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Warning
This text might identify Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who are now deceased in ways that inadvertently give offence to particular families or communities.
Copyright information
Published on the internet in 2007 by the Board of Studies NSW, GPO Box 5300, Sydney 2001, Australia.
Tel: (02) 9367 8111 Fax: (02) 9367 8484
Website: www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au
ISBN 978 174147 4350
2006324
© 2007 Copyright Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales.
This document contains Material prepared by the Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the State of New South Wales.
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The anglicising of Aboriginal words has resulted in many of them having a variety of spellings. The spellings in this resource kit are generally consistent with those used by the
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Horton, D (ed),
Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (Aboriginal Studies Press, 1994), but it is acknowledged that there are other spellings that are equally valid.
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Foreword by Gordon Stanley
Foreword by Carlo Svagelli
Introduction to the Affirmations of Identity Kit
Aboriginal Education Policies
Contents of Affirmations of Identity Kit
Indigenous Art and the New South Wales Curriculum
Community Consultation and Protocols
Considerations When Developing Teaching Programs
Strategies for Teaching Aboriginal Students
Terminology
Map of Areas Associated with the Featured Artists
Timeline and Associated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
Units of work
Unit 1: A Cultural Journey
Unit 2: Ceramic Creatures
Unit 3: Unforgettable Tucker
Unit 4: Ancestors and Family Members
Unit 5: Reconciliation
Unit 6: Objects in the Landscape
Unit 7: Cultural Intersections
Unit 8: Place, Possession and Dispossession
Glossary
8
10
11
12
13
4
5
6
6
7
43
51
59
67
14
15
25
27
35
75
83
97
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It is now seven years since the publication of the original Affirmations of Identity kit. It received a great deal of praise for shedding light on the current and historical diversity of
‘Aboriginal identity’ as represented in the visual arts. This web publication provides a much wider distribution of these resources and allows new functions such as the thematic packaging of images. It also has a wide range of website links to facilitate further research into the world of Aboriginal visual arts.
The visual arts can help break down barriers between people by communicating ideas and emotions that transcend words. When artists imaginatively and profoundly express personal insights, they can move audiences to greater empathy for cultural beliefs or attitudes.
The Affirmations of Identity suite of documents recognises the significance of the visual arts as part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage and enables teachers and students to appreciate not only the visual messages of the artworks but also the cultural meanings and personal issues that have informed the production of these works.
As well as being useful in the study of visual arts, this kit also has applications in Aboriginal
Studies, History and Geography, and more widely across the curriculum to assist in the development of a deeper understanding of Aboriginal culture and artistic practices. The Board of Studies is delighted to support the re-publication of this highly respected curriculum resource.
(Professor) Gordon Stanley
President
Board of Studies NSW
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This kit of educational resources is called ‘Affirmations of Identity’ because the resources call attention to the pride that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have in their identities and in their cultural heritages.
The material in this kit recognises that not only have the visual arts of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people survived, they are flourishing. Nor are they standing still: today’s artists are using new techniques and technologies, and coming up with new art forms, interpretations, stories and statements.
The selection of artists and works that are discussed in the kit suggest the diversity of
Australia’s Indigenous visual artists and hint at the depth of talent and wide range of ideas that they have.
In both urban and rural areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual artists are using their skills to sustain solidarity, to inform and enlighten, to challenge and to reconcile.
They are also retelling important inherited stories in traditional and contemporary ways. They are contributing to the continuation of cultures that have existed since the beginning of time.
The internet publication of Affirmations of Identity will assist students to appreciate
Indigenous artists, to understand something of what they are saying, and to acknowledge the ancient cultures of which they are a part.
Carlo Svagelli
President
NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc
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The Affirmations of Identity kit has been designed specifically for students of Visual Arts in
Years 7–10 and as support material for Aboriginal Studies, but it can be used for other subjects such as History, Geography and Legal Studies.
This resource is intended to assist teachers with investigating the nature of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander art and with incorporating Aboriginal perspectives into their teaching programs. It provides biographies of selected artists and information about their artworks and artmaking practices, as well as images and sample units of work. Issues of copyright and misappropriation are also discussed.
It is hoped that the discussion of artists, artworks, communities and organisations in this kit will contribute to the breakdown of intercultural barriers and to the enhancement of the process of Reconciliation.
Aboriginal Education Policies
This kit addresses the following goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education Policy :
Goal 20 – To enable Aboriginal students at all levels of education to have an appreciation of their history, cultures and identity.
Goal 21 – To provide all Australian students with an understanding of and respect for
Aboriginal traditional and contemporary cultures.
This kit also supports the dual aims and objectives of the New South Wales Aboriginal
Education Policy (NSW Department of Education and Training, 1995). These are:
1.
To promote the education achievements of Aboriginal students.
2.
To educate all students about Aboriginal Australia.
This policy is mandatory in all government schools in NSW.
The kit also supports the recommendations in the Report of the Review of Aboriginal
Education (DET 2004, https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/reviews/aboriginaledu/the_report.htm
)
In particular, the kit supports the call in recommendation 12(c) for ‘regional support material that identifies Aboriginal cultural knowledge, skills and expertise that can be accessed by schools’, and the call in recommendation 13(a) for ‘mandatory content in current and future
Board of Studies syllabuses related to Aboriginal cultures and history be made explicit for teachers and that this content be supported by specific support materials…’
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Contents of the Affirmations of Identity Kit
The three resources in this kit are the
Teacher’s Handbook
, Protecting Australian Indigenous
Art and Gallery and Artists .
The Teacher’s Handbook
As well as containing advice on how to make the best use of the Affirmations of Identity kit, the Teacher’s Handbook has eight sample units of work. These cover a diversity of ideas and concepts, providing examples of ways to develop students’ understanding of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander art and perspectives.
The units of work are designed for implementation in Years 7–10. Students in Stage 4 Visual
Arts (Years 7–8) explore artmaking, critical and historical studies and the content of practice, the frames and the conceptual framework. The units of work aim to develop understanding about the range of ways that personal stories, culture, heritage and contemporary issues are represented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
Students in Stage 5 (Years 9–10) explore similar content in more complex ways. They consider more challenging ideas that focus on community interests, political issues, life experiences, concepts of identity and cultural differences.
Protecting Australian Indigenous Art: ownership, copyright and marketing issues for New South Wales schools
In this resource http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/visual-arts-7-10/protectingaustralian-indigenous-art issues of intellectual property, cultural control, appropriation, misappropriation and copyright are explained and examined with reference to case studies.
The text explores the limitations of existing legislation in protecting Aboriginal art styles owned by communities, and the problems associated with misappropriation by artists outside these communities. Proposals for changes are discussed. Many of the issues relate particularly to Aboriginal communities that are seeking to maintain longstanding cultural traditions.
Classroom activities are included so teachers can engage their students with these issues.
Information about the ways students may use Aboriginal art is also included.
Gallery and Artists
This resource http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ contains information about a broad range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, art-producing communities and art galleries. The selected works provide teachers and students with an indication of the extent of the diversity encompassed by the term ‘Aboriginal Art’. Comments on artmaking practices complement biographical and background notes. There are recommendations for further reading and viewing, a glossary, and links to gallery sites to provide access to current works and practices.
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Indigenous Art and the New South Wales Curriculum
The following sections describe some of the ways in which the Affirmations of Identity kit relates to syllabuses in the subjects of Visual Arts, Aboriginal Studies, History and
Geography.
Visual Arts
Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2000)
The Visual Arts component of the Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/arts/k6_creative_arts_syl.pdf
encourages students to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of the visual arts by engaging in learning experiences in making and appreciating. By including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and
Aboriginal perspectives in the teaching of Visual Arts, teachers will assist students in developing an awareness of the diversity of ideas and artworks that can be produced. Such awareness will also assist students in appreciating Aboriginal history and culture, and in comprehending Australian society today. The syllabus recommends that all students from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3 experience the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Visual Arts Years 7–10 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2003) www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/visual_arts_710_syl.pdf
This syllabus offers a range of learning experiences for students to investigate, both practically and theoretically, the art of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through artmaking, and critical and historical studies. The syllabus provides opportunities for teachers and students to appreciate Aboriginal culture as one of the oldest living cultures, and to consider ways in which vital aspects of cultural knowledge are transmitted through the visual arts.
The frames (subjective, cultural, structural, postmodern) provide alternative ways for teachers and students to investigate ideas, meaning, belief and values in art. The frames generate different understandings about the function of, and relationships between, the agencies of the conceptual framework (artist, artwork, audience, world), the role of the artist and their interpretation of the world, artworks, and the way audiences may respond to artworks.
In artmaking, students are provided with opportunities to make different kinds of artworks in
2-D, 3-D and 4-D forms representing a range of ideas and interests. Students can also consider how their artworks can be informed by their knowledge of the artworks of particular artists and cultural groups.
The syllabus provides opportunities for students to study a range of artworks made by
Indigenous artists using traditional and contemporary technologies.
Visual Arts Stage 6 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 1999)
There are many ways in which the study of the artistic practices of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples is relevant to this syllabus. The syllabus addresses the characteristics of, and the types of inquiries that may be undertaken in artmaking, art criticism and art history, and looks at the social nature of these practices. The conceptual framework explicitly addresses the agencies in the artworld – artist, artwork, world and audience.
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These aspects of content provide many ways for teachers and students to investigate the artistic practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in contemporary and historical contexts. They can look at the types of work produced and at some ideas, issues and concepts of traditional and contemporary significance. Relationships between artist, artwork, world and audience can be examined with reference to the significance of Indigenous art in local, national and international settings.
The units of work can be used as the springboard for work in the Preliminary and HSC courses through the investigation of concepts and theories raised in general Preliminary course investigations and through the case studies in the HSC course. Teachers could also deepen students’ understanding through the suggested research and related activities.
Using the structural frame, students can consider how the visual arts function as a form of communication: ideas are transmitted about the world through the signs, symbols and conventions that are used in artworks and read by informed audiences. This approach can be developed in artmaking activities and in art criticism and art history activities.
Using the cultural frame, students can consider how the visual arts reflect and construct beliefs and attitudes about cultural identity. The cultural frame offers a way to understand how artworks represent significant beliefs and experiences of particular cultural groups and language groups. This frame also offers a way to understand how the artist can take on the
‘voice’ of the group in producing art. Like the structural frame, this frame offers a way to understand Indigenous art and to consider ways to promote the development of wider understanding of cultural identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Aboriginal Studies
Aboriginal Studies Years 7–10 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2003) www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/ab_studies_710_syl.pdf
and Aboriginal Studies Stage 6 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 1999) www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/aboriginalstud_syl.pdf
This kit will give valuable assistance to teachers and students in understanding the diversity and complexities of contemporary Aboriginal cultures and identities, and the ways these are manifested in the visual arts. In discussing a variety of Aboriginal artists and their interactions with both the physical and metaphysical worlds, the kit explores the role of the visual arts in the expression and transmission of Aboriginal culture. The kit also provides cultural, legal and historical frameworks for studying the diversity of Aboriginal senses of heritage and identity.
History
History Years 7–10 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2003) www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/history_710_syl.pdf
The Affirmations of Identity kit will be a useful resource for teaching History in Years 7–10 as many artworks examine the nature of colonisation and its ongoing effects (Stage 4, Topic 3).
Other artworks examine areas of Aboriginal studies and give Aboriginal perspectives on other
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topics. The Stage 5 Australian History course includes a contemporary focus, and the artworks in this kit can be used to include Aboriginal perspectives on the issues raised in each topic.
Geography
Geography Years 7–10 Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2003) http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/geography_710_syl.pdf
This kit can be effectively used to support Geography in Years 7–10. The artworks are particularly useful in the Stage 5 Australian Geography course as it focuses on Australia’s identity and Australian environments. The kit can also contribute to effective teaching and learning for the integrated Civics and Citizenship component of the syllabus.
Community Consultation and Protocols
The inclusion of Aboriginal perspectives in all aspects of study should be negotiated with
Aboriginal people and communities. Consultation will provide the basis for a mutually beneficial relationship between the school and local Aboriginal communities.
The advice in Working with Aboriginal Communities: A Guide to Community Consultation and Protocols (Board of Studies NSW, 2001) (search for print item 9780731349388 on Shop
Online) https://bosho.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/links/shoponline.html
will assist greatly in the use of this kit. It contains guidance on developing sustainable partnerships between schools and communities, enhancing the learning experiences of students and promoting reconciliation.
The NSW Department of Education and Training provides a support network for Aboriginal education. Consultants in Aboriginal Education and Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers are located in School Education Offices, and Aboriginal Education Assistants are located in schools. These people form the link between schools and Aboriginal communities. Contact your nearest School Education Office to locate your nearest Consultant or Aboriginal
Community Liaison Officer. If there is an Aboriginal Education Assistant in your school, invite them to participate in the planning and delivery of your programs.
The Catholic Education system employs Aboriginal Education Officers and Aboriginal
Education Workers. More information is available at your nearest Diocesan Office.
The NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Inc (AECG) is the peak body for consultation on Aboriginal education in NSW. They have local and regional organisations that can be contacted for assistance and guidance. For more information, contact the
Secretariat:
NSW AECG Inc
37 Cavendish Street
Stanmore NSW 2048
Phone (02) 9550 5666, fax (02) 9550 3361 www.nswaecg.com.au
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It is recommended that wherever possible schools employ an Aboriginal artist or performer to guide classroom activities. The involvement of Aboriginal people gives authenticity to
Aboriginal perspectives. There are Aboriginal artists’ cooperatives throughout NSW and some are listed in the Resources section in this document.
For Aboriginal education to be successful a good consultation process is essential.
When undertaking community consultation teachers must be aware of the protocols that exist in Aboriginal communities. Many of the issues raised by the works in this kit are contentious for Aboriginal people and communities and therefore must be approached with sensitivity. It is vital that teachers view consultation as a two-way, ongoing process where all people involved learn from each other through negotiation, listening, flexibility and openmindedness.
Below is some general advice about approaching Aboriginal communities. As all communities are different, it is best to seek more specific advice from the local or regional
AECG.

Be introduced to the Aboriginal community by someone from that community or someone that the community knows and trusts. It is generally a good idea for men to consult and spend time with other men, and women with women.
 Recognise that Aboriginal people’s resources and time are valuable. Ensure that you give advance notice of meetings and visits.
 Allow time for people to respond to your proposals. Ask questions indirectly, allowing people time to consider your request as well as allowing room for them to decline without anyone being shamed.

Be willing to adapt your program and approaches on the advice of the Aboriginal or
Torres Strait Islander people you consult. Always respond to requests and concerns put forward by the community who are advising or assisting you with your program.

Avoid placing Aboriginal people in situations where they may feel uncomfortable.
Schools can be one of these situations. This can be avoided by meeting with people in a neutral or negotiated place.

Be aware of Aboriginal English and the significant level of non-verbal communication that occurs within Aboriginal communities. Ensure that your body language is consistent with your intentions and attitudes.

Be brief, to the point and speak plainly, avoiding jargon and acronyms.
 Acknowledge and appropriately remunerate Aboriginal people for their consulting services. Ensure that people understand the purpose and outcome of the consultation.

It will take more than one meeting for effective consultation to take place. Be patient and learn from your mistakes.
Considerations When Developing Teaching Programs
Teachers must ensure the programs they are developing are culturally sensitive. The following suggestions might help with developing inclusive and appropriate teaching and learning activities.
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
Discourage students from copying or using Aboriginal signs or symbols in their own artmaking. This not only causes great offence to Aboriginal people, but also infringes copyright. Students should be encouraged to develop their own symbolic visual language when learning about the systems of symbolic meaning in Aboriginal artworks. Be aware that non-Aboriginal people will never fully know or understand Aboriginal signs or symbols because they are not meant to.

Ensure that any resources used are culturally sensitive and appropriate. If in doubt, consult with Aboriginal people.

Integrate other aspects of Aboriginal art and culture, such as the oral tradition, the performing arts, song, and dance wherever possible.
 Avoid aspects of Aboriginal art containing sacred or secret or ‘inside’ information. It is inappropriate to address this area in classroom situations; most Aboriginal people would find it offensive. However, it is important that students are informed about this issue and learn to respect it. Aboriginal artists or advisors may provide some background to this issue.

Encourage an understanding of Aboriginal culture as a dynamic living culture which, like all cultures, adjusts to change and has a history.
 Avoid reference to traditional Aboriginal culture as ‘primitive’, ‘Stone Age’, or ‘simple’, as these terms are highly offensive.

Follow correct protocols when using works by an Aboriginal artist who has died. Students should be aware that in some communities the mentioning of names and display of photographs of people who have died are signs of disrespect to them and their families.
Permission must be sought from families to show images of the deceased.
 Discourage generalised or stereotypical characterisations of Aboriginal art, artists, culture or communities. Make specific reference to place, time, people and events, and draw attention to the rich diversity that exists within Aboriginal societies and the art produced.

Recognise how contemporary Aboriginal art can adapt Western art forms and new technologies and media, and still communicate cultural knowledge and express
Aboriginality.

Keep informed of significant developments and innovations in the ways Aboriginal art practice, forms and media change over time. There are numerous magazines, catalogues and newspapers that have current information.
Strategies for Teaching Aboriginal Students
As the biographical information in the Gallery and Artists webpages shows, visual arts is an area where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can have opportunities to enrich and affirm their cultural identities. The following are suggestions that teachers should consider.

Wherever possible employ an Aboriginal artist, dancer or storyteller to work with the students in the classroom.

Acknowledge that Aboriginal students will not necessarily be well informed about all aspects of their cultural heritage. Some will know a great deal while others might know little.
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
Enrich the classroom environment by displaying positive affirmations of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and art.

Provide Aboriginal students with opportunities to enrich and affirm their cultural identity if they choose to do so. Do not assume that all students will have the desire to do this. Teachers need to recognise that Aboriginal students, like other students, learn in a variety of ways, have special needs and come from cultures with very rich and diverse creative arts traditions. Teachers need to be flexible in their delivery of programs and in the way they respond to Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students’ learning styles.

Avoid stereotyping Aboriginal students by their physical attributes or the way they learn, as this will have negative effects on them. It is best teaching and learning practice to meet the needs of all students as learners from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
 Acknowledge and recognise Aboriginal English as the home language of many
Aboriginal students; use it as a building block within the classroom.

Develop an awareness of otitis media and other health problems affecting learning outcomes for Aboriginal students.

Acknowledge that some Aboriginal students will need time for family commitments, cultural traditions and events that affect their daily lives.

Encourage the Aboriginal Education Assistant to participate in classroom activities; they are able to offer support for the students and teachers.
Terminology
Terminology changes over time within Aboriginal culture and communities. The following is a selection of terms to help teachers with the sensitive implementation of the units of work.
 Aboriginal people is the preferred term. Aborigine is an outdated term and can
often offend some Aboriginal people.

In any writing activity, the word Aboriginal should always be written using a capital ‘A’.

