Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
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Stag RESOURCES
es 2
,3&4
honey
spot
TEAC
HERS
INTRODUCTION
Sydney Opera House acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and
their continuing connection to land and community. We pay our respect to them and their
cultures, and to the Elders both past and present.
These teachers notes have been designed to assist you with classroom preparation in relation to the
performance of Honey Spot. We hope that this resource will assist your students to further enjoy and
enhance their performing arts experience back in the classroom. The pre- and post-show activities are
designed for students from years 3-8 and some ideas for extending the activities are included.
The activities included in this resource provide opportunities for students to explore the themes of
friendship, racism and Reconciliation. Through exploring the themes presented in the play students
can learn about Aboriginal language, belief systems and culture. The activities featured are designed to
help your students understand the importance of Aboriginal identity, history and culture and affirm
the important place that Reconciliation and a shared history holds in their learning.
NSW Board of Studies Syllabi has been used as guides for the planning of these activities. You should
adapt the activities to suit the student age and stage of your class and the curriculum foci and
outcomes used in your school.
Some websites are suggested throughout this resource. It is recommended that you first visit the sites
and assess the suitability of the content for your particular school environment before setting the
activities based on these.
STAGE 2 & 3
STAGE 4
HONEY SPOT
ENGLISH
RS2.5
Reads independently a wide
range of texts on increasingly
challenging topics and justifies
own interpretation of ideas,
information and events.
TS2.1
Communicates in informal
and formal classroom
activities in school and social
situations for an increasing
range of purposes on a variety
of topics across the
curriculum.
DRAS2.1
Takes on and sustains roles
in a variety of drama forms
to express meaning in a wide
range of imagined situations.
INDICATORS
DRAS2.3
Sequences the action of the
INDICATORS
drama to create meaning for
Justifies a point of view with supporting evidence the audience.
Discusses and reflects upon a variety of
responses and views
DRAS 2.4
Participate in class discussions on a variety of
Responds to, and interprets,
topics
drama experiences and
Engages in improvisation or role-play based on
performances.
texts read, heard or viewed
INDICATORS
HSIE
CUS2.3
Explains how shared customs,
practices, symbols, languages
and traditions in communities
contribute to Australian and
community identities
INDICATORS
Shares the process of shaping and making their own
drama and the reasons for their choices
Forms and exchanges opinions with others about
drama experiences and performances
STAGE 2:
OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS
INDICATORS
Focuses on details of subject matter and areas of
beauty, interest, awe, wonder and delight
DAS2.2
Explores, selects and
combines movement using
the elements of dance to
communicate ideas, feelings
or moods.
INDICATORS
DAS2.3
Gives personal opinions
about the use of elements
and meaning in their own
and others dances.
INDICATORS
HONEY SPOT
ENGLISH
TS3.2
Interacts productively
and with autonomy in
pairs and groups of
various sizes and
composition, uses
effective oral
presentation skills and
strategies and listens
attentively.
STAGE 3:
OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS
DRAS3.3
Devises, acts and
rehearses drama for
performance to an
audience.
INDICATORS
DRAS3.4
Responds critically to a
range of drama works
and performance styles.
INDICATORS
DAS3.2
Explores, selects
organises and refines
movement using the
elements of dance to
communicate intent.
INDICATORS
DAS3.3
Discusses and interprets
the relationship between
content, meaning and
context of their own and
others dances.
INDICATORS
HONEY SPOT
STAGE 4:
OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS
ENGLISH
OUTCOME 4
A student uses and
describes language forms
and features, and
structures of texts
appropriate to different
purposes, audiences and
contexts.
INDICATORS
4.6 use Standard Australian English, its variations and
different levels of usage appropriately
OUTCOME 10
A student identifies,
considers and
appreciates cultural
expression in texts.
INDICATORS
10.1 recognise and consider cultural factors, including
cultural background and perspective, when
responding to and composing texts
10.2 identify and explore the ways different cultures,
cultural stories and icons, including Australian
images and significant Australians, including
Aboriginal Australians, are depicted in texts
10.3 identify and describe cultural expressions in texts
10.4 identify and describe the ways assumptions
underlying cultural expressions in texts can lead
to different reading positions
OUTCOME 6
A student draws on
experience, information
and ideas to
imaginatively and
interpretively respond to
and compose texts.
