Latest / Dorktales Storytime | Stories for Kids Who Love Big Adventures / David Unaipon | Aboriginal Inventor, History Stories for Kids

Transcript

David Unaipon | Aboriginal Inventor, History Stories for Kids · Dorktales Storytime | Stories for Kids Who Love Big Adventures

• 0:00
  Jonathan: Hello, Dork Squad.
• 0:01
  Jonathan: I'm Jonathan Cormur, and you're listening to DorkTale Storytime, the podcast for kids and their pop culture loving grown-ups.
• 0:08
  Jonathan: And this is an inspiring story about a hidden hero of history.
• 0:12
  Jonathan: Shout out to Cady from Australia, who wrote me a letter and introduced us to this amazing hero.
• 0:21
  Theme Song: It's a beautiful day for a story, adventure, and glory, new friends and old ones too.
• 0:28
  Theme Song: It's an excellent day to get swept away in a tale, so let us regale you!
• 0:53
  Little Bo: Oh, Jonathan! Redge, you're here.
• 0:58
  Jonathan: Yes, here we are.
• 0:59
  Jonathan: Hi, little Bo.
• 1:01
  Little Bo: And you're here because
• 1:06
  Jonathan: Oh, you mentioned you'd give me a haircut.
• 1:09
  Jonathan: I just need a trim.
• 1:11
  Little Bo: Oh yeah, I totally did not forget that because I totally did not lose my appointment book.
• 1:18
  Redge: That wasn't the most convincing statement I've ever heard.
• 1:22
  Little Bo: Oh, that's my phone ringing.
• 1:24
  Little Bo: Uh any chance one of y'all see my phone?
• 1:29
  Jonathan: Um, judging by where the sound is coming from, I think Mrs.
• 1:32
  Jonathan: Ellie Phant might be sitting on it.
• 1:35
  Redge: I'll get it.
• 1:36
  Redge: Excuse me, Mrs.
• 1:37
  Redge: Pant.
• 1:38
  Redge: Little Bo's barber shop and beauty salon, where we serve looks of sheer perfection.
• 1:45
  Redge: This is Reginald T.
• 1:46
  Redge: Hedgehog speaking.
• 1:48
  Redge: How may I help you?
• 1:49
  Jonathan: Oh, so professional, Redge.
• 1:51
  Redge: Oh I know, right?
• 1:52
  Redge: Uh mm-hmm.
• 1:54
  Redge: You want to say at three o'clock?
• 2:00
  Redge: All of the sheep?
• 2:02
  Redge: All right, don't get your wool jumper in a twist.
• 2:05
  Redge: They will be ready for you at three PM sharp.
• 2:08
  Redge: Yes, sir.
• 2:09
  Redge: Yes, sir.
• 2:10
  Redge: Three bags full.
• 2:11
  Redge: Bye-bye now.
• 2:15
  Little Bo: Oh no.
• 2:16
  Little Bo: Tell me that wasn't the little boy who lives down the lane.
• 2:19
  Redge: Well, I'm afraid it was, Little Bo.
• 2:21
  Redge: He said he needs all ten of his sheep sheared in time for Once Upon a Time Land's annual knitting contest.
• 2:29
  Redge: Three o'clock sharp.
• 2:32
  Little Bo: Well, I know, but the thing is, well, I can't find my sheep shears.
• 2:37
  Little Bo: And look at all these sheep.
• 2:42
  Jonathan: Oh, wa wa wa wait one second.
• 2:44
  Jonathan: Um Mrs.
• 2:46
  Jonathan: Ellie Phant, could you uh scooch over just a bit?
• 2:49
  Jonathan: Aha! Here they are.
• 2:52
  Jonathan: A box labeled sheep shears.
• 2:58
  Little Bo: Also, totally sorry about that, Mrs.
• 3:00
  Little Bo: Fant.
• 3:00
  Little Bo: That must have been real uncomfy.
• 3:03
  Little Bo: Still, there are so many sheep here.
• 3:07
  Little Bo: I'd count 'em, but I think I'd start falling asleep.
• 3:10
  Jonathan: Hey, don't worry, Bo.
• 3:11
  Jonathan: We can help.
• 3:13
  Little Bo: Oh, you can?
• 3:14
  Redge: We would love to.
• 3:16
  Redge: I've always wanted to try.
• 3:18
  Little Bo: Oh, thank you, thank you.
• 3:21
  Little Bo: Grab a shear, grab a sheep, and let's start filling these bags, boys.
• 3:26
  Redge: On it.
• 3:27
  Redge: Uh hello?
• 3:28
  Redge: Uh Ba Ba Black Sheep.
• 3:30
  Redge: Have you any wool?
• 3:32
  Redge: Oh yes, quite.
• 3:36
  Redge: Uh, here I go.
