Teaching Australian First Nations’ Perspectives – Pain and Pride
The following
materials were used as part of a workshop for Drama Victoria as part of the 2021
Jumpstart Conference on February 20th, 2021. It covers activities
for teachers to approach addressing January 26th and Invasion/
Survival Day.
Acknowledgement of Country
• I would
like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of
this Land. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present
of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians
present.
• I would
like to show my respect and Acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Land,
of Elders past and present, other participants are gathering.
Introduction
First Nation Australians have a
saying ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’. This suggests that time does not matter
and that Indigenous Australians have a sense of place and deserve a recognition
that goes beyond time.
• 65,000 - 50,000 years ago - The
minimum widely accepted timeframe for the arrival of humans in Australia is
placed at least 50,000 years ago. Many sites dating from this time period have
been excavated. In Arnhem Land the Malakunanja II rock shelter has been dated
to around 65,000 years old. First Nations people in Australia certainly have
the longest continuous living culture in the world.
•
40,000 years ago - First Nations peoples were
living throughout Australian in 300-500 distinct groups with different cultures
and languages.
•
10,000 years ago - Agricultural and aqua-cultural
activities start in many different First Nations in Australia.
• January
26th can be a date of division and pain for many – Drama can be used
for truth & reconciliation
Australian First Nations Peoples Timeline
https://ccca.com.au/Frontend/Content/Ccca/CCCA_Factsheet_Timeline.pdf
The story of Australia doesn’t
start on January 26, 1788
• First Nations peoples
have called Australia home since ancient times, making them custodians of the
world’s oldest living culture.
Myths about Australia
Day
• It's the day
Australia was made a nation. WRONG - On 1 January 1901, after legislation was
passed in British Parliament,
• The day Captain Cook
first saw Botany Bay. WRONG - On April 19th 1770, Cook encountered the
east coast
• It's the day
Australia became Independent from the United Kingdom. WRONG -
Australia didn’t become independent from the UK until 3 March 1986.
• It's the day when the
First Fleet arrived in Australia. WRONG - Technically this is also wrong.
The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay on January 18th and decided it was
unsuitable for settlement. They then travelled further north and arrived in
Port Jackson, a.k.a. Sydney Harbour on January 25th.
• We have always
celebrated Australia Day. WRONG - Australia Day, in its current form, has only
existed since 1994. The day was originally referred to as Foundation Day or
First landing day by ex-convicts and colonists. In 1915, Australia Day was held
on July 30th. After WWII many states started to adopt the name Australia Day
but it wasn’t until 1994 that it was adopted as a national holiday.
What
are the alternatives?
- January 1 -
it’s the day the Commonwealth of Australia came into being in 1901.
- January 28th - Some councils
in Australia have done this and call it One Day. January 26th or 27th
becomes a day of memory
- March 3rd - the day Australia
officially cut legal ties with the British. While we're still a part of
the Commonwealth, it's as close as we can get to an Independence Day
without becoming a republic.
- March 12th - On this date in
1913, Canberra was officially named and Australia's capital city was born.
- May 8 - M8 - It can use the
unifying colloquial language phrase “Mate”
- May 9 - In 1901, Australia
became a self-governing body on this date and in 1927, the federal
parliament officially shifted to Canberra and on this date, the current
Parliament House in Canberra was opened.
- May 27 - - On this date in 1967,
Australia held a referendum to include Indigenous Australians in the
census count and to give Federal Parliament the power to specifically
legislate for them. It is a day of reconciliation and it also kicks off
National Reconciliation Week every year.
- July 30 - On this date in 1915 the first Australia Day was
celebrated to rally support for troops in World War I
Activity
1 - Night at the Museum Game – Survival Day
-
One student is the 'guard' and the other students are the exhibits. These
exhibits initially show poses that celebrate colonisation. The students spread
out throughout the room and must hold a pose that shows the events of
colonisation. When the guard is not looking, the exhibits move into poses that
show the real story or events or poses that show the pride and achievements of
First Nations Australians. The guard wanders through the exhibits trying to
catch people moving. The statues/ exhibits must move (I usually tell them they
have to change sides of the room or something) but they have to do it when the
guard is looking at others or has his or her back turned. The game can always
start with a teacher as the guard. Some good images of pride can be taken from
images in Briggs’ picture book or his song ‘Our Home, Our Heartbeat’.
Activity
2 - Theatre of the Oppressed and Image Theatre - Invasion Day Lesson
Image
Theatre usually involved presenting images of a situation or process of
oppression. The still images normally can involve:
- An Image of the situation of oppression
- An Image of what causes the oppression
- An Image of the Solution or other
possible solutions
Image
Theatre is an ensemble's collective visual perspective on an issue that is
being dramatically created. The idea underlying Image Theatre is that a picture
paints a thousand words and that our over-reliance on words can confuse or
muddle issues rather than clarify them. Boal believes our bodies can
short-circuit the censorship of the brain which he often refers to as the ‘Cop
in the Head’. Image Theatre physicalizes or makes dynamic physical transitions
from one moment of enacted theatrical oppression to another. Boal believed
these transitions provide a way for the spec-actors to question, discuss and
analyse and try to solve the problem.
The
workshop begins with theatre games and activities which focus on building basic
performance tools such as learning to use the voice, body, and imagination as
well as skills such as collaboration, listening, observation, improvisation,
and story-telling. These activities also work to break down boundaries in order
to create a safe and trusted group dynamic. Once these have been established,
the next step is to look at the issue of January 26th and the myths surrounding
this day. The focus for the first thirty minutes of this workshop was the
challenge of breaking down the student barriers but giving them a chance to
express their opinions.
