Year 7 Social World

So far this term in Social World, your Year 7s have become historians and archaeologists to explore Ancient Australia. During this unit, they have also begun their inquiry into the world of myths through the lens of The Dreaming to understand how these civilisations considered our planets creation and the events that have occurred. From here they have been considering other ancient civilisation’s myths and will begin their first learning task for semester 2. 

Below are some of the artwork our 7’s in L2 & L3 have created based on The Dreaming stories about the Rainbow Serpent, Bunjil and the Platypus. 

The Rainbow Serpent - First Nation Creation Story

The creation of the rainbow serpent dates back to when the earth was flat, no hills, no water, no nothing. The rainbow serpent was one of the dreamtime creatures that held great powers. By the movement of its body, the serpent was able to produce physical features like hills, creeks, and rivers! The featureless terrain turned into a great terrain covered land. The serpent slithered all across the earth, giving life and fresh water to all. When the serpent grew tired of creation, he coiled up at a waterhole where he still rests today. The Aboriginal people are very careful not to disturb the area they are told where he settled down. Great respects are shown to his powers but this creator being can sometimes be unpredictable. This causes great destruction in forms of fires, droughts, cyclones etc. When giant rainstorms pass and the sun comes out again, the serpent come out of the waterhole and flies through the clouds to its new resting place at another waterhole. 

Mackenzie Loch 7L3

Bunjil The Eagle - A Wirradjuri Creation Story

The earth started as nothing, then a star fell out of the sky forming the shape of an eagle. It was Bunjil. Bunjil made the earth, the boulders, the dirt, and the plants. He went back to the sky and decided to make things move around the earth and plants. So, he created the animals: the kangaroo, the emu, the goanna, the wombat, the echidna, the cockatoo, and all the animals.  But he only made one of each animal and they were giant. When he went back to the sky and realized the animals were not getting along. So, he went back to earth and called Gure, the kangaroo over, he explained that he was going to perform a special ceremony then he took out his axe and chopped Gure into smaller pieces. Each of those pieces became kangaroos the size we have today. He did the same for all of the other animals (except the Emu-which is a whole other Teaching).  

He went back to the sky very happy with what he did. When he looked, he decided that he needed to create things to look after his creations. So, he made people. When he had made them all he called them together to explain the rules. It is ok to take parts of plants to use, but do not kill the whole plant. It is ok to kill an animal as long as you perform Ceremony, and you use all of the animals. It is important that you look after yourself and the other people around you-especially the Elders. 

After he had explained this, Bunjil turned into a wedge tail eagle to watch over the land he made. Although there are many wedge tail eagles only one of them is Bunjil. When he is resting, he sleeps in the sky and the planet Jupiter is his campfire. 

Emily Chard 7L3