The Rabbits: Written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan (1998)

“The Rabbits came... many grandparents ago...”

If any readers remember the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, an excerpt of this story was read in the opening ceremony.

The Rabbits is an illustrated book detailing the arrival of the first fleets and early colonisation of Australia. Marsden explains the events through the eyes of Possum-like creatures which he uses to portray the Australian Aboriginal people. Marsden tells the story through their eyes,  speaking of their fears, their attempts at peace, and in general the “unknown” that comes with these strange, arriving Rabbits, whom play the part of the European Settlers.

 The story is written in an omniscient style, the main voice is not unlike an elder retailing the events to a new generation, or even the stolen generation that is seen in parts of this tale. This voice knows all of what happened to his/her people in more depth than what may be pieced together from an individual's perspective. It is like a story stitched together throughout time or part of the oral history of people passed.

The language is simple and powerful, using short sentences that are appropriate for early childhood readers through to those more independent. I have, however, had comments from the more independent readers of the class that its simplicity is more suited to those of a younger age group.

In drastic contrast, the artwork in this book is stunning and incredibly detailed. Tan uses mixed media and a steam-punk style that captures industrialization and be it “urbanisation” of the Australian wilderness. Tan's machines and overall style for the Rabbits is cold and inhuman, they are distorted, yet, almost make sense, as if someone has painted them based on centuries of the original story being passed through oral history.

The Rabbits: A study of picture planes, and also, a study into the perspective of characters.

Firstly students were asked to think about “being” a Rabbit, or a Possum, and to translate from the text what they might think, feel, say, or do. This was simply a paragraph exercise to accompany their next task.

As an undergraduate teacher (Oh, hi, yes, I forgot to mention, I'm Miss Harbottle) and in a general artsy-fartsy type, my request was build an inspired piece of art using three picture planes: Background, midground, and foreground. The students used a sheet of paper for each plane, the artwork was then layered together and scaled down on a colour photocopy to create a page for their ‘Horrible Histories’.

 Generalising on a scene, the objects in the back (be it mountains, roads, trees, homes, elephants) will always appear higher in the picture plain, and more faded/use a more muted colour palette.

The arc of the sky (or be it the top of your page) will always be the darkest colour. Think about it as if the world is flat and you have a bowl placed over you: You are indeed closer to the part of the bowl directly above your head then you are to the part of the bowl that is in the horizon.

In creating a dream time effect for the pieces of art, I focused on three shades.

The arc - darkest blue,

The next colour down - middle-of-the-range blue,

Tops of the mountains- lightest blue.

Starting at the mountains the opposite happens:

Tops of the mountains- lightest brown, or green,

Middle of the mountains - middle-of-the-range brown/green,

Where the mountain meets the grass or sea - darkest brown,

Lastly illustrating water works on the basis that it reflects what’s going on.

Stating quite generally, the students found the theory of this unchallenging, but some struggled to translate this to paper. I am, however, very impressed with their efforts and stayed tuned for our art.