"The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope." (Source: Shaun Tan website)
'In the ruins of a circus tent, a troupe of actors gather to tell the story of an asylum seekers journey to a new country. Based on the multi-award winning picture book by Australian illustrator Shaun Tan, The Arrival is a new, large-scale theatrical work from acclaimed independent company Mutation Theatre. The Arrival tells the story of a man who travels from his oppressive homeland, leaving his wife and child behind, to find a new life for them in a far away country. It is a captivating and heartfelt tale about the journey of an asylum seeker, and the challenges they face after arriving in a new country. '
Source: Mutation Theatre blogspot, www.mutationtheatre.blogspot.com (sighted 29/09/2010)
The Arrival
London
:
Methuen Drama
,
2013
28265150
2013
single work
drama
'A moment of kindness in a sea of unfamiliarity... A long, hard day at work... A lively party... A nostalgic lullaby...
'The story begins in Nigeria where the character of Dele plays a last game of football with his friends and says goodbye to his son Chidi, telling him he will send for him. He then embarks on a voyage where he meets strangers along the way carrying their own stories of upheaval, struggle and hope - sharing his dream to make their home in a new city and be joined by their families. Dele's journey melds with the present day. In an inner-city hostel, Dele is an old man being looked after by Tian Mey, his carer. He reflects the past and his journey to where he is now and his story intertwines with the other migrants, both in his memories of the journey and the present-day reality of the hostel.
'Based on the illustrated novel by Oscar winner Shaun Tan, one man's tale echoes the many 'arrivals' happening around us all the time. This epic migration story unfolds through an extraordinary weaving together of theatre, circus and music. The Arrival tells the age-old story of immigration that is universal across peoples of diverse histories, countries and cultures.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5).
Themes
Australia, Australian Bush, Australian landscape, colonisation, connection to place, fear, gender, identity, isolation, marginalisation, migrant experience
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Numeracy, Personal and social
Teacher's notes from publisher's website.
Images from The Arrival were used in 2008 by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) in their performance 'The Arrival'. The ACO's performance combined Shostakovich's final string quartet with projected images from Tan's picture book.
A musical score by Ben Walsh, inspired by The Arrival, first performed by Orkestra of The Underground to projected images from the book at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, New South Wales, October 2010.
Representation and Memory in Graphic Novels
London
:
Routledge
,
2019
27121916
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'This book analyses the relationship between comics and cultural memory. By focussing on a range of landmark comics from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the discussion draws attention to the ongoing role of visual culture in framing testimony, particularly in relation to underprivileged subjects such as migrants and refugees, individuals dealing with war and oppressive regimes and individuals living with particular health conditions. The discussion is influenced by literary and cultural debates on the intersections between ethics, testimony, trauma, and human rights, reflected in its three overarching questions: ‘How do comics usually complicate the production of cultural memory in local contents and global mediascapes?’, ‘How do comics engage with, and generate, new forms of testimonial address?’, and ‘How do the comics function as mnemonic structures?
'The author highlights that the power of comics is that they allow both creators and readers to visualise the fracturing power of violence and oppression – at the level of the individual, domestic, communal, national and international – in powerful and creative ways. Comics do not stand outside of literature, cinema, or any of the other arts, but rather enliven the reciprocal relationship between the verbal and the visual language that informs all of these media. As such, the discussion demonstrates how fields such as graphic medicine, graphic justice, and comics journalism contribute to existing theoretical and analytics debates, including critical visual theory, trauma and memory studies, by offering a broad ranging, yet cohesive, analysis of cultural memory and its representation in print and digital comics.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'This article looks into refugee narratives produced or endorsed and promoted as children’s reading matter by international refugee relief organizations. The analysis accounts for their emergence as a separate genre with recurrent features, while questioning the assumptions that underlie their production and the aims they serve.' (Publication abstract)
