'Rang-Tan'

Primary 7 have been exploring the poem 'Rang-Tan', which was created by Greenpeace, an environmental charity which focuses on protecting the natural world. We were interested in looking at this poem after reading 'Running Wild' by Michael Morpurgo and learning about the destruction of  habitats for palm oil, something that many of us knew nothing about.

 

 Rang-Tan

There’s a Rang-tan in my bedroom and I don’t know what to do.
She plays with all my teddies and keeps borrowing my shoe.
She destroys all of my houseplants and she keeps on shouting “ooo!”

She throws away my chocolate and she howls at my shampoo.

There’s a Rang-tan in my bedroom and I don’t want her to stay.
So I told the naughty Rang-tan that she had to go away.

Oh Rang-tan in my bedroom, just before you go...
Why were you in my bedroom?
I really want to know.

 

There’s a human in my forest and I don’t know what to do.
He destroyed all of our trees for your food and your shampoo.

 

There’s a human in my forest and I don’t know what to do.

He took away my mother and I’m scared he’ll take me too.

 

There are humans in my forest and I don’t know what to do.

They’re burning it for palm oil so I thought I’d stay with you.

 

Oh Rang-tan in my bedroom now I do know what to do. I’ll fight to save your home and I’ll stop you feeling blue.

I’ll share your story far and wide so others can fight too.

Oh Rang-tan in my bedroom I swear it on the stars

The future’s not yet written but I’ll make sure it is ours. 

 

This poem has formed the basis of the Iceland Supermarket advert which was banned from being shown on the television due to its political message. It tells the story of Rang-tan, a young orangutan who finds herself homeless and hiding out in a little girl's bedroom. The primate explains how her habitat has been destroyed by the deforestation that comes with making some crude palm oil.


We studied some newspaper articles and aimed to answer the following:

• What palm oil is.
• How palm oil is used.
• The positives and negatives of farming palm oil, including deforestation which is referred to in the poem. 
• Who Greenpeace is and what the focus of the charity is. 
• Why the government have banned it.
• Whether the children believed it was right to ban the advert. 

 

The children were exceptionally thoughful and were genuinely moved by both the poem and the advert.


Linked below is one of the articles we studied, along with the advert.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46179101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o