Quality Literature & Authentic Indigenous Texts

A powerful combination of words and pictures in a quality picture book or other multimodal resource  can be used by a teacher to build on interest, create lessons with high engagement, encourage full and active participation and cover sophisticated intellectual content. It can act as a springboard to deep, critical thinking. 

This is particularly important when examining the cultures and history of our first nation peoples, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Rules for text choice:Questions to consider include:

• Are cultures presented as living, dynamic and changing

• Do resources reflect the diversity of Aboriginal cultures?

• Is stereotyping avoided?

• Does the material encourage critical thinking about social justice issues?

• Are cultures presented as living, dynamic and changing

• Do resources reflect the diversity of Aboriginal cultures

• Is Aboriginal resistance addressed?

                                                Creative Commons www.thesaint-online.com  

NSW Department of Education K-12 Aboriginal Resource Guide (2003) is a very useful document, despite its age.  The sections on selecting and evaluating Aboriginal resources in terms of authenticity is still highly relevant to the new curriculum  and its requirements.  




                       
In each Year students must study examples of:
 *spoken texts
 *print texts
 * visual texts
 * media, multimedia and digital texts.

"a widely defined Australian literature, including texts that give insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia"

Think about purpose & structure. This gives the reader & viewer a meaningful context.Will students be able (through teacher scaffolded tasks) be able to use the visual metalanguage required to analyse the text? 

Indigenous and Non- Indigenous Authors and Illustrators

Some authentic Aboriginal texts that lend themselves to multimodal study and teaching in upper primary & junior secondary…

The most obvious place to start when looking at suitable texts in this area is a list of possible resources by Aboriginal authors and illustrators. A comprehensive list of authors and illustrators can be found on the State Library of Western Australia website.

Helen Sykes (Cengage Learning Australia)  also has a useful annotated bibliography of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander history and culture texts.

This picture book would augment any discussion on indigenous Australia. It could also be studied as an allegory. Shaun Tan's striking surrealist images work with minimal text to deliver strong messages about white settlement and its impact. 







 
This is Australia's answer to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Thought provoking and funny, this novel is a must have for any English department. Students could find their own images to match quotes from the book. See more teaching ideas here. 

Monash Country Songlines is a series of animations that bring the songlines of indigenous Australians alive. It’s important to understand that these songlines or stories that are ‘sung’, pass on an encyclopedic knowledge of Australia's eco-biology, bound up in kinship laws that are embedded in cultural and spiritual traditions. They are a living archive of intergenerational culture and spiritual tradition. A fantastic multimodal resource.

Ideal for upper primary or junior secondary, this novel explores the impact of white settlement on indigenous Australians. It also contrasts the healthy, sustainable lifestyle of Australia's first nation peoples with the poverty and starvation of the white people as they waited for supplies from England. Click here for teaching notes. 

             Image from SCIS

In this beautifully illustrated book, Bronwyn Bancroft, a Bunjalung woman, tells of her experiences growing up in country NSW. Using collage, paint and photographs, the book is a sumptuous visual feast. It's a nostalgic biography with a strong message for future generations and captures the love and wisdom of her elders and their spiritual and physical connection to the land.

Stolen Girl is a fictionalised account of the now universally known story of the Stolen Generation and tells of an Aboriginal girl taken from her family and sent to a children's home. Each night she sings, and dreams of her mother and the life they once shared - of sitting on the verandah of their corrugated-iron home, cooking damper and hunting goanna. But each morning she is woken by the bell to the harsh reality of the children's home, until finally one day she puts into action her carefully crafted plan - unlocking the door and taking her first step back toward home.

        Image from SCIS
Mark Greenwood's text and Terry Denton's watercolour illustrations bring to life this story of conflict and divided loyalties, giving a unique insight into an extraordinary man and a tragic but important part of Australia's frontier history.

          Image from SCIS
'Rosemary Sullivan's simple text and Dee Huxley's vivid illustrations captures the warmth and security of Tom Tom's world as he moves freely within his community from relative to another.  As a pre-school teacher working in remote Aboriginal communities for more than 17 years, Rosemary Sullivan says: 'Tom Tom was inspired by the lives of many indigenous children in the Top End and the importance of family and interconnectedness in Aboriginal life.' Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

See also Read Watch Play Blog , ANTAR Victoria, NAIDOC Childrens' Reading List   

The New English Syllabus, Quality Literature and Multimodal Texts…

Teachers and librarians alike are rejoicing as the new Australian NSW BOS K-10 English syllabus aims to engage students in ‘quality’ literature.

But what does constitute ‘quality’ and where do teaches find quality texts that incorporate the big three perspectives?

The term ‘quality’ is in itself a culturally loaded concept. What constitutes ‘quality’ in the eyes of some does not in the eyes of others.

In a recent article John Marsden commented that although some authors are not considered part of the literary cannon, their works are still highly valuable.

“…good on Paul Jennings, Morris Gleitzman, Andy Griffiths, the late Roald Dahl, and Dave Pilkey (creator of Captain Underpants). These half a dozen writers have done more than anyone else on the planet to get 21^st century children reading.”

He went on to say that educators should be aiming high – rather than being satisfied with the functional, we should be pulling students up to poetic literacy (a level where students can “ ..distil complex thoughts and ideas into intelligible words, argue a case express a feeling, state an opinion or convey a sense of self to others..”).

Marsden, John ( 2013). If kids are literate but don’t like reading, then fine. Aurora Magazine. Catholic Diocese of Maitland Newcastle. 

When selecting an appropriate text, we need to recognize that reading is a two-way transaction. Readers take something away from the text which affects or even changes them, as well as bringing their reading selves and their individual experiences to the text itself. Matching the target audience to text is vital.

We need to keep in mind:

*Reader Identity: the past experiences, literary expectations and reading taste of the reader

*Immersion: how the readers engage through empathising with characters and evoking images

Maine and Waller (2011). Children's Literature in Education

Volume 42, Issue 4, pp 354-371

While the list of suggested texts seeks to provide a list of ‘quality reading and viewing’  for years 7-10; it is merely a starting point.

Other annotated bibliographies are being produced for the Australian Curriculum. The ‘Literature to Support the Australian Curriculum booklet’ is one such example.