It is unacceptable to use the terms half-caste or full blood when referring to
Aboriginal people. This is highly offensive.

Use terms such as group, nation, language group or cultural group rather than the word tribe , as it is now outdated terminology. Some Aboriginal people refer to themselves as traditional , not tribal .

Avoid using words such as legends and myths when referring to the Dreaming or
Dreaming stories. Dreaming is preferred to Dreamtime as the latter refers to the past, and is not inclusive of the present and the future.

Torres Strait Islanders do not consider themselves Aboriginal people. There are similarities and differences between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
 Torres Strait Islanders refer to their traditional stories as legends rather than
Dreaming stories.

Aboriginal people will often refer to themselves as Koori, Murri, Noonga etc.
These names refer to a particular group or area to which they belong (see glossary). They are not general terms and should not be used as such.
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1816
This timeline is designed so teachers are able to see how historical and political events have been interpreted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists (traditional, contemporary, rural and urban). By no means inclusive of all the events, it is merely a framework for teachers to adapt and develop according to their own needs and programs.
Please refer to the Affirmations of Identity Gallery and Artists .
Date Events Artists and Artworks
Pre-1770 Cultural events celebrate the Dreaming and communicate stories through oral accounts, visual symbols, dance and music. The stories tell of beginnings, survival and relationships.
Paintings
Drawings
Body Art
Clothing
Carvings
Constructions
Utensils – Roy Barker, NSW Artists
1770
1788
Captain James Cook raises the British flag on
Possession Island and claims Australia for the
British Government. The
British assume the land is terra nullius .
H J Wedge, Captain Cook Con Man, acrylic on masonite.
Peta Lonsdale, on canvas board.
Koori Flag
1991,
, 1993, acrylic
British occupation begins at
Sydney Cove with a penal colony and a scientific interest in Australian plants and animals.
Conflict and Aboriginal resistance is immediate.
Pemulwuy, a Bidgegal warrior, conducts a guerilla war from 1788 until 1802 and leads the attack on the
British settlement at
Toongabbi.
Port Jackson painter, Black Swan, watercolour, c. 1790.
H J Wedge, Wiradjuri Warrior, 1990, acrylic on canvas.
Governor Macquarie gives selected Indigenous
Australians ‘passes’ and the protection of British Law.
This ‘pass’ is a metal breastplate. Other
Indigenous Australians may be shot on sight if they are found carrying spears near the houses of the new
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invaders/colonists.
1822
1835
1838
Governor Macquarie gives
Bungaree from Broken Bay near Sydney a life pension and protection for his contribution to Matthew
Flinders’ two explorations around Australia.
Augustus Earl, Portrait of Bungaree
Wearing a Breast Plate , 1820s.
1830–1880 European pastoral expansion and the forceful dispossession and decimation of Indigenous communities.
H J Wedge, Receiving Stolen Goods
(diptych), 1994, acrylic on canvas.
Indigenous Australians in
Tasmania are forced to settle on Flinders Island.
Karen Casey, Shape-shifter , 1994, oil and acrylic on linen.
Myall Creek massacre. The settlers who shoot and kill
28 Kamilaroi people are the first group to be punished under Australian law.
Ray Baker/Jimmy Baker tapes.
1869
1901
1909
In Victoria, the Board for the Protection of
Aborigines is established with the power to remove children from their families. Other states follow: South Australia in
1880, NSW in 1883,
Western Australia in 1886,
Queensland in 1897,
Northern Territory 1911.
Ian Abdulla, Bike Riding at Night acrylic on canvas.
Alice Hinton-Bateup, screenprint on paper.
, 1994,
Ruth’s Story , 1989,
Elaine Russell, Inspection Day , 1994, acrylic on cardboard.
Indigenous people are excluded from the
Constitution, Census and laws.
NSW Aborigines
Protection Act increases the power of the State police and government appointees, allowing them to place
Indigenous people in reserves under their protection. Other states follow.
Michael Riley, Three images (untitled) from Sacrifice series of photographs, 1992.
Elaine Russell, Inspection Day , 1994, acrylic on cardboard.
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1929
1931
1937
1937
1930s
Primitive Art Exhibition,
Victoria
Social Realist artists Yosl
Bergner and Noel Counihan depict Indigenous people under the impact of racism and European colonial expansion.
Lin Onus, And on the eighth day … , 1992, oil on canvas.
Arnhem Land Aboriginal
Reserve declared.
Aboriginal Progressive
Association formed in
NSW to promote the abolition of the policy of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families.
Ginger Riley Mundawalawala, This is My
Country – This is My Story , 1992, acrylic on canvas.
Alice Hinton-Bateup, screenprint on paper.
Ruth’s Story , 1989,
First Commonwealth–State
Conference on ‘native welfare’ adopts assimilation as the national policy.
Bronwyn Bancroft, You Don’t Even Look
Aboriginal , 1991, gouache on Stonehenge paper.
1937–38 Albert Namatjira has sellout exhibitions in Adelaide and Melbourne.
(Despite public outcry he was jailed in 1959 for selling alcohol to his cousin and died the same year.)
Albert Namatjira has influenced numerous artists in this kit.
Thancoupie has been likened to Albert
Namatjira for her innovations.
1938
(January 26)
The first Australian
Aboriginal Conference, A
Day of Mourning , is held in
Sydney to support and promote a ten-point plan for ‘justice, decency and fair play’.
Bronwyn Bancroft, Treaty , 1991, gouache on paper.
1940s–50s Aboriginal art from Central
Australia and Arnhem Land collected by missionaries and ethnographers are displayed in museums as ethnographic objects, not works of art.
Namiyal Bopirri, Guruwana Story , 1993, earth pigments on bark.
1941 Art of Australia (1788–
1941) exhibition tours the
17

1960
1962
1963
1965
1966
1967
1968
USA and includes a large selection of Indigenous art.
Aboriginal Art exhibition,
Art Gallery of NSW
Maria Josette Orsto, The Kurlama , 1995, fabric design.
Commonwealth Electoral
Act entitles Indigenous
Australians to enrol and vote in Federal elections.
The Yirrkala people present a bark petition to the
Commonwealth Government protesting the leasing of reserve land to the bauxite mining company, Nabalco.
Freedom Rides by Charles
Perkins and Sydney
University students draw attention to discrimination and segregation in towns in north-western NSW.
Robert Campbell Jnr, Roped Off at the
Pictures , acrylic on canvas.
The land rights movement is born when the Gurindji people walk off Wave Hill and Newcastle Waters cattle stations. This begins an eight-year struggle for land title.
Australians vote (91.77%) in a referendum to give the
Commonwealth
Government the power to legislate for Indigenous people and for them to be included in the census.
W E H Stanner in his Boyer lectures refers to the exclusion of Aboriginal history from the national consciousness as the great
Australian silence.
Merv Bishop’s photograph of Vincent
Lingiari and Prime Minister Gough
Whitlam, Yiribana Catalogue, Art Gallery of NSW.
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1971–2
1972
1975
1975
1976–9
1980
1984
Geoff Bardon encourages
Papunya community members to use a Western medium (acrylic paint and canvas) to paint their
Dreaming stories. This action initiates an Indigenous art movement and a cultural revival in Central Australia and beyond.
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Untitled , 1994, acrylic on canvas.
Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, Untitled ,
1990, acrylic on paper.
The Tent Embassy outside
Parliament House, Canberra and the Aboriginal Flag symbolise, and gain public recognition for, Indigenous identity, land rights and social justice.
Isabell Coe, Tent Embassy with Mum
Shirl , 1993, oil on canvas.
Ernabella is established as an outstation industry for
Aboriginal women with the support of the newly established Aboriginal Arts
Board of the Australia
Council.
Commonwealth Racial
Discrimination Act .
Destiny Deacon, Three Wishes
First, Second Wish, Third Wish
triptych:
, 1995, bubble jet prints from Polaroids.
In 1976 the Utopia station,
200 km north-east of Alice
Springs, is purchased by the
Aboriginal Land Fund
Commission. In 1979 the
Anmatyerre and Alyawarre finally regain ownership of their land. The income from
Batik plays an important role in their land claims.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled
(Alhalkere) , 1990, acrylic on linen.
Link Up (NSW) Aboriginal
Corporation is established to support the reunion of
Aboriginal families forcibly separated through the removal of the children.
Alice Hinton-Bateup,
Ruth’s Story
, 1989, screenprint on paper.
Elders from Warlukurlangu paint the school doors at
Yuendumu with ‘the true
Dreaming’ to educate the
Jeanie Nungurrayi Egan and Thomas
Jangala Rice, Ngapa (water), Pamapardu
(flying ant), Wardapi (goanna),
Ngarlkirdi (witchetty grub) Dreaming ,
1994, acrylic on canvas.
19

1984
1985
1985
1987
1987
1988
1988
1988
1989
1990 children at the school.
Koori artists exhibit at
Artspace, Sydney.
Uluru is returned to traditional owners.
Satellite television at
Ernabella broadcasts bilingual programs for the education and culture of
Central Desert communities.
Brenda L Croft, Billie — Flowers, Knees and Cigarette , from the Strange Fruit series, 1994, layout stat colour print.
Michael Nelson Tjakamarra,
1990, acrylic on canvas.
Untitled ,
The commencement of the
Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody.
Gordon Bennett, Sleeping Man, Hanging
Man (after Robert Gober) , 1993, synthetic polymer paints on canvas.
Rea, Look Who’s Calling the Kettle Black, and Resistance 111
Robert Campbell Jr, Death in Custody .
Boomalli Aboriginal Artist
Co-operative Inc established in Sydney to promote and exhibit Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander art.
Gordon Bennett, Brenda L Croft, Brook
Andrew, Bronwyn Bancroft, Euphemia
Bostock.
At the Bicentennial
Celebrations, Indigenous people march to promote their issues.
David Spearim (Fernando),
1988, acrylic on canvas.
Invasion Day ,
Aboriginal Memorial ,
Sydney Biennale , curated by
Djon Mundine.
Paddy Fordham Wainburranga,
Manjhkikilyo – Malevolent Mimi Spirit ,
1994 , natural ochres with PVC fixative on timber.
Dreamings exhibition, New
York, curated by Peter
Sutton
Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, Paris, curated by
Peter McKenzie
Jeanie Nungurrayi Egan and Thomas
Jangala Rice, Ngapa (water), Pamapardu
(flying ant), Wardapi (goanna),
Ngarlkirdi (witchetty grub) Dreaming ,
1994, acrylic on canvas.
Rover Thomas and Trevor
Nicholls represent Australia at the Venice Biennale .
Rover Thomas, Dreamtime Story of the
Creation of the Erskine Range, acrylic on canvas.
20

1991
1991
1992
1993
1995
1996
1997
1998
The Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody presents it report and recommendations to the
Federal Government. The commission investigated 99 deaths and found in 43 cases the people had been separated from their families as children.
Robert Campbell Jr, Death in Custody
1987, acrylic on canvas.
Rea, Resistance III , 1994, a series of computer-generated C type prints.
,
The Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation Act (Cth) passes through parliament with cross-party support.
The High Court of Australia rules on the Mabo case that native title exists on unalienated Crown land, national parks and reserves.
This decision overturns the doctrine of terra nullius .
Dennis Nona, Imanoh , 1992, linocut.
The Commonwealth
Government’s Native Title
Act establishes the principle and processes to be used in native title claims.
Lin Onus, And on the Eighth Day … ,
1992, acrylic on canvas.
The Bringing Them Home report is released after a national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
Alice Hinton-Bateup, Ruth’s Story , 1989, screenprint on paper.
Rea, Suitcase of hope, books and empty words , mixed media installation.
The judgement by the High
Court of Australia on the
Wik case rules that pastoral leases and native title can co-exist.
Jimmy Pike, Journey , screenprint on paper.
Three Indigenous women
(Emily Kame Kngwarreye,
Yvonne Koolmatrie and
Judy Watson) represent
Australia at the 1997 Venice
Biennale . Judy Watson, Travelling , 1995, mixed media on canvas
The Commonwealth
Government’s Ten Point
Plan is launched in response
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled
(Alhalkeve) , 1995, acrylic on linen
Yvonne Koolmatrie, Eel Traps , 1993, sedge rushes
21

2000
2001
2002 to the High Court decision on The Wik Peoples v The
State of Queensland &
Others; and The Thayorre
People v The State of
Queensland & Others
The Corroboree 2000 Walk for Reconciliation across the
Sydney Harbour Bridge draws an estimated 200 000 people.
Papunya Tula: Genesis and
Genius exhibition at the Art
Gallery of NSW.
Aden Ridgeway is elected deputy leader of the
Australian Democrats in
April 2001. He is the first
Indigenous person in
Australia to be elected to a leadership position in a political party with parliamentary representatives.
Nation Indigenous Times first published on 27
February, 2002. Set up by the founder of the Koori
Mail and a group of
Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians.
Ochre . AGNSW, 2 November 2000 – 6
May 2001.
Collection of bark paintings, featuring the works from north-east Arnhem Land in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Reconciliation 2001 . AGNSW, 25 May –
11 June 2001.
Student Art Exhibition celebrating
Reconciliation Week.
Genius of Place: The Work of Kathleen
Petyarre.
MCA, 9 May – 22 July 2001.
Exhibition featuring more than 40 paintings, batiks and works on paper spanning the artist’s career of almost 25 years.
Boomalli exhibitions in 2001:
•
Centenary vs Eternity – Centenary of
Federation – Open Invitation
• Kevin Gilbert –
Retrospective
• Jeffrey Samuels – Stylin Up
• Euphemia Bostock and Bronwyn
Bancroft – Back to back – Black to Black
• Gordon Hookey and Gordon Syron – In
Ya Face
Ngurra Kutu (Going Home) www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/arc hived/2002/ngurra_kutu_going_home
Art Gallery of NSW, 8 September 2001 –
23 June 2002. An exhibition demonstrating the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Art.
Dancing up country: The art of Dorothy
Napangardi. MCA, 11 December 2002 –
22

2003
2004
Adam Goodes is awarded the Brownlow Medal in
AFL.
Cathy Freeman retires from competitive running.
Linda Burney is the first
Aboriginal person to be elected to the NSW
Parliament (as the member for Canterbury).
The Australian Government abolishes ATSIC which had been the peak Indigenous body, and Indigenousspecific programs are mainstreamed.
The Geographical Names
Board NSW releases the
Dual Naming Policy supporting Cultural
Recognition.
NSW Government releases the NSW Aboriginal
Languages Policy.
9 March 2003.
A selection of works spanning the past decade of Napangardi’s career.
Boomalli exhibitions in 2002:
• Harry J Wedge – Biennale of Sydney
• Vee Thornbury – Solo
• Darren Cooper – Solo
Pumpuni Jilamara: Tiwi Art www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/archive s_2002/pumpuni_jilamara AGNSW, 29
June 2002 – 5 January 2003.
An exhibition of the art of the Indigenous people of Melville and Bathurst Islands, off the north coast of Australia: the Tiwi people.
Tracey Moffatt. MCA, 17 December 2003
– 29 February 2004.
A major exhibition which brought together all her major photographic series and films from the mid-1980s to the present day.
Maningrida Threads: Aboriginal Art from the MCA Collection.
MCA, 26 March – 1
June 2003.
A collection of work by artists from
Maningrida in Australia’s Northern
Territory, this exhibition illustrated the role that fibre plays in the practice of artists from this community.
Boomalli exhibitions in 2003:
• Nicole Phillips –
Reflections
• Native Title Exhibition
• Urban Myths – Annual Members
Exhibition
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. AGNSW,
14 May – 11 July 2004.
A retrospective of Clifford Possum
Tjapaltjarri, a pioneer of the Western
Desert Painting movement.
Rover Thomas. AGNSW, 21 February – 6
June 2004.
An exhibition of his work, organised by the Holmes à Court Collection,
Heytesbury.
Destiny Deacon – Walk & don’t look blak .
MCA, 26 November 2004 – 30 January
2005.
An exhibition of different aspects of
23

2005
2006
2007
Deacon’s practice – photography, video, installation and performance.
Boomalli exhibitions in 2004:
• Gordon Syron – New Works and Old
• Dorsey Smith – Finding Me
• Geoffrey Ferguson – In Defence of
Identity
The Deadly Awards celebrate their tenth anniversary,
Sydney Opera House.
Tracey Moffatt – Being – Under the sign of Scorpio . Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 4 – 27
August 2005.
Moffatt as forty well-known extraordinary women from history and popular culture, all born under the astrological sign of
Scorpio.
Paddy Bedford. MCA, 6 December 2006
– 15 April 2007.
The first major solo exhibition of
Bedford’s work, with major paintings from public and private collections across the country.
Bangu yilbara: works from the MCA collection . MCA, 11 May – 1 October
2006.
An exhibition reflecting the variety of directions that contemporary artistic practice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander artists has taken over the past 25 years.
Linda Burney is the first
Aboriginal person to become a minister in the NSW
Government. (Appointed
Minister for Fair Trading,
Minister for Youth and
Minister for Volunteering in
April 2007.)
Federal intervention in
Northern Territory
Aboriginal communities after the release of the Little
Children Are Sacred report in
June 2007.
Founding Members Exhibition . Boomalli,
July 2007.
An exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding of Boomalli, and honouring the ten artist members who formed Boomalli in 1987. These artists were Fiona Foley, Bronwyn Bancroft,
Michael Riley, Fernando Martin,
Raymond Meeks, Jeffrey Samuels,
Euphemia Bostock, Avril Quail, Brenda L
Croft and Tracey Moffatt.
National Indigenous Art Triennial 07 –
Culture Warriors , National Gallery of
Australia, 13 October 2007 – 10 February
2008.
The inaugural National Indigenous Art
Triennial with the work of thirty artists from each state and territory, reflecting the vast range of contemporary
Indigenous art practice.
24

Summary
The eight units of work described here have been developed for secondary school Visual Arts teachers as examples of ways to develop students’ understanding of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander art and to incorporate Aboriginal and Indigenous cross-curriculum content in the classroom. Teachers of Visual Arts and Aboriginal Studies and other subjects should feel free to adapt the units of work to meet the learning needs and abilities of their students.
The eight units of work present a broad range of interests and issues that relate to contemporary urban and rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. The units of work support the NSW Board of Studies Visual Arts Years 7–10 Syllabus (2003) and Visual Arts
Years 7–10 Advice on Programming and Assessment (2003) and explore the practice of artmaking, and critical and historical studies.
The units include Related Activities to deepen students’ understanding of Aboriginal history, art and culture, and of the beliefs and practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and their communities.
The following table correlates the units of work with examples of artists and artworks that could be the focus of investigations in artmaking and critical and historical studies.
25

