Dunannie's Poetry Day; and Lessons in Aboriginal Culture

Dunannie's Poetry Day; and Lessons in Aboriginal Culture

16/11/2009

When performance poet Philip Wells visited Dunannie, the Bedales pre-prep school in Steep, the whole school became one long line of poetry. Children from all year groups listened to Philip’s poems and then wrote poetry based on their own experiences.

Philip Wells has become known as the ‘fire poet’ not only because of his collaboration with other artists such as fire jugglers but also because of his dynamic delivery and performance. While at Dunannie, he used drums to accompany the reading of his poems, performing it and bringing it to life. Together with the children, he then created new poetry using their spontaneous contributions. Philip says:

‘I had a wonderful day listening to the fabulous, imaginative children letting their hearts sing and dance.  It was very exciting to work with such creative, friendly and open-minded children - they were inquisitive, sensitive and able to concentrate and listen beautifully.’

Head of Dunannie, Katie Potter added:

‘We are always keen to celebrate all aspects of creative writing and were thrilled to welcome Philip to our school. He captivated the children with his interactive performance. During the poetry workshops, the children had the opportunity to write their own poems which they shared with the whole school at the end of the day. We were amazed by their creativity and depth of imagination.'

Philip has spent many years as the poet-in-residence at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital School, working closely with mentally disabled children, using the power of words and poetry to help them. As well as being published in various literary magazines and collaborating with music bands such as Morcheeba and Zero 7, Philip has taken his one-man poetry renaissance everywhere from Downing Street to Westminster Abbey and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Lessons in Aboriginal Culture: School Visit by Francis Firebrace

The Dunannie children recently came face to face with an Australian Aborigine, Francis Firebrace. Francis was invited to Dunannie to share various aspects of his culture, including dreaming stories, dance and art with the whole school.

Francis has been yarning (telling stories) ‘since he can't remember when’ and young people all over the world have been delighted by his dreaming stories. These stories lay down the pattern of traditional Aboriginal life and cover many topics and themes. Francis learnt the dreaming stories when he was a drover and a stockman in the outback in New South Wales and Queensland, where his interest in this vast land and his own cultural heritage began to grow. 

Head of Dunannie, Katie Potter, says:

‘The children were really excited to hear the dreamtime stories and see Francis's own paintings which feature animals native to Australia.'

Francis also ran a workshop on Aboriginal art where the children created their own dreamtime paintings using Aboriginal painting styles. He dressed in traditional costume for some of the day and stressed to the children that even though people might look different, essentially people all over the world are the same.

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