Lesson 5: Indigenous perspectives in texts

Links to the Victorian Curriculum – English

Reading and Viewing, Literature: Literature and content

Level 4:

• Make connections between the ways different authors may represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (Content description VCELT282)

Reading and Viewing, Literature: Responding to literature

Level 4:

• Describe the effects of ideas, text structures and language features of literary texts (Content description VCELT283)

Reading and Viewing, Literature: Examining literature

Level 3:

• Discuss how language is used to describe the settings in texts, and explore how the settings shape the events and influence the mood of the narrative (Content description VCELT253)

Level 4:

• Discuss how authors and illustrators make stories exciting, moving and absorbing and hold readers' interest by using various techniques (Content description VCELT284)

Reading and Viewing, Literacy: Interpreting, analysing, evaluating

Level 3:

• Read an increasing range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge, using text processing strategies, including confirming, rereading and cross-checking (Content description VCELY256)

Level 4:

• Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (Content description VCELY288) 
  

Theory/practice connections

Indigenous perspectives are included throughout the Victorian Curriculum, particularly through the intercultural capability.

The intercultural capability encourages students to learn about their own culture, as well as the cultures of others. It is recognised in the curriculum that Australia's indigenous cultures form an important part of society, and help to shape Australia's social, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity (Victorian Curriculum, 2017).

Using texts written by indigenous people and texts presenting issues significant to indigenous people can help to build a cohesive Australia, which benefits all Australians. 

Additional resources

Picture Story Books which include an indigenous perspective:

• Welcome to Country - Aunty Joy Murphy & Lisa Kennedy
• Our Island - Children of Gununa, Alison Lester & Elizabeth Honey
• Shake a leg- Boori Monty Pryor & Jan Ormerod
• In Your Dreams - Sally Morgan & Bronwyn Bancroft
• The Shack that Dad Built - Elaine Russell
• As I grew older - Ian Abdulla, Tucker - Ian Abdulla

Learning intention

We are learning to use texts to develop cultural understandings.

Success criteria

• I can name themes in texts.
• I can find similarities between texts.
• I can explain the understandings I have developed about indigenous culture.

Role of the reader

Text user - texts are written for specific purposes. The way the text has been composed affects its capacity to meet its purpose. Readers/viewers have choices to make when they read/view text. They can ask what should I do with this text? What are my options now that I have read/viewed the text?

Group size

Whole group to small groups. 

Lesson sequence

1. Isolate two significant quotes from Remembering Lionsville and relate these to the text as a memoir.  Students read the final page of Remembering Lionsville, which includes a note from the author. Ask students to consider what these quotes tell us about Brownyn Bancroft's thinking about family and history, for example:
   
   "I've always been taught to cherish older people and their stories because they are a direct link to the past."
   
   "I wanted to tell you this story now so that one day you might do the same."
   
   
2. Present students with a number of picture story books by indigenous authors, or written to highlight indigenous perspectives. Students analyse the texts, by using the following points as a guide:
   
   
   • who is in the text?
   • where does the text take place?
   • what events happen?
   • what connections can you make with this text?
   • what message do you think the author wants you to have?
   When students are familiar with at least one other story consider if it could be inferred that these authors hold the same values and beliefs about family and history.
   
   
3. Similarities between the illustrations can be found amongst the texts from the additional resource list. Allow students time for close looking, so that these similarities can be identified. Some areas for discussion are:
   
   
   • use of black outlining
   • use of cultural symbols
   • strong bold colours
   • the use of straight and curvy line
   • line to divide the page into sections of the horizon (for example: sea, land, sky)
   • line to suggest movement.
   Students examine the visuals and look for evidence of family and history.
   
   

Assessment: Provide students with choice to respond to Remembering Lionsville or the other of the studied texts in any way they wish, in order to demonstrate the cultural understandings developed across this unit.  

Differentiation

Read the picture story books to students who are not yet able to read fluently themselves. Alternatively, recording the reading with a digital device is useful for students who need support with reading, or who need more time for aural processing.