Activity 7: Creative Expression

Aim:

These activities are designed to allow students to be creative with their interpretations and understanding of migration and diversity issues. The activities can be modified for use with most age groups and are suitable in subjects across the curricula.

Method:

Teachers can adapt the ideas highlighted on each worksheet to suit their individual needs. The resources can be used after completion of the module, or by teachers running cross curricula activities in conjunction with teachers from humanities/studies of society and environment.

Resources:

Poetry ( PDF 245 KB)
Reflecting on literature ( PDF 236 KB)
Get creative ( PDF 268 KB)

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Poetry

Write a poem to demonstrate your own experience of Australia. An example is shown below.

Don Dale Boys Hip Hop

In and out, in and out always stuck in Don Dale
Always been in Darwin, never seen my land
Have to see the world and stop wasting my time
Always in here for doing the crime.
We have to get back to that great big school
We need to get ourselves some qualifications and edification
We have to get out and get ourselves a job and
Get on with our lives in the big wide world.
Wanna put my effort into my community
Cleaning up the place instead of sitting under trees
Me and my mates working for some monies
So we can travel our big land and go overseas.
Represent our country
Live and die in NT
Represent our homeland
From the tableland to the sea
We have been here from the start
This land is in our heart.
45,000 years
We been full of fears
Now it’s time to hear our voice
We are the youth
And we are bullet proof.
It ain’t about black and white
It’s just about doin’ right.

Submitted as part of a Voices of Australia writing workshop by students (ages 12-17 yrs - all Indigenous background) at the Don Dale Education Unit, Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre, Darwin NT

Your poem
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Reflecting on literature

Consider the following questions in regards to your favourite novel/film/poem/song or English text book (see the resource list for ideas).

• What themes around diversity appear in this work?
• Are there any rights in conflict? (ie. the right to live free of discrimination)
• Is discrimination occurring in any way? Who is responsible for discrimination? Is it direct or indirect discrimination?
• Is the author/artist being discriminatory in any way? Is there any event or background information that you know of, that may have shaped the author’s opinion?
• What does this work say about the relationship between rights and responsibilities that we have in our society?
• Is there any conflict between the needs of the individual and the needs of society?
• Are there any examples of compassion and/or respect for others in our society?
• Does this work give you a greater understanding/empathy for other groups in society?
• Does the work raise any similar issues in your class/school/community/society?
  
  

Name of text:

Author:

Date of publication:

Response:

 

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Get creative

Create an artistic piece (painting/song/drama play/menu/stage costume) that celebrates the themes of diversity, anti-discrimination and multiculturalism.

See the resource list below for examples to inspire you!

Sample resource list

Many are from the NSW HSC English Syllabus, available at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu. au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/eng_stg6_prescrpt_0608.doc.

Prose fiction

• Ballard, J G, Empire of the Sun, HarperCollins, 1994, ISBN 0006547001
  
• Card, Orson Scott, Ender’s Game, Orbit, 1998, ISBN 185723720X
  
• Courtney, Bryce, The Power of One, Random House, 1989, ISBN 0345359925
  
• Lee, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird, HarperCollins, 1960 ISBN 0060194995
  
• Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Penguin Classics, 1986, ISBN
  0140430180

Drama/Shakespeare

• Gow, Michael, Away, Currency Press, 1988, ISBN 0868192112
  
• Jamieson, Nigel, In Our Name (Performed 2004, Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney)
  
• Nowra, Louis, Capricornia, Currency Press, 1992, ISBN 0868193135
  
• Nowra, Louis, Così, Currency Press, 1994, ISBN 0868194034
  
• Nowra, Louis, Radiance, Currency Press, 1993, ISBN 0868193704
  
• Shakespeare, William, The Tempest, Cambridge University Press, New Cambridge
  Shakespeare, 2002, ISBN 052129374X, or Cambridge School Shakespeare, 1995, ISBN
  0521479037

Poetry

• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems, Penguin Classics, 1997, ISBN 0140423532
  
  ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1834)’, *‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’, ‘Frost at Midnight’, ‘Kubla Khan’
  
  *In this edition there are two versions of this poem. The prescribed version is as listed.
  
  
• Skrzynecki, Peter, Immigrant Chronicle, University of Queensland Press, 1975, ISBN 0702210528
  
  ‘Immigrants at Central Station, 1951’, ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, ‘Crossing the Red Sea’, ‘Leaving home’, ‘Migrant hostel’, ‘A drive in the country’, ‘Post card’
  
  
• Sujata Bhatt, ‘The One Who Goes Away’; Ivan Lalic, ‘Of Eurydice’; Gwyneth Lewis, ‘Fax X’; Mudrooroo, ‘A Righteous Day’; János Pilinszky, ‘The French Prisoner’; Vittorio Sereni, ‘A Dream’; Xuan Quynh, ‘Worried Over the Days Past’
  
  
• Watson, Ken (ed), At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners, St Clair Press, 1999, ISBN 0949898937

Nonfiction

• Bragg, Melvyn, On Giants’ Shoulders, Sceptre, 1999, ISBN 0340712600
• Morgan, Sally, My Place, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987, ISBN 0949206318
• Martin, Jesse, Lionheart, Allen & Unwin, 2001, ISBN 1865085707

Film

• Benigni, Roberto, Life is Beautiful, Roadshow, 1999
• Chadha, Gurinder, Bend it like Beckham (UK), Fox Searchlight Productions, 2002 (see www2.foxsearchlight.com/benditlikebeckham/)
• Do, Khoa, Footy Legends, Icon Films, 2006 (see www.footylegends.com/site.cfm)
• Noyce, Phillip, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Magnum Pacific, 2002
• Zemeckis, Robert, Contact, Warner Bros, 1997

Songs

• ‘Song of Australia’ (see www.songaustralia.com.au/song/index.php)
• Yothu Yindi, Treaty from Tribal Voice, Mushroom Records, 1991 (see www.yothuyindi.com)