1/2 ~ Indigenous artists, arts and crafts

Grade 1/2 students enjoyed reading the book Welcome to Country and we admired the beautiful illustrations by indigenous artist Lisa Kennedy. We also shared some artwork by Bronwyn Bancroft and talked about her use of organic shapes, symbols, dots and colours. It was interesting to note that some of the artwork we shared and discussed was painted from a bird's eye or aerial view.

Using brown paper as a base, students were able to create their own artwork, inspired by some of the techniques used by indigenous artists such as Lisa Kennedy and Bronwyn Bancroft.

Once we had finished working on our paintings, we shared a book called 'Collecting Colour' by Kylie Dunstan. It was about a young girl and her friend who collected and dyed pandanus leaves with their families. They then learned how to weave baskets and mats with the leaves.

It was our turn then to have a go at weaving. We remembered some of the techniques we learned when we did paper weaving and sewing in earlier units. We talked about the pattern of over and under, in and out. The students did such an amazing job weaving their baskets with a variety of threads, yarns and wool. Outstanding work Grade 1/2!