Stage 4 Mandatory Course Units
Unit of Work Aboriginal Artists Forms Frames
1 A Cultural
Journey
2 Ceramic
Creatures
3 Unforgettable
Tucker
4 Ancestors and
Family Members
Jimmy Pike
Kevin Gilbert
Dennis Nona
Banduk Marika
Ellen Jose
Pooaraar
Thancoupie
Female Indigenous artists
Robert Campbell Jr
Pantjiti Mary McLean
Lawrence Leslie
Lena Yarinkura
Jenny Watson
2D - printmaking
3D - ceramics
2D - painting
3D - fibre, sculpture
Stage 5 Elective Course Units
Unit of Work Aboriginal Artists Forms
Structural
Cultural
Structural
Cultural
Cultural
Frames
5 Reconciliation
6 Objects in the
Landscape
7 Cultural
Intersections
8 Place, Possession and Dispossession
Alice Hinton-Bateup
David Spearim
Robert Campbell Jnr
Yvonne Koolmatrie
Lorraine Connelly-
Northey
Michael Riley
Rea
Darren Siwes
Brenda L Croft
Brook Andrew
Lin Onus
Gordon Bennett
2D - printmaking, digital media
Cultural
3D - sculpture, fibre
Structural
Cultural
2D - photography, digital media, computer generated and enhanced graphics
Structural
Cultural
2D - digital imaging, collage, photomontage
Cultural
Postmodern
Conceptual
Framework
Artist, artwork, audience
Artist, artwork, world
Artist, artwork, world, audience
Artist, artwork, world
Conceptual
Framework
Artist, artwork, world, audience
Artist, artwork, world
Artist, artwork, world, audience
Artist, artwork, world, audience
26

Overview
Unit of work
A Cultural Journey
Duration One term
Stage 4
Year 7 or 8
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
In this unit of work students study Jimmy Pike’s
Woman Carrying the Two
Boys.
The artist’s historical and cultural links with the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia are used to explain the ways in which an artwork can represent a culturally specific experience and understanding of the world.
Students undertake a study of cultural and historical issues of other
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander printmakers. They discuss the relationships between artists and audiences involved in commercial, copyright and appropriation issues relevant to Indigenous artmaking practices.
In artmaking students explore the cultural context of their own families or friendships through the notion of journeys. The significance and meaning of journeys for the members of the family or friendship group are used to provide symbols that can represent their experience of this aspect of their world. Students will be introduced to lino printing techniques and the practice of printing, making an edition and exhibiting printed artworks. In writing about their own and classmates’ artworks, students will explore the importance of cultural connections and differences in audience responses to artworks.
Forms 2D – printmaking
Frames Subjective Structural Cultural Postmodern
Conceptual framework
Artist Artwork World Audience
Key artists Jimmy Pike (Walmatjarri language group). Other works by the artist include
Woman Carrying the Two Boys , 1990
Kevin Gilbert (Wiradjuri language group)
Dennis Nona (Kal-lagaw-ya language group)
Banduk Marika (Rirratjingu language group)
Ellen Jose (Meriam language group)
Pooaraar (also known as Bevan Hayward, Pooaraar is a Noongar artist)
Outcomes 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
27

Specific content focus for Unit 1
Outcomes
4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
Students learn about: Students learn to:
Artmaking Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by different values and beliefs
 investigate the field of visual arts and design and approximate some conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field to make art
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 reflect on and interpret actions and choices, and document these in their diaries
 the function of the artist to make artworks – images or objects  make images and objects (artworks) that approximate an approach to artistic practice
 artworks produced for exhibition and display
 artworks that relate to their own background and experience
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the structural frame

 identify the intention, audience and context for an exhibition and display of artworks record investigations and information gathering in their diary
 use their cultural and community identities and social perspectives of interest to them in the development of ideas and interests to represent the world in the making of art
 investigate and employ a range of conventions including codes, symbols and signs and consider how communication is embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks and offer a way to develop representations of ideas and interests in the world in the making of art
Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests
 artistic practices, conventions and the networks of procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking of different artists or group of artists
Critical and historical studies investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 explore and seek to explain the artistic practices of selected artists/groups of artists identifying conventions and procedures
 investigate the works of selected artists as an aspect of their artmaking practice
28

 Australian and international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on those with an iconic status and others who are relevant to the cultural and personal interests of students. Consideration should be given to:
 contemporary artists and modern artists
 artists from different times and cultures

Aboriginal and Indigenous artists
 female and male artists those who use conventional and/or more contemporary technologies
 discover how artists develop their intentions relative to their artworks, the audience and the world and recognise some of the constraints they work within different audiences for artworks including art critics, art historians, members of the public, teachers, parents, students, other artists adopt the role of an audience member when viewing art in various locations
(eg in school, gallery visits and web exhibitions) belief, value and meaning about artworks from the cultural frame identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art belief, value and meaning about artwork from the structural frame identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences can read artworks as images or texts by understanding conventions including codes, symbols and signs and how these are embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks
29

Students look at Woman Carrying the Two Boys and describe the ideas suggested by the subject matter in this work. The teacher directs a discussion focusing on the structural frame including:
 the shapes used to represent the figures
 the focal point of the work and possible meanings
 the background pattern, use of line, colours and shapes to symbolise the land and the journey through it
 the colours in the work.
For example, students could describe the flat shapes and bright colours that represent Jimmy
Pike, his mother and brother and the sand dunes in the Great Sandy Desert. They could speculate on how the meandering linear pattern in the background represents a personal but also a cultural journey.
Students read the text about Jimmy Pike and answer the following questions.
 Describe Jimmy Pike’s personal cultural experiences as a child.

Explain what Jimmy Pike means when he says ‘Carvings are like blackfella books’.
Students consider the role of artworks in communicating ideas to audiences by explaining how carvings represent and document Aboriginal traditions, cultural history and customs.

Explain the significance of the word ‘shimmer’ in the context of Aboriginal art and printmaking. Students consider how the word ‘shimmer’ could be an aesthetic quality and a metaphor, such as ‘to shimmer like gold’.
 Elaborate and revise their understanding of the journey represented through their understanding of the artist’s cultural world. Identify some of the reasons why Jimmy
Pike’s work may be regarded as culturally significant.
Students recall a journey made with their family or friends. The journey could be a family holiday or a school excursion. In a class discussion they are asked to concentrate on aspects of these journeys. What roles do individuals play? How does the experience change if particular individuals are absent? What changes to routine make them uncomfortable? Are particular foods, music, games or forms of greeting associated with the journey? Students can also be asked to identify conventions or traditions of the journey and to consider their importance.
Students are asked to think about the ways in which symbols are used the communicate ideas
30

to audiences, and to consider what must be known for the meaning of a symbol to the transmitted.
Students represent a journey they have taken. They:
 use a variety of visual devices, signs and symbols to represent this journey
 represent people (family members, friends, teachers) through different shapes
 indicate events such as changes in plan and detours
 show places (eg business signs, landforms, buildings, road signs)
 use symbols for the forms of transport taken (eg walking, bicycle, car, bus, train, aeroplane)
 use a key to label and describe the significance of each symbol
 describe their perceptions of the journey and reactions to events during the journey
 record these drawings in their Visual Arts diary.
Students use their initial drawings as the basis of a design for a lino print by:
 selecting one or more symbols to use as a focal point
 considering how they can intentionally position an audience to ‘read’ the narrative qualities represented in their work by using certain visual devices such as focal point, scale, contrasting colouring, tone etc
 using patterns to represent the notion of movement and the experience of travel
 using patterns, colour and lines to emphasise the significance of the journey
Students use their diaries to document and develop a range of ideas before selecting the most effective design. To assist in understanding the issues associated with the cultural frame students reflect on the way they have used signs and symbols as a way of interpreting their world to reflect a culturally specific experience of a journey.
Students display their designs. Then they:
 write a short description and interpretation of another student’s work. (Students should be encouraged to construct a rich description, using the structural frame and communicating the strengths of the work)
 compare this interpretation with the student’s own story of their journey as a way to understand an audience’s unique and individual ‘reading’ of a work. Students could also discuss the role of universal and personal symbols in artworks.
 display the two written descriptions with the design.
The teacher selects some descriptions that evoke the student’s intention. The students read these responses to the class.
31

The teacher introduces the important events that have lead to the establishment of a printmaking tradition, including the pioneer work of Kevin Gilbert during the 1960s. As he stated in ‘The Struggle Continues’ (
Artlink, Vol 10), ‘… from the prison, I exhibited in
[galleries in] Sydney. These exhibitions confirmed my resolve to use my poems, writing and art to open up the question of the continuing denial of and injustice against Aboriginals …’
Students research individually or in pairs the history and achievements of a work by one contemporary Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander printmaker such as Kevin Gilbert, Jimmy
Pike, Dennis Nona, Banduk Marika, Ellen Jose or Pooaraar. A copy of the work is pasted on a timeline titled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Printmakers: 1970 – 2006.
A heading for each decade could be given, for example:
1970s: Social Conscience
1980s: After 200 years
1990s: New Technologies
2000s: Issues in the 21st Century
During the study students refer to and quote relevant historical information from the timeline provided. Students:
 prepare three sentences on their timeline explaining the cultural interests and practice of the printmaker, including techniques used, and possible influences on the artist.
(For example, ‘Dennis Nona illustrates a traditional story of greed in the lino print
Kimono . This story is told using intricately carved lines, shapes and surface patterns.
Because of family connections, Nona’s work is influenced by his culture and his links to Papuan art’.)
 review the story and produce a written account in their diary that explores the role of the artist from the cultural frame and/or investigates the relationship between the artist and the world as a way to account for and explain changes in practice, style and cultural identity over time.
After observing the teacher demonstrating different types of cutting tools and safe cutting techniques, students:
 transfer the design to the lino block
 cut areas that are to remain white (or the colour of the paper)
 consider how fine outlines, textures and patterns are achieved through different cutting techniques and actions with the lino cutting tools.
32

The teacher demonstrates setting up a registration system, inking the plate and producing a proof for evaluation. Students:
 print a series of three prints using two colours
 make adjustments with the teacher on print quality and clarity of intent
 consider traditional and innovative printmaking practices such as paper types and inkrolling techniques
 develop an instructional bullet point plan that documents the process and procedures in their diaries.
The teacher demonstrates:
 overprinting or hand-colouring a print
 collaging materials (photographs, tissue paper, and textured papers) onto the surface to extend and resolve concepts
 how to produce, label and mount the prints as an edition.
Students use one or more of these techniques in making their artworks and record their practice in their diaries.
Student work is exhibited. Students discuss and compare their prints (use of symbols and visual qualities to represent a journey) with Jimmy Pike’s work using either the cultural and/or the structural frame and record their findings in their diaries .
Students recall when they have seen Aboriginal images used in a commercial context. They consider how traditional images are used on objects such as t-shirts, tourist gifts, posters, postcards and fabric designs. Discussion can focus on commercial advantages and disadvantages for Aboriginal communities including how the artworld/market works
(artist/producer, agent/dealer, gallery/commercial institution, audience/public/consumers) and how artists such as Jimmy Pike market their work. Students can also consider the multiple nature of audiences for Aboriginal artworks ranging from overseas tourists, art collectors, general Australian audiences and local indigenous audiences and recognise how different audiences may interpret artworks in different ways. They also consider an example of the commercial exploitation of Aboriginal art: refer to Protecting Australian Indigenous Art http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/visual-arts-7-10/protecting-australian-indigenousart
Oral responses and class discussion demonstrate student understanding of the cultural and structural frames and the identification and representation of cultural values in the development of symbols. Responses to set questions and interpretations of artworks reveal an understanding and knowledge of the structural frame. An understanding of printmaking practice can be observed in the resolved print edition and documentation recording experiments, processes and evaluations of printmaking activities. An understanding of
33

relationships between artworks and the world can be identified in responses to the cultural significance of Pike’s print and in a broader political and social comprehension evident in the timeline.
Teacher provides:
 oral feedback during class discussions and artmaking lessons
 written feedback in the Visual Arts diary.
Teacher observes peer discussion and feedback in the critique and interpretation of designs.
Teachers could research other issues relating the marketing and copyright in Protecting
Australian Indigenous Art http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/visual-arts-7-
10/protecting-australian-indigenous-art Students could present an oral account about a copyright issue experienced by an Aboriginal artist or community.
The class could visit an art gallery that exhibits Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prints.
An Aboriginal printmaker or storyteller could be employed in the classroom to work with the students. The class could hold a class exhibition of completed artworks and invite the school community to view the works.
Students could display their works during Reconciliation Week, National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Week, and NAIDOC Week. They could enter works in the art competitions during Reconciliation Week, and they could display works around the school.
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
34

Unit of work
Ceramic Creatures
Duration One term
Stage 4
Year
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
7 or 8
This unit of work provides a sequence of learning opportunities in which students create a ceramic form inspired by the work of a range of ceramists including Aboriginal ceramist Thancoupie. They use the structural frame to explore the use of animals as a basis for the form and decoration of their ceramic work. In artmaking students are introduced to the practice of handbuilding ceramic forms. They investigate ceramic sculpture as a means of communicating ideas about, and observations of, the natural world. In critical and historical studies students investigate Thancoupie’s art through her storytelling and how she came to work with a non-traditional medium such as clay. They gain an understanding of how symbolic form and organisation in artworks can represent an artist’s relationship to their world.
The related activities offer students the opportunity to research other
Dreaming stories and explore their significance in contemporary Aboriginal
Australia.
3D – ceramics
Frames
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Subjective
Artist
Structural
Artwork
Cultural
World
Thancoupie (Thanaquith language group)
Maria Gazzard, Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, Peter Travis
Postmodern
Audience
Outcomes 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
35



Specific content focus for Unit 2.
Outcomes
4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
Students learn about:
Artmaking
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 artists working individually, in groups and in collaboration with others
 the material, physical and virtual form of artworks intentionally made by artists
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art how artists develop their intentions belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the structural frame
Critical and historical studies
 how artworks may be differently interpreted by artists, writers, critics, historians and other audiences
 artistic practices, conventions and the networks of procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking of different artists or group of artists
Students learn to:
Artmaking
 reflect on and interpret actions and choices, and document these in their diaries
 make informed personal choices to shape meaning
 make artworks using a range of 2D, including drawing, 3D and/or 4D forms, materials and techniques and various investigations of the world
 use their diaries to research and investigate the world, for example: memory, fantasy, people, places and spaces, other living things, objects, culture, social and national identity, relationships, gender, politics, religion, celebrations, events, the environment, theories, issues about art
 develop artistic intentions arising from relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience
 investigate and employ a range of conventions including codes, symbols and signs and consider how communication is embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks and offer a way to develop representations of ideas and interests in the world in the making of art
Critical and historical studies
 identify and describe the purpose, audience and context for viewing artworks
 explore and seek to explain the artistic practices of selected artists/groups of artists identifying conventions and procedures
 investigate the works of selected artists as an aspect of their artmaking practice
36

 various artists, with a focus on what they do, where they work, how and why they work and how they develop their intentions
 different kinds of artworks in 2D, 3D and 4D forms including their symbolic, representational, physical and material properties
 different audiences for artworks including art critics, art historians, members of the public, teachers, parents, students, other artists
 belief, value and meaning about artwork from the structural frame
 investigate the role and work of selected artists including groups of artists in different times and places
 investigate the expressive and stylistic possibilities of different media and techniques used by artists and recognise how these aspects contribute to the kinds of artworks they make
 adopt the role of an audience member when viewing art in various locations
(eg in school, gallery visits and web exhibitions)
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences can read artworks as images or texts by understanding conventions including codes, symbols and signs and how these are embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks
37

The teacher indicates the location of Weipa on a map of Australia and discusses with students its geographical isolation and climate. Students then view Thancoupie’s work and read background information from a range of sources provided about the artist and her practice.
Students answer the following:

Why do you think Thancoupie chose to work with clay?

How do you think she would have felt travelling all the way from Weipa to study ceramics in Sydney?

How important is clay at Weipa?
 Was clay used traditionally as an art form?
 Discuss the recognition of Thancoupie’s work by her community, other Aboriginal artists and the artworld in national and international contexts.

Why is Thancoupie compared with Albert Namatjira and what innovations are they both known for?
Jennifer Isaacs’ book
Thancoupie the Potter has the stories of the animals portrayed on these ceramic sculptures as told by Thancoupie. They could be read out to the class.
Students discuss Thancoupie’s work and consider:
 the qualities of the symbols and shapes used to represent the ancestral figures (bold and simple, a style taken from traditional sand drawings by Thancoupie’s family) and how these can be interpreted by an audience
 the surface decoration in relation to the spherical form
 the techniques: hand-built form, carved/incised decoration, thick walls (necessary when building the spheres).
Students will use these understandings in their own artmaking.
Students are encouraged to research one work by a modern or contemporary ceramist.
Students select an artist such as Maria Gazzard, Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada or Peter
Travis. They use the structural frame to:
 explain the function, and visual qualities of selected works and write a brief description of the size, shape, form and glazing techniques used by the artist
 identify some of the similarities and differences between the work of their selected artist and Thancoupie’s works.
They account for the relationship between the agencies of the conceptual framework by:
 identifying where and when the works were made and for whom (audience)
 consider why the work and the ceramist are regarded as significant (artist/audience relationship).
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Students explore animals for a ceramic sculpture. (If possible this unit could be integrated with an excursion to the zoo, a wildlife park, or museum.)
Students consider:
 an animal that is common to, or found in, the area where the students are from, for example koala, a green tree frog, blue tongue lizard
 an iconic animal that symbolises concepts such as national identity, tribal totems, clan or tribal belonging
 a pet, for example dog, cat, fish, horse
 an animal they admire, for example elephant, tiger, and cow
 an animal or bird which symbolises power, strength, eg eagle, lion
 the students’ Chinese horoscope animal, for example a rabbit, rat, rooster.
The teacher reads the class a Dreaming story based on animals.
Students select an animal and write a brief explanation for their choice. The teacher guides students in researching the beliefs and meanings relating to the representation of the animal, and to investigate the ways it has been represented in different artworks, and other sources, in different times and places. Students could research the examples given in this discussion using the internet and record this information in their Visual Arts diary.
Students use their Visual Arts diary to make sketches and observation drawings of the animal, working directly, or from sources such as photographs, scanned images, the Internet and books. They can focus on the form and characteristics, for example, skin, fur, scale, feathers, claws, fins, webbed feet etc., and use different drawing techniques to represent these, for example, linear, tonal drawings, graphic tonal drop out drawings.
Students also make sketches and draw symbols associated with the animal and its world, eg its habitat, footprints, other markings associated with the animal’s movement to expand their visual vocabulary. These can be used as part of the decorative surface design for their ceramic sculptures.
The teacher discusses the possibilities of different forms and shapes that can be constructed from clay. Students consider their research drawings and discuss in small groups the most appropriate shape for their hand built ceramic form, eg a sphere, an oval, a cylindrical form.
Students design a form based on their initial drawings and investigations. They may also use clay to mould the simple shape of the animal to develop a sense of how it could be further worked and represented in three dimensions.
Students consider the surface decoration of their form, eg simple lines and shapes to move the audience’s eye around the form; repeating patterns to represent the rhythm of rain; overlapping and layering of shapes to create patterns and textures.
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The teacher explains and demonstrates appropriate safe working practices, and hand-building techniques such as slab construction, coiling, and pinching. Students commence construction of the form, allowing time for reflection and changes to occur during the process. The form needs to be reasonably thick to allow for carving and incising. When the form is complete the students apply decoration by carving, incising, stamping and adding clay to build surfaces, as well as textures and details. The works are allowed to dry slowly. When leather hard, surfaces may be burnished and other decoration and textures may be applied. Works are bisque-fired when dry.
During the making of their ceramic form, students review their work by answering the following questions:

Does the way the image of the animal and the form of the ceramics represent the strengths and characteristics of the animal selected?

