five items on your own scale of making connecting with the others.
- strange, but different from what I'm used to, alienating
- - - - different, but not alienating
- - - - - - - becoming familiar
- - - - - - - - - - familiar, I feel comfortable about it
- - - - - - - - - - - - - I understand and accept it.
- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - I understand, accept, even enjoy - it is now a part of US.
Wajnryb, Ruth (1991), 'Chiao's story' in Other Voices: A Cross-Cultural Communication Workbook, p131, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia.
3. Write the steps that you think will be needed to move from Stage 1 - strange but different to Stage 6 - Understanding, accepting and enjoying OUR STORY. ACTIVITY
A number of powerful symbols are used in the above texts to reconcile and emphasise a sense of common humanity. Students are to come up with their own symbols that represents reconciliation, sharing or a common humanity. It should be a symbol that challenges the binary oppositions.
Students are to create a poster or CD cover that represents this symbol. They should also write a written justification of this symbol.
Activities to explore Language of Connection and Reconciliation- Reconciliation Australia Website
Students design one page of a class A -Z picture book (print or digital) called "Our Story". Students demonstrate their understanding of language that reconciles and reconnects Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The page should include the students chosen word/ concept, an image that represents this idea and a written text such as a poem, recipe, letter, description, report.
Some examples, A is for Acceptance, B is for Brotherhood, C is for...
YOURS, MINE, OURS
This week, students explore texts that strive to reconcile, move forward and promote acceptance and tolerance. At the beginning of the unit, students were exposed to texts that used the language of difference to marginalise. The following texts are powerful examples of texts in which difference is challenged and a sense of common humanity is underlined. Students are challenged to identify and discuss language that reconciles and collapses binary oppositions.
FOCUS QUESTIONS:
1. What is the role and significance of the language of reconciliation in relations between Self and Other?
2. How is this language different from the language of exclusion and protest?
3. What practical steps have been taken to connect the Self to the other?
4. What can we do now to tell our story?5. What do you think our story looks like, feels like, sounds like?
RESOURCES
Blood Brothers- From Little Things Big Things Grow, Australian Screen Education
The Get Up Mob- From Little Things Big Things Grow
Black Tears - Powderfinger
Jack Davis, "Integration"
Paul Keating's Redfern Address
The Sorry Day Speech
Reconciliation Australia website
ACTIVITIES
Research Task
Students research the inspiration for Kev Carmody's original version of "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
Students listen to extracts from Kevin Rudd's 2008 Sorry Day speech.
Read the extract below from Paul Keating's Redfern Address.
Paul Keating
The Redfern Park statement
Extract of an address by Paul Keating (former Prime Minister), 1992
As I said, it might help us if we non-Aboriginal Australians imagined ourselves dispossessed of the land we had lived on for fifty thousand years – and then imagined ourselves told it had never been ours.
Imagine if ours was the oldest culture in the world and we were told it was worthless.
Imagine if we had resisted this settlement, suffered and died in the defence of our land and then were told in history books that we had given up without a fight.
Imagine if non-Aboriginal Australians had served their country in peace and war and were then ignored in the history books.
Imagine if our feats on the sporting fields had inspired admiration and patriotism and yet did nothing to diminish prejudice.
Imagine if our spiritual life was denied and ridiculed. Imagine if we had suffered injustice and then were blamed for it. It seems to me that if we can imagine the injustice we can imagine its opposite. And we can have justice.
Jack Davis - Integration
Let these two worlds combine,
Yours and mine.
The door between us is not locked,
Just ajar.
There is no need for the mocking
Or the mocked to stand afar
With wounded pride
Or angry mind,
Or to build a wall to crouch and hide,
To cry or sneer behind.
This is ours together,
This nation-
No need for separation.
It is time to learn .
Let us forget the hurt,
Join hands and reach
With hearts that yearn.
Your world and mine
Is small.
The past is done.
Let us stand together,
Wide and tall
And God will smile upon us each
And all
And everyone.
Questions for discussion
1/ What are some of the similarities and differences between this poem and The Get Up Mob song?
2/ How is metaphor used to convey the message?
3/ How do the pronouns used throughout the poem support the message?
Moving forward - Making connections
1. Use a Venn diagram to think about five things in Australian and Indigenous culture that you found to be common or different.2. On the scale* provided, consider where you would place these five items on your own scale of making connecting with the others.
- strange, but different from what I'm used to, alienating
- - - - different, but not alienating
- - - - - - - becoming familiar
- - - - - - - - - - familiar, I feel comfortable about it
- - - - - - - - - - - - - I understand and accept it.
- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - I understand, accept, even enjoy - it is now a part of US.
- Scale © Ruth Wajnyrb
Wajnryb, Ruth (1991), 'Chiao's story' in Other Voices: A Cross-Cultural Communication Workbook, p131, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia.3. Write the steps that you think will be needed to move from Stage 1 - strange but different to Stage 6 - Understanding, accepting and enjoying OUR STORY.
ACTIVITY
A number of powerful symbols are used in the above texts to reconcile and emphasise a sense of common humanity. Students are to come up with their own symbols that represents reconciliation, sharing or a common humanity. It should be a symbol that challenges the binary oppositions.
Students are to create a poster or CD cover that represents this symbol. They should also write a written justification of this symbol.
Activities to explore Language of Connection and Reconciliation- Reconciliation Australia Website
ASSESSMENT - Outcomes 2, 4 and 6.
Students design one page of a class A -Z picture book (print or digital) called "Our Story". Students demonstrate their understanding of language that reconciles and reconnects Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The page should include the students chosen word/ concept, an image that represents this idea and a written text such as a poem, recipe, letter, description, report.
Some examples, A is for Acceptance, B is for Brotherhood, C is for...