YEAR LEVEL:
6-7
INTEGRATED UNIT PLANNER
TOPIC / THEME / KEY INQUIRY QUESTION
Cross Cultural Comparison of Jomon and Ernabella Arts:
What do the Ernabella artists’ design tell us about Aboriginal culture, ways of making, feeling and thinking?
Does the Ernabella pottery tradition have similarities to the Jomon Pottery tradition studied in year 6 2012?
What can we learn from cultural artefacts from SA and NT Indigenous communities?
OVERVIEW OF LEARNING
In exploring the pottery traditions of the Jomon period (which is largely Neolithic) with the pottery
tradition of the Ernabella artists from the Musgrave Ranges in north-western South Australia much can
be learnt about both cultures. In the 1930’s Ernabella was a sheep station that became a Presbyterian
mission but today is Aboriginal run on Aboriginal land. By studying the history and expressions/patterns
of the Jomon, then the Ernabella artists, I will then move onto the teaching unit where we would
explore the similarities and differences of the two forms of pottery traditions and then embark on
practical activities in which the students make their own pots inspired by the patterns and techniques
found in both pottery traditions. By going through this process I believe the students would develop an
appreciation for one of the most ancient forms of Asian Art and see how another Asian Art; Indonesian
Batik influenced the pattern making of the Aboriginal people of South Australia to produce a vibrant
contemporary ceramics studio.
Duration 5-7 weeks of 1 lesson per week.
CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES

Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander histories and cultures

Asia and Australia's
engagement with Asia
Sustainability

Critical & creative thinking
Personal and social capability
GENERAL CAPABILITIES

Literacy
Numeracy

Ethical behaviour

Intercultural understanding
ICT capability
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LINKS TO LEARNING AREAS – CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS
Year 7
Visual Arts:
(Report outcomes Semester 1, 2013 pre ACARA finalisation)
Generating:
Uses Indigenous inspired designs to make and decorate an Ernabella style clay pot
Realising:
Applies skills when transferring a 2 dimensional design to a 3 dimensional form
Responding:
Explains the function and design of a range of Indigenous artefacts
History: Investigating the Ancient Past
Historical Knowledge and Understanding
1. The evidence for the emergence and establishment of ancient societies (including art, iconography, writing
tools and pottery)
 Literacy
 Critical and creative thinking
2.
The nature of the sources for ancient Australia and what they reveal about Australia’s past in the ancient period,
such as the use of resources (ACDSEH031)
Science:
Science as a human endeavour:
Science knowledge can develop through collaboration and connecting ideas across the disciplines of
science (ACSHE223)
Intercultural understanding
The particular elements of intercultural understanding addressed by this content description
Recognising culture and developing respect
Explore and compare cultural knowledge, beliefs and practices
LINKS TO CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
The Australian Curriculum: history values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It
celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories as part of the shared history belonging to all
Australians.
Students will examine historical perspectives from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewpoint. They will learn about
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples prior to colonisation by the British, the ensuing contact and its impacts. They will
examine key policies and political movements over the last two centuries. Students will develop an awareness of the significant
roles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in Australian society.
Organising Ideas: (Country & Place/Culture/People)
OI.3
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have unique belief systems and are spiritually connected to the land,
sea, sky and waterways.
OI.5
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing,
thinking and doing
OI.7
The broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations across Australia.
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Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
This priority will ensure that students learn about and recognise the diversity within and between the countries of
the Asia region. They will develop knowledge and understanding of Asian societies, cultures, beliefs and
environments, and the connections between the peoples of Asia, Australia, and the rest of the world. Asia literacy
provides students with the skills to communicate and engage with the peoples of Asia so they can effectively live,
work and learn in the region.
Organising Ideas: (Asia and its diversity/ Achievements and contributions of the peoples of Asia/ Asia-Australia
engagement)
OI.1
The peoples and countries of Asia are diverse in ethnic background, traditions, cultures, belief systems
and religions.
OI. 4: The arts and literature of Asia influence aesthetic and creative pursuits within Australia, the region and
globally
OI.5
Collaboration and engagement with the peoples of Asia support effective regional and global citizenship
LINKS TO GENERAL CAPABILITIES
Literacy:
Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating (procedure writing) creating Bookcreator app epubs.
Intercultural Understanding
The capability involves students in learning about and engaging with diverse cultures in ways that recognise
commonalities and differences, create connections with others and cultivate mutual respect.
Critical and creative thinking
Critical thinking is essential to the historical inquiry process because it requires the ability to question sources,
interpret the past from incomplete documentation, develop an argument using evidence, and assess reliability
when selecting information from resources. Creative thinking is important in developing new interpretations to
explain aspects of the past that are contested or not well understood.
ICT capability:
create and communicate information and ideas, solve problems and work collaboratively (work in a group to
create iPad epub about the process of making the pots)
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LEARNING INTENTIONS
Understanding, synthesising
and processing the
information given about
Ernabella artists and Jomon
Pottery traditions.
Relating the background
information to the main task
of making the Ernabella
pots.
Literacy and ICTs to
communicate a procedural
process and responding to
Visual Arts forms by creating
in 2 and then, 3 dimensions.
Cross cultural comparisons
and understanding of motifs
used in both cultures.
Elaboration: generating a
range of questions to
investigate a source (for
example a shell midden in
ancient Australia – where it
was found, how long it was
used for, what it reveals
about technology and the
use of environmental
resources)
QUESTIONS
What kind of motifs/designs
were used by the Ernabella
artists for their prints, pots
and batiks?
How do you make an
Ernabella inspired pot in 3
dimensions?
What techniques are used in
making the design and pots?
What can we learn from the
similarities and differences
between the Jomon pots
and Ernabella pots?
LEARNING ACTIVITIES / TEACHING STRATEGIES







