With the recent push for schools and teachers to play an active and positive role towards reconciliation between Australia’s traditional land owners and the more recent arrivals, it is more necessary than ever for teachers to better understand the multiple viewpoints and the complex issues that surround such a topic. IFTE 2003 provided many sessions where literacy teachers could hear from a diverse range of Aboriginal Australians. For me, such an opportunity was a crucial part of developing a better understandings about my role as a literacy teacher in these New Times. I have titled my review of five of these sessions as ‘Hearing Silences’. This was because IFTE 2003 provided a forum for Aboriginal Australians to talk about what literacy teachers should do for Aboriginal students in particular and for non-Aboriginal students in general

Exley, Beryl E.

English

With the recent push for schools and teachers to play an active and positive role towards reconciliation between Australia’s traditional land owners and the more recent arrivals, it is more necessary than ever for teachers to better understand the multiple viewpoints and the complex issues that surround such a topic.  IFTE 2003 provided many sessions where literacy teachers could hear from a diverse range of Aboriginal Australians.  For me, such an opportunity was a crucial part of developing a better understandings about my role as a literacy teacher in these New Times.  I have titled my review of five of these sessions as ‘Hearing Silences’.  This was because IFTE 2003 provided a forum for Aboriginal Australians to talk about what literacy teachers should do for Aboriginal students in particular and for non-Aboriginal students in general

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Hearing silences: Aboriginal Australians using literacy to have a voice.  Review of five IFTE 2003 Sessions