Will the ceramic form stand firmly?

Are the parts well balanced?

Do the designs for the surface decoration complement the form?
Students discuss their work in pairs and with their teacher and make appropriate changes as required. Students document their decisions and procedures in their Visual Arts diary.
Students select one or two of the following artists and compare how Thancoupie and other
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women artists represent ideas and interests about their world in their artworks.
Bronwyn Bancroft
Euphemia Bostock
Isabell Coe
Maria Coghlan
Treaty , 1991
You don’t even look Aboriginal , 1991
Contemporary Koori Masks
Tent Embassy with Mum Shirl , 1993
Murray Cod , 1991
Koorie Time Clock
Ruth’s Story
, 1989 Alice Hinton-Bateup
Peta Lonsdale
Rea
Elaine Russell
The Koori Flag , 1993
Lipstick from the Lemons III Series , 1994
Look who’s calling the kettle black
, 1992
Resistance
Suitcase of hope, books of empty words
Inspection Day , 1994
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Students use the structural frame to respond to the following questions about their selected artist(s):

What is the title of each of the artworks, when were they made, who made them?

What kinds of artworks are they?

Describe the material practice used to make the artworks. Identify the features of
Thancoupie’s practice that are similar and different to your selected artist.

Describe what the artist is communicating about her world in the artwork(s) eg her home, life, religion, culture, community, family, society, beliefs. List the signs and symbols used and explain what ideas and meanings they are communicating to an audience.
Following the bisque firing the teacher shows examples of the use of oxides and underglazes to emphasise how these decorative materials can enhance the surface and textural qualities of the clay. The teacher demonstrates safe working practices when working with glazes, oxides and underglazes. The teacher and students discuss how the qualities of the symbols and the form of the work can be further enhanced by the selected surface treatments. Students apply glazes, oxides and underglazes to decorate their ceramic form. Works are fired when completed.
Students prepare an exhibition of their work. They write an artist’s statement or catalogue entry that describes their artmaking practice and intentions in representing their animal in a ceramic form.
Visual Arts diary entries, reflections and drawings demonstrate an understanding of how a visual language can be developed to communicate ideas about animals. Students’ skills in refining forms and knowledge of appropriate hand-building and decorative techniques are demonstrated in their ceramic forms.
Students’ understanding of the structural frame and how this frame can be used to develop an understanding of the artist, artwork, world, audience relationship is demonstrated in their responses to written tasks about an artist’s practice, and about how artists communicate their ideas and interests about the world to audiences.
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
Teacher observation and oral feedback during the discussion, planning and making of ceramic forms.
 Oral feedback during class discussion about artists and their practice and the artworld.
 Written feedback about research into an artist’s practice and relationships between agencies of the conceptual framework.

Peer feedback about the ceramic forms including shape and decoration and design solutions.
 Oral feedback about exhibition of works and artist’s statements.
Teachers assist students in finding some Dreaming stories about animals. (Storytelling has long been a verbal tradition and a source for artmaking in Aboriginal society.)
Students and teachers can research the source of the Aboriginal stories they have found and look at:

Who owns the story?

Who do the publishers/editors get permission from before they publish it?

Are the illustrations appropriate?

Does the moral reason behind the story still hold relevance in its printed form?
Students might also look at some of Pauline McCloud’s stories and at Arone Raymond
Meeks’s Enora and the Black Crane .
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
42

Unit of work
Unforgettable Tucker
Duration One term
Stage 4
Year 7 or 8
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
This unit of work provides a series of learning opportunities in which students consider the cultural and historical importance of bush tucker as subject matter for artworks in traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art.
In critical and historical studies the cultural frame is used in a comparative investigation of artworks by Robert Campbell Jnr and traditional Aboriginal art styles. This draws attention to ways contemporary Aboriginal artists use and reference traditional conventions to relate their work to its cultural heritage. Comparisons are made to the cultural values implicit in selected examples of the representation of food in the European modernist tradition.
In artmaking the unit encourages students to consider ways they can develop their own symbols for an artwork that communicate ideas about the importance of food within their own cultural traditions. They are introduced to a variety of representational techniques. Consideration is given to the inappropriateness of directly copying and misappropriating Aboriginal images and symbols.
2D – painting
Frames
Conceptual framework
Subjective
Artist
Structural
Artwork
Cultural
World
Postmodern
Audience
Key artists Robert Campbell Jnr
(Ngaku language group). Other works by the artist include Aboriginal
Tucker, Death in Custody
Pantjiti Mary McLean
(Ngaatjatjarra language group). Other works by the artist include Collecting
Bush Tucker
Ricky Swallow
Lawrence Leslie (Kamilaroi language group). Other works by the artist include Banks of the Mehi
Still life images from a range of times and places, eg Dutch, Impressionist,
Cubist, Margaret Preston
Outcomes 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
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Specific content focus for Unit 3.
Outcomes
4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
Students learn about: Students learn to:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by different values and beliefs
Artmaking
 investigate the field of visual arts and design and approximate some conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field to make art
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 reflect on and interpret actions and choices, and document these in their diaries
 the function of the artist to make artworks – images or objects
 make images and objects (artworks) that approximate an approach to artistic practice
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art  use their diaries to research and investigate the world, for example: memory, fantasy, people, places and spaces, other living things, objects, culture, social and national identity, relationships, gender, politics, religion, celebrations, events, the environment,
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and
 theories, issues about art adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 artworks that relate to their own background and experience
 record investigations and information gathering in their diary
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame  use their cultural and community identities and social perspectives of interest to them in the development of ideas and interests to represent the world in the making of art
Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests
 various artists, with a focus on what they do, where they work, how and why they work and how they develop their intentions
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 discuss, consider and write about different aspects of practice
 investigate the role and work of selected artists including groups of artists in different times and places
44

 how the world can be interpreted in art and the ways in which ideas are represented
 belief, value and meaning about artworks from the cultural frame
 recognise how artists interpret the world in the making of artworks and how they seek to represent these concepts through a range of styles and approaches
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art
45

The teacher shows students examples of a variety of traditional Aboriginal art practices from groups working in different locations. These are located on the map of Australia. Students use the structural frame to identify and compare the artworks, considering the use of the following traditional techniques, styles and materials:
 dot-style painting (originated from ground and sand painting and drawing)
 body decoration (Western and Central Desert)
 crosshatching (bark paintings, Arnhem Land)

X-ray art style and bark paintings, Arnhem Land (simultaneous representations inside and outside parts of animals)
 silhouette (Sydney rock carvings).
Students record notes about the characteristics of each of the traditional styles and the artmaking conventions used by different groups of traditional Aboriginal artists.
Consideration could also be given to how traditional tools were made and used by these artists.
www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/8/Robert_Campbell_Jnr
Artworks by Robert Campbell Jnr can be shown to students to stimulate further discussion.
Discussion focuses on Robert Campbell Jnr’s artmaking practice, including:
 how Robert Campbell Jnr’s ideas for artworks have developed over time
 how Robert Campbell Jnr has adapted traditional Aboriginal art techniques and styles to create his own style of painting
 the artist’s use of signs and symbols to tell stories to audiences about significant events and issues in relation to Aboriginal culture and history, such as the need for food, identity, race, class, heritage and politics
 Robert Campbell Jnr’s achievements in the artworld in national and international contexts.
Following this discussion students view Robert Campbell Jnr’s work
Aboriginal Tucker www.littlebruiser.com.au/product.php?productid=16175 and read the information about his artwork and artmaking practice. Students draw a diagram of this artwork in their Visual Arts diary including annotations explaining the features of the artworks based on the preceding discussions.
Students analyse the painting Aboriginal Tucker and study the symbols used by Robert
Campbell Jnr to communicate a message to an audience. Students continue to add information to their annotated diagram of the artwork based on observations made during the discussion of the work. Students consider:
 the messages conveyed in the work
 symbols used to represent food and its symbolising of Aboriginal life and culture
 the techniques and materials used to make the work
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 the source of traditional painting styles and conventions used to depict animals
 the formal organisation of the work including composition, colour, perspective (aerial, side and X-ray views), patterning and repetition
 scale of images; for example, the emu is represented as a simple outlined shape and is drawn from a side view depicting internal organs and other features, emu footprints also appear all over the background and the crab is drawn from an aerial view and is the same size as the emu.
Other examples of Robert Campbell Jnr’s work (eg Death in Custody , 1987) are shown.
These can be collected from a range of sources, eg books, DVDs, the internet, CD-ROMs, exhibition catalogues, television.
The class discusses:
 how Robert Campbell Jnr has adapted traditional Aboriginal art techniques to create his own style
 his use of simplified-shape drawings to represent animals and their internal organs
 how he stylistically represents people
 how he uses and manipulates traditional western perspective by alternating aerial and side views of the animals.
Building on these activities, students consider and explain why and how Robert Campbell
Jnr’s artworks effectively communicate ideas to audiences. They use annotated diagrams and reflections in their Visual Arts diary to support their judgements.
Students:
 explore a range of representations of food in artworks from different times and places eg Dutch still life paintings, Ricky Swallow sculptures, Margaret Preston block prints
 may organise to bring in food that represents their cultural heritage and display it or they may work from photographs of food and special feasts they have collected or that have been provided by the teacher
 make pencil sketches of a meal, or an arrangement of food that was memorable and symbolically celebrated a special occasion (eg birthday, Christmas or other religious festival, an achievement)
 view their sketches and discuss how they could alter initial images so that the objects may be seen from various viewpoints. They can consider how different forms of perspective provide interesting ways of showing objects, how shapes and outlines of food can be enlarged and decorated to symbolise different types of food. For example, a glass or a cup may be better drawn as a profile (side view) and X-ray views could show details of what is inside containers and objects; plates and bowls could be drawn from an aerial view in order to see what they contain.
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Students view other artworks depicting the subject matter of food. Images could include artworks by Pantjiti Mary McLean ( Collecting Bush Tucker , 1994, acrylic, natural pigment and plant dye on canvas) and Lawrence Leslie ( Banks of the Mehi , 1994, oil on canvas). A class discussion could focus on the relationship between artworks and the world by looking at images of bush tucker and reading Dreaming stories about bush tucker.
Students investigate the conventions of representing the subject matter of food in artworks by non-Indigenous artists (eg modernist still-life images by Cezanne and Picasso, Van Gogh’s
The Potato Eaters , Hamburger by Oldenburg, seventeenth-century Dutch still lifes, ancient
Egyptian tomb paintings). The symbols and conventions of representing food are then compared with those used by Aboriginal artists.
Using the cultural frame, students consider the meaning of these artworks and how they represent rituals and traditions involving food from different cultures, times and places.
The class discusses:
 the materials and techniques used by different artists to represent the subject matter of food
 reasons why the artist has represented food, eg cultural beliefs, traditions
 how perspective and other compositional devices have been used.
Students develop a larger drawing of the feast, meal or celebration, focusing on food, incorporating new ideas from their previous discussions. Discussion of images may assist in developing symbol systems and styles that are unique to each student. Consideration could be given to ways symbols can be combined using simultaneous or different points of view, overlapping, repetition, shading and patterning techniques, scale of images, unity and balance.
This drawing is used as the composition for their painting.
The teacher explains how traditional Aboriginal artists achieved a variety of painting techniques. Different painting styles are identified and named, for example dot painting and the use of single, double and layered dots, crosshatching and X-ray art. Students observe how the use of materials and simple, non-traditional artmaking tools such as cotton buds, brush ends fibre and string and stencilling can be used to achieve a variety of effects.
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In their diaries, students’ experiment with these various new painting techniques, labelling their samples appropriately.
The teacher explains that it is culturally inappropriate to appropriate traditional
Aboriginal painting techniques such as dot painting, rarrk and X-ray art.
Based on previous references to traditional aboriginal painting techniques and styles, students look to their own world for culturally appropriate visual solutions in order to develop their own painting style. Students could consider using medical X-ray images or scientific drawings and diagrams of the original natural crop or animal the food is made from to overlay on their initial shape or design. In this way they are developing more complex and layered meanings for an audience to identify and interpret. For example a loaf of bread could have a scientific diagram of an ear of wheat layered over it either in paint of as a simple silk screen print or stencil.
A variety of painting techniques, to create a background, is demonstrated by the teacher.
Acrylic paints, watercolours, pastels and inks can be used to demonstrate how particular effects are achieved. A variety of techniques could include:
 washes and sponging
 spraying and brushing
 finger painting/scumbling/blending.
Students experiment with a selection of the above painting techniques and record details in their diaries.
Students identify the painting techniques they plan to use in their own painting in their Visual
Arts diary. Students use the structural frame in their annotations to explain why some techniques are more suitable than others.
With reference to their lead-up work and notes students complete the background for their painting on a new surface (paper, wood, and canvas). Students refer to their composition and copy or trace this arrangement onto the new surface of the background. Using the techniques and style they have chosen to develop as part of their own practice, and with advice from the teacher, students build up their images and refine their composition.
Student’s artworks are exhibited in the art room. They can then discuss the qualities of the paintings, commenting on the use of particular techniques and representation of food subject matter. They can also write an artist’s statement explaining the significance of the subject matter and the tradition or celebration the painting represents. They can also consider the variations between their own works and those of Robert Campbell Jnr, using the cultural frame to position and record their findings in their diary.
Students’ understanding of traditional Aboriginal and other surface and mark making techniques is demonstrated in written recordings and experiments with paint surfaces,
49

application and mediums in the Visual Arts diary. Resolved artworks demonstrate an understanding of the visual strategies used by Robert Campbell Jnr translated into the student’s own painting style. Artworks demonstrate an understanding of how cultural importance can be communicated to an audience through the use of symbols and forms of representation.
Students’ understanding of the different forms of representation in relation to the culture that produced them is evident in written work.

Teacher observation and oral feedback about the development of images and styles and execution of paintings.

Oral feedback during class discussion about artists and their practice and conceptual framework relationships.
 Written feedback in the student’s Visual Arts diary about artmaking and critical and historical studies including experiments with painting techniques, art writing and interpretations, and explanations of traditional painting techniques.
Students could research:
 other rituals and ceremonial customs in Aboriginal culture, for example body painting, making and decorating artefacts used for food gathering, the significance of Dreaming stories, the relationship of performance and artworks
 traditional Aboriginal art techniques and styles such as the practice of making bark paintings, the practice of sand painting, body paintings, making ochres in the traditional way, the impact of contemporary materials in artworks
 bush tucker: its origins, forms and role
 other examples of artworks representing Dreamings associated with food.
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
50

Unit of work
Ancestors and Family Members
Duration One term
Stage 4
Year 7 or 8
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
In this unit students use the cultural frame to learn about the sculptural practice of Lena Yarkinkura. The artist’s artworks and innovative use of materials communicate powerful messages about the continuing importance of Aboriginal ancestors. In artmaking students focus on their ancestors and family members, drawing images and objects recalling aspects of their life or interests, and collecting natural and manufactured materials to construct a figurative sculpture. The sculpture is painted with symbols to communicate messages about the history and culture of their ancestor or family member.
Students use the agencies of the conceptual framework to explore the relationships between artists and artworks as a way to represent their world.
They gain an understanding of the world of their family as their most direct cultural link. The students’ works are either exhibited as a memorial celebrating the achievements of people from different cultural backgrounds or considered as forms created for a ceremony commemorating or invoking the importance of the ancestor. In critical and historical studies they learn about Aboriginal artworks from the same region as Lena Yarkinkura and ancestral figures from other cultures. This study will allow students to compare Aboriginal, Eastern and European visual arts practices and beliefs as the transmission of cultural heritage.
3D – fibre, sculpture
Frames
Subjective Structural Cultural Postmodern
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Artist Artwork World Audience
Lena Yarkinkura
(Rembarrnga/Kune language group). Other works by the artist include
Nayuhyunghki Kun-Kod (Ancestors in Paperbark)
Judy Watson
(Waanyi language group). Other works by the artist include The Guardians,
Guardian Spirit
Hossein Valamanesh
Outcomes 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
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Specific content focus for Unit 4.
Outcomes
4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10
Students learn about:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by different values and beliefs
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 the material, physical and virtual form of artworks intentionally made by artists
 artworks produced for exhibition and display
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 artworks that relate to their own background and experience
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame
Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests
 Australian and international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on those with an iconic status and others who are relevant to the cultural and personal interests of students. Consideration should be given to:
Students learn to:
Artmaking
 investigate the field of visual arts and design and approximate some conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field to make art
 reflect on and interpret actions and choices, and document these in their diaries
 make artworks using a range of 2D, including drawing, 3D and/or 4D forms, materials and techniques and various investigations of the world
 identify the intention, audience and context for an exhibition and display of artworks
 adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 record investigations and information gathering in their diary
 use their cultural and community identities and social perspectives of interest to them in the development of ideas and interests to represent the world in the making of art
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 discuss, consider and write about different aspects of practice
 discover how artists develop their intentions relative to their artworks, the audience and the world and recognise some of the constraints they work within
 recognise how different kinds of artists work individually and collaboratively
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



 contemporary artists and modern artists artists from different times and cultures
Aboriginal and Indigenous artists female and male artists those who use conventional and/or more contemporary technologies
 different kinds of artworks in 2D, 3D and 4D forms including their symbolic, representational, physical and material properties
 belief, value and meaning about artworks from the cultural frame
 investigate the expressive and stylistic possibilities of different media and techniques used by artists and recognise how these aspects contribute to the kinds of artworks they make
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art
53

Students look at Ancestors in Paperbark (1994) and read the text about the artist Lena
Yarinkura.
The teacher leads a discussion about the work using the cultural frame to introduce the ideas and questions below:
How an artist’s practice can be conditioned or shaped by traditional practices.
How an artist’s practice can be an adaptation of both traditional and contemporary material practices.

Aboriginal people have traditionally used fibre to construct containers such as string bags and coiled baskets. Students list some traditional fibre techniques, such as spinning, weaving, looping, knotting, folding and wrapping, in their Visual Arts diary.
The teacher can refer to a range of traditional and contemporary fibre artists and objects from a variety of source materials.

Why has Lena Yarinkura used natural materials such as paperbark and ochres? What do the ochres suggest? What kind of form does the paperbark suggest?

