Black Cockatoo

Connecting to prior knowledge

For teachers

To assist with programming, teachers may like to view the unit outline (PDF, 104KB), which brings together Bloom’s Taxonomy and Yunkaporta’s 8 Ways of Learning. This maps the key parts of the unit to these resources.

Black Cockatoo presents as a simple text but the content is quite complex. The unit writer provides chapter summaries (PDF, 143KB) with an Indigenous perspective. This is used within the unit but it would be helpful for the teacher to read the summaries before beginning to work with Black Cockatoo.

Before reading

It is important for teachers to know about Aboriginal people and culture in Australia including history from an Aboriginal perspective, and the continuing impact of colonisation for Aboriginal people. The Reconciliation Australia website offers some educational resources and understandings about Aboriginal Australia. AILITEA ACDE ‘Know This’ resources will be invaluable in creating foundations for the learning in this unit. Links to all these resources can be found in the More Resources tab located at the bottom of this page.

It is also important for students to understand Australian history from an Aboriginal perspective, the negative impact on Aboriginal people, the continuing strength of Aboriginal culture despite the challenges, and the resilience of Aboriginal people. Scootle (log in required) and ABC Education have age-appropriate learning materials.

Listen to an Acknowledgement of Country and discuss the significance of the acknowledgement. Students may wish to create their own class acknowledgement to begin this unit of work.

Black Cockatoo is an ideal opportunity for all students to learn some more about Aboriginal Australia.

Exploring the text in context of our community, school and ‘me’

Predict from the cover

Invite students look at the cover.

What can they see?

Students may have seen a Black Cockatoo. If so, where?

If not, ask students to find out where they might see one.

Record information discussed and write down any questions arising. Keep for later reference.

The blurb introduces the main character Mia, who has rescued a dirrarn black cockatoo. The word dirrarn is used with the English words ‘black cockatoo’. What does this tell the students about the story?

The concept of totem animals is raised and there is a cultural challenge for Mia.

What might this mean?

Mia feels powerless to change things around her. Why would she feel powerless? What does she want to change?

Which language and culture is represented in the story? We are told that connections of family and culture help Mia discover her own strength. How could this happen? How might this happen in the story?

At this stage, not all these questions will be answered. Jot them down in a prominent place to refer to as you read the text. Some students will be interested in doing their own research into the intriguing issues raised in the blurb.
(ACELY1709)   (EN3-1A)

Story sharing

Ask students to recall and share their experiences of reading similar texts about Aboriginal culture or history. Perhaps they may have seen a movie or story on television. Record the themes of the texts that are recalled and see if any of the students have repeated the themes. There may be a need to discuss the terms traditional and contemporary, with regards to assumptions about Aboriginal life. It would be pertinent to have support from the local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community to provide input.

This activity could be structured by using a KWL chart as a baseline for student learning.
(ACELT1613)   (EN3-7C)

Read the text Young Dark Emu – A Truer History by Bruce Pascoe to the class and discuss the impact of assumptions about Aboriginal people and culture. This will be a preliminary look at this text, but a deeper look using the Reading Australia teaching notes could be done at another time. You may also revisit some of the texts from the last activity and explore the perspective portrayed. It is vital that students understand that there are different perspectives. Black Cockatoo is written from an Aboriginal perspective.

Do a think-pair-share and then a whole class share around the notion of ‘perspective’. This may need to be revisited as you work through the text.
(ACELA1517)   (EN3-8D)

The authors

For the story to be written from an Aboriginal perspective, it has to have been written by an Aboriginal person. Who are the authors of Black Cockatoo?

Open the book to the last page where there is information about the authors. What are the differences between how they introduce themselves? What does this mean? Aboriginal connections and relationality – the Aboriginal author has introduced himself by revealing his Aboriginal heritage.

