Migration
Artworks
Gadsby, Hannah. (2013). Hannah Gadsby’s Oz - Episode 1 Comedian Hannah Gadsby unpacks the historical record of Australia's past through early Wuriopean and contemporary Australian artists. this diocumentary is brilliant from an Art and and English point of view because she focuses on "how" messages are created or critiqued. You could discuss the episode as a documentary or focus on a single painting. Read the review at No Award [http://no-award.net/2014/04/17/hannah-gadsby-oz-1/] and watch the copy on the TV4 Education drive.
films
You Are Invited to My Funeral is a surprisingly simple, yet gripping monologue. Nadia Faragaab describes a moment of clarity; a sudden, unexpected discovery that her own Somali culture was something she now wanted to question. This is an intense short film, with implications both for Nadia as an individual, and Nadia as a proud member of her Somali community now living in Australia. Experience with your students the emotional agony of an internal wrestle to change or be changed.
Source: Campfire Film Foundation [http://www.campfire.org.au/festival/senior-english-discovery]]
Gadsby, Hannah. (2013). Hannah Gadsby’s Oz - Episode 1 Comedian Hannah Gadsby unpacks the historical record of Australia's past through early Wuriopean and contemporary Australian artists. this diocumentary is brilliant from an Art and and English point of view because she focuses on "how" messages are created or critiqued. You could discuss the episode as a documentary or focus on a single painting. Read the review at No Award [http://no-award.net/2014/04/17/hannah-gadsby-oz-1/] and watch the copy on the TV4 Education drive.
Source: Campfire Film Foundation [http://www.campfire.org.au/festival/senior-english-discovery]]
Gadsby, Hannah. (2013). Hannah Gadsby’s Oz - Episode 1 Comedian Hannah Gadsby unpacks the historical record of Australia's past through early Wuriopean and contemporary Australian artists. this diocumentary is brilliant from an Art and and English point of view because she focuses on "how" messages are created or critiqued. You could discuss the episode as a documentary or focus on a single painting. Read the review at No Award [http://no-award.net/2014/04/17/hannah-gadsby-oz-1/] and watch the copy on the TV4 Education drive.
Picture books
Rebecca Young and Matt Ottley.(2015). Teacup. This lyrical but sparsely-worded story can be read as a tale about migration or the process of imaginative creation. The words are deceptively simple, relying on contrast and the accumulation of images to tell the story. Look at the symbolism of the items he takes with him (especially the teacup) as well as the sea, the boat and the tree. The illustrations are equally symbolic, using space, proportion and 'camera angles' to enrich the text. Better responses would also discuss the way the text and illustrations interact in the readers mind to discover the role of imagination and memory in creating identity.
Poems
Bhatt, Sujati. "Search for a Tongue" describes the process of losing and gaining a language. As an Indian poet who has lived and travelled all over the Western world, Bhatt understands the way that language both fragments and builds identity. Focus on the literal and symbolic use of the tongue and the effect of the two languages (Gujarati, if you're interested in translating it) in one poem. It could be used with Life of Pi or Go back to Where you came from or even as part of a postcolonial anaysis of the Prospero/Caliban/Ariel relationships in The Tempest. This poem is avaiiable online at Las Cumbres College [http://pchujman.cumbresblogs.com/2013/09/16/postcolonial-poetry/]. You can read more of her poems at the poetry archive [http://www.poetryarchive.org/explore/browse-poems?f%5B0%5D=field_poet:192406] or a review of her work at Mascara Review [http://mascarareview.com/the-memory-of-the-tongue-sujata-bhatts-diasporic-verse-by-paul-sharrad/]
Denise Frohman (2013) "Accents" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtOXiNx4jgQ] uses vivid metaphors, humour and the occasional Spanish words to present her mother's defiant bilingualism. "My mother holds her accent like a shotgun... Spanish and English pushing up against each other in rapid fire... Even when her lips can barely stretch themselves around English, her accent is a stubborn compass pointing her toward home."
Denise Frohman (2013) "Accents" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtOXiNx4jgQ] uses vivid metaphors, humour and the occasional Spanish words to present her mother's defiant bilingualism. "My mother holds her accent like a shotgun... Spanish and English pushing up against each other in rapid fire... Even when her lips can barely stretch themselves around English, her accent is a stubborn compass pointing her toward home."
Websites
Goldie Dahdal New Media. Long Journey. http://www.abc.net.au/longjourney/index_flash.html.This website collates the experiences of refugee children through short videos organised in four stages: homeland conflict, the journey, detention, and on reflection. Discuss the graphics, structure and layout (including symbolism of colours and barbed wire) as well as the language used by the children.The composers had a very specific audience in mind – who is it and how do the techniques represent belonging to this audience. This text is specially relevant to the study of Go back to where you come from.
AAMI Insurance Australia. Belonging. http://www.belonging.org/ This website is an online exhibition of photos, video and oral histories about the process of migration. Pick two or three elements to dicuss in detail, but don’t forget to discuss the layout and presentation of the site as a whole – eg the division into “people” and “place” or the “timeline” of links that show the process of migration from “arrival” through “dressing to belong” to “work”. This is a brilliant text to use if you are studying Motorcycle diaries or go back to where you came from, but links well to any text which describes the discovery of new places.