INDICATORS
6.1 compose coherent, imaginative texts that use and
explore students own experiences, thoughts and
feelings and their imaginings
6.2 compose a range of imaginative texts including
narrative, poetry, instructions, scripts, advertisements
and websites
6.3 explore real and imagined (including virtual) worlds
through close and wide engagement with texts
6.4 use the features and structures of imaginative texts to
compose their own texts and engage their audience
6.5 identify the ways characters, situations and concerns in
texts connect to students own experiences, thoughts
and feelings
6.6 use imaginative texts as models to replicate or subvert
into new texts
6.7 use verbal, aural and visual techniques to create
imaginative texts
DRAMA
OUTCOME 4.1.2
Improvises and play
builds through groupdevised processes.
INDICATORS
Use improvisation as a form as well as a key technique to
devise play building
Play build using a variety of stimuli
Link play building scenes
LESSON
RESOURCES
PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES
1
ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES
At the time of European colonisation there were hundreds of different traditional Aboriginal languages and several
geographically defined Torres Strait Islander languages spoken in Australia. Historically, clan groups could speak not
only their own language but also the language belonging to their neighbours. This was very important when trade and
travel occurred across traditional language boundaries. Language helps us to understand and identify the many
Indigenous groups in Australia. While some languages are no longer spoken and have been lost, others are still spoken
each day. Even though English is widely used, many groups are still actively researching and reviving their traditional
languages and are teaching them to their younger generations.
In Honey Spot, the Aboriginal characters use many Aboriginal words. At the end of the play, Peggy, too begins to use
Aboriginal words to name things.
Interactive Language Map Activity
Aboriginal peoples have a special relationship with the land and the sea. Honey Spot is set in country WA in the 1980s.
1. Show the students the Interactive Indigenous Language Map located at: www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
2. Hover over the map and locate the Aboriginal language groups of the area in which the students live
3. Hover over Western Australia, where Honey Spot is set.
4. Locate the language groups in Western Australia.
5. Ask the students to make a list of these language groups.
6. Complete the Noongar Language Worksheet activity in the resources section.
Tips for Pronouncing Aboriginal Languages
Interactive Whiteboard
and access to the internet
Pencils
Paper
Noongar Language
Worksheet (see
resources section)
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Discuss the fact that before settlement over 250 Languages were spoken in Australia. Discuss Western Desert
Language family and all of the languages spoken in Western Australia.
Discuss and Share Information
Create a mind map of the Aboriginal languages of Western Australia (see following page)
Website resources:
www.clc.org.au/articles/
info/aboriginallanguages
REGISTER
Discuss / Brainstorm
Discuss the way that Tim looks after bees in the play.
Ask the students to consider which animal would be their totem and how they would look after that animal.
Ask the students to share their ideas with the group.
White board/blackboard
or butchers paper
Brainstorm a list of native Australian animals and record on white board or butchers paper.
Visual Art Activity
Ask the students to choose their totem and draw it in earth colours browns, yellows, reds, or white
Display the students work and lead a discussion with the students about their work
EXTENSION ACTIVITY: Reading and Discussion
Aboriginal people have a special relationship with the land through their totems.
Ask a student to read out the following excerpt from the play.
Discuss the ways in which the character of William suggests that we stop using and owning the land.
Discuss how this speech represents Aboriginal beliefs and values.
Discuss the differences in how Aboriginal people care for their land as opposed to Rangers, in National Parks around
Australia.
WILLIAM:
Give up using the land the way you white people do. Stop owning it and let it own you. Start with the children. When theyre
born, give them the names of the rocks, the trees, the rivers and the plains. The trees wilyuwa, the wattle- kudden, the red
gum-jarraly, the jarrah. The animals yonga, the kangaroo kumal, the possum tjutidj, the native cat. The birds
kulbardi-the magpie waitj, the emu-gnwirlak, the black cockatoo. Then your children will learn to love and guard their
namesakes for the rest of their lives.
Honey Spot, (1987). Currency Press, Sydney (page 48).
Paper
Art supplies- Charcoal or
Paint, Textas, Pencils etc.
POST-SHOW ACTIVITIES
3
COMPOSING A DANCE
In Honey Spot Tim and Peggy work on a dance where elements of Aboriginal dance and modern dance are incorporated.
At the end of the play, Mother shows the children how to beat the ground on their own footsteps and chant.
This activity is designed to be practised and performed outside. In this activity you will first prepare your students for
dancing work by completing a physical warm-up.
