1. People, Power & Conflict.
Year 9
Issues in Australian History.

2. The First Australians
Australian History – The truth revealed
Many books about Australian History start with the sentences such as…
“In 1770 Captain James Cook sailed on the voyage where he discovered Australia.”
What is wrong with this version of our history, and what problems might the teaching of this history cause ?

3. The First Australians.
Board Notes
When the first Europeans settled in Australia in 1788, Indigenous people had been living here for at least 40, 000, and possibly up to 100, 000 years.

4. Evidence
There is evidence of humans in Australia as far back as 100,000 years with the discovery of charcoal in Lake George, NSW.
More reliable evidence can be sourced from ancient rock art carved in the Kimberly which dates back 50,000 years.

5. More Evidence

6. The Great African Migration
It is believed that humans began migrating out of Africa, across the European continent, across Asia and down into Australia, during Ice Ages that created land bridges, 120,000 years ago
This migration may have taken as long as 20,000 years to complete resulting in physical, cultural and behavioural changes in the differing migrating groups.

8. Where did they come from?

9. Many early settlers thought the Aborigines were basically all the same.
However, there were about 500 different tribes, each with their own language, beliefs and customs.

10. Question Why were there so many language groups?
Answer this question in your books.

11. So why was there no towns or cities?
People only stay in one place if everything they need is available all the time.
Aboriginals moved around a lot to get different types of food and to allow the land to regenerate.
This system worked extremely well but the British saw it as backwards and uncivilised.

12. This lack of civilisation is what gave Britain the green light to go ahead and take over the entire country.
They felt they had followed the law. Legally, they had done nothing wrong.
Ethically, morally I think they knew they were dispossessing a people of their land.
British idea of civilisation.
Aboriginal idea of civilisation

13. Terra Nullius
What does it mean?

14. Terra Nullius
How different would Australian history have been had the British encountered what they deemed to be a civilisation?

15. The two civilisations meet
Read pages of the text book

16. The FIGHT
From the earliest days of settlement, Aboriginal people have fought to protect their lands and their ways of life.
Sadly, a huge portion on them have lost their lives and much of the traditional culture no longer remains. Pg

17. Genocide
Australia is the site of some of the least discussed acts of Genocide in the world.
Massacres occurred on a number of occasions in the early days and the government policy to breed them out was official up until the 1960’s. Pg

18. McMillian
Read through the information handout and answer the questions in your workbooks.

19. There are many other records of the horrifying and brutal treatment Aboriginal people experienced over the last 220 years. From massacre, theft and rape, to the removal of their children. They have been poisoned, made to turn against one another, ridiculed and referred to as animals. Many were also forced from traditional lands onto missions and reserves run by the government were they were forbidden to practice their culture. Aboriginal people were given no rights as citizens until 1962.

20. The Freedom Rides
Even though, (after 170 years of occupation), Aboriginal people were finally given the right to vote in 1962 and the right to equal pay in 1965, many things did not change for the Aboriginal people. In fact life got a lot worse for some.
Why do you think this might have been the case?

21. Charlie Perkins
In 1965, in response to the growing tension, frustration and discrimination, a group of aboriginal activists and non-aboriginal students led by a young aboriginal man named Charlie Perkins, set out in a bus for northern NSW. They wanted everyone to know about the discrimination that Aboriginal people dealt with everyday.

22. Treaty
Even though there has been a lot of advances in the conditions and treatment of Aboriginal people in the last 40 years, two major issues still remain.
Reconciliation and land rights are important political and social issues yet to be resolved in Australia.
Activity
Listen to the song “Treaty” by Yothu Yindi.

23. Questions What is this song about?
How do you feel about the message it is sending?
Why do you think some politicians might be reluctant to do more than just talk about a reconciliation treaty? What might they be afraid of?

24. Glossary
Using books and the internet, find the definitions of the following words.
Tribe
Kinship
Elder
Corroboree
Initiation
Dreamtime
Totem