The Pacific

Lesson 16: Status and Prestige: A Wall of Status and Prestige, Africa, Asia and the Americas

Summary and Objectives

Through a study of twelve works on display, students investigate how works of art can convey status and prestige. Provided with short commentaries on the objects, they should determine how the works confer status and then add to the list prestige objects of their own choosing, justifying their selections with short written discussions on the objects. Students will

  • Study twelve works of art to investigate how art can convey an individual’s status and importance.
  • Explore objects of power in their own lives through a creative writing activity.
  • Make judgments about works of art that express notions of power and status.

 

THIS LESSON IS PART OF:
Curriculum Resource for Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.
Unit 3: Art and Power

Lesson 9: Proclaiming Heritage: Canoes, Carvings, and the Austronesian World

Summary and Objectives

Students’ study of selected objects from Austronesia (Philippines, Indonesia, Polynesia and beyond) provides opportunities to examine the roles that art plays in communicating peoples’ heritage and history. Activities encompass object study to investigate visual symbolism, work with maps and migration patterns to understand how geography and movement shapes family and community traditions, and creative writing to explore the importance of ancestry in communities’ values and belief systems. Students will

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the communicative role of the arts through a study of Austronesian arts.
  • Use maps to discuss reasons for immigration and its impact on the cultural traditions of Austronesian peoples.
  • Explore their own and Austronesian origin stories and belief systems through poetry writing.
  • Analyze visual symbolism to understand the importance of ancestry in Austronesian culture.

 

THIS LESSON IS PART OF:
Curriculum Resource for Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.
Unit 2: Art and Knowledge

Lesson 7: Memory and Cosmology: Creator/Ancestors: The Wawilak Sisters Bark Painting, Australia

Summary and Objectives

Study of a bark painting produced in the 1960s introduces students to Aboriginal peoples of Australia and to their histories as revealed through art. The students will investigate and interpret Australian creation stories and use the featured bark painting to explore the changing roles of the arts in Australia, especially as related to issues of women, commerce, and ritual. Students will

  • Explore the history of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia through a study of their creation stories.
  • Consider the changing roles of women, commerce, and ritual through the lens of bark paintings and then create their own “bark” paintings as documents of their lives.
  • Discuss and study areas of conflict between immigrants and native peoples of a country.
  • Compare and consider the many non-written ways that culturestransmit a sense of history and belief.
  • Express points of view about the experiences of European migration into Australia, considering multiple perspectives. 
THIS LESSON IS PART OF:
Curriculum Resource for Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.
Unit 2: Art and Knowledge

Curriculum Resource for Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.

Summary

This curriculum resource unit is conceived as a paradigm for approaching world arts and cultures in K-12 classrooms. In keeping with the conceptual framework of Intersections, this study presents a curricular approach based on how art works for individuals rather than one based on geography or historical chronology.