This Diwali, explore screen representations with The Unlisted

The first Australian children’s drama series to feature a Hindu Indian Australian family, The Unlisted aims for an authentic and multifaceted representation of Indian culture. Learning tasks in our free teaching resource guide secondary teachers and students in exploring these representations. 

Creator of The Unlisted, Justine Flynn, advocates for all young people to have the chance to see versions of their own experiences on screen. The Unlisted provides this opportunity for the child audience, with the culturally diverse cast including Indian twin actors in lead roles, and First Nations, South African and Filipino leads in the ensemble cast.

Our free resource for this thrilling drama series, The Unlisted Teaching Toolkit, supports secondary Media Arts teachers and students to examine how representations of social values, culture and points of view are constructed in the series.

Find sample tasks for Year 7 and 8 below or download the resource from the ACTF website.

REPRESENTATION OF SOCIETY, VALUES, AND CULTURE (ACAMAM067)

Cultural practices on screen

Diwali is a Hindu festival that symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance” (V. Narayanan and D. Heiligman, 2008).

Watch the following The Unlisted clips, which highlight the importance of the Diwali festival to the Sharma family in the first episode. Consider the roles that food, clothing, traditions and ritual play in these scenes.

• Episode 01: 04:22- 05:37
• Episode 01: 16:06 – 16:33
• Episode 01: 19:37 – 21:45

Ask students to reflect on and discuss their own cultural practices, including those within their family, their school community and wider Australian society. What roles do food, clothing, tradition and ritual play in these cultural practices? Have students write a reflection on their own cultural practices.