|
School holiday fun for kids so often
comes in expensive, commercial packages so it is refreshing to come across more substantial – and affordable – fare.
The Australian Museum in College St has come up with a school holiday program that is
tailor-made for one or more days of the July holidays.
The museum scored a hit with kids earlier this year with its hands-on Australian dinosaurs exhibition and it could have another success on its hands
with its latest offering – a hands-on Aboriginal exhibition plus a volcano show, which is also hands-on.
Aimed at stimulating all the senses of this most active of age groups – and allowing them to get messy
in the process – something that is too often frowned upon in Sydney, the museum’s Aboriginal activity week features hands-on painting of a rainbow serpent, bush tucker, Dreamtime stories and Aboriginal dance.
For starters, kids can pick up a paint brush and help complete an enormous mural of a rainbow serpent specially designed by Aboriginal artist Bill Wallace.
There are also bush tucker tours planned and a
bush tucker display in the museum’s biodiversity gallery, which will also feature some of the amazing array of slippery, slimy, crunchy critters and plants that can be eaten.
Find bush tucker a bit much?
Well, for those whose tastes aren’t quite so down-to-earth, there are the more metaphysical pleasures of traditional storytelling. Let your mind wander back to the time of The Dreaming with professional Aboriginal
storytellers Ally Golding, Pauline McCloud and Francis Bodkin. For added atmosphere and authenticity, the stories will be told from deep within the rock caves of the museum’s Indigenous Australians gallery.
Although the museum’s activities run from July 8 to July 22, they are in celeb-ration of NAIDOC, a week in July which is dedicated to the celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
The
highlight of the NAIDOC inspired activities at the museum will be three performances by the internationally renowned Aboriginal dance band ‘Descendance’.
The band, famous for its recitals at the Sydney
Olympics, will perform its highly energetic form of dance in the museum atrium at 12 noon on July 9, 11 and 14. The show promises to be extremely entertaining with lots of opportunity for audience participation.
When the kids have danced until they are fit to drop, sampled squirmy bush tucker and covered themselves in paint, they’ll be ready for some really explosive fun at the museum’s volcano show.
Here they
will be able to learn how, why and where the earth explodes, as well as see some of the world’s largest eruptions – and cause one their own.
Explosions take place at 11am, 1pm and 3pm daily and ‘exploders’
also get to make their own volcano, which they can take home, along with a selection of genuine volcanic rocks and minerals.
All school holiday events are free with general entry and, if you have your
admission ticket validated, it entitles you to park at Secure Parking, Riley St for five hours for just $6.
Rainbow serpent painting starts at 10am and 1pm for two two-hourly sessions daily and takes place
in the museum’s foyer.
Storytelling runs from Monday to Saturday, but is replaced by a didgeridoo performance at 12 noon and 2pm on the Sundays.
For further information on Indigenous
Australian culture visit the Australian Museum’s Indigenous Australians site at www.dreamtime.net. au
|
