Discovering Australian History

Mariposa has been working through some Australian history with me this term.

Starting with Indigenous Australians, we took trip to the Melbourne Museum and found walking through the Aboriginal Cultural Centre there was very interesting. We also had timed it well as they were putting on a puppet show of a Dreamtime story. What really grabbed our attention, though, was the coat made from possum skins. The curator explained that the coat is started once the child is born. Then it's added to as the child grows, until a full-sized coat has been made. It's just like an heirloom quilt, always being added to by family members. I can't share any photos of the things we saw here, but you can check out this webpage for an example.

From there we move to the earliest explorers who made their way to Australian shores (or close to it!)

We had a brief discussion on how the Spanish were the first to come by in search of this land, but Torres didn't know it when he saw it and he sailed on.

Then it was via the spice trades that the Dutch caught news of this land in the south. Several attempts were made to explore this land over a 90 year period in the 17th century. We looked up places named after discoveries made such as Tasmania, the Gulf of Carpentaria, Dirk Hartog Island and the Swan River.

We have also taken up the opportunity to learn about how precious spices were for trade, and learn how they are grown. We've been watching a series on SBS called 'The Spice Trail' where Kate Humble travels to where each spice is grown. She has the most wonderful personality, and involves herself with the people as she learns how they live to produce what we now take for granted.





Back to our learning about explorers, we then began looking at the first Englishman to come south and explore New Holland.  We had discussions about being a pirate .. um, yes, not the Walt Disney version.  Dampier's story does turn around when he decides to give up being a buccaneer and returns to England to share his report.  He didn't have anything favourable to say after his landings along western shores.  However, his name lives on with the Dampiera flower which is a prominent flower in Western Australia.

This now brings us to Captain James Cook, of whom we've been learning about last week and will continue through this following week.  Cook is renowned for his navigation skills.  We've done some discussion on the tools used by sea captains. We're regular visitors to Williamstown, so we have also gone to the Williamstown Historical Society Museum there.  All sorts of delightful things were on display, including a collection of early navigation tools, just like ones on this site.

A replica of Cook's ship, Endeavour, is currently circumnavigating Australia again, and we're hoping to see her in Melbourne in the later half of April.  If you'd like to check when she's visiting near you, have a look on this site.   A flyer about the tour can be found here.  You may also choose to do a VIRTUAL excursion (including teaching notes and transcript).  I also enjoyed reading Jennifer Byrne's account of reliving life on Endeavour earlier this year.

On Tuesday, we will go to see Captain Cook's cottage, which is set up in Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens.   It's a while since I've been there, but I remember that the garden is just lovely.

Hopefully I've shared some useful ideas for anyone else studying Australian history this year.  There is SOOooo much you can cover and I know I've only touched on each 'chapter' lightly.

Next term we'll start learning about Australia's settlers.

Thank you for dropping by!

Aboriginal inspired painting

We tried our hand at painting using some Aboriginal techniques.  We used acrylic paints, but tried to make up earthy tones for colours (except where Mariposa couldn't resist and splashed out the bright blues and greens).  Aboriginals used coloured clay and tree resin painted onto bark.

I showed the children an example by first painting a black silhouette, then filling in with coloured lines and finally filling in detail with dots and stripes using white.  We did the dots with either a cotton bud or end of a matchstick (depending on the size of the picture).

Maestro did this lovely landscape picture:

Mariposa did a koala and kookaburra in a gum tree:

and then created her colourful turtle:

Music focus: Australiana

We're still slowly moving through our Sonlight curriculum, but this will be our last week of schooling before taking a break.

Our studies in Core 5 are taking us from the Pacific Islands to Australia.

We begin our focus with the Aboriginals, a people who have a way of telling their stories through dance, often mimicking animal antics, acting out a hunting story, or retelling ancient stories from their dreamtime. It is very much a part of their social life. Some more lovely photos can be seen here.

For a more contemporary feel, we will be listening to Yothu Yindi (an Aboriginal band). The lyrics are of a political nature, but it's worth discussing some of these issues with the children, as well as how song can be a way of putting your voice out to the public.







I've grown up with lots of Rolf Harris, who is now very popular in England, although I do think the younger generation have missed out on hearing many of his songs.  Thankfully some of them are still pretty well known.

This is a lovely video, showing some beautiful photography, with an easy song for the children to learn: Sun Arise (lyrics can be found here).







Now, you can't listen to Rolf Harris without listening to his famous "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", with his fabulous wobble-board.  I can see this integrating with some art work onto some thin plyboard for our own wobble-boards.

I've written about some of the bush dances we've learnt in the past, and we really like Australian folk music here. Here's another great webpage with lots of interesting information on bush songs.  My children still don't know enough bush songs by my reckoning, so we'll be learning a few more.

If you're keen, you can google to find some of these songs with video clips:

- Waltzing Matilda

- Road to Gundagai

- Botany Bay

- Old Man Emu
- Clancy of the Overflow
and others can be found here, with music (midi files) and words.