Warm Up
Ask the students to remove their shoes.
Ask the students to stand in a circle, bare foot and close their eyes. Encourage them to listen to the sounds around
them.
Ask the students to share what they heard (birds, cicadas, voices).
Ask the students to walk around the space and become particularly aware of their bare feet on the ground.
Begin to tap the sticks. Vary the tempo and ask the students to move in time with the rhythm of the sticks.
Ask the students to tread lightly and then heavily; slowly and then quickly.
Ask the students to slowly begin to stamp their feet into the earth as they have seen in the performance.
Discussion Circle
Space to move
preferably outside on
the oval, in an
amphitheater or in the
playground
Clapping sticks or 2
pieces of wood to tap
together
A class set of tap sticks
(optional)
Bring the students into a circle and discuss the warm up.
How did the students feel working without their shoes?
How did the students feel stamping the earth?
What was it like to work outside?
Creating a Dance
Give each student a copy of the chant in the resources section.
Ask the students to repeat the chant after you and as a group. Explain the translation.
Ask the students to work in small groups of 4-6 and using the Aboriginal chant, and stamping, work on a group
devised dance. The students may like to include a representation of the bee, or any of the characters or themes in the
play. In the play, the character Tim performs a short emu and goanna dance. Whilst William and Tim dance a
kangaroo hunt. The students may like to incorporate some of the movements that they observed during the
performance and add them to their own dance. If your school has a class set of clapping sticks, the students may like
to use them in their dance.
Share each dance and ask students to reflect on what they see.
Photocopy of the
Aboriginal words of the
chant (see resources
section) for each student
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
In pairs, research Bangarra Dance Theatre through the web.
Watch some excerpts of their dances on You Tube.
Write a paragraph describing one of their dances.
Report back to the class with a verbal report. Students may like to show some dance excerpts through You Tube.
www.bangarra.com.au/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YLJOyjhBTM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=84pnW-eHBjs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrQZEISK8w
THEMES OF RACISM
Honey Spot is a play that explores the themes of racism and prejudice in a small town. It presents ideas about small
town gossip and the dangers of stereotyping, or labeling people and judging them by what other say about them. It
shows how friendships can grow despite the obstacles of bigotry and intolerance.
Discussion
Ask the students if they can write down what racism is.
Share the definitions.
Using an Interactive Whiteboard, access the Racism No Way web site: www.racismnoway.com.au
Click on Teaching Resources and then Anti Racism Activities Year 4-12 and then click on Comics.
Choose several of the comics from the Fair Game examples (Fair Game from Reconciliation courtesy of Streetwise
comics 2000) and read through the comic.
Discuss the themes explored by the comics and ask the students to share their opinions about the themes and
images presented.
Ask the students to break up into pairs and spend five minutes sharing examples of racism that they may have
experienced or seen.
Share examples as a large group.
Honey Spot Shared Reading
As a class, read through script excerpt 2 from the play, in the resources section.
Brainstorm and record the themes explored in the conversation between Peggy and her father (Ranger).
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Ask students to break up into pairs and work on an improvisation, or imagined piece based on the excerpt.
The students may like to change the setting, the names and gender of the characters. They may like to set it in their
school, their hometown, on a sports field or at the local swimming pool. The improvisation needs to show a
conversation between two people showing that one person is racist.
Ask the pairs to perform their improvisations to the larger group.
Discuss the performances.
RECONCILIATION ACTIVITY
First staged in Western Australia in 1985, Honey Spot was written during the emerging Reconciliation movement and
Reconciliation is an important theme in the play.
Reconciliation Fact Sharing
Download a copy of Five Fast Facts Reconciliation and National Reconciliation Week:
www.reconciliation.org.au/getfile?id=1092&file=5+Fast+Facts+-+Reconciliation+and+NRW+25052010.pdf
Share the information with the students through student copies or Interactive Whiteboard.
Discuss the Bridge Walk of 2000. See here for more information:
www.reconciliation.org.au/home/resources/factsheets/q-a-factsheets/bridge-walk-anniversary
Reconciliation Bridge Walk Interview
On May 28, 2000 more than 300,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Indigenous
Australians and reconciliation. This improvised interview is set on this historic day.
In preparation for this activity students may access facts about the walk from Reconciliation Australias web site:
www.reconciliation.org.au/home/resources/factsheets/q-a-factsheets/bridge-walk-anniversary
Ask the students to group themselves into groups of four.
