Darkside, The (ATOM Study Guide)

A pregnant woman sleeping in a darkened room feels a hand touch her face, gently at first, then more firmly. She reaches out but nothing is there. Then she becomes aware of an obscure shape floating above her bed. Being a Christian, she cries out, 'I rebuke you in Jesus' name!' The apparition then takes the form of a legless woman, scuttling towards her, climbing on the wall in the dark, propelling herself forward on her arms …

An exhausted young researcher, tossing restlessly in sleep, sees a man approach her; in his right hand he carries a scalpel; raising his hand, he slices through her, making her gasp with pain …

Don't these scenes recall Stephen King horror movies? But what about these:

A little girl dressed in white wanders the roadway that cuts through the desert; she is a guardian spirit, always on the lookout to protect a certain little boy …

A grieving sister hears her dead brother crying. Turning on the radio, she hears the song played at his funeral. She knows he's saying sorry for taking his life …

A young man returns stolen flowers to a garden to soothe the sorrow of the dead woman who planted them. He feels a great peace at this. The spirit of the woman is reassured.

These are very different scenes – departed spirits, gentle, melancholy, sorrowing, are interacting with the living, trying to tell them something - a message of hope, love, care.

Spirits. Not ghosts. And these are Indigenous spirits.

They really cannot be called ghosts; in Western cultural traditions the word has comprehensive connotations of terror, vengeance, random cruelty; ghosts are usually objects of dread. However, in the Indigenous world, spirits of the deceased will protect, warn, teach, remind, connect with their living family. And occasionally, they will terrify. Always, they show their family there's another side to the world of the living: The Darkside. And while the expression sounds ominous, it shouldn't be interpreted as such. As one Indigenous story-teller phrases it, 'When we die, our bodies go into the earth and our souls go to heaven, but our spirits remain.' And we are about to be taken on a fascinating journey to The Darkside.

Curriculum Applicability:

The Darkside is a work about Indigenous experience from a clearly Indigenous perspective, expressive of a number of features of this culture and community such as:

• The importance and the power of family connections, both in life and after death;
• The acceptance by all family members, close and extended, of responsibility for each other;
• The passing down through song, dance and an oral tradition, of creation stories, ethics and duties;
• The acceptance of spirits that guide the living and maintain a connection to their everyday existence;
• The use of Aboriginal non-standard English of the community inhabited by indigenous Australians;
• The interconnectedness of the living and the deceased.

Indigenous stories are also recognised as an integral part of the multi-modal literature of Australia and are a frequent element in English, Art, and History curriculum and in curriculum frameworks where Aboriginal Studies as a 'stand alone' subject is taught.

The Darkside can be utilised in a variety of subjects at Years 7–10, such as:

• English 7–10
• English VCE Units 1–4 Contexts: 'Whose Reality?', 'Identity & Belonging' and 'The Imaginative Landscape'
• Film/Media Studies Year 10
• VCE Media Studies Units 1,3,4.
• Aboriginal Studies as an elective
• Aboriginal Studies as a 'stand-alone' subject

Cross-curriculum Priorities:

The Darkside is a text which addresses a fundamental component of the Australian Curriculum: Cross-Curriculum priorities. The Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face. With these considerations and the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to these three priorities:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
• Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia
• Sustainability

Cross-curriculum priorities are embedded in all learning areas. They will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning areas. Specifically, The Darkside addresses these priorities in three areas:

• History
• English
• The Arts