Thank you to the Art Gallery of NSW for the opportunity to speak about this resource. It is really wonderful that the gallery staff and the Japan Foundation Sydney have collaborated to develop Art speaks Japanese to support the Gallery's permanent collection. The kit is based around 16 artworks and includes glossy A4 images of the works with background information in English and Japanese, and a CD-ROM containing a slide show of the images, viewing and language activities at middle years' and senior secondary levels. In fact there are 38 pages of activities at each level, audio files to support the activities, teachers'notes with additional information and suggested answers for the tasks, and media and historic tables to place the works in context.

The works selected and related activities emphasise the principles of Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning, and the inseparable links between language and culture. It is a dynamic view of culture seen as practices, beliefs and attitudes, and culture learning is an engagement with these, in this resource through the works of art.

The works range from the 12th century through to 1995, and show the cultural and historical influences in Japan over that period: a rejection of Chinese culture and development of an original Japanese culture; then the arrival of the first Westerners to? Japan in the late 1500s, followed by the age of seclusion when contact with the West was banned and there was a growth of a citizen culture; then in the Meiji Restoration a reopening of Japan to the West and the adopting of new aspects of Western culture, through to the post war culture.

I would like to talk briefly about a few of the works and their cultural significance, and how language activities have been developed to enhance the students'understanding of both the art and the cultural influences of the period.

The first work is an image of Amida Buddha from the 12th century Heian Period, when the capital of Japan moved from Nara to Kyoto, and Pure Land Buddhism spread amongst the nobility. The language activities include descriptions of Buddhist objects, the story of Buddha, and background to the religions of Shinto and Buddhism which stand side by side in Japan today. The resources encourage students to reflect on cultural and religious traditions in Japan and also on the role of Buddhism in Australia today.

The second work is from the late 1500s, early 1600s, when Christianity was introduced into Japan from Portugal. It is a beautiful screen depicting the arrival of the Portuguese, featuring gold leaf and maple leaves, and figures whose size varies according to their status. In 1587 the Japanese government instituted measures to curb foreign influences, so this style of painting is quite rare.

I really love the calligraphy of image 3, a Zen Buddhist aphorism meaning "When the mountain is high the moon rises late". Here we see the simplicity of just five kanji characters that allow for so many different individual interpretations.  The moon represents enlightenment. The aphorism could mean: The moon is always there shining, but perhaps we can't see it straight away because obstacles get in the way - of our view and of the road to enlightenment. Or alternatively: the moon takes a long time to appear when hidden behind mountains, but when it appears it is really bright. It takes a long time to reach enlightenment, but when you do it will be very profound. I think students will enjoy this from both the beauty of the calligraphy, and also because they would be familiar with most of the kanji characters. The middle years activities centre on these kanji and a manga about a popular Buddhist monk, Ikkyu san, and the mischief he got up to as a boy in the monastery. Senior activities focus on the daily routine of the monks: 朝はやくおきます、毎日そうじをします etc. There is also an audio task about buying a daruma doll - teachers can use this to tell the story of the daruma, the meditative monk who never gave up - and the famous Japanese saying that if you fall over seven times, you get up eight.

The major strength of the gallery's collection is the Edo period from 1615 to 1868, and there are nine works from this period when the arts flourished. Image 5 is a hanging scroll, a scene from Genji Monogatari, the Tale of Genji. The illustration of literary works is an important theme in Japanese art. I'm sure students will love this one, especially the gossip around the exploits of the handsome prince Genji. The 11th century novel, The Tale of Genji, records life at court in the Heian period. It was written by the noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu, and is said to be the first novel ever written. Prince Genji has been out on the town visiting Princess Asagao (morning glory, which isn't a weed in Japan). He comes back to his wife, Lady Murasaki, then sends some of the pretty young girls out into the snow to make snowmen, so he can watch them playing. There is beautiful detail in the costumes, pine trees, and mandarin ducks. The pair of happy ducks is a symbol of marital happiness and fidelity, which probably wasn't Genji's strong card. There's a wonderful audio task to accompany this work where Genji tries to convince his wife that Princess Asagao is just a friend - I'm sure the students will appreciate his sincerity.

Students should also enjoy the six fold screen Merrymaking in the Yoshiwara. In Edo, present day Tokyo, the Yoshiwara was the entertainment area designated for brothels, teahouses and kabuki theatres. This screen is an early example of ukiyoe, pictures from the floating world. The outside sliding doors of the building have been removed so that we can look inside at groups seated on tatami mats drinking, writing, playing cards and chess, smoking, reading, listening to music, dancing, playing shamisen, and chatting. This gives the viewer an insight into the Japan of that time and the artistic influences that flourished. Language activities to enhance students' engagement with the work include describing the pastimes of the samurai and merchants, and an appreciation of traditional architecture.

Other images include a writing box, a tea cup with a sequencing task describing the tea ceremony, the night procession of 100 goblins - obake are always popular in Japanese folklore and students will be very familiar with them in manga and anime - a kimono, ukiyoe woodblock prints by Hiroshige and Utagawa Kunisada, a Meiji period cricket cage with the audio for a well-known Japanese children's song, and a recent  thought provoking work, Slaughter Cabinet 11 (1991), which is  photographer Morimura Yasumasa's personal response to the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Once again the activities for this work are very relevant to young peoples' concerns, and include creating anti-war slogans and posters.

The kit encompasses a wide variety of activities and literacy skills: manga, songs, letters, haiku, imagined conversations between the protagonists, interviews, descriptions of scenes and feelings, designing and describing posters and tattoos, and personal responses to images, to mention a few. I know it will be an invaluable aid for teachers and students both for visiting the gallery and also for non-Sydney schools using the virtual tour to engage with the images. I hope that many teachers will inspire their students through exploring the art works, and the links between art, history, culture and language so superbly developed in this kit.
Thank you once again to the Asian Art Department from the Art Gallery and the lecturers from the Japan Foundation Sydney for producing this resource.