Skrzynecki, Yolen, Dickinson… They’re All Here!
Leave a CommentLooking for information about your prescribed HSC English texts? Much can be found on the State Library Site if you are a member.
- Click here to go to the State Library Prescribed English Texts resource
- Scroll down the list to find the texts you are studying
- Click on the links to enter the Gale Cengage Learning Literature Resource Centre
- Type in your State Library membership number to view the resources including:
Biographies
Literary Criticisms
Reviews
Not a member of the State Library? Click here for a membership form (membership is free).
Wilcannia Boomerangs – exclusion and belonging
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“All year we played like a family. I bleed for my family and those boys bleed for me…at the end of the day we had to win the game. We had to win it.”
My sister, an online producer for the ABC in Broken Hill, recently filed a story about the rugby league team “Wilcannia Boomerangs” for the ABC Radio show “Bush Telegraph”. Click on the image above or this link to view video and hear the audio of the story. Once on the website click on “The Story of the Wilcannia Boomerangs” to hear the full report.
“Rugby is the most important thing to the town at this stage for the simple reason not only does the little people play it and talk about it so does the mums and dads. And you’ll see them decked out with their football guernseys”.
Sunday Chutney
Leave a CommentShort listed for the CBCA picture book of the year, Sunday Chutney, by Aaron Blabey is a lovely look at how the main character “Sunday Chutney” deals with the difficulties of constantly changing schools. Although she longs for stability and sense of belonging, ultimately, she does not let anything get her down.
The publisher’s website: http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670071791 links to a video of the author, Aaron Blabey and a feature called “look inside” which displays the first few pages of the book. We have the full copy in the library.
Belonging – Images as Related Texts
The Art Gallery of NSW website has a wonderful tool called myvirtualgallery, a feature that enables users to group images from gallery collections then present the images online. Have a look at my collection of images:
“Belonging”
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/virtual_gallery?mode=view_gallery&galleryid=2211
and the group of images collected together by Jonathan Cooper, Manager of Information at the Art Gallery of NSW:
“Belonging and not belonging”
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/virtual_gallery?mode=view_gallery&galleryid=1889
An interview with Jonathan, where he discusses the concept of belonging in relation to the Lord Frederic Leighton painting “Winding the Skein” is in the latest copy of SCAN magazine in the library.
What Does Peter Skrzynecki Say?
Earlier this year I heard Peter Skrzynecki speak at a conference about the “Belonging” area of study. I wrote notes as quickly as I could thinking they might be useful for HSC English students. Here they are -
Belonging Blog – English Teacher’s Association
Need help with understanding the concept of belonging? Take a look at this blog from the English Teacher’s Association:
The concept of belonging itself can be elusive because its understanding is dependent on people’s perceptions.
English Teacher’s Association
Belonging HSC Rap Blog
The School Libraries and Information Literacy Unit have created a blog containing useful information about some of the picture books you may have used for additional materials. The blog contains student comments, worksheets and teacher’s guides. Click on this link to access the blog.
Choir of Hard Knocks – From Isolation to Belonging
Where do you belong when you have no home or are excluded from the mainstream by disability or mental health issues?
The story of the “Choir of Hard Knocks” is the story of an opera singer who was inspired by an old Readers Digest article to work with homeless and disadvantaged people in Melbourne. Who could have predicted that this would lead to a choir who would go on to sing at both the Melbourne Town Hall and the Sydney Opera House? Click here to access a video clip of one singer discussing the power of the choir to create a sense of community and belonging:
“A very communal group. I think that’s what sorely lacks in being homeless or disadvantaged. That sense of isolation and no sense of belongingness.”
Growing up Asian in Australia
Alice Pung, the Australian born daughter of Cambodian refugees, is a writer and lawyer. Her website provides links to excerpts from her books; “Growing up Asian in Australia” and “Unpolished Gem” as well as to essays written for “The Age” newspaper. “Citizenship” and “Failure” are both essays that are well worth a read. “Citizenship” is a thoughtful response to the introduction of an Australian citizenship test and “Failure” addresses the problems associated with a “tunnel vision” view of HSC success.
Click here to see a fantastic interview featuring Alice from the Mildura Writers’ Festival.
Social Networks and Belonging
See Sophie and hear her talk about her online presence – she photoshops the images of herself before putting them in facebook. View the Triple J Hack Half Hour – click here.
Images
M.I.L.K. Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship
40 000 photos from 60 countries. 300 were chosen for an exhibition to celebrate humanity in the millennium year, 2000.
View some of these photos in a book with wonderful images and quotes conveying a sense of community, family and belonging. Mrs Elliot has a copy.
“Without the human community one single human being cannot survive”
Dalai Lama
Sense of Self and the Brain
In this video, brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor describes the impact of stroke damage to the left hand side of the brain. The left brain is responsible for the sense of “self”. She received a standing ovation for this 18 minute talk and was listed in Time Magazine’s Top 100 World’s most influential people 2008.
If you have no home where do you belong?
There are one billion homeless people living in our world today. The Homeless World Cup exists to end this, so we all have a home, a basic human need.
The Impact of Stereotypes
Belonging makes us a member of a group or community, with which we can identify, and which leads (somewhat paradoxically) to a sense of our own individual identity. — Elizabeth Barrie
How does disability impact on sense of belonging? Read Amanda Leskovac’s short stories.
Immigration Bridge
Ms Cripps is a legend. She spotted this website for the Immigration Bridge which is planned for Canberra in 2012. The designers of this project anticipate that the handrails of this bridge will be engraved with the names of 200 000 migrants, their immigration stories are included on the website. Peter Skrzynecki’s story is one of them. Peter has also written a poem for the bridge.
Belonging & National Identity
“PAUL Keating has launched a stinging attack on the Anzac legend, rubbishing the notion that Australia’s identity was redefined on the beaches of Gallipoli and vowing never to set foot on the sacred site.” Salusinsky, I. The Australian, 31 October 2008
Was Paul Keating right? At the end of this article there are over 100 comments from all over the world. Did Gallipoli define the nation or was it Kokoda, where Australians fought in defence of Australian soil? When did Australia cease to belong to the British Empire? Click here to read the article, then scroll down to read the comments.
Workplace Belonging…
“Work is social. Our identities in society are shaped by the connections and relationships we have to people. Work provides many of these relationships and nearly all types of work involve social contribution. For some, this is washing the family’s clothes; for others, it’s removing a blood clot from a patient’s brain. Work usually involves devoting energy, knowledge, skills and abilities to the benefit of others. If you think about your own job in these terms, it may help with your sense of feeling valued, of self-worth, of purpose and belonging.”
Dr Jim Bright, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November 2008
For a copy of the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald, see Mrs Howe or Mrs Antoniak in the library.
Marketing, Cults and Belonging
“People, whether they are joining a cult or joining a brand do so for exactly the same reasons, they need to belong and they need to make meaning…”
Belongings – Post WW2 Memories of Migration
“We found a niche in the Jewish Sephardi synagogue in Fletcher Street, Woollahra. Here we were comfortable with other migrants. Here my parents met and socialized with people from the old country. They found it very hard to socialize with Australians. They didn’t drink and the cultures were just so different.” Diana Zilka
Click on the image to view more migrant memories from the Belongings exhibition at the Migration Heritage Centre.