Ask students to find out more about Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler.
(ACELA1517)   (EN3-8D)

Rich assessment task

Form small groups and invite students to work together to investigate the local links to Aboriginal culture – people, language, cultural connections such as place names and stories. Record the information gathered.
(ACELA1515)   (EN3-5B)

Contact the local Indigenous community and ask for a guest speaker to come and add to what the class has found out already. This will be an opportunity for students to share their findings and ask questions to deepen their understandings about the area.

In the same groups ask students to find out about local totem animals and customs. Come together as a whole class and present the class research as a visual display on a wall in the classroom with articulation of connections between concepts or information. This represents non-linear thinking.
(ACELT1613)   (EN3-7C)

Responding to the text

Black Cockatoo is a chapter book with very brief chapters. It could be called a series of vignettes. Each of the 11 chapters adds something significant to the storyline. As the students read through the text have them keep a reading journal (PDF, 292KB) to record their responses to Mia’s realisation of her inner strength. To complete this task students will record their responses against key themes of the text – family, culture, Mia’s self-reflections and learnings. The reading journals can be shared as think-pair-share at any stage of the unit.
(ACELY1709)   (EN3-1A)

It would be best to work through one chapter at a time to pay careful attention to story development as well as the significant cultural aspects as they arise. If required, they can be explained. Have students create a basic story map or learning map to begin to visualise the narrative structure in conjunction with the learning achieved.
(ACELY1711)  (EN3-3A)

Exploring plot, character, setting and theme

Read through the text a chapter at a time adding to the reading journal and Mia’s family tree documents. These are ongoing tasks that create a sense of immersion in the story and an understanding of character feelings and motivations.

Students can read independently but you may like to read some of the chapters aloud. The language makes this a perfect read aloud for older students.

Before beginning, flip through the book. It is obvious that none of the chapters have titles, so there are no clues given as to what will happen.

Chapter 1: The story begins with Jy (Mia’s brother) shooting birds with his slingshot. The key point arising here is respect. Mia should not question her brother’s behaviour out of respect. Despite knowing better, Mia saves one of the wounded birds – a black cockatoo. Respect, family and culture feature strongly in the chapter.

• Why should Mia not question her brother?
• Why is Mia not supposed to save the cockatoo?
• Who taught Mia about how she is expected to behave culturally? What do Mia’s actions say about her character?
• The chapter ends with us knowing that the bird is in the box but will it live? Begin Mia’s family tree and add to the tree throughout the story as necessary.

On the family tree note the Indigenous ways of representing relationships vis-à-vis Western ways of representing relationships. For example, Indigenous ways include calling your mother’s sister ‘Mother’ whereas in Western ways, the term ‘Aunt’ is used.

Chapter 2: Begins with the family eating together. More of Mia’s family is introduced to the reader, along with cultural understandings of extended family and kinship connections on page 11. Grandfather is the head of the family and tells a story (page 10) that explains why the black cockatoo is Mia’s totem animal. This is culturally relevant and demonstrates a different way of understanding the world. It is demonstrated again in the chapter when the storm rolls in and Grandfather blames the storm on Jy’s behaviour – ‘You must respect our past’. As the chapter continues, Mia realises that she has a connection to the bird.

• What is that connection?
• Is it linked to Mia’s dreams about flying?

As the chapter ends, Mia realises that she needs a cage. What does she say about the reason for the cage? Is this usually the reason for a cage? (To keep the bird safe, as opposed to confining and keeping the bird.) Think about spiritual beliefs and cultural understandings. What has the chapter revealed about Aboriginal culture?

Continue to work through the chapters using the chapter summaries (PDF, 143KB).

The questions suggested in the summaries will not have definitive answers but will provoke an interesting discussion. Some of the questions related to the themes of respect, freedom, relationships and Aboriginal Social Life and Customs will be revisited as you read through the text as students make their own connections through reading and discussion and through reflection in the reading journals.

Rich assessment task

Invite students to create a story map or learning map to visualise the narrative structure in conjunction with the learning achieved.

