Little J finds a Hawk Moth caterpillar on the Tar vine in the backyard that he names ‘Sausage’. He wants to take it to school but the caterpillar has other ideas and disappears underground. Nanna teaches Little J the story about the Yeperenye caterpillar of the Arrernte people from central Australia. Sausage finally returns to give Little J a further lesson on life cycles. Sissy wants to perform a dance for the school with Big Cuz, but Big Cuz feels ‘shame’.

Explore - Explore a point of view

Theme - JOURNEYS

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 10 ‘Transformation’, and ask students to identify parts of the story focused on place and perspective in the many individual stories about each character.

As a class, read/view a selection of Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories and non-Indigenous stories about taking a journey, such as:

• Keats, E. J. (2007). The Trip. New York: Viking Childrens Books. 
• Lalara, R. & Lalara, A.  (2014).  Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa : when we go walkabout.  Crows Nest, NSW :  Allen & Unwin. (bilingual video)
• Lester, Alison.  (2015).  Are we there yet? (Teaching Activity).  [Melbourne, Victoria] :  Penguin Australia. 
• Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages – Munkara, M. & Kerinaiua, F. (1997). Ngirramini ngini karri ngawa nguntuwuriyi Tuwurtiyanguwu (A Story about When we went to Turtiyanguwu). (Tiwi). Nguiu (Wurrumiyanga) Bathurst Island NT : Nguiu Nginingawila Literature Production Centre
• Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages – Rice Jampijinpa, D. (1994). Yakajirri-kirli (About bush sultanas). (Warlpiri). Yuendumu, NT : Bilingual Resources Development Unit:

Discuss these stories and other stories provided by the students about their own journeys, e.g. moving house, changing towns, going on holiday, emigrating from a different country. Ask students to visualise what their previous place was like, including their house, their room, the street, their friends, their school, etc.

Ask students (if they have moved) to use Google maps to find where they previously lived. If students haven’t moved, ask them to locate where they holidayed previously, or where a relative lives out of town, etc. Demonstrate how to manipulate the size of the map to see how the map represents the distance between their current (preset) town location and the place they previously lived or visited. Have students pose questions about how the distance is represented on the map, e.g. scale, compass points, lines for the main roads, latitude and longitude grids, satellite and street view, etc.

Ask students to make a ‘memory map’ of their journey displaying how you get from one place to another. The students can use any iconography pertaining to mapping (e.g. arrows, dotted lines for roads, etc.), or create their own codes and symbols to represent the journey. Have students share their stories with others in the class and display their work.

**Teacher note: Some students who have experienced past trauma may find developing a ‘memory map’ difficult. Please adapt the activity for individual students, as required.

Ask students to find images of the place they previously travelled from. These may be scanned images from the family album or Google images, or hand-drawn pictures. Ask students to construct a photo story of the memories from their own journey or of an imaginary journey. This could consist of six to eight images, with simple text or words written below each image.

Have students compare the journey stories of other students with their own. Working individually or in pairs, have students pose and respond to questions about how the journey has been represented and which stories are similar to their own, and which are very different. Suggest to students that individuals remember and represent stories from different perspectives.