Year 9/10
Visual Arts
Suggested duration: One lesson
Summary
In this activity, students will be challenged to search for facts by reading about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual artists in The Little Red Yellow Black Book. They will complete a Quick Quiz Paper and select one artist upon whom they will conduct a research project.
We have always been artists. We paint in rock shelters and caves, on our bodies for ceremony and in some regions we construct vast artworks on the ground as vital components of ritual. Rock paintings from the Kimberley’s Carpenter’s Gap have been dated at 40,000 years old, and the concentric circle art of central Australia is thought to be the oldest continuing art tradition in the world. We also paint on tools, shields and musical instruments (The Little Red Yellow Black Book, p. 94).
Learning outcomes
- Students will be able to analyse and explore differing viewpoints and enrich their visual art-making, starting with those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.
- Students will demonstrate their research and artistic evaluation skills in a research project based on the resource material.
| General capabilities | Cross-curriculum priorities |
|---|---|
| Literacy | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures |
| Critical and creative thinking | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures organising ideas: 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 |
| Ethical understanding |
Australian Curriculum content descriptions
Years 9 and 10 Visual Arts
- Evaluate how representations communicate artistic intentions in artworks they make and view to inform their future art making (ACAVAR130).
- Analyse a range of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their visual art-making, starting with Australian artworks, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and consider international artworks (ACAVAR131).
- Conceptualise and develop representations of themes, concepts or subject matter to experiment with their developing personal style, reflecting on the styles of artists, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists (ACAVAM125).
Provisions for differentiation
Learning support
Students with special learning needs may benefit from the assigning of a reader to assist them in locating facts in the text. Teachers could further assist students by providing them with a list of page numbers on which the answers are found. The answers can be found in the section ‘For teachers’ below.
Extension
Students could design and create a PowerPoint or Prezi display featuring some of the work of the artists mentioned in the reference text.
Resources
- Quiz paper (PDF)
- The Little Red Yellow Black Book - an introduction to Indigenous Australia (4th edition), ‘Our achievements’, Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS, Canberra, 2018.
For teachers
Ensure that the guidance notes included in The Little Red Yellow Black Book teacher resource website have been considered.
Vocabulary
- Appropriation
Preparation: Make copies of the Quiz paper - one for each student. Ensure that students have access to copies of The Little Red Yellow Black Book.
Step 1.
Ask the students to use The Little Red Yellow Black Book to locate answers to the questions on the Quiz Paper.
Step 2.
Work through the answers to the Quiz paper by reading them out to the group after the assigned quiz time. Allow time for discussion and questions.
Step 3.
Direct students to work on the research task on the Quiz paper as a homework task.
Assessment ideas
- Completed quiz paper
- Rubric for research project
Answers
- It began with ceremonial designs made on the ground.
- On large pieces of flat bark
- Hermannsburg
- Graffiti art or urban street art
- Fish trap forms
- Making possum-skin cloaks
- Judy Watson
- A bower bird’s nest
- To speak out against racism on social media
- Creation stories
- Headdress sculptures
- The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco
- The Red Ochre Awards
- To help artists receive fair pay for their works and to protect buyers, ensuring that they are getting genuine and original artworks
List of Page Numbers
- p 94
- p 95
- p 96
- p 96
- p 96
- p 96
- p 97
- p 97
- p 98
- p 98
- p 98
- p 99
- p 99
- p 100