Queensland University of Technology ePrints Archive

Exley, Beryl (2003) Hearing silences: Aboriginal Australians using literacy to have a voice. Review of five IFTE 2003 Sessions. Practically Primary 8(3).     Hearing silences: Aboriginal Australians using literacy to have a voice  Review of five IFTE 2003 Sessions  Beryl Exley   With the recent push for schools and teachers to play an active and positive role towards reconciliation between Australia’s traditional land owners and the more recent arrivals, it is more necessary than ever for teachers to better understand the multiple viewpoints and the complex issues that surround such a topic.  IFTE 2003 provided many sessions where literacy teachers could hear from a diverse range of Aboriginal Australians.  For me, such an opportunity was a crucial part of developing a better understandings about my role as a literacy teacher in these New Times.  I have titled my review of five of these sessions as ‘Hearing Silences’.  This was because IFTE 2003 provided a forum for Aboriginal Australians to talk about what literacy teachers should do for Aboriginal students in particular and for non-Aboriginal students in general.    The first two sessions were an opportunity to meet two very different, yet two very evocative and well published Aboriginal writers: Alexis Wright and Leah Purcell.  During each hour long session, both women took their audiences through a gamut of emotions as they told anecdotes of high and low points within their lives.  Alexis, a member of the Waanyi people of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, told about her experiences on a mission settlement.  For Leah, a proud Goa-Gungarri-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, her highs and lows centred on her childhood where she supported her mother through the tough times.  While there were tribulations for both women, there were also jubilations as they built and maintained ties with their kin and found ways to publicly declare their pride with their identity as Aboriginal Australians.  Most crucially, they both explained how literacy played a central role in their lives.  Alexis spoke about her time studying creative writing at RMIT and the way that literacy gave her a powerful voice for exploring her passions of Land Rights and Social Justice for Aboriginal Australians.  She has since written Grog War and has edited the anthology Take Power.  Her two most known novels are Plains of Promise and Carpentaria.  She has published other short stories and non-fiction articles in a range of anthologies and journals.  Leah spoke about her own over-active imagination and how a Year 5 teacher encouraged her to ignore any  spelling difficulties in the short term and focus on getting her creative ideas onto paper.  This teacher then assisted with the spelling task.  Leah’s work went on to win the Murgeon District Writing Competition.  Shortly afterwards, she also won the Rotary Writing Competition.  As her bio suggests, she has since become a multi award winning actor, writer, singer and director.  Her theatre credits include The Marriage of Figaro and two performances that she wrote and directed, Box the Pony and Black Chicks Talking.  She has performed in the television shows Police Rescue and Fallen Angels and the hit Australian film Lantana. She won the 2002 Independent Film-maker Award for Best Documentary for her documentary film of Black Chicks Talking.  She concedes that she is still not a good speller, but maintains that she was able to find her voice, and hence some freedom, through literacy.    The third session was not a scheduled session as such.  Instead I perused the range of books available at the Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation stand.  This publishing house publishes dozen of books suitable for children of all ages as well as a broad range of social history books and biographies.  Many of the authors and illustrators are Australia’s foremost Aboriginal writers, storytellers and artists and many of their books have been awarded various distinctions.  The children’s books are vibrantly presented, but more importantly draw on local Aboriginal languages as a way of connecting Aboriginal students to print literacy and as a way of introducing non-Aboriginal students to the languages of traditional Australians.  These books range in price from $5.45 (plus p&h) to $39.95 (plus p&h) and can be viewed at <www.magabala.co>.  Alternatively colour annotated catalogues can be ordered by contacting orders@magabala.com or phoning (08) 9192 1991.      The final two sessions were hosted by the entertaining and charismatic award winning Aboriginal singer, songwriter, dramatist and poet, Richard Frankland (with fleeting impromptu performances by his personable three year old son!).  Both sessions were hosted at Kalaya at Bunjilaka, the Aboriginal Centre at Melbourne Museum and each ran for two action packed hours.  In the first session, Richard introduced a panel of three proud and talented Aboriginal playwrights: Tammy Anderson, Jane Harrison and John Harding.  Each playwright spoke about their identity as a proud Aboriginal Australian and the way that playwriting gave them a forum in which they could educate non-Aboriginal Australians about the issues that mattered most to them.  As Richard predicted, audience members were taken on a journey that was both bruising and enlightening; bruising because it frankly portrayed the lived experiences of Aboriginal Australians who were inappropriately subjected to particular government policies of the day, and enlightening because it revealed the hidden creative tenaciousness, will-power and loyalty of Aboriginal people.  If you ever get an opportunity to see Tammy Anderson, a proud Palawa woman and award winning playwright, in action, I strongly urge you to take up the offer.  Tammy’s solo performance I Don’t Wanna Play House was as confronting as it was confirming; confronting in that it did not hide her pain or her understanding of where the blame should lay, and confirming because it reinforced the power of literacy in giving the silenced a voice with which to be heard.  Her brilliant artistic performance reiterated the need for teachers to also find ways to bring oral and dramatic literacies to their students so that they too can use the power of these performances to make sense of the past, present and future.  The final session was co-hosted by Richard Frankland and two of his non-Aboriginal colleagues, teacher, Jon Stanley and multi-talented musician, poet and performer, Simeon Roberts.  Together they lead about 30 teachers through a range of literacy based activities suitable for facilitating non-Aboriginal students’ understandings of some of the issues surrounding Reconciliation.  I’ll review these activities below. Activity 1: This activity’s aim was to humanise the 124 Aboriginal deaths in custody (of which only 99 have been investigated) and to unite the audience.  A volleyball, painted with the Aboriginal colours of black, red and yellow and labelled 124 Aboriginal deaths in custody, had to be kept airborne for 124 touches.  With each touch of the ball, the group had to count out aloud to recognise yet another Aboriginal death in custody.  Touches over 99 could be whispered to indicate those human lives that had ended so abruptly but remained uninvestigated.    Activity 2:  This activity used a dozen tennis balls, painted blue and white and labelled with the sorts of issues that tend to dominate life for all Australians (such as taxation, superannuation, health care, etc).  Balls were tossed to individuals and as they caught a ball they had to say how that issue affected them or their family.  One participant was singled out to then catch and hold all the balls at once.  It seemed a tricky but manageable task.  Then, another dozen black, red and yellow balls were introduced.  These balls were labelled with issues that had extraordinary effects on Australia’s Aboriginal peoples (such as deaths in custody, land rights, cultural heritage, etc).  Again, these balls were tossed to individuals, who then provided their understanding of each issue.  The participant who had hold of all the blue and white balls was invited back to the centre to catch and hold onto each of the black, red and yellow balls as they were tossed by the participants.  While the individual in our group managed to complete the task successfully, she conceded that it was all  the more difficult because it came on top of an already tricky balance.  The point of the exercise was to get participants to talk about the issues as they affected Aboriginal Australians and to physically demonstrate the added burden placed upon Aboriginal peoples over the last couple of centuries.     Activity 3:  This activity used two dozen flashcards (with words such as justice, despair, law, listen, trust, etc) that were randomly distributed to participants who had to discuss the word as it related to Aboriginal Australians.  The flashcard was then placed on the floor.  Participants were seated in a circle around the flashcards and a ball was passed around.  One participant (who had their eyes closed) called out STOP.  The participant who had the ball selected one flashcard.  That participant then closed their eyes while the rest of the group continued to pass the ball.  The participant with their eyes closed called out STOP.  The person who now had the ball had to say a phrase that included the selected word.  Their phrase was written on chart paper and this procedure continued until a group poem or song was written.  Group members were selected to perform their work as a poem.  Finally Richard, Jon and Simeon performed our poem as a song.  Their performance made us sound like the most brilliant song writers/poets ever!  Aside from highlighting the issues affecting Aboriginal Australians, this workshop promoted the importance of using a range of devices and literacies, such as metaphor, symbolism, drama, oral and written literacies, to give non-Aboriginal students a way to hear each others’ understandings and have a voice about the issues that should concern them.  While these workshops are not sufficient in themselves, they certainly are a useful and engaging entry point.  Reviewed by Beryl Exley  Contact Details: School of Cultural & Language Studies, QUT, Victoria Park Rd, Kelvin Grove.  Q.  4059 (07) 3864 3267 b.exley@qut.edu.au  Bio:  Beryl Exley teaches in language and literacy education at Queensland University of Technology.  Her areas of interest are multiliteracies, critical literacies and using literacies as a vehicle for social justice. Email contact: b.exley@qut.edu.au  

Hearing silences: Aboriginal Australians using literacy to have a voice. Review of five IFTE 2003 Sessions

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