Little drummer boy

• As a class, view the clip and discuss Dan's reaction to the foreignness of the landscape. Both child characters are confronted by a culture that is different but intriguing.
• Pictures can be very valuable sources of evidence for historians trying to understand the past. However, pictorial representations of historical moments are not always true to life and the artist was not always present to witness the events which they depict, relying instead upon sketches, memories or reports. In this activity, students will learn important skills for observing, interpreting and evaluating pictures as historical evidence for the first contact between European settlers and Indigenous groups of Australia.
• Ask students to investigate the use of historical pictures as sources of evidence by introducing them to the rock art found in the Djulirri rock shelter in the Wellington Range. Discuss the ways historians might use these images as sources of evidence, and more generally, how images can be used as sources of evidence. The images depicted on the walls of the Djulirri shelter document contact between the Aboriginal people of northwest Arnhem Land and seafaring visitors to Australia, and include images of European tall ships.
• The following resources can be used as a starting point for class discussion:

1. Archaeology, 'The Rock Art of Djulirri', www.archaeology.org/1101/web/aus_video.html
2. Sydney Morning Herald, 'The Rock Art that Redraws our History', www.smh.com.au/news/national/rock-art-redraws-our-history/2008/09/19/1221331206960.html 
3. —— 'Window into the Past: Rock Art Narrative', www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/national/indigenous-rock-art/

• Using these resources and the links provided below, students could work in small groups to examine these historical pictures depicting moments of early contact between European settlers and Indigenous groups. 

1. State Library of New South Wales, 'Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770-1850', www.doryanthes.info/pdf/EORA%20Mapping.pdf
2. ——'William Bradley - Drawings from his journal', acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumView.aspx?acmsID=412997&itemID=823705

• Students can store digital images as slides within a slideshow presentation program and add descriptions of the images in the 'notes' sections of the slides.

• Divide the class into five groups and assign two pictures to each group, one from Indigenous perspectives of the time and the other from European colonist perspectives. Explain to students that to use visual evidence, they need to engage in a three-part process: observing, interpreting and evaluating. Guide them through this process by filling in the Observe, Interpret and Evaluate tables in the Student Activity Sheet H23.4: A picture paints a thousand words. Additional copies of these tables can be made for each new picture examined.
• Students should study each image for one minute and form an overall impression of the picture. Next, ask students to look at each person and object in the picture. Finally, students should divide each picture into four quadrants and examine each closely. What new things do they see?
• Ask students to interpret the picture, based on the observations they have made. What does the artist hope to show in this picture? For what purpose has it been produced?
• Once students have established what the picture shows, and interpreted the picture, invite them to evaluate it. The questions set out in the Evaluate table require students to think about how reliable and valuable the picture is as historical evidence. Ask students to work collaboratively in small groups to evaluate each picture by filling in the table and shading the 'Overall value barometer'.
• As a class, rank the pictures according to their value as historical evidence. It is unlikely that all students will agree during this process. Ask students to explain the reasons why they have ranked the pictures as they have.

Student Activity Sheet H23.4: A picture paints a thousand words

• In this clip, Waruwi puts on the shoes of the little drummer boy, Dan. They are a little awkward and uncomfortable at first, but she is soon able to walk around in them. Empathy - the ability to 'walk around in another person's shoes' - is a valuable quality which students can develop through the study of history. It is an especially important quality when approaching the issue of first contact between Indigenous groups and European colonists. Role play is a powerful exercise which allows students to appreciate multiple viewpoints and is especially helpful when encouraging students to explore alternative perspectives on the story of the arrival of the First Fleet.
• As a class, view the clip and discuss Dan's reaction to the foreignness of the landscape. Both child characters are confronted by a culture that is different but intriguing.
• Ask students to imagine they are Waruwi. They have just encountered the 'boat people' or 'ghost people' for the first time. The ways and language of the 'boat people' are strange and they bring with them many new objects never seen before in Australia. Ask students to respond to the following questions:

1. How would you feel? 
2. How would you describe to your grandparents the strange things you have seen? 
3. How would you describe the man and how he is making the strange noise?

• Now ask students to imagine they are the marine playing the musical instrument. They have just been put ashore in a strange new land after a long journey of many months. Supplies in their camp are running low and they will soon need to find a source of food in the surrounding bush. The foliage around them is nothing like they have seen before. Ask students to respond to the following questions:

1. How would you feel? 
2. How would you describe the new land to others on the ship? 
3. How would you describe the Indigenous girl that you have seen in the bush?

• Invite students to analyse historical responses to first contact. Watch the clip 'European Observers' from the First Australians series, available at:
  National Film & Sound Archive, 'European Observers', http://dl.nfsa.gov.au/module/1563/
• Ask students to think about how we know what the European colonisers thought of Aboriginal people when they first encountered them. Ask students to list the sources available to historians as they are mentioned in the clip.
• Ask students to think about how we know what Aboriginal people thought of the European colonists when they first encountered them. Play the clip 'Captain Cook' from the First Australians series, available at:
  SBS, First Australians, www.programs.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/content/

• Ask students to work in small groups and select a picture they examined in Student Activity Sheet H23.4: A picture paints a thousand words. Each member in the group should choose a different individual in the picture. Ask students to write a monologue to describe what they are thinking and feeling as the action in the picture is taking place.
• Once each group member has finished writing their monologue, provide time for the group to create a dramatic performance which presents the monologue of each character. Their performance should incorporate the picture which the group has chosen as stimulus for their monologues. Students can perform their dramatic piece for the rest of the class or at a performance for the wider school community. Alternatively, students could film their performance and present it on a special film night open to the school community. Their finished product could be entered into the Trop Jr short film festival at www.tropjr.com/au/

Student Activity Sheet H23.5: Another person's shoes

• Prior to watching the clip, ask students to research the fashion of English children's clothing in the 1780s. Draw their attention to the fact that in the 1780s children were often treated (and always dressed) as miniature adults. Ask students to choose either a boy or a girl, from a wealthy or poor English family and draw, or find an image, of the fashions of the time. The picture is to then be labelled and accompanied by a brief description of what the child is wearing. 
• The following websites may be useful:

1. Museum of Childhood, 'Clothing', www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/clothing/index.html
2. Spinning the web, 'Clothing & Products', www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/clothing/

• As a class, view the clip and discuss the style of clothing and appearance of the marines. Ask students to focus on the clothing of Dan, the little drummer boy. Ask students to describe the individual components of Dan's costume:

1. shirt
2. hair style
3. breeches 
4. jacket 
5. shoes
6. accessories

• Ask students to compare the clothing of Dan with that of the adult marines. They should record the similarities and differences in a Venn diagram. Refer students to Student Activity Sheet E23.3: Children's clothing and ask students the following questions:

1. What materials is the marines' uniform made from?
2. Is this material suitable for the hot summer of the Australian climate?
3. Why do you think the marines wore this uniform?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these uniforms?

• Focus students' attention on what happens to Waruwi once she tries on Dan's shoes. Ask the students to conduct a think-pair-share activity, in which they think of the reason for what happens and then get into pairs and share it. Walking in another's shoes is a symbol of understanding someone else's culture. As a class, view the whole episode and list other symbolism that is used in the story.
• Ask students to design an outfit for the soldiers that they think would make them feel more comfortable. The outfit can incorporate ideas and designs that are in keeping with the fashions of the time but can also use ideas from clothing worn by Waruwi and Nana in the clip. It should take into account the climate of the region. Share your designs with the class and hold a vote for the best design.

Student Activity Sheet E: 23.3: Children's clothing

• As a class, view the clip and ask students to concentrate on the scene in which Waruwi is listening to the music being played by one of the marines. Ask the students the following questions:

1. How do we as an audience know that Waruwi is enjoying the music?
2. What do the filmmakers do to make this clear to the audience?

• Refer students to Student Activity Sheet E23.4: Making a connection. Ask students to read the lyrics of the 'Soldier's song' and answer the following questions:

1. Why is his boat gone?
2. What are rations?
3. Why might the rations be low?
4. What do you think they'll do for food now?
5. Who have 'all taken flight'?
6. What does the singer mean by this expression?
7. What does the singer say 'illuminate[s] the night'?
8. Judging from the singer's words, do you think this soldier is sad about his situation?
9. How does the marine show his attitude to Indigenous people?
10. Describe his reaction when he sees Waruwi.
11. If they could talk each other's language, what do you think they would have said to each other?
12. Although they do not have a common language, how do they communicate to each other in this clip?

• Choose a selection of Indigenous poets. Find out about them: who they are and where they are from. Share their poems with the class and discuss.
• The following websites may be useful:

1. Oodgeroo Noonuccal: Biographic note and poetry, www.ict.griffith.edu.au/~davidt/redlandbay/oodgeroo.htm
2. University of Queensland Fryer Library, 'Oodgeroo Noonuccal Kath Walker 1920-1993' www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer/worth_fighting/2.html
3. 'Aboriginal visitors to Sydney' 1971, in New Dawn: a magazine for the Aboriginal people of New South Wales, vol. 2, no. 8, November, online at dawn.aiatsis.gov.au/docs/v20/s08/11.pdf (article reprints with permission three poems by Jack Davis).
4. OzArts, 'Herbert Wharton' http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/herbert_wharton
5. Anita Heiss, www.anitaheiss.com/
6. Mudrooroo, mudrooroo.com/biographical/

• Ask students to imagine that they are shipwrecked on a desert island, far from home. Alternatively, ask students to imagine they are Waruwi and consider their reactions and reflections on life since the British have arrived. Ask them to write a poem or a song in which they narrate what has happened to them, how they feel about being stuck and their hopes for the future.
• Ask students to select the style of poetry they would like to use: Acrostic (for younger students), Cinquain, Quatrain or Concrete. Alternatively the Soldier's song itself can be used as a template.

Student Activity Sheet E23.4: Making a Connection