| Description of Learning Experiences:
(The story of your learning journey) |
In the Beginning.
By mid 1999, the school's reputation and profile for becoming involved in innovative projects was spreading. We were approached by the Fremantle City Council and the Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation (IOTO) as a community involvement initiative, with the brief to learn more about the region we live in and our relationship with our neighbouring countries. Our commission was then to share that knowledge in a kid friendly web site, in time for the Indian Ocean Rim Region Festival (IORR) to be held in Fremantle in November of 1999. You can view the completed site at http://www.beacy.wa.edu.au/iorr/front.htm
So began the school's involvement with India whereby the initial thing in common with all of the IORR countries is that we share the Indian Ocean as our front yard. This in turn has culminated in my Fellowship trip to India and the development of a Visual Arts Unit based on differentiation within tribal groups across the various geographical and historical boundaries within India.
Becoming more familiar with the known in Australia.
Initially I focussed on the variety of work produced by the Australian Aboriginals from different regions throughout Western Australia, establishing a visual literacy that helped students interpret symbols and identify an artefact's possible locality. In turn they were able to display that understanding by comments such as:
- "Well, its got a lot of cross hatching in its background patterning, so that probably means that it comes from the North near Arnhem Land."
- A Wandjina figure on a rock wall? This must have been photographed somewhere in the Kimberleys
- "Look at this. It looks like its been painted with acrylic paints. Can you see how they've used pink and purple. I know it's in a traditional style but they've used contemporary media. What does that make it?"
We live in a time where a greater value has been placed on the arts and crafts of a former time, both in Australia and India! I made a newsletter request to the school community for any aboriginal artefacts and later Indian artefacts that could be loaned to school, even if it was only for a day or the duration of their child's art lesson. I also asked where possible if they could provide some idea on the provenance (the place of origin or history of an art work) of the pieces on loan to us. EG: the Region, maybe even the specific tribe or artist, medium used, details re the technique used, date of completion, place purchased/presented as a gift… This in turn provided dynamic discussion both at home and at school as we searched through images to confirm or discover a likely provenance.
In preparation for my trip to India I had created a Power Point Presentation on the Diversity of Aboriginal Arts in Western Australia to share with the Year 6 classes at Tagore International School in New Delhi which I also then used in Term 1, with each of my Art classes. I particularly focussed on the variation of decorations, symbols, functions, form and use of medium found in traditional aboriginal arts and crafts. Connected to this was also a Technology and Enterprise based understanding of how the artefacts and tools used by aboriginals were often created or decorated with symbols specific to a region.
We looked specifically at the aboriginal arts from -
- The Pilbara
- The Kimberleys
- Central or Great Western Desert
- Arnhem Land
As a result different classes worked to create artworks "in the style of" various regional aboriginal areas attempting to use both traditional and contemporary medium and techniques such as coiling fibres, decorating didgeridoos, a simulated rock cave from the Kimberleys region, the mythology and appearance of the Wandjina, simulated rock carvings (in fresh clay slabs), contemporary interpretations of myths and legends and paintings in the X-ray style and in the Papunya Tula dot style.
You can view some of the results of this work on http://www.beacy.wa.edu.au/art/aboriginal/regional.html
Looking for Commonalities as we move to the unknown.
We then moved from the point of the known, to further investigate and compare the variation of design, medium, form and function of the traditional tribal arts of a variety of regions throughout India.
Inherent to this whole unit of work was the investigation of the way in which modern technologies and the increasing interaction of tribal groups with mainstream society and technologies impacts on the artworks that are produced.
Through the Tribal Arts of India Unit, the students were first exposed to background information and given web sites and book resources to enable to them to follow up on a technique or region in greater detail. Then based on actual
artefacts and pictorial resources each student reproduced at least one piece of work in the style, technique or thematic content appropriate to a specific region.
We have looked specifically at the tribal and folk arts from -
- The Warli tribe from the North of Maharashtra
- Wall paintings from Madhubani in the region of Mithila in Bihar
- A variety of embroidery styles, motifs and designs from Gujarat and Rajasthan
- The peacock, the national bird symbol of India, with its many design motifs from around the country.
- The impact of the Islamic decorative influence on the use of geometric and floral patterns on tiles.
You can find images and explanations of all of this work and more on the Beaconsfield Website under the heading
"Focus on India" at www.beacy.wa.edu.au
By making use of the variety of artefacts I brought home with me from India, the students became familiar with the regions of India and how their geographical position and weather conditions had a huge impact on their life styles, the arts media available for them to use and the way in which extreme poverty through drought and flooding has acted as a catalyst to produce local arts works in a form that could be purchased and transported around the world. Eg. Wall paintings reproduced in a smaller scale on paper.
Having preceded this unit of work with an investigation of the differences in aboriginal arts forms found within regions of Australia, the follow on to investigate Indian arts and crafts by its geographical and historical State and regional boundaries was almost seamless. One of the more fascinating aspects of this was the similarities that were immediately identified between the two ancient cultures - especially that of the cave paintings and traditional ceremonial body decorations.
So now we look to Future trends, implications and predictions.
This whole project could so easily be applied to any other country whether it be Asian or not and in so going back to discover the past artefacts of a culture and then searching for remnants of those same artefacts in the present day, students have the chance to analyse the change in trends and art forms and techniques, to collate facts and understandings related to that culture or subculture that they will then be able to predict that which will continue to survive, be further modified or disappear and in turn attempt to communicate it by producing an art work using continuing traditional themes with the use of modern technologies and media.
A project of this sort provides a meaningful research topic whereby students can make use of the internet to delve deeply into the many wonderful and interactive online museums. Having thus tempted them with a glimpse at such fascinating titbits of related knowledge, we may well be the catalyst to not only encourage them to come to know and better understand the complexities of their own diverse culture here in Australia, but also to be open minded travellers prepared to go further afield than the pleasure isles of Bali. |