What other artefacts were
made and are still made by
Indigenous people of SA and
NT?


Watch the You Tube videos embedded in the school Art wiki
I created.
http://artsmc.wikispaces.com/Clay+pinch+and+Coil+pots
and the Batik artist using the Q wax rather than a tjanting –
for safety in schools.
Provide information cards on the history of both cultures
with maps, techniques used and motifs/designs. Then get
the student to match them up and do a Venn diagram of
similarities and differences.
Practice the motifs used by Ernabella artists and design the
pinch pot.
Teach the techniques of larger pinch pot making by
modelling the process and having laminated procedures as
in the Adopt, Adapt, Share resources for making a coil pot in
the Jomon style pdf.
Use a rubric to assess their design, making and self assessment of their pot and make the rubric available on the
wiki and then print out for their portfolios.
Demonstrate the coil pot making technique and then draw
designs on paper and then transpose the designs onto
bisque fired pots with underglaze paints then fire in the kiln.
(*Air dry clay and acrylic paint could be used for in class- no
kiln situations)
Share some of the work in the Open classroom in term 2 and
on the Art wiki year 7 page.
Utilise the Peter Dermody talk in 2012 for various artefacts
found in SA and NT along with photographs, maps, work
samples from the 2012 and recorded video footage on the
ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Write a procedural text to
communicate the process of
making the pots.
Compare and Contrast the
Japanese Jomon pots with the
Ernabella Pots
Make an Ernabella Pot out of
clay. Rubric on Art wiki for
marking.
Produce an e-publication
using iPads in a group and
present to the class upon
completion. (This could be an
extension activity).
Labelled map with artefacts
illustrated and described.
Completing the object
question cards.
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iPad. Also use the Scootle link to “Circa” for the student
activity: Interrogating objects as evidence “Object Question
Card” form.

Utilise drawings and pot made when the boys were in year 6
for the Jomon pottery and for any students not there in
2012 see work samples on art wiki.
http://artsmc.wikispaces.com/Year+6+Art+Page
RESOURCES
Planners:
CESA online http://online.cesanet.adl.catholic.edu.au/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-1204
QLD: http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/3165.html
New Zealand: http://artsonline.tki.org.nz/Visual-Arts
Ernabella:
Appendix 1 Kate Tyrwhitt on Art wiki:
Ute Eikelkamp, “Don’t Ask for Stories: The Women from Ernabella and Their Art”, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1999, p.83. Translated by
Margaret Dagg. Excerpt available electronically; viewed April 2013: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/lryb/PDFs/eickelkamp_ch5.pdf
Gray, S, 2010, Article “Exquisite Labours: the life’s work of Nyukana (Daisy) Baker “ in Art Monthly Australia, Issue # 2 2 8 A p r i l 2 0 1 0
http://artsmc.wikispaces.com/Clay+pinch+and+Coil+pots
http://www.ernabellaarts.com.au/mainpages/ceramics.html
Jomon Pottery:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5275633_pottery-painting-ideas.html
Artefacts resource Australian Museum –Circa (through Scootle)
http://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/19612/Australia_Circa_b-w.pdf
San Antonio Museum of Art: www.samuseum.org/files/AsianTeacherResourceGuide.pdf
Scootle Learning Path Year 7:
Circa: http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/pin/WTUBVE?userid=24238
ACARA year 7 History:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Year7?a=H&layout=1
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