Multicultural Australia

1. Multicultural Australia Exploring multicultural Australia through the artworks of Australian Indigenous artist Lin Onus

2. artworks "I kind of hope that history may see me as some sort of bridge between cultures, between technology and ideas." Lin Onus, artist statement, 1990

3. artworks

4. About Lin Onus • The works of Onus often involve symbolism from Aboriginal styles of painting, along with recontextualisation of modern artistic elements. The images in his works include haunting portrayals of the Barmah red gum forests of his father's ancestral country, and the use of rarrk cross-hatching-based based painting style that he learned (and was given permission to use)[6] when visiting the Indigenous communities of Maningrida. • His most famous work, Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute, has been featured on a postcard, and is a reference to his colleague, artist Michael Eather. The painting is of a dingo riding on the back of a stingray which is meant to symbolise his mother's and father's cultures combining in reconciliation. The image of the wave is borrowed from The Great Wave of Kanagawa (1832), by Japanese printmaker, Katsushika Hokusai

5. Unit of work: EXPLORING MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA: CLASS, GENDER, CULTURE, SOCIAL INJUSTICE, TIME AND SPACE • Developing an arts-based Unit of Work, • Using a series of paintings by the Aboriginal artist Lin Onus that include a series of rich tasks, provides excellent opportunities to engage students in substantive discussion and explore issues of difference across time and space. It helps prepare students for a global, multicultural world so they recognize and respect difference, develop social consciousness and demonstrate diverse ways of thinking that fosters tolerance and appropriate citizenship.

6. Issues to explore: • The story of The Snow Queen provides excellent opportunities to explore issues of • friendship, loyalty, self esteem, traditional storytelling, communication through technology, the • way we see things from different perspectives. • Developing an arts-based Unit of Work, using the Snow Queen • Story that include a series of rich tasks, helps prepare students for • a global, multicultural world so they recognize and respect • difference, develop social consciousness and demonstrate diverse • ways of thinking that fosters tolerance and appropriate citizenship

7. The Snow Queen provides opportunities to explore issues such as • - Friendship • - Love • - Loyalty • - Self-esteem • - Determination • - Values • - Triumph of good over evil • - Bullying • - Traditional storytelling vis-à-vis communicating using new technology • - Seeing events/issues from different perspectives.

8. Activities • › Exploring aspects of The Snow Queen story through the arts • › Students investigate and discuss the production elements and roles involved in the staging of the • play. Students work in pairs to write a critical review focusing on one element of the creative • interpretation of the production e.g. costumes, the sets, use of space etc. Students use their • reviews and produce a magazine based on the play. • › Link to literacy and leadership • › Students choose three moments in the story that they consider critical and present these as still • digital images. Students further explore and write about these moments and how they relate to an • incident that happened in their own life. The photo images can be displayed alongside their • descriptions in a personal diary or exhibited in a student gallery (virtually or in the school). • › Link to visual literacy and self reflection • › Students further investigate the characteristics of ‘the maker’, ‘the traveller’, ‘the hunter’ and create • puppets that symbolize these characters. Students compose a music piece that embodies the • characteristics of each puppet and develop a short DVD to introduce their puppets and the music. • › Link to exploration of character and visual characterization

9. Exploring aspects of The Snow Queen story through the arts • › The shard of glass lodged in Kay’s eye made him see things differently. Students • visualize through drawing or painting 2 scenes from Kay’s and Gerda’s • perspectives. Link to values, good vis-à-vis evil • › Kay considers his enemy is anyone or anything that • › makes him feel ‘small’. • › Students discuss who or what makes them feel • › small and how to handle this feeling. • › Collages can be created using magazine photos to • › create the feeling of size personality and ego. • › Link to bullying and/or portrayal in the media • › of well-known people.

10. Exploring aspects of the minuet across the curriculum: • › Link to History • › Link to Social Sciences • › Link to Mathematics • › Link to Science • › Link to Geography • › Link to Technology (ICT) • › Link to LOTE • › Link to PDHPE • › Link to Creative Arts • › Link to all the Nominated Areas of the Standards • › Design rich learning tasks, based on the minuet • › Consider suitable pedagogy strategies • › Develop appropriate assessment 4 learning strategies

11. Exploring aspects of The Snow Queen story through the arts • › ‘Which will you choose, the head or the heart?’ Explore the meaning of each and discuss • students’ choice. Students create an artwork using mixed media to demonstrate these • different choices. Students mime their choice using drama conventions. • › Link to choices and contexts, self in society • › Students discuss the virtual Snow Queen — • › the emotionless and calculating personality • › represented by the cold world of computers. • › Explore the impact of computers on society • › and communication (e.g. facebook, twitter etc.) • › • › Link to socio-cultural issues as portrayed in • › the media

12. Beyond the performance, across the curriculum • › Preliminary research activities: • › • › Identify and discuss the symbolism used in the performance • (Creative Arts, Society & Culture, Languages). • › Students develop a vocabulary list including technological terms relating to the performance • (English Literacy, Media Studies, Technology Education). • › Students select one of the symbols and research further (eg snow crystals, the river, the swallow, • the crow) from a science/biology perspective (Sciences). • › Students explore the mathematical beauty of the Snow Queen and research snow crystals and • other natural forms from a mathematical perspective (Mathematics). • › Students investigate the geography of the frozen North (Geography). • › Students explore the culture and histories of people who inhabit the arctic lands (HSIE, Community • & Family Studies). • › Students research Australia’s explorers of the South Pole (Australian History, Geography

13. Rich tasks • › Students recontextualize the story and set it in a different time/place and write a • short animation movie proposal (English Creative Writing) • › Students develop a storyboard for a scene of their animated movie (English • Literacy, Media Studies, Technology Education, Animation, Visual Arts) • › Students use the multimedia story telling software KAHOOTZ and develop their • own experimental machinima based on their recontextualization of the Snow • Queen story (Technology Education, Animation, Visual Arts) • › Students compile a short (2 minute) video clip based on the story board • › Students design and develop the music for the video clip using GarageBand • (Technology Education, Music) • › Students design and produce a marketing campaign for their proposed movie • (Design & Technology Education, Visual Arts, Graphic Design, Business Studies, • Economics, Legal Studies) • THE SNOW QUEEN, activities • 10