If your school has chosen ‘Personal Journeys’ as your Framework of Idea, here is what you need to know about it!
VCAA describes this ideas as:
Explorations of ‘life’ or biographical explorations – telling our stories, telling others’ stories, the problem of telling stories, appropriation of stories, who tells the stories and our history, missing stories, marginalised and elevated stories. Students could explore personal milestones, the effects of key events on their lives, or explore these ideas through the eyes of others.
Students who have migrated can explore their stories of movement and disruption. They can explore the expectations of change, and the language of a new place and culture.
What does this mean for the student?
VCAA’s description of this idea tells us that the student is expected to focus on writing about their own life, focussing particularly on their growth as a person and how they have changed.
Here is a short list of what our teens could possibly write about:
- personal milestones (eg graduating from something, passing an exam, breaking a personal record, major religious ceremonies like bar/bat mitzvah or baptism)
- key personal events (eg losing a pet or loved one, breaking up with a friend, moving house, changing schools)
- migration experience (eg the experience of settling into a new country, learning a new language, adapting to a new school culture)
What are the mentor texts for Personal Journeys?
1. Duong, Amy, ‘The Red Plastic Chair is a Vietnamese Cultural Institution, and My Anchor’
VCAA’s description of this memoir:
Amy Duong’s memoir was published in 2021 as part of SBS Australia’s Emerging Writers Competition. A daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Duong’s piece is not about her own personal journey; rather, it is a reflection on the hardships and sacrifices her family made in coming to Australia before she was born.
Duong begins her piece by homing in on the titular plastic red chairs, items that may initially be seen as mundane and merely utilitarian, yet serve as an integral part of Duong’s identity and Vietnamese culture at large. These chairs are a catalyst for childhood memories, musings, regrets and an uncomfortable reckoning with the past. Just as Duong refers to the chairs as an ‘anchor’ to her past, she uses the motif of red chairs to structure her piece. These chairs have been ubiquitous throughout her life, and are ever present throughout the story. At every important turn, the red chairs are there in the background.
Duong ruminates on the disconnect she feels from her aunt and mother as a first generation Australian: her limited grasp of the Vietnamese language, her privilege of not knowing the same adversity as her elders and her own complicity in creating a generational divide within her family. Her writing is sharp, personable and authentic. Although anecdotal and conversational in tone, Duong also uses purposeful descriptive language to enhance the emotional and challenging aspects of her family history.
Although specific to her own unique experiences, students could use Duong’s ideas to explore items of cultural, historical or nostalgic value and how these symbolise literal or metaphorical journeys.
2. Hodge, Maya, ‘bidngen’ (A) (1)
VCAA’s description of this essay:
First published in 2021 as part of SBS Australia’s Emerging Writers Competition and now part of Between Two Worlds, an anthology of stories from the competition, Maya Hodge’s ‘bidngen’ features an unnamed narrator who reflects on the important role that memories, culture and stories have played in shaping her.
The narrator recounts her childhood in a town ‘festering with racism and drugs’, yet in spite of the hardships and poverty her family endured, they were able to ‘[stitch] the house together with love’. Hodge highlights the strength of Indigenous women and how it is passed down through the generations. Indeed, her intention to pay tribute to this strength is evident through the fact that the title ‘bidngen’ means ‘women’ in the Lardil language.
The power of storytelling is a central theme, with Hodge highlighting that stories not only serve to connect us with our culture and memories but that they can be a source of comfort and healing. The narrator recalls her grandmother reading fairytales to her and how reading allowed her to feel ‘the scars inside her softly close over’. She also explores how stories can be told through music as she picks up her violin and ‘lets the stories of her people pour from her fingers into steel strings’. Hodge’s use of subheadings highlights that, while seemingly unconnected, all of these memories allow us to gain an understanding of the narrator’s journey and what has shaped her. Additionally, the fact that these headings are written in the Lardil language emphasise that language and culture are central to her identity and that she needs to constantly navigate living between two worlds.
Students can explore the importance of language, culture and storytelling in their own journeys and can experiment with incorporating subheadings and phrases in languages other than English in their own writing.
3. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’
VCAA’s description of this speech:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a celebrated author of short stories and novels. In her TED talk, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’, she weaves together a series of personal anecdotes and literary theories to posit that it is necessary to create space for diverse stories.
Beginning with her own personal experiences with reading as a child in Nigeria, she identifies that she ‘did not know that people like [her] could exist in literature’. This is because the children’s books that she read came from the United Kingdom and did not fully reflect her own experiences and reality. Adichie moves on to identify moments in her life when she limited others to a single story and was limited by others’ perceptions of her. She makes it clear that her own personal journey as a ‘middle-class’ Nigerian has not been well-reflected in literature due to the pervasive narrative that Africa is a land of ‘catastrophe’ and ‘incomprehensible people’. She condemns single stories because they ‘rob people of their dignity’. Building on this concept, she argues for the need to tell more complete stories, rather than fueling stereotypes. Throughout the speech, Adichie uses humour, including self-deprecating humour, to expose how easy it can be to believe these single stories.
Students can explore personal journeys from those who are not often highlighted in the Australian media landscape or consider arguing for more inclusive storytelling. They can consider the use of personal anecdotes, thesis statements and humour to put forward their message.
4. López, Matthew, Walter’s speech (end of Part 1) from The Inheritance
VCAA’s description of this monologue:
The Inheritance, first performed in 2018, is a contemporary two-part play exploring the legacy of AIDS on the gay community in New York City. ‘Walter’s speech’ is an extract from the end of Part 1 in which Walter is speaking with his young friend Eric about how he came to own the ‘rambling old farmhouse’. The house was purchased at the height of the AIDS crisis by Walter and his partner at that time, Henry. Located far away from the bustling city, ‘there was no illness’. While Henry wishes to shut the virus away, Walter realises that ‘the answer was not to shut the world out, but rather to fling the doors open and invite it in’. This difference of view proves irreconcilable and Henry leaves the house to Walter. A series of young men who have AIDS and have nowhere else to go, come to stay with Walter at the farmhouse, and ‘one by one, they died there’. Despite the gravity and melancholy of the journeys that these young men take, Walter’s reflection focuses on the courage and resilience of his community. Lopez symbolises Walter’s compassion through ‘an enormous cherry tree’, which superstition suggests has ‘pig’s teeth’ stuck deep within the bark. The tree is believed to cure all illnesses. Yet as it blazes through the seasons, the lives of countless young men continue to be cut short by a virus that was ignored and stigmatised by the wider community.
Students can explore how the younger generation can learn about the journeys of those who have come before them, experimenting with symbolism and the significance of setting in their own writing.
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