Identify the source of the symbols used by Lena Yarinkura. Students could refer to the rarrk (repeated lines, cross-hatching and patterning) used in paintings to represent ideas about Aboriginal spirituality.
The role of ancestral figures

Within Aboriginal communities, how are stories of Aboriginal ancestors maintained?

Why did the artist construct these figures and how do they relate to traditional art practices?

How are stories and other information about family members maintained in your own family? (for example photographs, family bible, birth and death records, diaries, letters, videos, DVDs).
Explain what Aboriginal people mean by sacred and secular art

Define the meanings of ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’. (In Aboriginal societies, ‘sacred’ refers to impermanent works and objects used in ceremonies and rituals; ‘secular’ refers to works created for non-Aboriginal audiences.)
 Why is Lena Yarinkura’s work regarded as secular?

Explain the meanings suggested to an audience by Lena Yarinkura’s ancestral sculptures.

Why do Aboriginal artists such as Lena Yarinkura exhibit works in the artworld/to the general public? (Students consider the cultural, economic and political role of
Aboriginal art.)
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Developing a conceptual practice: ideas for a sculptural form based on students’ ancestors or family members
An historical profile of a family member or cultural ancestor
Students research the history of a family member or a cultural ancestor. They:
 use the subjective frame to ask their parents and family members to recall stories about their grandparents, great-grandparents or a cultural ancestor. They should focus on one story and the personal qualities such as their sense of humour, their work, generosity, friendliness and interests
 collect biographical information, images (photographs, newspaper clippings and physical details) and acknowledge the sources in their Visual Arts diary
 represent important symbols. The cultural frame may also be used to position their research into the cultural origins of the ancestor. These origins can be represented in research drawings of the particular shapes of houses identified with that culture, symbols of money, religion, education, social status, material possessions such as land, livestock, cars and television
 display their drawings and talk about their research to other class members.
The meaning of ancestral figures in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures
The teacher selects examples of two or three ancestral or guardian figures from other cultures
(including Aboriginal) eg the Yakshi figure from the East Gate, Sanchi in India, the
Kongorikishi guardians from the Kamakura period in Japan, Roman portrait busts, an interlaced animal head from a Viking ship, Inuit totems and animal sculptures.
Students use the cultural frame to position an exploration of the relationship between the artists and the artwork. They:
 explain the function of the selected works, focusing on the figure’s protective role, stories and beliefs associated with the figure and the world in which they were made
 compare the beliefs and ideas represented in Lena Yarinkura’s artwork with the other works studied
 look at the way materials and techniques have been used in relation to the role of that artwork within a culture. For example the use of permanent, semi-permanent or impermanent materials relates to issues of secular or non-secular significance and the role these figures can perform as part of ceremonial and sacred ritual within a culture.
The teacher and students discuss the particular actions and qualities of their ancestor or family member, such as soldier, convict, miner, mother, farmer, nurse, businessmen, elder, teacher or community leader. Through additional drawings students further refine and resolve how these qualities can be represented with material practices that relate to sculpture, assemblage and construction techniques using both natural and/or manufactured materials.
55

Students view 3D figurative works by a range of artists in different times and places, for example Mimi ancestral or guardian figures, Louise Bourgeois, Jutta Feddersen, Judy
Watson, Hossein Valamanesh. Using the structural frame they discuss:
 the sculptural qualities of these works including construction techniques, materials and surfaces
 the use of a visual language associated with sculpture such as mass, void, texture, surface, three dimensions, in the round etc
 use and combination of materials and the contribution the particular use of a material makes to meaning in the artwork
 representation of symbols.
Students collect images and objects that symbolise their ancestor or family member and make sketches in their Visual Arts diary to plan their sculpture.
Students continue to develop a series of preliminary drawings and plans for their proposed sculpture representing their ancestor or family member. They develop an increasing intention in the way in which they will use visual qualities in their work to communicate meaning to an audience. They use a range of drawing media including pencils, charcoal, inks, pastels and collage and develop signs and symbols to communicate their subject’s qualities to an audience. Through teacher discussion students can be made more aware of some postmodern practices that incorporate a written narrative or text about the ancestor or family member including birth dates, significant characteristics, interests etc. Janet Laurence and Fiona
Foley’s
Edge of the Trees is a good example of textual materials used to enhance and contribute additional complex and layered meanings to an artwork.
3-D form using symbolic materials
The teacher demonstrates some construction, assemblage, cutting and joining techniques using a range of natural and manufactured materials. The Valamanesh and Watson examples provide a visual solution for students to create a simple figurative base around the notion of the silhouette that can be easily cut using either plywood or strawboard. The students then:
 experiment with different natural or manufactured materials eg fallen branches, leaves, plastics, fabric, papers, rubber, to construct, as a sculptural form, a family member or cultural ancestor figure. The symbolic aspects of the materials should be considered, for example materials may symbolise the ancestor’s culture or world, their work practices and interests
 make a sculpture using a range of construction techniques including gluing, binding, assemblage. They consider the texture and surface qualities of the sculpture and ways to represent and communicate the qualities of the figure, as well as the scale, height and base. They may return to their original drawings to consider how visual impact may be heightened
 use the language of the structural frame to document in their Visual Arts diary their construction techniques and evaluate and reflect on how materials are used and combined to create signs and symbols that communicate ideas to audiences.
Resolving the surface of the sculpture
The teacher demonstrates different ways that students could treat the surface of the sculpture to reinforce the symbolic meanings. For example, paint could be used in repeated lines or patterns to create a visual rhythm; symbolic shapes and surfaces could be used to represent
56

the cultural traditions and the history of the ancestor; layering effects could be used to represent the imagined ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ qualities of the ancestor; text and collage could be integrated, along with found and significant objects etc.
Students are encouraged to:
 organise the sculptures as memorial installations that celebrate the achievements of their family members or cultural ancestors
 construct a pageantry or ceremonial ritual around which their sculpture can be used to enact a story of personal or cultural significance. This may relate to some of the student’s subjective frame research into events and incidents in the life of their ancestor which they have chosen to represent in the work.
 install the sculpture within a specific site and document the work through drawing and digital photography. This could involve situating the figure within their own domestic world and recording the image.
 use digital imaging skills to layer or superimpose an image of the sculpture within existing historical or contemporary family photos creating a ghost image or reference to the past to enhance notions of presence and absence implied in the notion of the
‘ancestor’.
These installations can be documented through photographs and form part of a ‘Memorials’ exhibition.
Student artworks and annotated diary entries, diagrams and drawings demonstrate an understanding of the structural frame and how meaning is created using a visual language of materials, techniques, signs and symbols. An understanding of how the cultural frame can be used to research and explore the role of ancestral or guardian figures within different societies and cultures is demonstrated in students’ work in highlighting and annotating texts, photocopies and other written research with their own explanatory notes and class discussions about the role and significance of these figures. Student explanations in their Visual Arts diary demonstrate an understanding of artmaking practice.
Figurative sculpture demonstrates students’ knowledge and understanding of sculptural practice and skills in assemblage techniques, the treatment of surfaces and their ability to combine and exploit the qualities of found and natural objects. Exhibited works demonstrate students’ understanding of relationships between artworks and the audience to represent a point of view about their world and culture.
Visual Arts diary entries, reflections and drawings demonstrate an understanding of how a visual language of signs and symbols can be developed to communicate ideas and represent the qualities of ancestors and family members.
 Teacher observation and feedback of plans for sculpture in students’ Visual Arts diaries.

Teacher observation and oral feedback of experiments with construction techniques, and during the making of the sculpture.
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
Teacher observation and oral feedback in class discussions about traditional and contemporary practices and the representation of ancestors and family members.

Teacher written and oral feedback and discussion of works for ‘Memorial’ exhibition.

Research the Myall Creek Massacre.

View the Aboriginal Burial Poles, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Teachers could organise an excursion to the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney to view
Aboriginal Ancestral figures.

The Museum of Sydney – view the memorial artworks (outside).

View the video Dreamings by Michael Riley.
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
58

Unit of work
Reconciliation
Duration One term
Stage 5
Year 9 or 10
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
This unit focuses on Reconciliation and Reconciliation Week as a basis for artmaking. The cultural frame provides opportunities for this contemporary
Australian issue to be seen as both celebratory and promotional within all
Australian communities. In artmaking students make a poster that celebrates and promotes Reconciliation Week in their own community and provides opportunities for students to use information and communication technologies to make artworks in a graphic form. These representations are informed by critical and historical investigations about events and issues that have influenced the work of Aboriginal graphic artists and how they employ collaborative techniques. In critical and historical studies students investigate political comment in the work of Alice Hinton-Bateup and
David Spearim (Fernando). These works are also compared with the work of other Aboriginal artists whose subject matter addresses social, political and historical issues of importance to their audience. The school community’s reception of the posters produced, forms part of the studying activities in the unit.
2D – printmaking, digital media
Frames
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Subjective
Artist
Structural
Artwork
Alice Hinton-Bateup
(Kamilaroi/Wonnarua language group)
David Spearim (Fernando)
(Kamilaroi language group)
Robert Campbell Jnr
(Ngaku language group)
Redback Graphix
Outcomes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Cultural
World
Postmodern
Audience
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Specific content focus for Unit 5.
Outcomes
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Students learn about: Students learn to:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures,
Artmaking
 investigate and apply selected conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field of visual arts and design to make art where meaning is shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 the artworld and power the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 build their research, approaches to experimentation, procedures, skills and strategies and develop judgement in the practical action of using diaries and making of artworks
 how artists work in groups and in collaboration with others
 make informed personal choices to shape meaning
 artists who make works shaped by subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern values and beliefs
 develop subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern approaches to making artworks
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art
 develop research and investigative skills using their diary
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 utilise their diary to plan and conceptualise artworks  the ways in which particular artworks relate to their own background and experience
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural
 frame concepts of art as the aesthetic building and defining of social identity
 focus on issues of significance to their school and culture to generate ideas for artmaking and the conceptual interest of works for example: peer pressure, gender, politics, global warming, human rights, genetic engineering, the environment
 consider the social context for their developing practice and relations between peers, teachers, the school, community, galleries and artworld
60

Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests, including the artworld, artworks and exhibitions, galleries and museums, the art market, theories
 how the conceptual framework can be applied to understanding the practices of artists, critics and historians and the artworld
 the language and structure of argument
 selected artists, with a developing understanding of relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience
 how the world can be interpreted in art and the ways in which ideas are represented
 different kinds of artworks in 2D, 3D and 4D forms including their symbolic, representational, physical and material properties

 different audiences for artworks belief, value and meaning from the cultural frame
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 recognise beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power when critically interpreting art
 investigate the role of the artist, including groups of artists, in different times and places and contemporary and historical contexts
 explain how artists interpret the world in making artworks and how they seek to represent concepts through a range of styles and approaches
 further focus on the expressive and stylistic possibilities of different media and techniques used by artists and recognise how these aspects contribute to the kinds of artworks they make
 make comparisons between different kinds of artworks which take into account their symbolic and material properties
 recognise how audiences contribute to the meaning of art and how their views of works may alter in different contexts and times
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art
 identify and account for cultural orientations to art
61

Understanding Hinton-Bateup’s work
The teacher shows
Ruth’s Story
(1989 screenprint) to the students and reads the text about
Hinton-Bateup from the Gallery and Artists resource. The teacher provides a range of stories about personal experiences of children of the stolen generation. These stories can be sourced from a variety of websites including:
Australian Indigenous Stolen Generation
Stolen from under the Quandong tree For A Change Jean Brown; Whitewashed Bill Simon True Stories
Churchlink; Stories of Stolen Generation Mission Voices ABC ...
www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/indig/ stolen .htm - 50k - Cached - Similar pages
Stories of Stolen Generations . Koorie Heritage Trust
Mission voices – Culture and history of Victorian Aboriginal people and communities - oral history - online documentary - audio and text stories by Elders ...
www.abc.net.au/missionvoices/ stolen _ generation s/ stories _of_ stolen _ generation s/default.htm - 17k -
Cached - Similar pages
Stories Of The Stolen Generation :: ABC Radio Regional Production Fund
Stories from a 3-day event which brought together members of the Stolen Generation of Kimberley people. www.abc.net.au/radio/rpf/ stories /s1314445.htm - 9k - Cached - Similar pages
Australia's ' Stolen Generation '
He and other historians began to tell the stories of the stolen generation - the beatings they had suffered in state homes; the rapes, identity crises, ...
www.culturewars.org.uk/2002-12/ stolengeneration .htm - 14k - Cached - Similar pages ncca - Stolen Generations
But the fundamental truth of the stories of the Stolen Generations , and their pain, cannot be denied. As representatives of the churches, we call on our ...
www.ncca.org.au/natsiec/issues/ stolen _ generation s - 86k - Cached - Similar pages
Stolen children: their stories - Carmel Bird
Stolen children and their stories Bird's introduction to the stories ...
Our state of mind: racial planning and the stolen generations . ...
www.lakemac.infohunt.nsw.gov.au/ library/links/hschelp/english/ stolen children.htm - 9k - Cached - Similar pages
The " Stolen Generation " - Aboriginal Art Online
The Dreamtime The Stolen Generation of Aboriginal Children ...
has become an anthem for the many
Aboriginal people who identify strongly with its story . ...
www.aboriginalartonline.com/culture/ stolen .php - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
Stolen Generation - www.didjshop.com
Stolen Generation is a term used for a generation of Australian Aboriginal ...
I wish to thank Bob for sharing his stories with us and for his compassion ...
www.didjshop.com/shop1/ stolen _ generation .html - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
Laceweb - Old Man - His youth as a Stolen Generation Member
Stolen Generation Member. Written from stories told by Geoff Guest. Geoff Guest A.O.M., has Aboriginal,
Irish, and Scot forebears and is now in his ...
www.laceweb.org.au/gsg.htm - 21k - Cached - Similar pages
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[Other related websites can be accessed by doing a global search for stories of the stolen generation.
]
The teacher uses the following questions to promote discussion.

What was the government policy that allowed children to be removed from their homes that the stories highlight? When did this take place?
 How effective is the work in portraying the policy’s impact on the lives of Aboriginal people?

Why do you think Alice Hinton-Bateup describes screen-printing as a medium particularly suited to delivering a message to a wide audience?

How does Hinton-Bateup aim to make the wider society aware of ‘hidden’ Aboriginal culture, to make known Aboriginal lives and views, whilst contributing to the revitalisation and strength of Aboriginal people and their culture? How effective is she in doing this?
Historical and political events in Aboriginal art
Referring to the success of Aboriginal artists who were involved in the ‘Koori’ art movement founded in the 1980s, the teacher leads an exploration of some other artworks and sources that are a part of this movement. For example, the teacher shows Invasion Day 1988 , acrylic on canvas, and reads the text. Students answer the following questions to inform their understanding of the relationship between artists and artworks as ways to interpret their world:

What event does David Spearim (Fernando) interpret in his artwork? How is the view of the artist represented in this work?

Why has the artist titled the work Invasion Day 1988?

What historical and political event affecting Aboriginal people is portrayed in this artwork?

Why is the artwork significant to different audiences within Aboriginal culture and within the broader Australian culture?

What is the purpose and meaning of Australia Day for non-Aboriginal Australians?

What is the Aboriginal viewpoint and why?
The students evaluate and explain the significance and meanings of other artworks by
Aboriginal artists in this kit that explore historical and political issues, eg Robert Campbell
Jnr, Death in Custody , Isabell Coe, Tent Embassy , H J Wedge, Captain Cook Con Man.
Students consider the following questions:

What techniques are used to communicate a message?

Why were these artworks made and who is the intended audience?

What do these artworks tell us about attitudes to Aboriginal culture and people?

How do they make a political point and represent the beliefs of Aboriginal people?

When did Aboriginal artists begin making artworks about social and political issues?
Why did this tradition emerge?

When did these artists first become recognised as significant within the national and international artworld? What factors contributed to this?
63

Ideas for a poster
The teacher explains that students will be designing a poster to encourage their school community to participate in the celebration of Reconciliation Week. Then, as a class, students focus on the relationship between artworks and audiences by:
 brainstorming issues that relate to Reconciliation, eg shared land – shared histories, diverse cultural values, working towards better relationships and a united future. They decide which issues are relevant to their school community, decide on a range of images, signs and symbols they may need to source and collect which could be used to best represent these ideas
 discussing the characteristics of political posters that are effective in communicating a message to an audience, eg size of image, text, realisation or stylisation of the image, use of colour, layout and orientation of the work
 listing these ideas in their Visual Arts diary and considering the information to be displayed on their poster and which information will be more prominent.
The teacher uses the relationships between the agencies of the conceptual framework to assist students to consider the ways artists communicate ideas or points of view to an audience through artworks. Referring to Hinton-Bateup’s work
Ruth’s Story
these relationships may be understood through, for example, her use of symbols, colour, narrative content, cultural relevance and understanding the visual conventions that are in circulation at the time of making the work. Students are asked to explain:
 the possible messages that Alice Hinton-Bateup communicates in her artworks
 the significance of the picture of Ruth in her artwork and the symbolism of the story being written in the hair
 the social significance of events that are interpreted by the artist in the artwork
 the use of compositional and other devices such as rhythm, colour, repetition and pattern
 the effectiveness of the work in terms of communicating ideas to audiences and the factors that contribute to this.
Students are set a written task to evaluate and explain the significance of two of the other selected artworks. They may also research the significance of poster design in Aboriginal communities, eg Marie McMahon, You are on Aboriginal Land (Redback Graphix, 1986).
Visual images for a poster
As part of their practice students investigate, source and collect images for their poster about the issues previously explored by:
 collecting photographs (copyright should be checked before using images)
64

 sourcing diverse representations from the world of mass media, historical imagery, artworld, popular culture etc
 using the images with text as Hinton-Bateup does
 drawing stylised figures at an event as David Spearim (Fernando), Robert Campbell
Jnr, Isabell Coe and H J Wedge have.
Students develop a range of ideas for their poster considering relationships between size, colour, text, image in addressing layout issues for compositions. At this point the work could either be developed using a range of printmaking techniques (reduction lino print, photo-silk screen, hand-cut stencils etc) or as a digital image using appropriate software applications.
The teacher demonstrates how images can be enhanced and manipulated, and photographs combined with drawn images using scanning, selection and layering techniques. Students scan and manipulate images and experiment with various layout options.
The teacher also demonstrates ways to manipulate the text by enlarging or reducing, setting as bold, shadow, outline, strike through. Students review their work with the teacher as it develops and consider such aspects as the visual impact of the work, readability of text and font size, whether the poster clearly communicates a message suited to their intentions (the targeting of the school community).
Students complete their posters and exhibit these around the school community, celebrating
Reconciliation Week.
Students undertake research into the effectiveness of the posters in communicating with the local school audience.
Working in groups, they devise a form of research that will provide information about audience response. This can be through questionnaire, interview or taking orders for copies of the posters.
Each student documents a reflection of their own learning in the production of the posters and of their group’s research findings on audience response to the posters.
Student’s participation in discussion and their written responses demonstrate an understanding of the cultural frame and relationships between agencies of the conceptual framework to interpret and explain an artist’s practice.
The selection and analysis of images demonstrate an understanding of the significance of poster design in Aboriginal communities. Poster designs, diary entries and manipulated images demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of poster design including layout, text and graphic techniques, and an understanding of relationships between artworks and audiences. Digital manipulations of images demonstrate an understanding of the use of
65

software programs, tools and techniques and the persuasive powers of images and how meaning can be communicated through signs, symbols and codes.

