Our Upper First (Year 1) students have been learning about aboriginal culture through action, storytelling and art.
Sitting around a pretend campfire, students watched some of their class mates act out the aboriginal story “The Bat and the Crocodile” read by their art teacher Mrs Gadsby. Then they learnt about aboriginal markings, which they recreated on black paper bat shapes, and on large pieces of paper bark.
Next week, in ceramic art, they will make a crocodile and paint it with similar dots, cross hatchings and lines.
Mrs Gadsby says there is a strong emphasis on culture based art at John Colet, for example in Aboriginal art, not just learning about dot painting, but coming to an understanding of the ideology behind the artworks.
“This process of examining art through culture applies also to Asian, Indian and Islamic art. This gives the children a deep understanding and appreciation of different cultures. They also study the great art movements in the western world such as the Renaissance, Impressionism and Contemporary art.”
