Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina's "Catching Teller Crow" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Brief description of Catching Teller Crow:

Sixteen-year-old Beth Teller is dead, but she is still here, still worried about her dad. He’s a city detective, and after Beth’s death in a car accident, he’s the only person who can see and hear her. Michael Teller is grief-stricken and to help him recover he has been sent to investigate a tragedy in a small rural town. Beth is with him as he tries to work out what happened after a fire and a death at a home for troubled kids. Michael interviews a witness to the fire – her name is Isobel Catching and here the two stories emerge – one told by Beth Teller and the other by Isobel Catching. The layers of their stories evolve to include crimes in the town, racism in institutions like the police, colonial history, stories of the Stolen Generation and a heartfelt acknowledgment of love and loss.

Distinctive features of Catching Teller Crow:

• Two stories – two voices – voices of two very unusual teenage protagonists: fifteen-year-old Beth Teller, a ghost; and Isobel Catching, a being who can ‘walk all the sides of the world’ (p.192)
• Beth’s chapters are in the first person, past tense prose and Catching’s are in first person, present tense verse. There is a strong contemporary mood in these chapters to engage adolescents.
• Celebrates the unique belief systems that connect people physically and spiritually to country/Place and clever and poignant example of storytelling which demonstrate this significant feature of First Nations cultures and the need to clarify the past and the present
• The recurring presence and motif of the crow is not only a strong narrative feature but adds a powerful connection to First Nations culture. The crow is very significant to many First Nations people – it is sacred and is regarded as being imbued with prescience and carries old knowledge of many lifetimes across time. Birds are seen as the carriers of story and teach us how to live in connections with other beings.
• An excellent Author’s Note provides valuable explanation for deepening insights.

Ways to use Catching Teller Crow in the classroom

Catching Teller Crow could be a close study which explores increasingly diverse and complex perspectives and experiences through clever and accessible stylistic features.

• Consider using the audio version narrated by First Nations actor Miranda Tapsell to engage reluctant readers.
• Explore the two narrative methods – allocate chapters of different narrative voices to small groups to interrogate the style and its effectiveness: do your students have a preference?
• Discuss the power of the title and the significance of “Crow” as part of the title.
• In The Author’s Note there is a fascinating explanation of First Nations’ connection to land and “an animate world where everything lives”. Explore the First Nations significance of Crow by examining both the narrative and thematic role of Crow track the references to the crow from the first references on p.13.
• It is interesting to note that most of the crow references in Beth’s story refer to the setting and scenery but in Catching’s chapters the crow is a more active participant- like a character and in the second half of the novel there are many more references. Track the references and involvement of Crow and discuss the symbolic and narrative significance. With close reference to a range of examples from the text respond to this question as a mini essay: In what ways does the inclusion of Crow enrich the narrative and add significant layers to the authors roles as “storytellers”. 
• A review by Readings.com.au stated:

  Stories are vital, and Catching Teller Crow highlights and champions the transformative and nourishing powers of storytelling. 

  To what extent does this review resonate with your own experience of Catching Teller Crow? With close reference to the novel explore this comment.
• Catching Teller Crow could also be part of a broader unit using several different texts which represent First Nations voices. Catching Teller Crow could be a core text and related texts could be explored as a class or incorporate student choice. Texts could include The Rabbits by Shaun Tan, Children of the Black Skirt (play) by Angela Betzien, Stolen (play) Jane Harrison, The Stolen Children: Their Stories (ed) Carmel Bird, Took the Children Away (song) by Archie Roach, artworks by Sally Morgan, poetry by Ali Cobby Eckermann. Other connecting texts are included at the end. 

Students could create a feature article or digital essay (including images) which explores the growth of strong and bold First Nations Voices as part of the pantheon of contemporary Australian literature.

Relevant details in relation to the new English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: Catching Teller Crow is a novel by Aboriginal Australian authors, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina who belong to the Palyku people of the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. Catching Teller Crow includes cultural, social and gender perspectives, including from popular and youth cultures.

Concepts could include Representation • Point of view • Characterisation.

Relevant NSW English 7-10 Syllabus content

Reading, viewing and listening to texts | EN5-RVL-01

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to interpret complex texts

• Develop a deeper understanding of themes, ideas or attitudes by revisiting and reinterpreting texts to find new meaning
• Analyse the main ideas and thematic concerns represented in texts
• Investigate how layers of meaning are constructed in texts and how this shapes a reader’s understanding and engagement
• Analyse how the use of language forms and features in texts have the capacity to create multiple meanings
• Read increasingly complex texts that challenge thinking, pique interest, enhance enjoyment and provoke a personal response
• Engage in sustained and varied reading that presents increasingly diverse and complex perspectives and experiences, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and respond in a range of ways, including through extended written responses
• Consider how the social, cultural and ethical positions represented in texts represent, affirm or challenge views of the world
• Evaluate experiences of reading by sharing responses to texts
• Evaluate the ways reading texts help us understand ourselves and make connections to others and the world
• Understand and reflect on the value of reading for personal growth and cultural richness
• Reflect on how reading promotes a broad and balanced understanding of the world and enables students to explore wider universal issues

Understanding and responding to texts A | EN5-URA-01

A student analyses how meaning is created through the use and interpretation of increasingly complex language forms, features and structures 

Representation

• Analyse how contextual, creative and unconscious influences shape the composition, understanding and interpretation of all representations

Code and convention

• Use metalanguage effectively to analyse how meaning is constructed by linguistic and stylistic elements in texts
• Analyse how language forms, features and structures, specific or conventional to a text’s medium, context, purpose and audience, shape meaning, and experiment with this understanding through written, spoken, visual and multimodal responses

Connotation, imagery and symbol

• Analyse how figurative language and devices can be used to represent complex ideas, thoughts and feelings to contribute to larger patterns of meaning in texts, and experiment with this in own texts
• Analyse how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors use figurative language and devices to represent culture, identity and experience

Point of view

• Examine elements of focalisation, such as omniscience, limitations, indirect speech, tone, reliability and multiple narrators, and how these interact to shape perceptions of meaning in texts, and apply this in own texts

Characterisation

• Analyse how engaging, dynamic and complex characters are constructed in texts using language features and structures, and use these features and structures in own texts

Narrative

• Analyse how narrative conventions vary across genres, modes, media and contexts and how they can be used to represent ideas and values and shape responses, and apply this understanding in own texts
• Explore how narratives can represent and shape personal and shared identities, values and experiences

Understanding and responding to texts B | EN5-URB-01

A student evaluates how texts represent ideas and experiences, and how they can affirm or challenge values and attitudes 

Perspective and context

• Understand how the personal perspectives of audiences are a product of historical and cultural contexts
• Analyse how texts can be understood or interpreted from different perspectives, and experiment with this idea in own texts
• Evaluate how texts can position audiences to accept, challenge or reject particular perspectives of the world, and reflect on this in own texts
• Analyse how elements of an author’s personal, cultural and political contexts can shape their perspectives and representation of ideas, including form and purpose
• Explain how texts affirm or challenge established cultural attitudes and values in different contexts

Style

• Analyse how the distinctive aesthetic qualities and stylistic features of a text can shape and be shaped by its purpose, and experiment with this in own texts
• Examine the way an author’s distinct personal style shapes meaning in their work

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts