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Belonging-ness

Watching the 2010 Australian animation film The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann led to a discussion on the idea of not fitting in. The children drew a variety of lost things from their imaginations - creatures with multiple heads and eyes, hybrids with robotic and animal traits, things that seemed familiar and yet completely unrecognisable. Things that are lost on their own but become a community when gathered together.

Where do these ideas of belonging and un-belonging come from? Perhaps there are clues in the words that the children strung together in the session, from an exercise where they paired a feeling with an activity. 
Perhaps, they can point us to ways of understanding how not to feel lost. 

I dance and I feel cool
I run and I feel tired
I play and I feel hopeful
I eat and I feel powerful
I cry and I feel relaxed

I jump and I feel scared
I run and I feel powerful
I sleep and I feel happy
I box and I feel tired
I fight and I feel shy

I dance to feel hopeful
I run to feel strong
I dream to feel powerful

This is the snake that I was playing with in my imagination and was imagining it existing in the world.

Game of Snakes by Ali

This is the snake that I was playing with in my imagination and was imagining it existing in the world.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

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I drew myself with a strange thing which I was always thinking of existing on the earth, and was always dreaming about in my deep sleep.

Dreamy by Zoha

I drew myself with a strange thing which I was always thinking of existing on the earth, and was always dreaming about in my deep sleep.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

2/5

I watched this item in a movie which was completely an imaginary movie and all of the things which were there in that movie were as strange as this! So I drew this.

Strange Item by Nawid

I watched this item in a movie which was completely an imaginary movie and all of the things which were there in that movie were as strange as this! So I drew this.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

3/5

This is a drawing of the red chilli that can fly, and spread his spice on the people who are robbing, stealing, lying, and doing bad things.

The Flying Red Chilli by Sodaba

This is a drawing of the red chilli that can fly, and spread his spice on the people who are robbing, stealing, lying, and doing bad things.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

4/5

An imaginary flying bird with many tails who threw fire from his mouth, it is a kind of dinosaur.

An Imaginary Dinosaur by Aisha

An imaginary flying bird with many tails who threw fire from his mouth, it is a kind of dinosaur.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

5/5