Songs
Anu, Christine. “My Island Home”. [Watch the viedo clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSFGK9HlEto] This song of homesickness describes the singer’s longing for her “Island home” while she is in the dry windy city. It describes “the importance of the community that represents your origins and is ‘home’ with all its connotations of warmth, love, closeness and community. If you live away from ‘home’, whatever that may be, it’s drawing power may affect your choices and behaviour” (from erudite HSC). One of the comments on Youtube makes an interesting point about the context of this song: “The song is about the Torres straight Islands. But you get a DJ to play this song overseas, Aussies stand side by side singing this song together.” Discuss the use of simple emotive words, the juxtaposition of city and island images and the repetition of key words. In the video clip, a nalyse the symbolism of the jewellery as well as the effect on the viewer of the water over the cityscape and the transition to symbols of freedom and island landscapes (When is she shown on the ground; when does she float like a cartoon across the screen?). Recommended for ESL and standard students.
Bernstein, Leonard and Sondheim, Steven. “Somewhere” from West Side Story. [Watch online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BQMgCy-n6U].This is the pivotal moment in the Romeo and Juliet romance of the musical West Side Story – the equivalent to the balcony scene. The words are simple but heart-wrenchingly emotive, especially if you have watched the film and know exactly what happens next! Discuss the use of close-ups, the colours used to divide the protagonists as well as musical features such as the fact that it is a duet where two dinger harmonise together, the long lyrical phrases in the melody and the slight accelerandos (=speed up eg in “hold my hand and I’ll take you there”) that represent them looking forward to discover a future where they will belong together. You could also look at the way the meaning of the song changes when it’s given a political context such as the holocaust memorial video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAHNH2FT90.
Plays
Cornelius, Patricia. Boy Overboard (A822 COR) This children’s play tells the story of a refugee boy whose ambition is to play soccer in a peaceful country. Pay special attention to the way the language and characterisation make a complex topic simple enough for a young audience. Recommended for New ESL students only.
Beynon, Richard. (1960) The Shifting Heart (A822.3 BEY) This play develops the conflict between Anglo-Australian Pratt family and Italian Bianchi family in 1950’s Australia (ie. the era of assimilation). Focus on the symbolism of the setting and the emotive dialogue. Think about which characters the audience identifies with and why. You could use this text to discuss whether (if belonging means assimilation) belonging is always a good thing.
Novels
Higgins, Simon. Thunderfish. After her father dies, heiress Kira hides from the media on a world cruise. Along the way she encounters a brutal attack on a refugee ship, and decides to do something about it. She buys a submarine and attacks the boats that prey on vulnerable craft, and discover a renewed purpose in her new ‘job’. Focus on the structural device of celebrity newspaper clippings about Kira and her real life as a vigilante as well as the many literary allusions to “40, 000 leagues under the sea”.
Serrailier, Ian. The Silver Sword. Set in Poland during WWII, this children’s classic traces the adventures of a family torn apart when the father is imprisoned for turning over the photos of Hilter on his class room wall. Examine the role of family and culture in defining a a space for discovery and analyse the descriptions of characters and places. Recommended for ESL and standard students – it goes very well with Go back to where you came from.
The Spare Room by Kathryn Lomer. University of Queensland Press, 2004. ISBN-13: 9780702234774. 165 pp. This is quite short and it’s an easy read. It’s about culture shock – a young Japanese student sent to learn English in Tasmania. There is lots of humour about Australian idioms. The discovery of a new language is represented as an important part of the migrant experience:‘We talked about how natural and thoughtless a native language is, something you think about as little as the fact that your skin holds all the parts of the body together. It is like a second skin, a skin of words and phrases and meaning.’ This is a great choice for ESL students, as well as for Standard students.
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter This novel depicts the intense relationship between LuLing Young and her daughter Ruth, re-examining her mother’s past in superstition-ridden rural China and the tensions of Chinese immigrant life in America.. Focus on the way layers of secrets and ambiguity create different sorts of discoveries through the juxtaposition of rural Chinese and contemporary American life, and look for repeated symbols and metaphors. Recommended for advanced students (only because it’s long and you don’t want to get sidetracked telling the plot!)
Non-fiction
Popova, Maria (2015) in Brain Pickings [https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/11/03/only-whats-necessary-peanuts-chip-kidd/]. Charlie Brown was the first comic Strip to include a black character and comment on Black Civil Rights. This blog uses letters between the creator, Charles M. Schultz, and his audience to discuss the genesis and impact of the character, Franklin, a Black child. Focus on the persuasive language used by his fans to convince him to tackle the issue as well as the C21st evaluation of his work. This text would work especially well with Go back to where you came from.
Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia
Cuxin, Li. (). Mao’s Last Dancer. []
•Australian Government, Storyboard Afghanistan http://www.customs.gov.au/site/Translations/documents/Storyboard-Afghanistan.pdf
•Martin, L (ed), At Work inside our detention centres: a Guard’s Story http://serco-story.theglobalmail.org/