Students completed this task in the learning sequence and now they have additional information to enhance this. Ask students to add to the original attempt in a different colour to show their new understandings or ask them to represent their learning in a new way.
(ACELY1711)   (EN3-3A)

Examining text structure and organisation

Watch the storytelling video clip. Relate text structure and organisation explored by students in the previous deconstruction activity – story mapping to the clip.

Students are now to reconstruct the text in order to create a template for their own narrative chapters by noting significant developments at the different stages of the story and including cultural signposts along the way e.g. use of Indigenous words, explanation of family organisation or relationships, and cultural knowledge where possible. Adapt a more detailed narrative template and add cultural markers from Black Cockatoo, creating a representation of the text which will serve as the template for their own future narrative writing.
(ACELY1711)   (EN3-3A)

Examining grammar and vocabulary

Merrison and Hustler use a ‘stream of consciousness’ writing style. Prompt students to explore the structure of complex sentences in the text.

For example the sentence on page 22:

The fun they had had together hunting jarrambayi down the creek bed with the old people; running off together, much quicker than the old people could go and laughing when they snuck out to scare their jawili – just managing to escape his careful backhand.

Discuss the use of the semicolon and en dash. Repeat the discussion for the next two sentences in the same paragraph. Talk about where the sentence starts and stops, and where clauses start and stop.
(ACELA1522)   (EN3-6B)

Allow time for students to view examples of:

• Jaru language and dialect
• Figurative language

The figurative language that could be used in Year 6 includes:

• metaphor: she could feel freedom like a physical force on page 58
• personification: a warm wind swept up red dust and threw it lazily on the hot road on page 20.
• onomatopoeia: beeped the horn on page 20
• alliteration: warm wind on page 20; sticks and stones on page 20

These examples are from chapter 4. The teacher could collaborate with the students to find and discuss these in chapter 4, but other chapters could be explored by groups of students.

Perspective and positioning of characters within the text 

Choose an appropriate chapter and have students participate in a ‘treasure hunt’ or a ‘scavenger hunt’ to locate examples of Indigenous perspective.

Students follow teacher-developed clues to find examples within the text. Students complete a recording sheet, providing the Black Cockatoo page numbers and examples that they have found to complete the treasure hunt.

Chapters 2, 7 or 10 will be ideal for this task. Use the chapter summaries (PDF, 143KB) document to provide support in locating examples of Indigenous perspective.
(ACELA1515)   (EN3-5B)   (ACELA1517)   (EN3-7C)

Rich assessment task

Character perspective/Indigenous perspective

Students watch the video clip ‘Your unique perspective’. Next watch the AIATSIS video clip.

Invite students to discuss and explore the concept of perspective and the occurrence of Indigenous perspective in Australian literature. In small groups invite students to answer the question:

Why is it important that Indigenous perspective is presented in Australian literary texts and acknowledged?
(ACELA1517)   (ACELT1613)   (EN3-7C)

Writing a new narrative based on the focus book

Students use the previously devised detailed narrative templates to write their own story chapter.

Suggest that the students think about a part of the story that has been unsaid. For example, think about the scene where the boys decided to catch a snake and put it in the bird’s cage, or the scene written from the perspective of the storekeeper who served Mia in the shop. Other options might include Mia’s conversation with someone as she weighs up the decision to go to boarding school or not. The students should try to emulate the features of Merrison’s and Hustler’s writing style, using the glossary of Jaru language terms to include in their writing. To prepare the students for this task, they should brainstorm the features of Merrison’s and Hustler’s writing style, including simple everyday events, elaborating on details of kinship and relationships, etc.
(ACELY1714)   (EN3-2A)

Rich assessment task

Students orally reflect on learning

Students use their reading journals to revisit the main themes from the text, as well as their group work experiences in creating a joint text, and summarise the overall impact of the text.

Suggested guiding questions:

Students could present their findings to the whole class.
(ACELY1709)   (EN3-1A)