Dreamtime stories told through Dance

One of the unique things about living in Australia is learning about the rich cultural heritage of our indigenous people. Learning about their stories of the Dreamtime, along with the traditions about the way that they are told, help to give an appreciation and understanding of their culture. 

Storytelling in many aboriginal tribes is the task of the storytellers of the tribe. It is their task to pass on the stories of the Dreamtime to the children, to teach them their ways. These stories were often told by an elder or shared in dance and music. The stories tell about creation and often bear a moral or lesson for life. 

Some examples that we looked at demonstrated theses traditional ways of a telling a story. The one thing that was noticed was that the stories were often told without words, particularly in the example shown by the dance "Brolga".

It turns out that telling a story without words can be rat here tricky! 

The students in Stage 3 were given a Dreamtime story to read in small groups. The challenge was to turn the written story into a dance. The students could use music but no words. Many of the groups researched or experimented in the way that animals move, as often the stories featured an animal. The creativity of each group was to be commended and all succeeded in creating a unique dance that told a story without using words, creating music to help tell the story.

The students were given a rubric to help them to focus on what they needed to include in the dance. The dances were presented in class and we discussed the effectiveness of each dance. It's encouraging to see when other students can comment and give positive feedback.

Dreamtime stories-rubric from Kate Todd

Dreaming of the Dreamtime

The Dreaming is an important part of the Australian indigenous people's spiritual identity. The stories from this time talk about the creation of the land that we live in. Many of the stories also teach about how to be better people and the ways that are appropriate to live. The stories help to bind the people together, because they brought the community together and taught the little ones the ways of their people. They were told through dance, music and as they sat around the campfire.

Among the Aboriginal people there was often one person who was the storyteller. Their job was to remember and tell the stories of the whole tribe. The stories did not belong to one person. It was the communities memories and beliefs that were passed down.

As part of English this week, we have been focusing on these Dreamtime stories. The students were given a book to read and to discuss in pairs. They had to answer the following questions after they had read the book:

• What was the story about? Who were the main characters and what did they do?
• How do you think this story was passed down to others? 
• What was the purpose of the story? What does it teach us? 

The students then created a triorama of their story to show others what the story was about. The purpose for creating drawings in this way, gave the students an opportunity to show what they knew aside from their writing. They could explore the ways that the images were drawn, experiencing some of the ways of communicating without always using words.