• 3:38
  Redge: Oh, this is easier than I thought.
• 3:41
  Jonathan: Y eah, it's like these shears know exactly what to do.
• 3:45
  Redge: They practically do the job for you.
• 3:49
  Jonathan: You know, this reminds me of something.
• 3:51
  Jonathan: Or someone.
• 3:54
  Redge: Oh, is it that time, Jonathan?
• 3:57
  Little Bo: What time?
• 3:58
  Little Bo: Oh my goodness, is it three o'clock already?
• 4:01
  Little Bo: Well, I really shouldn't have lost my watch.
• 4:04
  Jonathan: Oh no, no, little bo.
• 4:06
  Jonathan: It's time for a Hidden Heroes of History story.
• 4:10
  Redge: Jonathan likes to tell stories about inspiring people from his world.
• 4:14
  Little Bo: Oh well, that sounds fun.
• 4:17
  Little Bo: But don't stop shearin.
• 4:20
  Jonathan: Aye aye, Captain.
• 4:22
  Jonathan: Today's story is about David Unaipon.
• 4:25
  Jonathan: David was an author, a poet, a preacher, and most famously, an inventor.
• 4:32
  Jonathan: He is known as Australia's Leonardo da Vinci.
• 4:36
  Redge: An inventor, just like Lanny Smoot.
• 4:39
  Redge: Oh, Jonathan told his story once.
• 4:42
  Redge: It was magical.
• 4:44
  Jonathan: Yeah, just like Lanny.
• 4:46
  Jonathan: And like Lanny, he had a lot of patents.
• 4:49
  Jonathan: Nineteen to be exact.
• 4:51
  Little Bo: What's a patent?
• 4:53
  Little Bo: Whoops.
• 4:56
  Little Bo: Uh sorry, Mary Hadda.
• 4:58
  Little Bo: You wanted a faux hawk, right?
• 5:02
  Redge: Oh, let me tell her what a patent is.
• 5:05
  Jonathan: Go for it, Redge.
• 5:06
  Redge: A patent is a special certificate that says no one else can use or sell the invention you created.
• 5:14
  Little Bo: Oh, got it.
• 5:16
  Little Bo: Okay, go on.
• 5:17
  Little Bo: Whoop, and keep those shears moving, people.
• 5:20
  Jonathan: Let me back up to the beginning.
• 5:22
  Jonathan: David Unaipon was born September 28, 1872, at the Point Maclay mission in a country called Australia.
• 5:32
  Redge: He was born on a mission.
• 5:34
  Jonathan: No, not like a secret spy mission.
• 5:36
  Jonathan: A mission, in this instance, is a place where Christian people try to teach others about their religion.
• 5:42
  Redge: Hmm, I see.
• 5:44
  Jonathan: David and his family were Aboriginal Australians, the very first group of people to live in Australia.
• 5:51
  Jonathan: His ancestors had been there for tens of thousands of years.
• 5:56
  Little Bo: Whoa, I wonder if my family goes that far back in Once Upon a Time land.
• 6:02
  Jonathan: Maybe.
• 6:03
  Jonathan: About 100 years before David was born, European settlers started to arrive in Australia, and by the time he was born, the settlers had spread across the country, often taking the land away from the Aboriginal Australians and pressuring them to learn European customs and beliefs.
• 6:21
  Redge: Now why would they do that?
• 6:23
  Jonathan: Well, sometimes when one group of people is seeking power and control, they feel like they have to treat another group of people very unfairly.
• 6:33
  Redge: That's just not right.
• 6:34
  Jonathan: I agree, Redge.
• 6:35
  Jonathan: There's nothing good about treating people unfairly.
• 6:39
  Jonathan: David's father, James, changed his last name to Unipon to make it easier for the European settlers to pronounce.
• 6:47
  Jonathan: He also changed his religion to Christianity, which was then seen as a European religion.
• 6:53
  Little Bo: But did he even want to do that?
• 6:56
  Jonathan: There is no way to know for sure, but we know that he loved his new religion so much that he became a preacher.
• 7:03
  Jonathan: A preacher is someone who talks to people about their religion and helps them learn how to follow it.
• 7:08
  Jonathan: But while he loved his new religion, he still loved his aboriginal culture.
• 7:13
  Jonathan: He would tell Bible stories to the kids alongside Aboriginal stories.
• 7:18
  Redge: Ooh, so the kids got double story time.
• 7:21
  Redge: I want double story time, Jonathan.
• 7:24
  Little Bo: Ooh, double story time.
• 7:27
  Jonathan: I think we only have time for one story today.
• 7:31
  Little Bo: Oh, right.
• 7:32
  Little Bo: We'll keep shearing.
• 7:34
  Redge: Just keep shearing, just keep shearing, just keep shearing, shearing, shearing.
• 7:40
  Jonathan: Right.
• 7:41
  Jonathan: So James, his dad, passed both his love of Christianity and a pride in Aboriginal culture on to his own nine children.
• 7:50
  Little Bo: Nine children.
• 7:52
  Little Bo: Well my word.
• 7:54
  Jonathan: David was number four.
• 7:56
  Jonathan: He was also curious, exceptionally smart, and loved to learn.
• 8:01
  Jonathan: He was obsessed with reading, especially books about science.
• 8:05
  Jonathan: He went to school on the mission from seven to thirteen years old.
• 8:10
  Redge: Does that mean he stopped going to school at thirteen?
• 8:13
  Redge: Well, that seems awfully young.
• 8:15
  Little Bo: Did he get lost on his way to school?
• 8:22
  Jonathan: No, that wasn't quite what happened to David.
• 8:25
  Jonathan: When he turned thirteen, David was sent away to be a servant in another part of Australia called Adelaide.
• 8:33
  Little Bo: A servant?
• 8:34
  Little Bo: At thirteen?
• 8:36
  Jonathan: I can't imagine David wanted to be a servant, especially because it took him away from school.
• 8:42
  Jonathan: But he was able to continue to pursue his love for learning.
• 8:46
  Jonathan: While he was there, he studied philosophy, literature, music, and science.
• 8:51
  Jonathan: And he spoke four languages Yaraldi, Latin, Greek, and English.
• 8:58
  Redge: Mmm, a well-rounded chap, quite like myself.
• 9:02
  Jonathan: When David turned 18, he returned to the mission where he learned how to make boots and played the organ at the church.
• 9:08
  Jonathan: However, there weren't many job opportunities for Aboriginal men in the area.
• 9:13
  Jonathan: It was a time when indigenous people were segregated, or separated from white people.
• 9:20
  Jonathan: They were discriminated against, and many people wouldn't hire them for work.
• 9:25
  Jonathan: So he moved back to Adelaide, where he found a job at a bootmaker's shop.
• 9:30
  Redge: And then he made his own fashion bootline and became a boot bajillionaire.
• 9:36
  Redge: Ha! Show them meanies.
• 9:39
  Little Bo: No, remember, he was an author, poet, preacher, and inventor.
• 9:45
  Little Bo: Whoa! Well look at me remembering something.
• 9:50
  Jonathan: Well done, Bo.
• 9:51
  Jonathan: The boot shop was just a stop along the way of David's achievements.
• 9:56
  Redge: Ooh, the plot thickens.
• 9:58
  Redge: As a grown-up, he began to study subjects like mechanics, and would conduct experiments on things like ballistics.
• 10:06
  Little Bo: Ballistics?
• 10:08
  Jonathan: That's the science of how things move when they are shot or thrown into the air.
• 10:12
  Little Bo: Like sheep being shot through the air by a giant slingshot?
• 10:17
  Little Bo: Well, hypothetically speaking.
• 10:22
  Jonathan: I mean, technically, yes, though I wouldn't recommend it.
• 10:26
  Jonathan: He was also fascinated with perpetual motion, which is the idea that a machine could be invented that runs forever without ever stopping.
• 10:36
  Redge: Is that real?
• 10:38
  Jonathan: No.
• 10:38
  Jonathan: Unfortunately, every attempt at perpetual motion has never worked, but that didn't stop David from trying.
• 10:45
  Jonathan: He studied it his whole life.
• 10:47
  Jonathan: And while he did that, he invented some important things, including sheep shears.
• 10:53
  Little Bo: Hold up.
• 10:54
  Little Bo: Sheep shears?
• 10:55
  Little Bo: You mean these things we're holding in our hands?
• 10:59
  Jonathan: Yep, invented by David Unaipon.
• 11:02
  Jonathan: In the early 1800s, people used to use blade shears to remove the wool from sheep.
• 11:07
  Jonathan: They were like these giant scissors, and it took forever.
• 11:12
  Redge: If we had to use giant scissors, we'd never be done by 3 p.m.
• 11:17
  Jonathan: Definitely not.
• 11:18
  Jonathan: It would take a whole day to shear thirty sheep.
• 11:22
  Jonathan: Now, farmers and beauty salon owners can shear 300 sheep in a day.
• 11:30
  Redge: I will not be doing that.
• 11:32
  Redge: I've had enough sheep shearing for a lifetime, thank you.
• 11:37
  Jonathan: Fair enough.
• 11:38
  Jonathan: But you can see how he helped create a very important industry with this invention.
• 11:43
  Redge: Oh I certainly can.
• 11:46
  Jonathan: David also predicted the invention of the helicopter.
• 11:49
  Little Bo: Get out of town!