Teacher observation and oral feedback about the development of plans for poster designs and experiments with combining and manipulating images.

Teacher observation and oral feedback in class discussions about contemporary design practices, the significance of poster design and how posters communicate meaning to audiences.
 Teacher written and oral feedback about research into conceptual framework relationships and the effectiveness of posters.
Research the importance of posters in Aboriginal art and communities. Start collecting posters about Aboriginal issues.
As part of this unit, students can develop an understanding of Reconciliation and
Reconciliation Week and the role they can personally play. This can happen at various points throughout the unit.
Invite guest speakers from the local community to talk to students; this would be a valuable experience. The following organisations are useful for current information:
 Reconciliation Australia www.reconciliation.org.au/i-cms.isp
is the body established to provide a continuing national focus for reconciliation following the end of the Council for
Aboriginal Reconciliation in December 2000. Reconciliation Australia produces a quarterly magazine that includes articles that can be used in classrooms.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) www.antar.org.au
(see
Resources and Research for addresses).
Display Reconciliation posters and information in the classroom and around the school.
Reconciliation Week is recognised and celebrated annually. Students discuss or research the following questions:

What does the word Reconciliation mean?

What are the issues connected with Reconciliation, Native Title, Mabo, High Court rulings and the Stolen Generations?

Who is involved in Reconciliation and why? Look at recent events and marches.
Why were so many people involved in these public expressions of Reconciliation?

What role can students play in promoting and working towards Reconciliation and why?
Teachers and students think about how to involve their own school community and
Aboriginal community in celebrating Reconciliation or Reconciliation Week. Where? When?
Who will be involved? How to involve everyone?
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
66

Unit of work
Objects in the Landscape
Duration One term
Stage 5
Year
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
9 or 10
In this unit students use the structural and cultural frames and the agencies of the conceptual framework to investigate the fibre arts of Yvonne
Koolmatrie and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. The investigation of these artists can be an inspiration for the students to explore constructed 3D forms and the representation of objects in the landscape.
In their artmaking, students explore traditional and innovative notions of constructed and woven structures and surfaces that have some connections to the traditions of textiles and fibre practices. Students develop a range of contemporary material practices and a visual vocabulary of signs, symbols and meanings. They experiment with natural and manufactured materials and found objects to construct a 3D form that represents ideas about the landscape. Students consider the relationships between artists and artworks and how artists make artworks to communicate ideas about the world to an audience. In critical and historical studies students use the structural and the cultural frames to investigate the function of artworks and audiences through an investigation of traditional and contemporary fibre practices and the practice of situating sculptural objects in the landscape. An historical study of Aboriginal community art provides students with the opportunity to consider the significant cultural and economic roles of art for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
3D – sculpture, fibre Forms
Frames
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Subjective
Artist
Structural
Artwork
Cultural
World
Postmodern
Audience
Yvonne Koolmatrie (Ngarrindjeri language group). Other works by the artist include Eel Traps
Bronwyn Oliver. Other works by the artist include Seed and Palm, Royal
Botanic Gardens, Sydney
John Davis. Other works by the artist include Fish and Pebbles
Keren Ruki
Lorraine Connelly-Northey (Wiradjuri language group). Other works by the artist include The gatherer: Narrbongs (String bags), Hunter-gatherer
Sue Pedley. Other works by the artist include Sri Lankan works
Outcomes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
67

Specific content focus for Unit 6.
Outcomes
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Students learn about:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 how artists develop their intentions
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame
 concepts of art as the aesthetic building and defining of social identity
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the structural frame
 concepts of art as a system of symbolic communication through which particular forms of aesthetic information are transmitted
Students learn to:
Artmaking
 investigate and apply selected conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field of visual arts and design to make art where meaning is shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 build their research, approaches to experimentation, procedures, skills and strategies and develop judgement in the practical action of using diaries and making of artworks
 develop research and investigative skills using their diary
 invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 develop their artistic intentions in the making of art and how practice becomes more informed as they continue to make art
 further focus on how cultural and community identity and social perspectives contribute to the development of ideas and making of art
 focus on issues of significance to their school and culture to generate ideas for artmaking and the conceptual interest of works, for example: peer pressure, gender, politics, global warming, human rights, genetic engineering, the environment
 consider the social context for their developing practice and relations between peers, teachers, the school, community, galleries and artworld
 employ a range of conventions including codes, symbols and signs
 consider how communication is embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of their own artworks eg the choice of paint and placement of an image relative to others in the composition
 use a range of styles that make use of the conventions of the field
68

Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests, including the artworld, artworks and exhibitions, galleries and museums, the art market, theories
 artistic practices, conventions and procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking of different arists, group of artists and artistic movements
 how the frames offer alternative ways to think about the purposes of practice including those of the artist, critic and historian
 selected artists, with a developing understanding of relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience
 artists and groups of artists working in Australia, international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on:
 contemporary artists and modern artists
 artists from different cultures

Aboriginal and Indigenous artists
 female and male artists
 those who use conventional and/or more contemporary technologies
 different kinds of artworks in 2D, 3D and 4D forms including their symbolic, representational, physical and material properties



 belief, value and meaning from the concepts of art as the aesthetic building and defining of social identity belief, value and meaning from the transmitted cultural frame structural frame concepts of art as a system of symbolic communication through which particular forms of aesthetic information are
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 seek to explain the different artistic practices of selected artists and groups and different artistic movements
 consider how practices can be interpreted from different points of view
 investigate the role of the artist, including groups of artists, in different times and places and contemporary and historical contexts.
 investigate how different artists in different times and places develop their intentions and recognise some of the constraints they work within
 further focus on the expressive and stylistic possibilities of different media and techniques used by artists and recognise how these aspects contribute to the kinds of artworks they make
 make comparisons between different kinds of artworks which take into account their symbolic and material properties
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art
 explain how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand social conditions, perspectives and the social construction of meaning
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences can read artworks as images or texts by understanding conventions including codes, symbols and signs and how these are embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks
69

Traditional fibre arts in contemporary Aboriginal art practice
Students view a range of traditional and contemporary fibre works from selected artists focusing on Eel Traps (1993) by Yvonne Koolmatrie. The teacher leads a structural frame investigation about the artwork to develop an understanding of conceptual framework relationships and how contemporary art practices are informed by traditional art practices.
Students respond to questions in a written account.

What was the traditional purpose of the work and does the work retain this purpose today? How has the meaning of the work changed over time for different audiences?

Describe the materials and the source of these materials. (Students could locate the
Ngarrindjeri community and the Lower Murray River on the map of Australia.)

Explain the techniques used to construct the work and consider how effective these are.
 Outline the artist’s practice, including her interests and the influences on her work such as traditional Aboriginal fibre art practices.
 Why was Yvonne Koolmatrie’s work chosen to represent Australia in the 1997 Venice
Biennale?
Fibre construction
The teacher provides a range of examples of three-dimensional traditional and contemporary sculptural works where the notion of the woven surface has been explored in its broadest sense. To expand the field from traditional concepts of woven objects and structures students could view examples of work by Bronwyn Oliver, John Davis’s
Fish and Pebbles and other fish sculptures , Sue Pedley’s site-specific Sri Lankan series, Sound of Bamboo and Sound of
Lotus , etc. The teacher assists students to explore a range of different materials that can be used to construct an object. Students could collect natural fibres such as reeds, sticks, bamboo, cane and raffia or more contemporary manufactured materials such as wire, plastic tubing, netting etc. Alternatively students could use recycled materials such as torn paper or fabric strips, paper or cardboard tubing, plastic straws and found objects.
The teacher demonstrates a range of construction techniques (some may be traditional
Aboriginal fibre practices) to students, and/or invites or employs an Aboriginal fibre artist to teach students some traditional techniques. Other techniques may be of a more contemporary nature such as joining, looping, weaving, stitching, coiling, knotting, folding, wrapping or rolling manufactured materials together. For example:

Rolled paper or fabric (tubes). Draw, paint or computer-generate an image onto paper.
Roll the paper with the image or text turned out around a paper tube, twig or piece of dowel and paste. Plastic or fabric can also be used; see, for example, works by contemporary Maori artist Keren Ruki where images are ironed onto fabric and then rolled around small lengths of cane.

Manipulate traditional methods of weaving, knitting, sewing materials together and experiment with ways to join cane, wire, fabric strips or plastic tubing.
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Students evaluate the techniques demonstrated and the different effects achieved through manipulating and combining colours, textures and materials. They experiment with a range of techniques and combinations of techniques to make some sample pieces. Students document their procedures in their Visual Arts diary using sketches, photographs and annotations using the language of the structural frame. Students may also find examples of works by Aboriginal artists who use these and similar techniques. The experiments may be used later by the students in the construction of their object. As part of these annotations students could also explain how the use of certain materials contributes specific meaning to artworks.
Through reading accounts of Yvonne Koolmatrie’s work and practice, including text from this website, students understand that part of the artist’s intention in her practice is to revitalise traditional techniques that are in danger of becoming lost as the effects of colonisation prevent skills being handed down from generation to generation in a traditional way. In a traditional Aboriginal culture the fish traps were crucial to survival and the provision of food for the tribe.
In a contemporary world artworks such as Koolmatries’s can enjoy quite a different role and function from the traditional tribal function and social context in which the works were first made. The teacher leads a discussion about the relationship between artworks and audiences using the 1997 Venice Biennale (where Koolmatrie, Judy Watson and Emily Kngwarreye represented Australia) and the recent addition of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris in terms of a new thinking about Indigenous art both locally and in Europe. Students respond to guided questioning in a written account. The questions could include:

What is the Venice Biennale?

Who decides what is exhibited at the Venice Biennale?
 The curators’ theme for the 1997 Venice Biennale was ‘Future, Present, Past’.
Interpret the title of this theme to build a possible account for the selection of the three
Aboriginal artists to represent Australia in Venice in 1997.

What was happening in the world of Australian politics in relation to issues of
Aboriginal land rights and self-determination around 1997 that connects to the selection of these artists for Venice?
 What is the Musée du quai Branly?

Who are the Aboriginal artists whose work has been chosen for exhibition there?

How have new materials and technologies facilitated the adaptation of work by
Australian Aboriginal artists as architectural elements at the Musée du quai Branly?
(Gulumbu Yunupingu’s Garak – The Universe is painted on a walkway and ceiling,
Tommy Watson’s Central Desert painting has been transferred to metal sheets and installed on a ceiling and Paddy Bedford’s work is reproduced as a glass installation.)

How does the use of new media within the traditions of Aboriginal art and culture create a new way for audiences to view and interpret these works?
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Objects in the landscape
Students investigate the local landscape, its features and the objects found in it such as rock formations, flora, shells, seed pods, cocoons etc. Students collect some of these objects and found materials from the landscape to use for their preliminary drawings for a sculpture. In their drawings the development of conceptual practice is present though the choice and selection of materials to represent ideas about and aspects of the relationship between the natural environment and humankind, cultures and beliefs. Objects and what they are made of can act as a link to a culture, they become icons of significance and connection points between people. Students can:
 make a series of sketches of objects, recording skeletal structures and frames, surfaces, patterns, linear qualities, colours and scale and compositional aspects
 investigate a range of 3D artworks representing ideas about the objects in the landscape by a range of artists such as Bronwyn Oliver, John Davis (eg Fish and
Pebbles ), Brett Whiteley (eg Nest ) and Rosalie Gasgoine (eg Feather Fence ) where artists have woven, threaded and joined found natural materials to form a structure reminiscent of the landscape in which these materials are found
 develop a preliminary plan and drawings for a sculpture (a single work or a series of works) to accompany these drawings. Students start to plan and experiment with materials to weave, loop, stitch wrap and join to create the structure of their sculpture
 review diary reflections and annotations about their experiments with materials, and develop their initial plans considering the constraints and advantages of the materials they are using
 focus on particular structural aspects such as skeletal structure and frame, textures, patterns, shapes of objects in the landscape and in the 3D forms
 consider the role of scale and how a change in scale can alter the way we see and interpret familiar objects. Using the visual language of scale could also involve students considering the role of memory and how the distance of time can make things seem what they are not – often larger than life. Students are encouraged to think about how an unexpected use of material and scale can challenge an audience’s expectation and reading of an artwork
 collect a range of natural and manufactured objects, such as twigs, feathers, papers, fabric, plastics, twines, string, beads and buttons, to be used to construct the sculpture
 select and use one or more fibre construction techniques to make their 3D form(s)
 document their intentions, procedures used, decisions and judgements in their Visual
Arts diary.
Study of significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art movements
The teacher introduces the various movements using artworks from this resource and the
Timeline of Events . Significant artistic cultural practices include:

Ernabella Arts
Batik on silk organza by Angkaliya Purampi
Batik on silk crepe and satin by Alison Carroll and Angkuna Kulyuru
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Woodcarving: Large piti by Dora Haggie
Ngalpi (Leaf) by Nyuwara Tapaya
Minyma Kaanka (Crow Woman’s Story)
by Awulari

Utopia Arts Community
Untitled (Alhakere) 1990

Mangkaja Arts
Payarr by Paji Honeychild Yankarr

Oenepelli
Kunj 1984

Tiwi People
The Kurlama 1995

Papunya Tula
Untitled 1990, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of Utopia Art Sydney
Untitled 1994, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of Utopia Art Sydney

Warlukurlangu Artists
Ngapa (water) , Pamapardu (flying ant) , Wardapi (goanna) , Ngarlkirdi (witchetty grub) Dreaming by Jeanie Nungurrayi Egan and Thomas Jangala Rice.
Students can:
 identify how traditional practices and practices from other cultures have informed the practices of these artists
 explain the material qualities of the works including the use of particular techniques and processes and comment on their cultural significance
 consider how practices are exchanged amongst different cultural groups
 identify the individuals, community members and agencies who have supported the artists and helped to market their work.
Constructing the object
Students make their works and place them in the selected site. They document the works, and audience reactions and interactions with the works, through drawings, photographs, written anecdotes and video footage. Students can prepare a written statement that records their intentions and the ideas they are seeking to represent in a 3D form. They can compare their fibre works with those by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
Students construct the object and consider how they can:
 incorporate found objects to enhance the ideas and the aesthetic qualities of the materials
 take advantage of unexpected mistakes that might lead to new ideas or welcome adaptations
 use new and novel techniques.
Students exhibit the work and compare it to fibre works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander artists.
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Oral responses and class discussion demonstrate student understanding of the cultural conventions of traditional fibre practices, and contemporary sculptural practice, the use of found objects and construction techniques. Visual Arts diary entries, annotated sketches and diagrams demonstrate an understanding of planning, design and sculptural practice.
Experiments with techniques and combinations of materials demonstrate students’ skills in construction and assemblage techniques and the selection of appropriate materials to represent aspects of their world to an audience.
Written accounts in response to questions demonstrate an understanding of how the cultural and structural frame and the conceptual framework can be used to interpret an artist’s practice. Students demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of critical and historical writing as a means of informing an audience about an artist’s practice.

Teacher observation and feedback during class discussion.
 Oral feedback and written feedback in students’ Visual Arts diary and teacher observation during discussion and written activities.

Teacher observation and oral feedback during making the sculpture, written feedback about the resolved sculpture.
Employ an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander fibre artists to run a workshop at school. Visit an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Gallery that is exhibiting fibre art. Attend workshops run by various community fibre artists (eg Casula Power House Museum runs fibre art workshops). Visit the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and other sites to view sculptures.
Click here to go to Resources and Research.
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Unit of work
Cultural Intersections
Duration One term
Stage 5
Year Year 9 or 10
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
This unit of work provides learning opportunities for students to make a series of photographs influenced by the artistic practice of the Aboriginal photographer and film producer Michael Riley.
In critical and historical studies students use the cultural frame to investigate the historical aspects of life for Aboriginal people on missions, which is the subject matter of Riley’s work. They then employ a subjective point of view to find and explore an empathetic response from their own experience. In artmaking students reflect on aspects of their own life and culture that can be represented as metaphors and symbols in their photographs. Darkroom photographic practices and/or digital media are used to communicate these experiences of their world to an audience.
2D – photography, digital media, computer-generated and computer- enhanced graphics
Frames
Subjective Structural Cultural Postmodern
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Artist Artwork World Audience
Michael Riley (Wiradjuri language group), Three Images ( Untitled ) from the Sacrifice series
Rea (Kamilaroi/Wailan language groups)
Darren Siwes (of Ngalkban and Dutch heritage)
Brenda L Croft (Gurindji language group), Jesus wants me for a sunbeam ,
1998. From the series ‘Alt(a)red Angels’, digital image
Brook Andrew (Wiradjuri language group), Sexy and dangerous , 1998, digital image
Outcomes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
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Specific content focus for Unit 7.
Outcomes
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Students learn about:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the structural frame
Students learn to:
Artmaking
 investigate and apply selected conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field of visual arts and design to make art where meaning is shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 build their research, approaches to experimentation, procedures, skills and strategies and develop judgement in the practical action of using diaries and making of artworks
 develop subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern approaches to making artworks  artists who make works shaped by subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern values and beliefs
 the audience function as ongoing yet changeable as artworks inhabit subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern viewing contexts
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art
 make artworks that connect with audiences through exhibition and display
 develop research and investigative skills using their diary
 invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 further focus on how cultural and community identity and social perspectives contribute to the development of ideas and making of art
 focus on issues of significance to their school and culture to generate ideas for artmaking and the conceptual interest of works for example: peer pressure, gender, politics, global warming, human rights, genetic engineering, the environment
 employ a range of conventions including codes, symbols and signs
 consider how communication is embedded in the material and conceptual organisation
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 concepts of art as a system of symbolic communication through which particular forms of aesthetic information are transmitted
Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests, including the artworld, artworks and exhibitions, galleries and museums, the art market, theories
 artistic practices, conventions and procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking of different arists, group of artists and artistic movements
 how the conceptual framework can be applied to understanding the practices of artists, critics and historians and the artworld
 artists and groups of artists working in Australia, international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on:
 contemporary artists and modern artists
 artists from different cultures



Aboriginal and Indigenous artists female and male artists those who use conventional and/or more contemporary technologies
 how the world can be interpreted in art and the ways in which ideas are represented
 how the frames offer alternative ways to think about relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audiences of their own artworks, eg the choice of paint and placement of an image relative to others in the composition
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 seek to explain the different artistic practices of selected artists and groups and different artistic movements
 recognise beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power when critically interpreting art
 investigate how different artists in different times and places develop their intentions and recognise some of the constraints they work within
 consider how different kinds of artists work individually and collaboratively in different contexts eg in design or architectural offices, multimedia projects, film, community projects, for retrospective and group shows
 explain how artists interpret the world in making artworks and how they seek to represent concepts through a range of styles and approaches
 interpret and explain relationships between artists – artworks – the world – audiences
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 belief, value and meaning from the cultural frame
 concepts of art as the aesthetic building and defining of social identity

 belief, value and meaning from the structural frame concepts of art as a system of symbolic communication through which particular forms of aesthetic information are transmitted
 explain how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand social conditions, perspectives and the social construction of meaning
 consider how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand how art can represent issues related to class, gender, ethnicity, politics, science, globalisation, technology, economics and the environment
 identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences can read artworks as images or texts by understanding conventions including codes, symbols and signs and how these are embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks
 explain how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand art as a system of symbolic communication through which particular forms of aesthetic information are transmitted
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Ways to interpret Michael Riley’s photographs
Students examine images of artworks by Michael Riley and consider the following questions with a focus on the structural frame:

How has the artist used light and contrast to highlight the tonal and textural properties of objects in the photographs?

How has this use of light and contrast contributed to the meaning of the photographs?
Refer to particular examples of his work.

Identify and describe some of the other photographic techniques Riley has used in his work. Consider techniques such as cropping, close-up views, framing, focus and sepia applications etc, used to enhance the meaning of the works.

How do these particular visual qualities in Michael Riley’s photographs contribute to the way audiences read meaning in these works?
 Explain how examples of Michael Riley’s photography can be interpreted as challenges or reflections of issues in today’s society.
Michael Riley’s practice – issues and concepts
Students use the cultural frame to position an exploration of the historical and Christian concepts in Michael Riley’s photography by viewing his photographic series ‘ Sacrifice’,
(Three images (untitled) from the Sacrifice series) and read the text provided. As a class they discuss the following points:
 Audience interpretations of the term ‘sacrifice’ and how Riley has represented this concept in his artworks, based on his experiences of his world.

Riley declares that these are part of his ‘first conceptual work’. Consider what the term ‘conceptual’ means.

How do the images in the these photographs reflect attitudes and beliefs about
Christianity and mission life?

How do they reflect political policies, historical events and the relationships to
Aboriginal Culture? For example the row of eight fish represent Christian parables.
From Riley’s perspective, how do they symbolise mission life (the imposition of order, rationing, house inspections etc)?

Riley’s previous works were usually portraits. In this series he talks about ‘replacing images of people with interspersed and symbolically loaded images’. Find an example of Riley’s early work and compare this with work in this unit.
 ‘Michael’s work constantly shifts between the literal and the allegorical.’ Briefly discuss in writing what this statement means and consider the qualities of selected examples to support your view.
The concept of ‘sacrifice’ as subject matter
Using the knowledge they have built through previous cultural frame investigations, students consider how they can represent ideas about loss of identity, cultural intersection or the
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cultural sacrifice that takes place through the processes of colonisation, migration and cultural displacement. They make a series of four to six photographic or digital prints by focusing on objects as cultural symbols and metaphors. Conceptual practice is developed through an understanding of the role of signs, codes and symbols in artworks. Students acknowledge the role of intention in their practice as a device that is used to position audiences for multilayered readings of artworks. Associated concepts, such as dispossession, displacement, separation, alienation and the possible future of reconciliation are considered. Students investigate how they could apply these ideas to aspects of their own social context or society in general.
Ideas about the relationship between artworks and the world (the student’s personal world or the external world) may be extended and developed by considering the following:
 What does ‘sacrifice’ mean in this society, time and context?

Identify some sacrifices students have made in relation to personal compromises made, cultural traditions sacrificed in relation to their own family situations, selfsacrifice, religious sacrifice etc.

Consider an aspect of school life that has affected you.

Identify and consider some social or school issues that are significant to you and your family (eg rules, routines, expectations of others, religious ideals, traditions).

Consider times when you have been marginalised by others.
Using their Visual Arts diary, students document the concepts that are of interest to them and consider different kinds of objects that could take on a symbolic and metaphorical meaning to represent their ideas.
Developing imagery and darkroom techniques
Having made a decision about the objects to be selected, and acknowledging the ways these images will signify meaning in their work, students develop a series of small sketches illustrating how they plan to situate the object and take the photographs with a view to creating subtle, multilayered and compelling images. These decisions are made in conjunction with a demonstration of techniques that can be used to achieve particular effects in photography and/or digital imaging.
The teacher demonstrates how to achieve the following effects either in the darkroom or using appropriate digital equipment and software:
 controlled lighting effects (natural and studio lighting)
 accentuating tone and texture (sepia toning, using filters, image adjustments in hue, saturation, brightness and contrast)
 changing backgrounds (natural and made environments, sterile and opulent, scanning and layering)
 various viewpoints, selection, framing and cropping
 contrast (tonal dropout, solarisation, posterisation)
Students then review their ideas, set up their objects and equipment, take the photographs, digitally manipulate them (if working in a digital form) and print them.
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Evaluation of student images
Students work in small groups to plan the exhibition of their photographs and are asked to make decisions about which images to include in the final series of works. As a group they consider and discuss:
 how their conceptual practice is best represented in particular images
 the extent to which images represent the original concept developed and connect to others within the series
 ways in which their understanding of the technical aspects of photography or digital imaging techniques are best demonstrated by particular photographs
 ways in which their series of works relate to the images of Michael Riley
 how the role of selection within a series or body of work contributes in a strong and convincing way to the way artists position an audience to read an artwork.
Students note decisions, considerations and aspects of this discussion in their Visual Arts diary.
With reference to their lead-up work and changes in direction students select their best four to six images for final submission and exhibition. Students record their artmaking intentions in an artist’s statement that may accompany their work at exhibition.
Understanding of the significance of mission life for artists
Students view other artworks by artists dealing with representations of mission life. Consider artworks by Elaine Russell ( Inspection Day ,1994, acrylic on cardboard), Ian Abdulla ( On the
Mission ), Brenda L Croft ( Alt(a)red Angels series) and Brook Andrew ( Sexy and dangerous ).
The structural and cultural frames are used to position a comparative analysis of the conceptual practice of each artist through an explanation of the use of signs and symbols in each work. The investigation of these artworks could consider:
 cultural, social, political and religious influences upon the work of artists
 the use of particular techniques and methods and the material aspects of the artworks
 ways we can explain the significance of these and similar artworks in this time and place compared with how they might have been understood when they were originally made.
Written responses and class discussions demonstrate students’ understanding of the cultural and structural frames and conceptual framework relationships and an understanding and knowledge of critical and historical writing as a means of informing an audience about an artist’s practice. Participation in discussion and written work demonstrates an ability to construct cultural explanations of personal experiences of the world through the interpretation of artworks.
Visual Arts diary entries demonstrate understanding of planning, design and the conventions of photographic and digital practices. Experiments with techniques demonstrate students’
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skills in selecting and using a range of photographic techniques. Experiments, drawings and photographs demonstrate students’ understanding of the symbolic use of materials and subject matter to represent aspects of the world.

Teacher observation and oral feedback during the discussion, planning and making of photographic and/or digital works.

Oral feedback during discussion about artists and their practice.

Written feedback in the Visual Arts diary about artmaking experiments and critical and historical studies activities and interpretations and explanations of artworks.
The subject matter of Riley’s photographs reflects the church’s role in mission life. A study of these issues will give students a better understanding of Riley’s work and Aboriginal art in general. Students can research the establishment and impact of missions in or near their school community considering such things as:
 living conditions
 experiences as retold by Aboriginal people, including negative and positive experiences
 aspects of mission life
 consequences of mission life on contemporary Aboriginal culture.
Students can discuss:
 what is meant by the term ‘Aboriginal mission life’
 ways in which Christianity has affected Aboriginal culture and belief systems.
Click here to go to the Resources and Research .
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Unit of work
Place, Possession and Dispossession
Duration One to two terms
Stage 5
Year 10
Unit description
Practice, artmaking and critical and historical studies
Forms
In this unit students use the postmodern frame to study different cultural beliefs and attitudes represented in traditions of Australian landscape painting.
In artmaking students develop a collage, photomontage or digital image in which historical images, artworks and traditional painting techniques are recontextualised to represent the different histories of a community or place.
They work both individually and collaboratively to select and represent ironic and paradoxical aspects of the social history in Australian and regional contexts in collages and paintings.
In critical and historical studies students gain experience and strategies in reading the layers of revealed and suppressed significance in images. Through an investigation of Lin Onus’s artistic practice the dominant view of culture is challenged and questioned.
Issues of identity, ownership, dispossession and social justice are investigated and inform artmaking activities.
The complexity of this unit makes it suitable for Year 10 students. The unit could be adapted for Year 9 use by a more simple focus on the work of
Onus in studying, and on a collaborative collage in artmaking to which each student makes a contribution.
2D, digital imaging, collage, photomontage
Frames
Conceptual framework
Key artists
Subjective
Artist
Structural
Artwork
Cultural
World
Postmodern
Audience
Lin Onus (Yorta Yorta language group). Other works by the artist include
And on the Eighth Day 1992, Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute 1992, Fruit Bats 1990
Gordon Bennett
Outcomes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
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Specific content focus for Unit 8.
Outcomes
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Students learn about:
Artmaking
 the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks
 artists who make works shaped by subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern values and beliefs
 the audience function as ongoing yet changeable as artworks inhabit subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern viewing contexts
 the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make art
 how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame
 belief, value and meaning in the visual arts in the postmodern frame
Students learn to:
Artmaking
 investigate and apply selected conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field of visual arts and design to make art where meaning is shaped by values and beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power
 build their research, approaches to experimentation, procedures, skills and strategies and develop judgement in the practical action of using diaries and making of artworks
 develop subjective, structural, cultural and postmodern approaches to making artworks
 make artworks that connect with audiences through exhibition and display
 develop research and investigative skills using their diary
 invent, adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks
 further focus on how cultural and community identity and social perspectives contribute to the development of ideas and making of art
 focus on issues of significance to their school and culture to generate ideas for artmaking and the conceptual interest of works for example: peer pressure, gender, politics, global warming, human rights, genetic engineering, the environment
 modify, interpret or appropriate images from a variety of sources and seek to question concepts about art such as precious, unique and singular
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 concepts of art as intertextual and as a way of recontextualising other art
Critical and historical studies
 how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests, including the artworld, artworks and exhibitions, galleries and museums, the art market, theories
 artistic practices, conventions and procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking of different arists, groups of artists and artistic movements
 how the conceptual framework can be applied to understanding the practices of artists, critics and historians and the artworld
 artists and groups of artists working in Australia, international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on:




 contemporary artists and modern artists artists from different cultures
Aboriginal and Indigenous artists female and male artists those who use conventional and/or more contemporary technologies
 how the world can be interpreted in art and the ways in which ideas are represented
 how the frames offer alternative ways to think about relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience
 recognise the role of the audience in the construction and layering of meaning in their art
 explore notions of irony, parody and critique of art in their making of art
Critical and historical studies
 investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places
 seek to explain the different artistic practices of selected artists and groups of artists and different artistic movements
 recognise beliefs about the individual, social structures, the artworld and power when critically interpreting art
 investigate how different artists in different times and places develop their intentions and recognise some of the constraints they work within
 consider how different kinds of artists work individually and collaboratively in different contexts, eg in design or architectural offices, multimedia projects, film, community projects, for retrospective and group shows
 explain how artists interpret the world in making artworks and how they seek to represent concepts through a range of styles and approaches
 interpret and explain relationships between artists – artworks – the world – audiences
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
 belief, value and meaning from the cultural frame concepts of art as the aesthetic building and defining of social identity
 belief, value and meaning from the postmodern frame
 concepts of art as intertextual and as a way of recontextualising other art
 explain how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand social conditions, perspectives and the social construction of meaning
 consider how critical and historical accounts provide a way to understand how art can represent issues related to class, gender, ethnicity, politics, science, globalisation, technology, economics and the environment
 identify how artworks may be explained and interpreted as intertextual, including those that make use of time-based and digital technologies, and pose a challenge to more conventional and established conceptions of art as precious, unique and singular
 explain how critical and historical accounts critique power in art seeking to uncover patterns of authority and the dominance of particular narratives of art
 identify and account for postmodern orientations to art
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Landscape paintings as representations of cultural beliefs and attitudes
A study of images of the Australian landscape when viewed from the cultural frame deals with issues of the traditional construction of cultural identity and heritage.
Students research the significance of landscape paintings by western and Aboriginal artists and consider how, over time, artworks have represented different cultural beliefs and values about the land and its people. The purpose of the study is for students to develop an understanding of the context and art history referenced by Onus in his artistic practice.
A statement by Daniel Thomas provides a cultural point of view that is adopted by the teacher and students during their investigation of selected artworks. Thomas explains that ‘art … is the principal means by which “Australia” has been invented and created.’
This idea was behind the landmark exhibition Creating Australia held in 1988.
As part of the Bicentennial celebrations this survey exhibition acknowledged the range of ways artists practising in historical, modernist and contemporary contexts had variously shaped and contributed to or defined the Australian cultural identity through their artworks.
The teacher presents an overview of Australian landscape painting (19th and 20th century examples) that explores and assists an understanding of the cultural frame. The account focuses on ways artworks have contributed to and confirmed attitudes and perceptions of
Australia. Different points of view used by artists working in colonial times, modernist styles,
Aboriginal cultures, and contemporary contexts are explained and compared (see list below).
Consideration is also given to how artworks represent shared cultural beliefs that change over time due to political, social and economic influences. Concepts such nationalism, cultural identity, reconciliation, ownership and tradition are discussed.
Discussion could focus on Glover’s approach to representing the landscape as an artist from
England with some academic training and classical beliefs about landscape painting. This approach could be compared with works by Heidelberg School artists, Gascoigne, and traditional and contemporary Aboriginal artists. Consideration is given to the different ways, both materially and conceptually, that artists have dealt with the idea of landscape over time and how this has changed and has shaped attitudes about Australia. An exploration of the relationship between artists and their world considers the changes to the representation of the landscape over time, which mirror changes in Australian history and reflect the construct of our national identity according to the particulars of time and place in that history.
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Research assignment
Students select and research one example from each of the following groups of artworks.
Group: 1 Nineteenth-century artworks
John Glover, A View of Mills Plains, Van Diemen’s Land , c.1833
Augustus Earle, A Bivouac of Travellers in a Cabbage-Tree Forest , c.1838
Eugene Von Guerard, Stony Rises, Corangamite , 1857
William Barrak, Dancing Scenes , c.1880
Arthur Streeton, Golden Summers, Eaglemont , 1889
Group: 2 Twentieth-century artworks
Albert Namatjira, Ghost Gum , c.1950
Arthur Boyd, Shearers Playing for the Bride , 1957
Russell Drysdale, Ceremony at the Rockface , 1963
Fred Williams, Upwey Landscape II , 1965
Rosalie Gascoigne, Monaro , 1989
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled (Alhalkere) , 1990, acrylic on linen
Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, Untitled , 1990, acrylic on canvas
Rover Thomas, Dreamtime Story of the Creation of the Erskine Range , acrylic on canvas
Students find and read at least two articles or accounts by different art historians or critics about each example they have chosen to research. To assist students to understand the ways in which artworks can be viewed from the cultural frame they consider the following questions to structure their investigation:
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When was the artwork made?
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Describe the society the artist lived in at this time.
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At the time the artist was working, what was the significance of the land to communities in Australia?
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How are particular cultural attitudes to the land reflected in the artwork?
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How does the artwork deal with ideas of ownership and dispossession?
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How has the artist used images of the land and Australia to represent particular cultural ideas and traditions?
 How do other examples of the artist’s work reflect similar ideas about the significance of the land?
Based on their research a written account is developed in the form of an essay. Students are asked to respond to the following: ‘Explain how two artists and their works have contributed to the invention and creation of an Australian identity’.
Interrogating a place and uncovering its histories
To develop the conceptual basis for this artmaking unit the teacher and students conduct a genealogical investigation of the locality or community they live in. Using a timeline to collaboratively record the different histories of their families, Aboriginal culture and
European presence in the local area, students begin documenting aspects of the community in the present. They then take on the role of an ethnographer or anthropologist and research
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aspects of the past history of the place and uncover events and traditions that have particular significance for a range of cultural groups.
For example, evidence of different histories and ‘voices’ that have shaped the community in which students live have been documented through things such as place names, customs, celebrations, events, and stories. An Aboriginal community member or a representative of a local historical society or cultural group could be invited to speak to the class or conduct a workshop with students about regional and local interests, their experiences and history.
Procedures and protocols for school visits are explained in part 3 of Working with Aboriginal
Communities: A Guide to Community Consultation and Protocols (Board of Studies NSW,
2001).
The class collaboratively develops an archive of evidence to support the events recorded on the developing timeline. This evidence represents the historical world based on investigations of individual family histories, Aboriginal history and European history in the area. Evidence collected and documented in the diary could include:
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Documentation and research of places with Aboriginal names and/or western names
(see the box below for further information).
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Information about the meaning and origins of the names of places and significant landmarks in the area.
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Information about language groups, families of the area and their ancestral origins.
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Images of the sites, landmarks and characteristics of the place such as photographs, postcards, historical images from books, maps, architectural plans and Aboriginal and western artists’ drawings and paintings of the place from past and present contexts.
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Copies of documents such as land titles, newspaper clippings and articles, business receipts, clothing and other artefacts and objects associated with historical stories.
 Interviews and stories from relatives, ‘old-timers’ and local history experts.
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Physical evidence relating to the place or community, objects that are identified with activities and industries in the local area, feelings about the place, the goals and dreams of Aboriginals, explorers, early settlers and present inhabitants, how the place or community has changed over time, and particular people who have significantly contributed to the area over time.
Think about the original meanings of place names in Australia.
Do the place names describe places in Australia or other places (eg Eden and
Newcastle)?
Do the place names reflect the explorers’ expectations and disappointments
(eg Mount Misery and Mount Disappointment)?
Were the explorers trying to position themselves in a foreign landscape, to locate a ‘here’ (the travellers’ viewpoint and orientation) and a ‘there’ (the landscape, the horizon), ‘to name in order to travel’ so that they could ‘possess’ and return?
What do the place names tell us about the understanding and knowledge of
Australia during the colonial period?
Are Australian place names always appropriate?
Do they reflect a shared history and different cultural experiences in Australia?
(concepts and quotes from Paul Carter, Naming Place, and Bill Ashcroft (ed) ,
The Post-Colonial Reader ).
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Questioning the meaning of cultural images and symbols
Using their understanding of the postmodern frame, students speculate about ways the meanings of images can be double-coded and can convey different meanings that reference other historical images and ideas. Concepts such as quotation, recontextualisation, borrowing and ‘appropriation’ are introduced as aspects of artistic practice.
The teacher and class interrogate examples of artworks that have borrowed and recontextualised images from other sources. Students develop an understanding of how to:
 trace the images the artist has used back to historical sources
 investigate the meaning of images in the context of the original artwork
 compare these interpretations with the meaning of the revision of original artworks.
The idea of attributing new meanings to images and symbols by quoting them and placing them in new contexts, or artworks, is the focus of this investigation. Appropriations of works such as Manet’s
Olympia
, Da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa and Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q
and other works used to advertise products in contemporary society are ideal examples to illustrate concepts characterising a postmodern point of view.
Students then ‘play detective’ using the investigative strategies discovered above to decode and trace the origins of the ideas represented in the artwork And on the Eighth Day by Lin
Onus. Working in small groups students:
 identify and list the images and symbols Lin Onus has appropriated and recontextualised in the work (eg bible, sky, angel, gun, wire, light shaft, concentric circles, land, lamb, colours)
 speculate about and note the possible meanings of these images in terms of western cultural history
 speculate about and note the possible meanings of these images in terms of Aboriginal cultural history
 identify images that are situated in novel and contradictory combinations. Which images are not normally associated with others? Does the meaning of images change when placed in the new context of Lin Onus’s work?
 identify the way different audiences will encode a sign or symbol with meaning contingent upon a culturally contextualised reading of that symbol or sign.
By considering the way the postmodern frame generates meaning, the class, in a discussion, speculates about possible interpretations that can now be made of the meaning of the artwork.
This could include the ways artworks are interpreted as representations of ideas concerning dispossession, alienation and identity, and are offered in the form of evaluative judgements supported by evidence from the artworks. Students record these interpretations.
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Ideas for artworks: marginalised stories
Students continue to assume the role of detective, ethnographer and anthropologist and investigate the archive of evidence collected. They survey what has been collected and establish an inventory of what can be known about the place or community. By considering the way the postmodern frame generates meaning they are then challenged to respond to the following critical questions:

