Exiles and Emigrants
Education Resource

• Introduction
• Leaving home
• The Journey
• The New Land
• For Educators

 
 

For Educators

Exhibition overview

During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837--1901) almost fifteen million people left the British Isles in search of a better life. Almost one and three quarter million came to Australia. The emigrants’ ranks were increased by people fleeing the potato famine in Ireland, the agricultural revolution in England and the Highland clearances in Scotland.

The exhibition includes paintings, prints and drawings about leaving home, the voyage and arrival in the new land. Several objects are also shown including letters, a Royal Pardon, a handmade quilt, a board game, and girl’s overshoes from the new colony, relics from ship wrecks, drawings and newspaper articles.

The art works concerning leaving home emotionally describe the many reasons families and in some cases whole villages chose to leave, and include poverty, the threat of ill health, land clearances and the potato famine. The scenes depicting the last farewells within families communicate the difficult choices people had to make.

The art works about the voyage reveal the challenges the emigrants faced as they undertook the long journey, and include the potential for shipwreck, the lack of fresh food and water and the risk of disease, how different classes of emigrants occupied their days to overcome the boredom of the long journey, and the importance of the family. Several of the arrival images illustrate the grand three and four masted clipper ships anchored in harbours and at piers in Sydney and Melbourne. The concept of the pioneer is established in the final group of paintings as the new arrivals travelled into the bush, some in search of gold and a new life. The significance of the mail cannot be underestimated; many artists chose to portray the receiving of mail both from the homeland and in the new colony. These letters document the life of the times and communicate again the importance of staying connected to family.

Exiles and Emigrants presents the story of people who left their homeland, undertook the difficult sea journey and became pioneers in the new land.

 

The Victorian Essential Learning Standards

This resource is based on the new Victorian curriculum structure. The following chart identifies how the curriculum activities relate across strands, domains and specific dimensions. Teachers need to select the appropriate levels relevant to their school and curriculum.

 

STRAND	DOMAINS	DIMENSIONS
Physical, Personal and Social Learning	Civics and Citizenship	Civic knowledge and understanding Community engagement
Discipline based Learning	The Arts	Creating and making Exploring and responding
	English	Reading Speaking and listening
	Humanities( Geography )	Geographical knowledge and understanding
	Humanities ( History)	Historical knowledge and understanding Historical reasoning and interpretation.
Interdisciplinary Learning	Communication	Listening, viewing and responding
	Thinking	Reasoning, processing and inquiry. Reflection, evaluation and metacognition.

To reflect the new approaches towards the thinking curriculum and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards questions have been designed for levels 4 and 5. These encourage focussed observation of images, visual analysis and require reasoning and higher order thinking. The resource can be used online or downloaded. Students are encouraged to carefully observe the paintings and objects, read the text and discuss the questions. Questions can be modified where necessary.

 

Preliminary discussion – levels 4 & 5

• Discuss immigration now and then, from the 21st to 19th century.
• Why would people emigrate during the 19th century from the British Isles? Brainstorm what those people would bring, how would they travel from one country to another, predict the perils of the journey? What challenges would newly arrived emigrants face?
• Consider your own family. Discuss where your grandparents and their families were born. Did they migrate? Why, when and how did they travel to Australia? Create your family tree.
• Read early Australian and related British literature, watch available mini series or film to develop an understanding of the times, for example Charles Kingsley, Charles Dickens, Jane Austin and Henry Lawson.

Extension program – level 4

• Exiles and Emigrants game show
  In groups, select one of the following themes, leaving home, the journey or the new land and develop five or more questions. Test the memory of your class. Collate the results.
• News from the 19th century
  Work in groups to research, produce and print the emigrant broadsheet or newspaper. Use an appropriate font.
• Group 1: As a group of young journalists, write about the reasons families left Scotland, England and Ireland to emigrate to Australia from 1837 to 1901.
• Group 2: Imagine you are a bondager, widow, shepherd, wealthy passenger, orphan or sailor. Write your personal story describing the hardships and experiences of your journey and eventual arrival in the new colony.
• Group 3: Develop advertisements to encourage more emigrants to come to Australia in 1854.
• Shipwrecks
  Create your own shipwreck using your knowledge of shipwrecks from this exhibition, television, film, books and newspapers. Is your ship a modern liner, a fishing boat, speed boat or old fashioned clipper? Consider the use of paint, collage, construction materials and or multimedia as you design your image. Select appropriate colours to create the mood and atmosphere. Think about the scale and placement of the people when you plan and compose your image. How will you reveal a sense of danger? Reflect and evaluate your work, modify if necessary.
• Life in the 1850's
  Devise and perform a dramatic work. Recreate the sense of adventure, danger and excitement of the new settlers, pioneers, gold diggers or explorers. Investigate the lives of these people through paintings, letters, photographs, objects and newspaper articles as source material to inform your dramatic interpretation of life in the 1850’s. Use voice, language, movement, gesture and costume as you perform and retell the emigrant story.
• Emigration in the 19th century and now in the 21st century
  Interview a relative or friend who has migrated to Australia. Develop questions which would help us understand why they migrated, what the journey was like and some of the special memories they have. Listen to their story and compare it with the story of the Exiles and Emigrants in this exhibition. Discuss multiculturalism. How did the British emigrants of the 19th century contribute to Australian identity? Document how your ideas and understanding has changed during this project.

Extension program – level 5

• Emigrant’s board game
  Design a game for 6 players that involve the entire journey of these emigrants using the following sequence of events.
• Leaving home
  Why you would emigrate?
  What belongings would you pack?
  Saying goodbye and leaving your home
• The sea journey
  Describe the journey and your daily life on board for 4 months
  Discuss the dangers of ship board travel
  How did you know you were close to land?
• The new land
  Comment on your arrival at Port Phillip
  what are your first impressions of arrival in Australia?
  where did you live, how was this different from life back home?
• Migration now and then
  Compare the views about the emigration journey, contrasting the painting Coming South 1886 by Tom Roberts with International behaviour 2000 by Jan Nelson. Consider the differences. Examine how both artists use composition and colour to create visual impact.
  Discuss the migration stories of 19th century British saloon passengers and Vietnamese refugees of the 1970’s with reference to different Governments’ policies and politics. Consider the social, emotional, economic and political factors that impact on those who emigrate today.
• Women: the unsung heroes?
  Examine the role of women with reference to the images in this exhibition in relation to leaving home, managing the sea journey and as pioneers in the new land. Research how women were portrayed in the 19th century using paintings, literature, plays and newspaper articles as primary and secondary source material. Create a class forum to discuss, debate and argue the various perspectives in a respectful manner. Justify your interpretation.
• Australian identity
  Use the format of the Pioneer to create an image of life in your suburb. Research the last fifty years using the web, local council records, documents, maps, newspapers, sporting clubs, school and family photographs, letters and oral stories. Work collaboratively to plan and create your large scale collage, painting, drawing, or multimedia mural. Involve local community personalities where appropriate; seek local sponsorship and community display if relevant.