• 11:51
  Redge: I will not get out of town, little bo.
• 11:54
  Redge: I live here too, you know.
• 11:56
  Jonathan: Oh, it's an expression, Redge.
• 11:59
  Redge: Oh.
• 11:59
  Redge: Go on.
• 12:02
  Jonathan: David thought of the idea for a helicopter by using both Western science as well as the science behind a boomerang.
• 12:09
  Jonathan: That's a curved piece of wood invented by Aboriginal Australians thousands of years ago.
• 12:14
  Jonathan: When you throw a boomerang, it spins through the air and comes right back to you.
• 12:20
  Redge: Could you also do that with a sheep?
• 12:22
  Sheep: Bah.
• 12:23
  Jonathan: You both know sheep are never meant to be thrown, right?
• 12:27
  Redge and Little Bo: Hypothetically.
• 12:30
  Jonathan: Anyway, my point is, David used his love of science and his deep understanding of Aboriginal culture in his inventions.
• 12:38
  Little Bo: Both sides of his life made him a well-rounded chap, as Redge likes to say.
• 12:44
  Jonathan: Precisely.
• 12:45
  Jonathan: And beyond that, he was an excellent writer.
• 12:48
  Jonathan: He was the first Aboriginal writer to be published in newspapers.
• 12:52
  Redge: Extra, extra, read all about it! David Unaipon, one heck of a guy.
• 12:59
  Jonathan: And it doesn't end there.
• 13:01
  Jonathan: Remember how his dad told him Aboriginal stories as a kid?
• 13:04
  Little Bo: I actually do remember that.
• 13:06
  Little Bo: Look at me remembering something else.
• 13:10
  Jonathan: David wanted to collect those stories and put them in a book.
• 13:14
  Jonathan: Sort of like what the Grimm brothers did with European fairy tales.
• 13:18
  Jonathan: So he traveled all over Australia, talking with Aboriginal people about different myths and legends.
• 13:26
  Jonathan: Those stories became the book Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
• 13:32
  Redge: Ooh, I want to read that.
• 13:34
  Redge: I'll have to find a copy.
• 13:36
  Redge: The sad part of the story is that a man named William Ramsey Smith bought the rights to the book and published it under his own name.
• 13:45
  Little Bo: And left David's name off of it?
• 13:48
  Jonathan: Yep.
• 13:49
  Redge: What a terrible thing to do.
• 13:52
  Jonathan: It was terrible.
• 13:54
  Jonathan: But that's part of why I tell these stories.
• 13:56
  Jonathan: I want to talk about the people who have done extraordinary things and aren't always recognized for their work.
• 14:04
  Little Bo: Well, I'll certainly recognize David, and I'll tell my friends about him if I can find my friends.
• 14:17
  Jonathan: David was an excellent speaker.
• 14:19
  Jonathan: He gave many public lectures and demonstrations about science, literature, and aboriginal culture.
• 14:26
  Jonathan: When he was 80, he received a coronation medal from Queen Elizabeth II.
• 14:32
  Jonathan: And to this day, David is now featured on Australia's $50 Note.
• 14:39
  Little Bo: What an honor!
• 14:42
  Jonathan: Truly, David led an extraordinary life despite the injustice he faced as an Aboriginal man.
• 14:48
  Redge: Here here.
• 14:50
  Little Bo: Well, great story, Jonathan.
• 14:52
  Little Bo: Oh, it's three o'clock.
• 14:56
  Little Bo: And that's our last sheep shared.
• 14:58
  Little Bo: The little boy down the lane will be here any second.
• 15:01
  Little Bo: Thank goodness for sheep shares.
• 15:04
  Redge: And thank goodness for David Unaipon.
• 15:07
  Jonathan: Time for my haircut.
• 15:09
  Little Bo: Oh, right.
• 15:10
  Little Bo: Uh anybody see my clippers?
• 15:16
  Jonathan: This has been a Jon in character production.
• 15:18
  Jonathan: This Hidden Hero of History story was written by Rebecca Cunningham and edited and produced by Molly Murphy.
• 15:25
  Jonathan: Little Bo was performed by Sophie, who you can find streaming on twitch.tv forward slash S0PH.
• 15:34
  Jonathan: All other characters were performed by Jonathan Cormur.
• 15:38
  Jonathan: Sound recording and production by Jermaine Hamilton at Pacific Grove Soundworks.
• 15:42
  Jonathan: We love hearing from you.
• 15:44
  Jonathan: Contact us at dorktalestorytime at gmail.com or try our one-way text feature as a safe way to reach out.
• 15:52
  Jonathan: You can find even more ways to reach us in the show notes.
• 15:56
  Jonathan: Now, go be the hero of your own story, and we'll see you next once upon a time.
• 16:06
  Theme Song: So gather squad.