Posts Tagged belonging

Voices from Elsewhere…

I was recently directed to the Wheeler Centre website to take a look at the speeches and talks they had available to view and download.

Finding out about the Wheeler Centre was very interesting…did you know that Melbourne is one of UNESCO’s ‘Cities of Literature’? The Wheeler Centre was established to celebrate this:

Melbourne has a new kind of cultural institution. The Wheeler Centre – a centre dedicated to the discussion and practice of writing and ideas. Through a year-round programme of talks and lectures, readings and debates, we invite you to join the conversation.

Their slogan is ‘Books. Writing. Ideas.’

Isn’t that wonderful?

It wasn’t long before I found a resource that drew me straight in – I am a big fan of Nam Le’s collected short stories in The Boat and even set the book on our ETAQ Book Club list this year!

If you also like books, writing and ideas, please enjoy this 10 minute talk by Nam Le, on the theme ‘Voices from elsewhere’:

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Jeannie Baker: Belonging exhibition

The work of Jeannie Baker, a British-Australian children’s author and artist, is well known by Australian children. In a special exhibition at Casula Powerhouse this summer, collages from her award winning picture book, Belonging, will be on display for people of all ages to enjoy. Rsvp for the opening or for more info on public programs, click here.

I just love the book Belonging by Jeannie Baker, and am really keen to go along to this exhibition of her collages – I might even try and get to a collage workshop!

Belonging

Belonging

I think this picture book, and its companion book Window would make excellent pieces of related material for the HSC Area of Study ‘Belonging’.  Has anyone else seen this book?  What do you think?  Here is a brief description of the book from Jeannie Baker’s website:

An alienating city street gradually becomes a place to call home.  Little by little, baby Tracy grows.  She and her neighbours begin to rescue their street.  Together, children and adults plant grass and trees and bushes in the empty spaces.  They paint murals over old graffiti.  They stop the cars.  Everything begins to blossom.

‘Belonging’ explores the re-greening of the city: the role of community, the empowerment of people and the significance of children, family and neighbourhood in changing their urban environment.  The streets gradually become places for safe children’s play, and community activity and places for nature and wonder.

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Screen Australia Digital Resources – Belonging

For those who are hunting around for resources to use next term with the new HSC Area of Study ‘Belonging’, you might want to head over to the Screen Australia Digital Learning resource finder.  If you search for ‘Belonging’ you will find a number of film clips relating to the concept of Belonging.

Each clip also has a short set of classroom activities written by members of the English Teachers’ Association (including yours truly!) to get you started with your lessons on Belonging 😉

My favourite is the story of Cuc Lam’s Suitcase.  It will be an especially relevant text to model with students studying The Joy Luck Club – I also used it this year, as it sat really well with Skrzynecki’s poetry for ‘the Journey’.

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