Long ago in an Aboriginal Creation story, Tiddalik, the largest frog ever known, awoke one morning with a huge thirst. He started to drink and drank until there was no fresh water left in the world.
I can identify with this frog, I felt like this when I awoke from the anaesthetic after my little op the other week. My day in hospital is why I missed a great preview performance of Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog at Melbourne Museum. However, I still got to go along to the museum with Crash Hubby and the kids after Christmas.
Unbelievably I had not been to the Melbourne Museum before. I’ve been to museums all around the world, but not in my own backyard. Typical isn’t it? I’ve been meaning too, so I was excited when Nuffnang sent us along to check it out. Now, I know a lot of you are not in Melbourne, but I bet there’s a museum near you right? I highly encourage you to look up your local museum and see what they have on for the school holidays.
Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog Performance
Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog is a performance of a Victorian Aboriginal creation story presented by Melbourne Museum’s Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in collaboration with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company. Performances started on the 3rd of January and are a part of the Museum’s frog themed school holiday program [more details at end of post]
Even though we missed the preview performance, the kids still got to do the activities which are on until the 31st of January.
Tiddalik’s Fantastic Frog Faces
The CrashKids had a great time painting their Tiddalik the Frog masks and learning about the Aboriginal design inspiration from the patterns and ridges carved into their traditional weapons. I thought it was going to be carnage, especially with CrashBoy, but the squeezy paint and brush combo made it less messy. Until CrashBoy squeezed one a little too much – green paint anyone?
Frogs Alive!
While their masks were drying outside in the hot sun the kids checked out the live frog exhibit. They were quite taken by the frogs and are starting to grasp the concept that tadpoles turn into frogs. The staff were great with all the curious children and even had iPads to show them more pictures and play the sounds of the different frogs.
Fun at the Museum
Melbourne Museum is amazing! Here are some of the other things we saw while we were there.
- CrashBoy and the Whale
- Doesn’t look so menacing wearing a Santa hat!
- Discovering fossils
- These bugs I like . . .
- . . . these ones not so much!
- This room, fascinating though it was, gave me the outright chills!
There was so much to see and do at the museum. We’ll be going back for sure to catch a performance of Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog. Here’s everything you need to know:
Melbourne Museum School Holiday Program
Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog
Live performances 3rd January – 31st January
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, 3 Jan – 31 Jan 2012
11:30 AM – 11:50 AM
1:00 PM – 1:20 PM
2:00 PM – 2:20 PM
Tiddalik’s Fantastic Frog Faces and Frog’s Alive run from 11am to 3pm daily until the 31st of January.
Cost: included in Museum entry (Adult $10, Concession and Child (3–16 years) free entry.)
Giveaway
I have three adult double passes to give away. If you’re in Melbourne this Summer enter and take the kids to Tiddalik and/or enjoy what the museum has to offer. I could stay there all day!
To enter:
You need to be a member of Crash Test Mummy, so:
or follow me on Facebook or RSS
Then tell me in the comments your favourite indigenous (any culture) or traditional story from your childhood and why.
The three entries that most make me want to see that story as a live performance will win the passes!
Conditions:
The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere, but you have to make your own way on your own dime to Melbourne OK?
Entries close on 12th January 2012 at 8pm AEDT.
Winners will be selected on the strength of their answers. The value of each prize is $20. The winner/s will be contacted via email within 24hrs of giveaway closing. If the winners do not respond within 7 days the giveaway will be re-drawn. Your answers may be published on Crash Test Mummy in future posts. Disclaimer: This is a post sponsored by Nuffnang. My opinions are my own and can’t be bought.
Laney x
Linking up with Kellie from Three Li’l Princesses. Check out some other great giveaways today!
Hosted by Three Lil Princesses
An indigenous story called Fair Skin Black Fella; which tells the story of an Aboriginal girl called Mary, who has to deal with being ignored because she has fair skin. She shows the others that being Aboriginal isn’t all about the colour of your skin; it is about the sense of family within a community, and embracing spirituality. It’s a great story we can all learn alot from.
I like the sound of that! Thanks for entering :)
I can muster no strength to tell you a story, so consider this a non-entry!… but did want to tell you that this is something we were planning to do anyway. My 3 year old girl loves the story of Tiddalik. She tells us to us daily & asks to watch it on YouTube daily too. So when we heard about this, we couldn’t pass it up as a great opportunity to enrich her interests! Lovely to read your review of the Museum (I’ve never been either). Your kids looked like they enjoyed it.
Deb @ Bright & Precious’s last post..Good Riddance!
Deb, the fact that your 3 year old loves Tiddalik so much makes me want to see it even more ;)
Laney, she learned about it from her Kinder. One day she came home and said she had a dreamtime story to tell us… and out it all came. I was amazed at her interest and attention to detail!
Deb @ Bright & Precious’s last post..Festivus for the Restivus
Melbourne museum is fab isn’t it, and such a reasonably priced day out for everyone.
My kids love checking out the possum skin cloak they have there and last visit they were enthralled listening to one of the staff members tell them an indigenous story about how/why the possum shared his fur…
katepickle’s last post..Sensory Play – Icy Fun!
That has definitely piqued my interest Kate! Now I assume it is not a typo and the possum didn’t shave his fur right? ;)
I live in Perth and probably won’t be in Melbourne for a long time – so don’t count me in this competition…
But LOVE the masks.. very cool!! Glad you had a lovely day with your lil ones!
Yvette @ Delightfully Tacky’s last post..Thankful Thursday – Week 1 2012
Thanks for dropping by Yvette! The kids had so much fun with the masks. A great holiday activity and the mess isn’t in my house ;)
I think I was a bit deprived as a child, I don’t remember having stories.
I do however love aussie books, especially possum magic and the story of the disappearing / reappearing possum. It posed as a brilliant aussie story when I was O/S working as a nanny.
I am excited about the possibility of taking my kids to the museum.
Mandy’s last post..Resolutions, the stuff dreams are made of….
My kids love Possum Magic – so do I because she gets to eat Lamingtons ;) Thanks for entering!
My kids love Possum Magic. So do I because she gets to eat Lamingtons! Thanks for entering :)
The masks are great ,my daughter loves making things at home like this ..my story i remember was called The Rainbow serpent about the snake rising up to form mountains and rivers and at some stage in the book it had a ref to a rainbow at the end ..thats all i can remember about it lol
Not really an indigenous story but a story I remember from Childhood is called A Lion in the Medow. It is a great story about a little boy whose Mum thinks he is making up stories about a lion being in the medow.
We have just bought a copy of the book and now read it to our girls. Nice to be able to read them a story from our childhood and they love it.
Having just moved here from NZ I have never heard the story of Tiddalik but it sounds great. Might have to pop down to the Museum to check it out!
This story is not from my childhood, but has been in many children’s that I have taughts childhood- if that makes sense. It’s called, ‘The Mermaid Story’. There are no words to the story, but the animation and the music are VERY powerful! (The website is: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm. I always tell people to look at the content of each story on the website before showing children- I really only used this one story off the website.)
I love the story about the cheeky boy who was turned into a Willy Wag Tail. Those cheeky little birds always cheer me up and give me a giggle, especially when they chase much bigger birds around my garden.
Bronwyn @ Mad Crafty Mama’s last post..Resisting the urge