Cuc Lam's Suitcase

Cuc Lam’s Suitcase is an episode of the series National Treasures produced in 2004.

Cuc Lam’s Suitcase
If you were forced to leave your home forever, what would you take with you? Vietnamese refugee Cuc Lam took family photos and jewellery but sacrificed one precious possession to buy a suitcase, now in Melbourne’s Immigration Museum. Cuc Lam talks to Warren Brown about her journey to Australia and how this small red vinyl bag was a symbol of a new beginning in a new country.

National Treasures
Take a road-trip of discovery with the irrepressible Warren Brown – political cartoonist, columnist and history “tragic” – as he reveals a fascinating mix of national treasures drawn from public and private collections across Australia. On its own, each treasure is a priceless snapshot of an historic moment. Together, they illustrate the vitality and uniqueness of the Australian experience.

National Treasures is a Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Outcomes from this module
Students will:

• learn the signs, codes and conventions of the documentary genre
• research the ways in which immigration has been represented in media texts
• understand the role of symbols in media texts
• create short documentaries and non fiction text types focusing on objects as symbols important to them

Curriculum links
National: The Statements of Learning for English- Year 9
Reading, viewing and interpreting information and argument texts

• Students read and view texts that entertain, move, parody, investigate,
  analyze, argue and persuade. These texts explore personal, social, cultural
  and political issues of significance to the students’ own lives.
• Students understand that readers and viewers may need to develop knowledge
  about particular events, issues and contexts to interpret texts.

Writing

• When students write information or argument texts, they make appropriate selections of information from a few sources and attempt to synthesize and organize these in a logical way.
• Students write imaginative texts in print and electronic mediums that contain personal, social and cultural ideas and issues related to their own lives and communities and their views of their expanding world.

State and Territory

ACT High School, Later Adolescence: Mass media texts

• The student interprets and constructs multi modal texts.
• The student creates products using technology.

NT Band 5+
Strand: Reading and Viewing R/V 5+.1
Texts and Contexts

• Students critically analyze and explain the socio-cultural values, attitudes and assumptions that texts reflect and project.

QLD Level 6
Strands
Cultural: making meanings in contexts
Critical: evaluating and reconstructing meanings in texts.

• Students recognize that texts have points of view, even when these are not explicitly stated, and
  with teacher assistance identify and comment on them.
• Students use some understanding and appreciation of the deliberately constructed nature of texts
  to interpret other texts within the same text type and across text types.
• Students write detailed, unified expository and imaginative texts that explore challenging and
  complex ideas and issues

S.A
Strand: Texts and Contexts
5.3
Reads and views a range of texts containing challenging ideas and issues and multiple views of the- past, present and future and examines some relationships between texts, contexts, readers and producers of texts.
5.7
Identifies and critically appraises combinations of features in texts when reading and viewing a broad range of texts dealing with abstract themes and sociocultural values.
5.11
Manipulates and synthesizes a wide variety of strategies for reading, viewing, critically interpreting and reflecting on texts with multiple levels of meaning.

TAS
Being Literate
Listening, reading and viewing

• Students read, listen to, view and critically analyze complex texts.
• Students analyse the ways texts are constructed to position readers, viewers and listeners.
• Students discuss the role of context in the construction and interpretation of texts, analysing how texts are interpreted differently by individuals and groups. They discuss the social, cultural and aesthetic purposes for which texts have been constructed.

W.A.
Level 7 Reading

• Students select appropriate strategies to critically analyse and interpret a ange of complex texts, justifying their interpretations with substantial evidence; critically analysing how text structure and conventions can influence a reader’s response.

Level 7 Writing

• Students write sustained, complex texts, controlling conventions to engage with readers in different contexts; critically appraises and reviews their own writing and the writing of others, reflecting on the processes and strategies for improving their writing.

This resource is also relevant to Media Studies- Audiences, Representation, Media Conventions, the Drama Genre and Media Production.

These are extracts only. Teachers and students should consult their state’s curriculum and learning programs.
Go to The National Curriculum Statements for English

Students examine the development of multiculturalism in Australia and explore ways in which government policies, including immigration and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policies have changed over time.

Curriculum links
National: The Statements of Learning for English- Year 9
Reading, viewing and interpreting information and argument texts

• Students read and view texts that entertain, move, parody, investigate,
  analyze, argue and persuade. These texts explore personal, social, cultural
  and political issues of significance to the students’ own lives.
• Students understand that readers and viewers may need to develop knowledge
  about particular events, issues and contexts to interpret texts.

Writing

• When students write information or argument texts, they make appropriate selections of information from a few sources and attempt to synthesize and organize these in a logical way.
• Students write imaginative texts in print and electronic mediums that contain personal, social and cultural ideas and issues related to their own lives and communities and their views of their expanding world.

State and Territory

ACT High School, Later Adolescence: Mass media texts

• The student interprets and constructs multi modal texts.
• The student creates products using technology.

NT Band 5+
Strand: Reading and Viewing R/V 5+.1
Texts and Contexts

• Students critically analyze and explain the socio-cultural values, attitudes and assumptions that texts reflect and project.

QLD Level 6
Strands
Cultural: making meanings in contexts
Critical: evaluating and reconstructing meanings in texts.

