Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Aboriginal culture and explorations

This term the children have been exploring Aboriginal symbols in art and stories.

Inspired by a set of story blocks we received as a gift from Aboriginal artist, Graham Tooney, who designed a kit for educators to observe, explore, learn and understand Australian Aboriginal culture and its people, the children began to use the story blocks to tell their own stories.

The story blocks show traditional Australian Aboriginal art symbols that have been used for thousands of years as a means of communicating within the tribe and to other tribes across Australia.

The symbols are used in art to describe landscapes, to tell and share stories along with many other reasons. The children learnt that many of the symbols were developed through the drawing on dirt and sand. The symbols were also used to describe the hunting and tracking of animals. Animals left tracks behind on the ground where they walked and so the Aboriginal people followed these tracks to hunt for food.

After giving the children an example of how to use the story blocks to tell a story, they were then given the opportunity to tell and share their own stories:

Hannah: One day there was a girl who was going to ride on a goanna and then she rided (sic) on a train track and she felt scared. She didn’t realise that there was rain coming and it fell on her head. She looked in the sky and realised there was a rainbow and she really wanted to see an emu and she wanted to see if there was a boy coming to see a girl. Then she actually wanted to go in the waterhole and she got stuck in it and pulled herself out of it. Then she saw a kangaroo. The end.

Leo: Once there was a girl. Her name was Alicia. She rode on some emus. Then she found a waterhole. Then the water made a rainbow.

Tom: One day there was a boy who walked along the track and then he saw a rainbow. Then he saw a kangaroo. Then he saw a water hole and then a river. Then he saw some tracks of an emu and then he saw a girl.

Alicia: There were lots of kangaroos and then the kangaroos saw a river. After that they saw a river and a hole. They then saw an emu. Then they saw a rainbow. Then they saw lots of rain.

Griffin: Once upon a time there was a girl and her name was Alice. Once she saw a trail and there were kangaroo prints on the trail. She found a boy. His name was Seeker. Seeker found emu prints. Both of them walked together and when they finally stopped on the trail they found a river. Right in front of the river was a waterhole. They went through the waterhole and then they ended up on the other side of the river and they saw a goanna. It started to rain. After that they saw another lake. They saw a beautiful rainbow.

Yarning circles

Yarning circles have been used by Aboriginal people for thousands of years to discuss issues in an inclusive and collaborative matter. We can follow the model of the Yarning circle to discuss deep issues. It is important to be present, to have respectful interactions, to be open and honest, to listen deeply, acknowledge others and offer your own thoughts and feelings in turn. A yarning circle is a place where all opinions are valued.

(Queensland Government, Department of Education, C2C_EATSIPS_Yarning circles, Training and Employment)

The Starfish used the notion of a Yarning circle to make a new child in the group feel welcome and get to know her new friends. The children held onto a large ball of wool and rolled it to a friend, getting to know each other by saying their names as they held the wool. They looked at the shapes the wool made and how one continuous piece of wool connected us to each other – a beautiful and mindful experience.

Matthew Doyle

On Wednesday the children had the opportunity to participate in an interactive show with Aboriginal performer, Matthew Doyle. Matthew used music, dance and storytelling to convey messages about his culture, animals and history.

We learnt how a digeridoo is made and that it has about 40 different names depending on which Aboriginal language you use. Matthew made different sounds on the digeridoo and the children had to guess what they were. He made a cockatoo, kookaburra, magpie, dingo, owl and a kangaroo hopping.

Matthew showed us a small and large pair of tapping sticks and played them for us. The children clapped along to keep the beat as Matthew combined the digeridoo and tapping sticks to make a song. We also looked at large and small boomerangs and learnt that they are used to hunt animals with and only the small ones come back to you.

We all pretended to be sea eagles and danced and sang along to the instruments.

Renee Schneider assisted Matthew to do the actions to a lovely Aboriginal story of rowing in a canoe and catching a fish in the water with a spear. The workshop ended with Matthew using ochre to paint each child’s face or hand with either a snake, flower, stars or a sun. Matthew explained that each family uses different markings of ochre on their bodies to depict their family name.