As
soon as the group was relaxed, the concepts of Power and Oppression are
introduced. One exercise which works well to show this is called Handshake
Interpretation. This explores power, relationships and the way we view power
while also introducing the idea of Image Theatre and Freeze Framing action. The
exercise begins with two people shaking hands and freezing the pose. The
audience speculates about what sort of relationship the couple may have, who
has the power in the relationship, and the possible situation. The students
acting in the freeze frame can also be given a relationship involving First
nations people and non-Indigenous Australians. These can be secret and a scenario
and the audience has to guess what the relationship is and who has the power.
If this seems to be working well then an audience member can come into the
frozen scene as a spect-actor and replace the person who has less power and
find a way to show that the ‘oppressed’ can show more power in the relationship
presented.
In
pairs, the students rehearse a scene that shows Power and Oppression. One
student is the Oppressor and one is the Oppressed. Homework, Peer group issues
and playground issues work well for school students. For college students,
issues of home life or life in a shared house or dorm work well. The
participants decide who will play each role first and mutually agree on a
conflict scenario before beginning the improvisational scene. The oppressor can
reply in the scene with an expression of an attempt to express their opinion
with a statements such as “Yes, but…”
Once
the students grasped the idea of oppression, larger social scenarios can be
attempted. Then the students can try to show the scenario in three still images
– The Situation, the Cause and the Solution. Initially the Solution presented
in the scene of the act of Oppression should be shown. The audience then act as
spect-actors to suggest, or sculpt the actors or come up and replace an actor
to show a different solution that would end the Oppression.
First Nations - History, Belonging and Metaphor
Learning
Goals
To teach students about First Nations history and
performance elements and how to introduce metaphor into the telling of a story.
To encourage students to use their own life and relationships to create
metaphoric stories. To introduce rhythmic forms which are part of some
indigenous drama forms.
Learning
Sequence
Pairwork
Teacher demonstration (or organise a student to
demonstrate)
Graphic Representation
Practice with feedback
Larger group work
Materials
Marker Pens (1 per pair)
A3 paper (1 per student)
Evaluation
Evaluation for this task should be primarily through encouraging individual and group feedback. Set up the guidelines for positive feedback and owning feedback through 'I' statements e.g. I liked it when...I enjoyed it when... I connected to... DO NOT give written evaluation and feedback to this activity since the stories, people and images used are personal and it is not an activity to assess but rather one to build skills.
1. Imagine a relative, friend or event that although long past, has shaped the way you are and what you have become. Facing a partner, attempt to tell a short story or anecdote about this relative, friend or event and then swap over e.g. My father was a railway linesman and he travelled large distances organising laying train tracks in the outback. When they made the trains electric in Brisbane, he put up the electrical power cables to power the electric trains.
2. Now re-tell your partner the same story using
metaphoric rather than literal language. Start the story by giving a metaphoric
label to the person involved. Students may need help with this. e.g. My
Father, the Serpent Tamer. He would lay huge cages across the desert to make
the Great Rainbow Serpent travel this way and that and go wherever he wanted it
to go. In the big place of lights, he built a special device to drive lightning
through the Rainbow Serpent to make it travel faster and through caves and over
hills. My Father, the Serpent Tamer.
Extension: Tell the story in almost song-like tones: dwelling on the sounds and words you speak. Allow most words to find the rhythm and tone that makes them song-like. Also remember to let your voice and thoughts do the work (so try to cut hand and facial gestures to a bare minimum).
3. The group starts a tapping rhythm or chant. In turn each member of the group sings a short story about where they come from. You can centre it on a person, a description or an event. Try to inject some energy and drama to the activities. Remember that you can be metaphoric, reality is not as important as giving the 'sense' or 'feel' of the place. The group keeps the rhythm or chant going until each person has shared their story of their 'place'.
4. Get some members of the group to sing a
children's song, popular song or ballad in their native language or dialect or
in a different language or a language you don't know. The rest of the members
try to learn the song or part of the song.
Useful Resources for Teaching Australian First
Nations’ Perspectives
ABC Splash Education
Website
Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
http://splash.abc.net.au/topic/-/t/494038/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures
Bangarra Dance Company
Indigenous Dance Company.
http://bangarra.com.au/
Creativespirits
Aboriginal Culture
http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/?/aboriginalculture
Drama Victoria
Bell-Wykes, K., Forgasz,
R. & Hradsky, R. (2020). Teaching First Nations Content and
Concepts in the Drama Classroom - Advice for Teachers in Victorian
Schools. Drama Victoria, Ilbijerri Theatre Company & Monash
University.
http://www.dramavictoria.vic.edu.au/public/51/files/Teaching%20First%20Nations%20Content%20and%20Concepts_VAEAI%20endorsed.pdf
Eckersley, Mark. (2012). Australian Indigenous Drama. Tasman Press. Altona.
Australian Indigenous
Drama Blog
http://australianindigenousdrama.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/australian-indigenous-drama-introduction.html
Bell-Wykes, K., Forgasz,
R. & Hradsky, R. (2020). Teaching for Reconciliation in your
Classroom. Monash University.
https://www.monash.edu/education/teachspace/articles/teaching-for-reconciliation-in-your-classroom
SBS. NITV. Ten Things You Should Know About January 26
Songlines Website
https://teachik.com/songlines/
Yarra Healing. 2012. ‘Unit 7 Changing Lives Changing Ways’ on Teaching and Learning page (Website). CEO Melbourne (Catholic Education Organisation, Melbourne). Melbourne.
http://www.yarrahealing.catholic.edu.au/teaching-learning/index.cfm?loadref=108