• Students recognize that texts have points of view, even when these are not explicitly stated, and with teacher assistance identify and comment on them.
• Students use some understanding and appreciation of the deliberately constructed nature of texts
  to interpret other texts within the same text type and across text types.
• Students write detailed, unified expository and imaginative texts that explore challenging and
  complex ideas and issues

S.A
Strand: Texts and Contexts
5.3
Reads and views a range of texts containing challenging ideas and issues and multiple views of the- past, present and future and examines some relationships between texts, contexts, readers and producers of texts.
5.7
Identifies and critically appraises combinations of features in texts when reading and viewing a broad range of texts dealing with abstract themes and sociocultural values.
5.11
Manipulates and synthesises a wide variety of strategies for reading, viewing, critically interpreting and reflecting on texts with multiple levels of meaning.

TAS
Being Literate
Listening, reading and viewing

• Students read, listen to, view and critically analyze complex texts.
• Students analyze the ways texts are constructed to position readers, viewers and listeners.
• Students discuss the role of context in the construction and interpretation of texts, analysing how texts are interpreted differently by individuals and groups. They discuss the social, cultural and aesthetic purposes for which texts have been constructed.

W.A.
Level 7 Reading

• Students select appropriate strategies to critically analyze and interpret a range of complex texts, justifying their interpretations with substantial evidence; critically analyzing how text structure and conventions can influence a reader’s response.

Level 7 Writing

• Students write sustained, complex texts, controlling conventions to engage with readers in different contexts; critically appraises and reviews their own writing and the writing of others, reflecting on the processes and strategies for improving their writing.

This resource is also relevant to Media Studies- Audiences, Representation, Media Conventions, the Documentary Genre and Media Production.

These are extracts only. Teachers and students should consult their state’s curriculum and learning programs.
Go to The National Curriculum Statements for English

By 1954, after the defeat of the Japanese and the expulsion of the French in the north, Vietnam was divided into communist North Vietnam and pro-western South Vietnam. The failure of a proposed vote on reunification led to war, which the north won in 1975.

The new national government sent many people who had supported the old government in the south to ‘re-education camps’, and others to ‘new economic zones’, where they were treated badly. These factors, coupled with poverty caused by disastrous economic reforms, caused millions of Vietnamese to flee the country, usually by barely sea-worthy boats.

These fleeing Vietnamese sold what they could for gold, and took only what they could carry with them. Pirates who raped, murdered and stole almost at will against the defenceless refugees preyed on them. Many ships sank, with the loss of all aboard.

Refugees who did survive had to stay in primitive camps in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.

The plight of the boat people now became an international humanitarian crisis. Several countries agreed to resettle as many as possible of the refugees, and agreed to quotas — the United States of America (823 000), Australia and Canada (137 000 each), France (96 000), and Germany and the United Kingdom (19 000 each).

Before 1975 there were approximately 700 Vietnam-born people in Australia. A few refugee boats had reached northern Australia, but most of the Vietnamese refugee resettlement between 1975 and 1985 was by air from the refugee camps in Asia, and was then followed by family reunion under the Family Stream of Australia’s immigration program. By 1981, 43 400 Vietnamese had been resettled in Australia. By 1991 there were 124 800 Vietnam-born in Australia and in the 2001 census, 154 000 people declared themselves as Vietnam-born.

Exploring the production signs, codes and conventions
1. How many different modes of representation are used to present the story of Cuc Lam’s suitcase? Discuss the use of narrator to camera in the opening shots and the time compression sequence that follows taking us into the museum, the 1978 footage and the interview with Cuc Lam.

2. How does the video clip represent Cuc Lam’s journey? Discuss how the the images of the suitcase and its contents are framed.

3. Discuss the role of the music soundtrack in the video clip. What mood does it evoke?

4. What point of view are we as the audience invited to take about immigration? Write a brief list of words used by Warren Brown that position us in relation to immigration policies in 1978.

5. How is the suitcase represented as a symbol in the video clip? Discuss the actual suitcase, Warren Brown’s drawing and the language used to describe it.

Exploring the documentary form in multi modal texts
1.Choose an object that has meaning for you in a cultural context. (For example, something you or your family may have brought with them to Australia in any era: a photograph, clothing, trunk, personal memorabilia, a treasured souvenir etc). Have show and tell in class to share insights about the objects and what they represent to the students.

2. Write an article about it for a newspaper or magazine or for publishing online; it could be a blog. Include interviews, photographs and other relevant material.

3. Produce a short DVD documentary about the object. Think about how you will present the object and what images, sound and narration and/or interviews need to be included.

4. Tape a radio program about the object. What needs to be considered when images cannot be included?

The use of the word ‘multiculturalism’ by some prominent Australians has recently been reported in the media. Using the internet and other sources, investigate the debate and discuss the people who are engaged in the debate, the arguments being used for and against the use of the word ‘multiculturalism’ and why these people might be making their arguments.

For more National Treasures information and video clips go to Investigating National Treasures

Go to Screen Education for excellent articles and study guides focusing on all aspects of Australian documentary form and for detailed instructions for producing media texts.

Read Media 1 by Roger Dunscombe, Melinda Anastasios- Roberts, Juliet Francis, Karen Koch, George Lekatsas and Nick Ouchtomsky and Media 2 by Roger Dunscombe, Melinda Anastasios-Roberts, Kevin Tibaldi and Andrew Hyde. Heinemann Harcourt Education, Port Melbourne, 2007. Two recommended texts for classroom use for discussing media codes and conventions and video production as well as many other key media concepts that relate to this clip. Go to the books online at Heinemann Media for more detail.