What is Indigenous Art?

 

Indigenous Art refers to the artworks made by native people reflecting their own authentic culture and unique belief. The purpose of the creation of artwork in Indigenous people is quite different to Western’s, often shamanic and spiritual. For this respect, lots of symbols and geometry shapes are used in order to perform significant meanings. 

 

 

Why is it important?

 

Native people of Oceania, America, North America, Africa and all over the world and each Indeginous community has different culture and belief but they have something in common: They are spiritually connected in some ways. Even though Native Indian and Australian Aboriginal people were far from each other, their fundamental purpose of making art was surprisingly similar. The way they look at their nature and community is quite different to Western's. Exploring Indigenous art is a good resource in which students can gain diverse historical and cultural facts.

 

By understanding the unique way of making and responding to art, students will develop respectful way of looking at nature and our community. I found out that this topic is more related to the history curriculum contents of year 8 than year 7 since year 7 they learn ancient history before colonisation. However year 7 will explore the history more interesting way and get familiar with the history in advance and this is the point, by relating art and history, the importance of visual arts education is expected to be elevated.

 

 

 

Curriculum Links

 

I only screen-captured the image of my rationale before because I could not copy and paste content in Words documents in here and did not have enough time to type in everything..sorry for inconvenience and thank you*

 

Rationale

 

Learning Indigenous Arts offers good educational resources to students to explore spirituality in some aspects by acrossing history and geography as well as visual arts. So that they can move onto more conceptual, abstract, and deeper aspect of spirituality in the future. Also this is a good chance for students to pay attention to now minority groups include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had once been the owner of their lands before they were invaded and colonised by Europeans. By understanding the history and cultural background, students will gain better understanding for their art.

 

Students will find some evidences that Indigenous people are spiritually connected in some ways by finding similarities in between while they explore artefacts/ sacred objects/ artworks from different regions. It is related to how Indigenous people look at their nature and community, which are quite different to Western's. In this respect their purpose of making art are fundamentally different as well.

 

Artworks reflect what artists think and see and do. This lesson will not only introduce brief history and culture of few Indigenous groups in different regions but also particularly will focus on how their culture and belief affected what they create and how contemporary Indigenous artists try to inherit their traditional belief and culture through making art.

 

 

This lesson will cover Australian Curriculum for Year 7-8 in Visual Arts: 

 

• Students draw on artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations include Australia and build on their awareness of how and why artists realise their ideas thriugh different visual representations, practice, processes and viewpoints. 

 

• Students will extend their thinking, understanding and use of perceptual and conceptual skills through this lesson. They continue to use and apply appropriate visual language and visual conventions with increasing complexity through Visual analysis. 

 

• Students examine their own culture include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and develop a deeper understanding of theor practices as an artist who holds individual views about the world and global issues. They acknowledge that artists and audiences hold different views about selected artworks, given contexts of time and place, and established ideologies. 

 

 

 

Aim: 

 

By understanding the history and cultural background of Indigenous groups, students will gain better understanding for their art. Students will find some evidences that Indigenous people are spiritually connected in some ways by finding similarities in between while they explore artefacts/ sacred objects/ artworks from different regions.​They can successfully move onto more conceptual, abstract, and deeper aspect of spirituality in the future.

 

• Experiment with visual arts conventions and techniques, including exploration of techniques used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent a theme, concept or idea in their artwork (ACAVAM118)

 

• Develop ways to enhance their intentions as artists through exploration of how artists use materials, techniques, technologies and processes (ACAVAM119)

 

• Practise techniques and processes to enhance representation of ideas in their art-making (ACAVAM121)

 

• Analyse how artists use visual conventions in artworks (ACAVAR123)

 

• Identify and connect specific features and purposes of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore viewpoints and enrich their art-making, starting with Australian artworks including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACAVAR124)

 

 

Outcomes:

 

 

Students will be able to

 

• Articulate different and similar belief and cultures among Indigenous groups of different regions through artefacts/ artworks

 

• Identify the style of artworks in different regions

 

• Articulate the relationship between culture and art

 

• Identify geographical locations of diffent Indigenous groups and understand the historical background 

 

• Critically analyse artworks considering elements of art and historical/ cultural backgraound

 

• Practice making artworks reflecting individual spiritual meaning using symbols

 

 

 

Cross curriculum priority

 

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

• Sustainability

 

 

General Capability

 

• Literacy

• Critical and creative thinking

• Ethical understanding

• Personal and social capability

• Intercultural understanding

• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability

 

 

Learning Area

 

Visual Arts

 

Humanities and Social Sciences

 

History (Year 8)

 

The Spanish conquest of the Americas (c.1492 – c.1572)

 

Pre-Columbian life in the Americas, including social organisation, city life and beliefs.(ACDSEH016)

 

When, how and why the Spanish arrived in the Americas, and where they went, including the various societies and geographical features they encountered (ACDSEH073)

 

The longer-term effects of colonisation, including slavery, population changes and lack of control over resources (ACDSEH076)

 

Even if this lesson will cover more of year 8 in history, year 7 students will take advantage of exploring earlier to set foundation and by doing so, the effect of learning Visual Arts would be elevated. 

 

 

 

Geography

 

Year 7

 

+The economic, cultural, spiritual and aesthetic value of water for people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and peoples of the Asia region (ACHGK041)

 

+Collect, select and record relevant geographical data and information, usingethical protocols, from appropriate primary and secondary sources(ACHGS048)

 

+The influence of accessibility to services and facilities on the liveability of places (ACHGK044)

 

Outcome

 

Students identify geographically significant questions to frame an inquiry. They locate relevant information from primary and secondary sources to answer inquiry questions. 

 

 

Year 8

 

+The aesthetic, cultural and spiritual value of landscapes and landforms for people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACHGK049)

 

+The human causes and effects of landscape degradation (ACHGK051)

 

+Collect, select and record relevant geographical data and information, usingethical protocols, from appropriate primary and secondary sources(ACHGS056)

 

+Apply geographical concepts to draw conclusions based on the analysis of the data and information collected (ACHGS060)

 

Outcome

 

Students explain geographical processes that influence the characteristics of places and explain how places are perceived and valued differently. Students identify geographically significant questions from observations to frame an inquiry.

 

They locate relevant information from a range of primary and secondary sources to answer inquiry questions.