What are the ideas, issues and stories that have not been included in mainstream accounts about the community or place?
 Are there stories that relate to their place or community that have been overlooked, misrepresented, not been told before, or forgotten?
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Where do the dominant stories and accounts of history come from? What are the political agendas that motivate people or groups in the community to sustain this view of history?
The concepts of marginalisation, racism, social injustice, inequality, dispossession, and alienation addressed in And on the Eighth Day are revisited and explained in terms of evidence in the archive. A review of examples of other works by Lin Onus could also assist in the clarification of issues and ideas worthy of investigation for artmaking.
Having researched their local historical world students select an issue relating to a marginalised or dispossessed sector of the community. Possible ideas could include:
 a story collected that is about the achievements of Aboriginal people in the area
 achievements of women who have silently contributed to community projects or family life
 the significant contribution of migrant workers to the local industry and the hardships they experienced.
The teacher would need to give sensitive consideration to ways the discussion of these issues is regulated and expressed in a constructive and inclusive manner by students. In the diary, students document one idea for a collage, photomontage or digital image and select key items, images and text collected that will clearly represent their ideas.
Revealing Lin Onus’s history and heritage
The focus of this study is on Lin Onus as an artist who, through his artmaking practice, was able to make significant contributions within and between Aboriginal and western cultural communities in Australia.
Students research the history of Lin Onus’s practice. They:
 read the information on Lin Onus in Gallery and Artists and highlight key words in the text
 refer to newspaper and journal articles, including tributes written about the artist after his death in 1996, that provide concise and accessible accounts of his history and achievements.
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The following questions guide the collection of information using the subjective frame to focus on how the artist’s own history is represented in his works.
What is Lin Onus’s Aboriginal cultural heritage?
 Explain the artist’s different relationships with Aboriginal people and communities in his life in the city and Maningrida.
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How was the artist reunited with his Aboriginal heritage?
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Was he a political activist? What was his contribution to ensuring the integrity of
Aboriginal cultural interests in the artworld?
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List artworks by the artist that make reference to his Aboriginal education and traditions.
What is Lin Onus’s western cultural heritage?
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Where was Lin Onus raised and educated? How has this upbringing, his family history and education influenced his artistic practice?
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How did his initial training as a mechanic influence the development of his ideas for artworks? How did he begin painting?
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Suggest reasons he adopted a photorealist or trompe l’oeil style of painting.
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Why has the artist used humorous and trivial modern objects from middle-class Australia to represent ideas?
Cross-cultural meanings in artworks
Having gathered information about Lin Onus’s history and heritage, students then consider
Michael Eather’s interpretation of Lin Onus’s artistic practice. He states that Lin Onus
‘purposefully builds into each work cultural imagery from Aboriginal and white Australian visual systems, the humour and drama, to access audiences from both camps’. Examples of artworks by Lin Onus such as And on the Eighth Day (1992) , Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute (1992) and Fruit Bats (1990) are used to illustrate how social issues and traditions can be questioned using interesting combinations of text and imagery to parody ideas in humorous, sensitive and light-hearted ways.
The class discusses Eather’s quote and range of examples of Onus’s artworks to assist in an understanding of the relationship between artworks and the world when viewed from the cultural frame. Students consider the following:
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How does Lin Onus access audiences from western and Aboriginal culture?
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How do his artworks reveal evidence of his history and heritage?
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How do artworks by Lin Onus expose different accounts of Australian history?
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Interpret the work True Colours: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Raise the
Flag. How does this work raise awareness of political and social issues in Australia?
 Account for the origins of the ploughed earth symbol with reference to the account by
Jennifer Isaacs.
www.jenniferisaacs.com.au
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Explain the ways artworks by Lin Onus reveal his search for identity.
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How do examples of his works deal with issues of dispossession and dislocation?
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Identify and interpret examples of his artworks that use irony, wit and humour to question issues of social justice and equity.
 Describe some examples of Onus’s use of juxtaposition, satire and appropriation as a tool for political comment.
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Identify and explain the resources Onus has at his disposal that enable him to access audiences from different cultural backgrounds.
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Using information noted during the discussion students write an evaluation of two examples of Lin Onus’s artistic practice. Did he effectively undermine high art culture and reveal the contradictory nature of Aboriginal history and identity? Can Lin Onus be considered ‘a cultural terrorist of gentle irreverence’? (See Margo Neale, ‘A Cultural Terrorist of Gentle
Irreverence’,
Artlink , Vol 20 No 1, 2000.)
A focus at this stage should be on ways that artmaking practices can be positioned by the postmodern frame. Attention is given to the use of the juxtaposition of images and materials to create contradictory arrangements that draw attention to the idea or issue students have selected from the historical archive for investigation.
Students begin developing a collection or archive of images for a collage, photomontage or for scanning, selection and layering in preparation for a digital image.
6a Making traces of the marginalised, dispossessed and forgotten
Students select quirky, interesting and unusual objects and images from the archive and use these to generate images for the artwork. The aim is to make images that appear to have an historical presence, a simulated historical trace. Possible ideas include:
 using watercolour pastels and pencils, inks and light graphite on tracing and tissue papers or the relevant filters and effects in the layer box to achieve a faded, aged, semitransparent effect
 photocopies of images on overhead transparencies or images printed on acetate
 solarised photographs
 enlarged words and text from the archive of material
 scanned and digitally manipulated revisions of images from the archive.
6b Appropriating images and artworks
Students make links between the issue they have selected for the collage and other images and artworks from historical and contemporary contexts they have researched or found. Possible ideas could include:
 artworks by a colonial or modern artist that represent issues about ownership, possession, traditional views of society
 an advertisement from a magazine
 an historical image of the local area such as a sepia-tinted photograph
 an archival image or an old image from a newspaper clipping.
Students make copies, multiples, simulations, facsimiles, photo-releases, digitally scanned reproductions or any other visual quotations of the images selected for appropriation using technologies available to them.
Once students have generated a collection of images and reproduced appropriated images, objects and text, they begin to consider possible ways to recontextualise images in a collage, photomontage or digital image. They lay out the images and explore ways they could build a
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surface of images by overlapping, connecting, layering and combining images and materials.
Possible ideas include:
 reproducing, distorting and repeating images using copying technologies
 cutting up, scanning, layering, modifying and rearranging parts of images that are contradictory and incongruous
 creating visual puns, jokes, parodies and satirical images
 inverting text and images to create tensions and undermine conventional approaches to viewing the work.
This process of critique, decision-making and reflection is recorded in their Visual Arts diary, possibly with the use of digital camera. A final composition is arranged and presented for critique.
Evaluating the meaning of the artworks
Assisted by their understanding of the postmodern frame, students consider the following questions as they view works by their peers:
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Have the cultural histories or issues been represented with sensitivity, imagination and humour?
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How has the artist used double-coding, juxtaposition and contradictory images to reveal and question prevailing ideas and beliefs?
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Have they been successful in this investigation? Should they make any changes to the collage arrangement?
Students test their ideas by asking different audiences to evaluate their efforts and suggest interpretations of the work in progress. They note the ways the audience found the manipulation and arrangement of images humorous, witty or satirical. Adjustments are made, and the final arrangement is resolved.
A collaborative installation – representations of different voices and histories
Students each contribute a painting to form a part of a group installation representing the voices and histories of their community or place. Students research works by Lin Onus such as Malawan Pool (1994) and Barmah Forest (1994) to assist in the selection of appropriate sections of their collages that could be developed into a painting. The intention of the painting is for students to combine and represent layers of history that have been uncovered and exposed through their previous research and investigation.
To make the painting, students select a section of their collage image and transfer this to a canvas or paper surface that has been prepared for the group painting. The image is covered with a thin layer of gesso over which students begin painting using oil or acrylic mediums.
Through the completion of this painting students consolidate their understanding of the traditions and techniques of realistic painting styles. They also consider how the meaning of their own works change or may be double-coded, as they are recontextualised as part of class collaboration.
Completed works are installed in a space and exhibited with artists’ statements.
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Written accounts, interpretations and discussions demonstrate students’ understanding of how the postmodern frame and relationships between agencies of the conceptual framework can be used to critique artworks and generate meaning. An understanding of the practice of art criticism and art history is demonstrated in research, written accounts and discussions about the significance of cultural attitudes, traditions, images and symbols in constructing and representing an Australian identity and in interpreting an artist’s practice. Visual Arts diary entries and documentation demonstrate students’ understanding of how signs and symbols can represent and convey meaning to different audiences in different times and places. Artworks demonstrate an understanding of the conventions and traditions of photographic, digital, collage and appropriation practices and the manipulation of images.
 Teacher observation and oral feedback of experiments and annotations in Visual Arts diary.
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Teacher observation, discussion and feedback during making of artworks and the representation of ideas and meanings and a point of view about cultural identity and heritage.
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Oral and written feedback about investigations, research and analysis of how artists have represented cultural issues in artworks and the practice of art history and art criticism.
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Teacher feedback and discussion of artworks for exhibition and the development of artists’ statements for the audience.
The local area selected by the students can reveal the history of possession and dispossession of Aboriginal people. Some students may already have knowledge of local Aboriginal history and can contribute to the lesson.
Teachers and students could research the history of the local area and its Indigenous people by gathering information about:
 their language
 their use of the land, fauna and flora
 their special and sacred sites
 their first contact with Europeans
 government policies and actions and how they have affected Aboriginal people (refer to the ‘Timeline and Associated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art’ in this resource)
 local Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups that have policies on reconciliation
 the reconciliation of Aboriginal history and culture by other Australians
 Aboriginal knowledge of the country and the support given to the Europeans over the last 200 years.
Another related topic could be a study of the struggle between the English and French to map and claim Australia. Teachers could use these visual images as source material into the colonial attitudes of the Europeans in the Pacific.
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Investigating and applying a cultural interpretation to artworks by Aboriginal artists
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) was a philosopher who interpreted and explained artworks using a cultural point of view. After viewing Angelus Novus , a painting by the modernist artist, Paul Klee, Benjamin compared the angel in it to ‘the angel of history’ with its face turned towards the past but being irresistibly propelled into the future by a storm. The storm is blowing from Paradise and is ‘what we call progress’: see section IX at www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/depart/media/staff/ls/WBenjamin/CONCEPT2.html
Students could consider how this point of view of interpretation applies to works by Lin Onus and other contemporary Aboriginal artists (eg Leah King Smith, Gordon Bennett, Tracey
Moffatt, Michael Riley, Rea, Richard Bell). They could consider the following:

Why is progress represented as a storm? Do you think contemporary Aboriginal artists would regard progress in this way? Find evidence in examples of works to support your views. (Hint: could the idea of progress as a storm to be related to the rapid invasion and possession of the land by early settlers?)
 What do you think Benjamin means when he says the past could become a ‘pile of debris’? Explain how this idea could be applied to artworks by contemporary
Aboriginal artists? (Hint: how might issues of over-farming, grazing and increasing problems of salinity and pollution of river systems be used as an analogy to explain this idea? Does Lin Onus address or refer to similar ideas in his work?)
Comparing postmodern and cultural points of view
Further related activities could involve researching examples of works by western, Asian and
Aboriginal artists dealing with ideas and issues of history as subject matter for artworks (eg
Immants Tillers, Yasumasa Morimura, Mariko Mori, Larry Rivers, Anselm Kiefer, Hans
Hacke, Shirin Neshat). Students could consider:

How do artists from different cultural contexts represent revisions of traditional histories?
 How could selected artworks be interpreted to represent and support Benjamin’s point of view?

How might they challenge these ideas?
Click here to go to Resources and Research .
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Aboriginal Refers to the indigenous people of the Australian mainland including the
Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands and the people of
Tasmania.
Aboriginality Aboriginality includes a combination of cultural heritage, spirituality and an intrinsic link with the land.
AIATSIS Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, http://ntru.aiatsis.gov.au/index.html
a statutory body whose mission is to promote knowledge and understanding of Australian Indigenous cultures, past and present.
Aotearoa assimilation
Maori term for New Zealand.
A process involving the dispersal of families and communities and the absorption of Aboriginal people into the wider community, with the intention that they would adopt the way of life of the dominant cultural group, and Aboriginal society and culture would die out.
ATSIC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission: an independent statutory authority established by the Commonwealth Government in
1990, which was responsible for Australia’s national policymaking and service delivery for Indigenous people until it was abolished in March
2005. business An Aboriginal-English term referring to ceremony and law within an
Aboriginal community or language group. It is often secret/sacred. For example, an area can be off-limits for men and non-Aboriginal people if
‘women’s business’ is going on. country An area that is traditionally owned and looked after by an Aboriginal language group or community or certain people within that group. The term may indicate more than simply a geographical area; it is also a concept that can encompass the spiritual meanings and feelings of attachment associated with that area. cultural genocide The deliberate destruction of the culture of a people to remove the basis of their group identity. cultural heritage
The continuity, from one generation to another, of a group’s culture, values and attitudes, including knowledge, language, arts, ritual, performances, sites and objects.
Dreaming The English expression that attempts to capture the nature of traditional
Aboriginal religious belief. It brings together physical sites, plants and animals etc and metaphysical concepts that are recognised as having lifesustaining power. Many ‘Dreaming tracks’ may crisscross landscape, each indicating the journey of an ancestral spirit. A people’s Dreaming is
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celebrated and maintained through many expressions of movement, story and song. Individuals can have responsibilities for parts of the Dreaming in their country, such as stories, songs, ceremonies, maintenance of sacred places and paintings. dupun gubba
A Yolngu term for the hollow log coffin.
Term meaning white person. Originating in NSW, it is now used by
Aboriginal people living in urban and rural areas of NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
Indigenous people Internationally recognised term for the first people of a land.
Koori Term used by Aboriginal people living in the south-east of Australia
(NSW, Victoria and Tasmania) to describe themselves.
Land Rights Legal and moral acknowledgement of prior ownership of land by
Australia’s Indigenous people and recognition of all the accompanying rights and obligations. For many Indigenous people, regaining the land from which they were dispossessed is integral to restoring their dignity. language group Language is linked to particular geographical areas. The term ‘language group’ is used in preference to the term ‘tribe’.
Mabo Eddie Koiki Mabo, whose Murray Island land claim led the High Court to recognise, for the first time, that a form of land title existed prior to
Australia’s occupation by Great Britain in 1788. The judgement, made in
1993, is usually referred to as Mabo.
Mimi Spirit figures portrayed on rock walls in western Arnhem Land. Their actions may be either malevolent or benevolent. By tradition, Mimi taught the Kunwinjku people the art of painting.
Murri
NIAAA
Nunga
National Indigenous Arts Advocacy Association, a national Indigenous organisation that advocated greater recognition and protection of the rights of Indigenous artists. NIAAA ceased to operate in 2002.
Noonga, Noongar, Nyungar, Nyoongah Terms used by Aboriginal people living in
Western Australia to describe themselves.
Term used by Aboriginal people living in South Australia to describe themselves. outstation
Term used by Aboriginal people living in northern NSW and Queensland to describe themselves.
As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gained Land Rights and access to their ancestral homelands in the late 1970s and 1980s, they have been able to move away from government and mission centres where they were previously often forced to live. This moving back to
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specific areas of country, usually in close-knit family groups, has been called the ‘outstation movement’.
Palawa Aboriginal people from Tasmania.
Papunya Tula
An Aboriginal artists’ cooperative established in 1972 at Papunya,
Northern Territory, bringing together diverse groups of Western Desert people. Often recognised by their dotting techniques, iconography, visual language, u-shapes, tracks, concentric circles etc, these artists at Papunya
Tula have developed some of the most famous and distinctive works of modern Australian art.
Rainbow Serpent A name that occurs through much of Aboriginal Australia for a variety of beings that take the form of a snake or sea serpent, eg Yingarna,
Ngalyod, Wititj, Pulanj and Warnayarra. rarrk The fine cross-hatching used by artists of western and central Arnhem
Land. Similar patterns are known as miny’tji and dhulang in the region’s east. The patterns are used to identify clans in the region. They are understood to inscribe supernatural power in the objects on which they are painted.
Reconciliation
A process aimed at improving relations between Australia’s Indigenous people and other Australians and at redressing the disadvantages suffered by the Indigenous peoples. A Commonwealth Government initiative, it commenced in 1991. sacred site A place or feature in the landscape that is sacred to a group of Aboriginal people. shimmer An effect in artwork that is achieved through the use of colour and techniques such as rarrk. It is said to evoke a spiritual ambience.
Torres Strait Refers to the Indigenous people of the Torres Strait region.
Islanders traditional A term often used to refer to pre-invasion Aboriginal life. This term should be used with care as some individuals or groups may find it offensive.
Yolngu Term used by Aboriginal people of north-east Arnhem Land to describe themselves.
Wandjina Striking figure represented by people in the Kimberley region of Western
Australia, featuring a halo effect around the face. Wandjinas are recognised as having a significant role in natural and spiritual events.
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