Ellen Van Neerven's "Homeland Calling" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Brief description of Homeland Calling

Homeland Calling is an absolute treasure as a resource. It not only celebrates the language and specifically the spoken word as a vehicle for expression but it also affirms the power of youth to be lyricists in their own time and land. It has informative and interesting introductions, contains 50 songs/poems, wonderful photographs, the names of the different groups of contributors and their place, a marvellous glossary of First Nations language but the real unexpected bonus is the ten pages: Some Notes from the Editor. In this section a range of questions are asked about First Nations protocol, culture and lore. This would be a valuable way of expanding your own knowledge and that of students as they dip in and out of this book.

Distinctive features of Homeland Calling

• The young writers are from a wide range of towns around Australia: if your school is in regional NSW tap into the writings from Wilcannia, Bourke, Clarence Valley, Collarenebri, Coonamble and Griffith.
• Written by First Nations youth from communities all around Australia, with artwork by Gamilaroi Yuwaalaraay artist Lakkari Pitt.
• The Foreword was written by First Nations rapper Danzal Baker
  ‘[W]e are strong, we are beautiful, and we should be proud of our culture, our stories, our languages.’
• Danzal Baker also known as Baker Boy is a Yolngu rapper, dancer, artist, and actor. Baker Boy is known for performing original hip-hop songs incorporating both English and Yolngu. He was Young Australian of the Year in 2019 and he has won numerous awards for his music. His portrait was the Packing-Room favourite in the 2024 Archibald Prize.
• Toby Finlayson from Desert Pea Media has written an excellent Introduction.
• As editor, Ellen Van Neerven has written an incisive introduction explaining the structure and organisation of Homelands Calling which is divided into four sections using titles from the songs:
  • Country is My Heartbeat (environment and place)
  • History is in My Bloodline (knowledge and survival)
  • Flame in the Struggle (mental health and well-being)
  • Pride in My People (family and community)
• Desert Pea media have produced 48 videos of the songs featured in this collection.
• A collection of photographs which feature some of the student writers and performers
• A detailed glossary of First Nations language prefaced with an informative explanation of what is now termed “linguicide” which has now evolved into revival programs to encourage First Nations language to be used and indeed over 50 languages are now thriving.
• Biographies of the range of contributors to Homeland Calling with some fascinating background details on the various groups of lyricists and performers.
• The Notes at the back of the collection are valuable for answering questions you might have after reading the poems and include brief histories on the impact of government policies on First Nations Peoples with references to the 1965 Freedom Rides, the 1967 Referendum and Mabo.
• The back cover blurb clearly captures the content: Homeland Calling is a collection of poems created from hip-hop song lyrics that channel culture and challenge stereotypes.

Ways to use Homeland Calling in the classroom

This book has appeal to a range of different Stages and would best suit Year 8, 9, and 10 and could fit very well with Year 11 Reading to Write. It would work well in a selection of texts which represent the power of voice in representing identity, culture and connection. 

Poets, songwriters and artists have often used their words and images to represent significant human experiences and expression. This unit of work could use the concept of Representation as a lens for exploring a selection of songs, poems and images which have been written for a specific purpose, audience and in response to their context.

Explore some of these songs/poems in terms of the event or context that shaped them as well as analysing the specific language choices used by the composer to represent significant experiences and ideas:

• Short film which uses the poem Invictus (William Ernest Henley) as promotional film for the Invictus Games
• Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire
• Cate Blanchett and a team of actors reading the compelling poem about refugees in What They Took With Them
• The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson
• Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
• Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain’s Gonna’ Fall, Masters of War, Blowin’ in the Wind
• Only Nineteen by Redgum or The Herd
• Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
• Love Arrives - Sarah Kay and Phil Kay
• Marryuna - Baker Boy
• Life Cycle, Weapons Training, Homecoming, Enter Without So Much as Knocking - Bruce Dawe
• Telephone Conversation - Wole Solyinka
• Token Koori for Hire - Anita Heiss
• To This Day - Shane Koyczan
• September 1937 - W.H. Auden

Move from these songs and poems to Homeland Calling.

Using the Desert Pea video playlist to explore one song from each category:

Students could consider 

• What are the distinctive features of each song?
• Listing the 3 lines or words from each which capture the essence of the song’s message.
• Choosing 2 of the 4 songs and responding to how the combination of words and visuals capture the ideas and insights of each group?
• Working in groups to explore other Homeland Calling songs of their own choice, either by reading the print version or watching the Desert Pea Media short films.

Use these songs to inspire students own writing and performance:

1. Write your own short piece of writing in poetry or prose which opens with one of these lines from the songs:
   • This is our time p.23
   • This is my home / this is my truth p27
   • Let me take you on a journey p.84    
   • I’ve been connecting with my friend p.104
   • Welcome to the future p.126
2. Invite students to form small groups and to write a poem or rap which captures their own place and landscape. Brainstorm the key features of “your place” and what is distinctive about it that makes it “yours”. Each group could consider either making a short film like those on the Desert Pea Media collection or presenting a live performance to the class.

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

Text requirements: Homeland Calling fulfils the requirements of a collection of poetry, a range of texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and a range of cultural, social and gender perspectives, including from popular and youth cultures.

Concepts could include Representation • Narrative • Code and convention • Point of view • Style.

Relevant NSW English 7-10 Syllabus content

Reading, viewing and listening to texts

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to interpret complex texts EN5-RVL-01

• Analyse the main ideas and thematic concerns represented in texts
• 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

A student analyses how meaning is created through the use and interpretation of increasingly complex language forms, features and structures EN5-URA-01

Representation

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

Code and convention

• 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

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

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

A student evaluates how texts represent ideas and experiences, and how they can affirm or challenge values and attitudes EN5-URB-01

Perspective and context

• 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
• Appreciate how all communication is a product of cultural context
• Explain how texts affirm or challenge established cultural attitudes and values in different contexts
• Appreciate the significance and value of expressions of cultural context in texts constructed using elements of languages and dialects, including Standard Australian English, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Languages, and Aboriginal English

Styles

• 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

Expressing ideas and composing texts A

A student crafts personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by experimenting with and controlling language forms and features to shape meaning EN5-ECA-01

Writing

• Select and adapt appropriate codes, conventions and structures to shape meaning when composing written texts that are analytical, informative, persuasive, discursive and/or imaginative
• Develop a personal and informed voice that generates ideas and positions an audience through selection of appropriate word-level language and text-level features
• Experiment with language to create tone, atmosphere and mood

Speaking

• Communicate complex information, ideas and viewpoints using purposeful verbal and/or nonverbal language, including gestures, to emphasise key points, enhance engagement and clarify meaning
• Deliver spoken, signed or communicated texts with engaging use of intonation, emphasis, volume, pace and timing

(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