Ask the students in each group to select one character from the following list:
- a Reporter
- an Aboriginal Elder
- a non-Aboriginal supporter of the Reconciliation movement
- a non-Aboriginal politician who opposed the Bridge Walk
Ask the students to build a scene around the reporter interviewing the three characters
Ask the students to rehearse their work.
Ask the students to present their interviews to the larger class.
Build a scene where a reporter interviews:
- an Aboriginal Elder about her/his experiences of the day
- a non-Aboriginal person who participated in the day and a politician who did not support the walk
www.whatworks.edu.au
www.racismnoway.com.au
www.reconciliation.org.au
Helpful information about the culture and histories of our Aboriginal Peoples
www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/face_facts/
STUDENT WORKSHEET
NOONGAR LANGUAGE
Honey Spot is set in a National Park near a country town in Western Australia.
The Aboriginal language used in the play, usually called Noongar, literally
means man but has become a general term for Aboriginality in the South
West of Western Australia.
Through the Aboriginal words that the characters use in the play, the
audience gains information about the birds, animals and trees in the area. In
the play language is an important part of the way that we learn about the
setting. Over 70 different Noongar word are featured in Honey Spot and on
the next page is a table, which shows some of them.
ACTIVITY ONE: Speaking Language
As a group, say the Aboriginal words in the table. (Tips for pronunciation are
featured below)
ACTIVITY TWO: Cut, Paste & Draw
Choose 5 of the Noongar words shown in the table.
Cut them out and paste them onto a large sheet of paper
Draw an image next to the Aboriginal word to show what it means.
Display your work in the classroom.
Tips for Pronouncing Aboriginal Languages
For more information on Aboriginal Languages, visit the Central Land Council website:
www.clc.org.au/articles/info/aboriginal-languages
STUDENT WORKSHEET
English
Yonga
Animals
Jarraly
Red Gum
Kudden
Wattle
Wilyuwa
Trees
Yorga
Girl
Gnwirlak
Bungarra
Goanna
Waitj
Emu
Moorditj
Good
Wadjella
White fellas
Kumal
Possum
Plura
Bee
Waitj
Magpie
Tjutidj
Native Cat
PEGGY
Step on it!
TIM
No, theyre my brothers. (He cradles the bee in his cupped hands,
then releases it into the air)
PEGGY
Who?
TIM
PEGGY
Your totem?
TIM
PEGGY
TIM
Daddy
RANGER
Yes?
PEGGY
RANGER
Am I what?
PEGGY
RANGER
PEGGY
RANGER
Go on.
PEGGY
RANGER
Some of them are all right, I suppose. Its just some of them cant be trusted.
PEGGY
RANGER
Not personally. Now look, I know what youre getting at and its got nothing
to do with it. If anyone, black or white, is damaging the forest its my job to
PEGGY
If you dont know any Aborigines how do you know they cant be trusted?
RANGER
PEGGY
RANGER
Yes, now listen young lady, Im not going to talk about this any longer. All this talk
about racism and me not liking people- its ridiculousstupid.just plain dumb.
PEGGY
RANGER
Why?
PEGGY
RANGER
PEGGY
And his mum and his cousin, cause they can play Aboriginal music.
RANGER
PEGGY
Daddy!
RANGER
Now look, Peggy, you really shouldn get too friendly with these people.
PEGGY
Why not?
RANGER
Well, its not their faultweve done some bad things to them in the past.
PEGGY
Yes?
RANGER
Well, some things just dont mix. Theyre not like us. They have different
habits, they live differentlyand Im sure they wouldnt feel comfortable
coming to this house.
PEGGY
CHANT
Gnuny nooning tijinna barminy
Tjinna barminy tjinna barminy
Noonuk warrah yorga warra nop
Gnuny nooning tjinna barminy
Tjinna barminy tjinna barminy
Noonuk warrah yorga warra nop
Gnuny nooning tjinna barminy
Tjinna nooning tjinna barminy
Tjinna barminy tjinna barminy
Cooooooo
Translation
I will beat your footsteps
Beat your footsteps beat your footsteps
You are a bad girl and a bad boy
I will beat your footsteps
Beat your footsteps beat your footsteps
You are a bad girl and a bad boy
I will beat your footsteps beat your foot steps
Beat your footsteps beat your foot steps
Woe
Honey Spot, (1987). Currency Press, Sydney (page 56).