Aboriginal Culture – Didgeridoo and Storytelling
by Ron Murray
Description
- Ron’s primary school workshops fall under the banner of 'Aboriginal Culture'. Ron uses an interactive approach with the students to let them experience Aboriginal culture, with a focus in the session on music, storytelling and Indigenous history.
- As a didgeridoo musician, Ron begins each session by playing didgeridoo as a traditional welcome, and then talks about how he makes his didgeridoos, raises some of the cultural issues around didgeridoo playing and gives a demonstration on how to make the animal sounds and circular breathe (including giving volunteers a didgeridoo massage).
- He brings with him his Artefact collection that contains many special objects which he allows the students to touch, such as his 100 year old kangaroo rug (a family heirloom passed down from his mother's people) stone tools, coolomons and shields.
- Ron talks about how Aboriginal people used to live (including aspects of Aboriginal history which he is passionate about), and how they continue to practice their traditions today (raising some of the current issues important to Indigenous people). Ron tailors his discussions of Aboriginal history and current issues to the age group he is working with.
- Ron interweaves Aboriginal Dreamtime stories into his presentations (Ron is a well respected Indigenous storyteller) keeping alive the dreaming stories of South Eastern Aboriginal Australia.
- Weather permitting, Ron finishes some sessions with a boomerang demonstration (he was Queensland Boomerang Champion in 1999) and gives students the opportunity to throw boomerangs (in a very supervised way). As part of this, he talks about how he learned to make boomerangs the old way his grandfather taught him (using redgum roots), and shows the students his ancient boomerang stone tool which helps him shape the boomerang and get it to return.
Topics Covered
- Indigenous people in South Eastern Australia
- Aboriginal culture, stories and music
- Indigenous connection to sacred places and the environment – sharing of his artefact collection
Details
Audience
Duration
60 minutes
Requirements
Data Projector to show a DVD, whiteboard, table for artefacts