RESIDENCIES

Mr. Taylor began the artist residency with two assemblies for the elementary school children introducing them to the Australian culture of the cities where he was raised and the outback culture of the Aborigines.

The sound of Australia is the didgeridoo. Students learned how they were made from eucalyptus trees eaten out by termites and then decorated in traditional Aboriginal designs.

Paul introduced them to a character that could have been his ancestor and told about the British subjects that were sent to Australia instead of prison for crimes even as minimal as stealing a loaf of bread. Much of the white population of Australia had descended from the British.

The third grade classes that had been learning of countries around the world, learned skits and dances from Mr. Taylor.

By learning the skits, the children investigated many of the animals and customs of the Australian people. Art is integrated into their culture as a tool to teach about life.

The students learned some dances that Mr. Taylor knew from elementary school in Australia. The entertainment planned for the culminating community concert would include the children’s performance in the tradition of how the community entertains by participation.

Try a little vegemite? Mate.

The after-school program students were given PVC pipe to make their own didgeridoos. They painted them with dot pattern designs representing important people in their lives. Then they learned how to play them.

Mr. Taylor describes “buzzing” your lips and circular breathing techniques. The didgeridoo orchestra was born.

A core group of students from the high school advanced art class learned Australian Aborigine history, creation stories and animals as they designed their morphed Rainbow Snake mural. The Aborigine style of dot and line patterns and “X-ray vision” were guides for their group creation.

Working in the classroom allowed the students to meet Mr. Taylor personally and learn of his desire to save the Aboriginal stories and share them in this culture. They enjoyed his enthusiasm, stories and accent. Daily he’d wear different outfits from his past. This was a football uniform.

Paul explained how as a youngster he had to wear a blazer, shorts and a hat as a school uniform in Adelaide.

At the nursing home they listened to the didgeridoo, learned some stories from the “bush university”, even the true story behind “Waltzing Matilda.” Most sang along and some danced a little.

During the week the community had the opportunity to hear of the Aboriginal culture and storytelling at The Eureka Bookstore. At the community assembly, Mr. Taylor welcomed the audience to an evening of entertainment with song, storytelling, and skits including the third grade.

The completed Rainbow Snake mural hung in the background for the skits the students performed of the Aboriginal creation stories. This one was of a young girl that danced in the early morning and was changed into the dancing bird the Aussies call Brolga.

Lounging kangaroos.

The final performance of the didgeridoo orchestra, March 2003, Eureka Public School.

Thanks to Paul Taylor for sharing his wealth of information and talent teaching and training our students and community about the culture from down under. No worries, mate.

And thanks to the Montana Arts Council for an Artist in Residency Grant, Montana Arts Consortium for the Performing Arts Grant and Westaf, the Western States Arts Federation, that grant money for promoting the arts in rural communities.