Real History: It’s About Time

NAIDOC 2021 Heal Country

As a history teacher and an immigrant to and proud citizen of Australia, I have been baffled by the way that history is approached and what children and adolescents are taught about our own history. Yes, OUR own history. As residents or citizens of this great nation, we should all hold dear the extensive and rich culture and tradition of this nation’s First People and recognise their contribution as the world’s oldest civilization and take pride in the rich historical tradition and culture of Australia and its First Nations people.

The recognition of this rich culture and tradition in the curriculum is an important milestone, and well overdue. While contact history has long been taught in Australian history, it was British contact history that was prominent. The tales of a heroic Commander Cook sailing into Botany Bay to claim terra nullius for the crown is the story that thousands of children hear in school regarding how this country came to be Australia. As a historian, or at the very least a history teacher, it appals me that such a story is the common narrative.  As a former US Marine, elevating anyone to a rank they never earned is blasphemy. James Cook was a ‘commander’, not a captain.  In fact, his rank was actually Lieutenant, but he was appointed master and commander, eventually shortened to commander, a temporary appointment given to lieutenants who commanded smaller vessels. However, I digress. What is important here is that a fairy-tale has been developed around this story, there is little in the common narrative that is actual fact.

The proposed new curriculum has a commitment to ‘truth telling’ recognising that “Australia’s First Nations peoples viewed Britain’s arrival as an ‘invasion’.” While this is seemingly great news, the sceptic in me says, really? Is that all?  The curriculum is going to recognise that Australia’s First Nations peoples view Cook’s arrival as an invasion, as opposed to what?  What else would it be? And why does the curriculum only recognise that this is how First Nations view Cook’s arrival?  If truth telling is the goal, then we must tell the truth. The Frontier Wars or Frontier Conflicts are real. The fact that there was conflict in the form of battles, acts of resistance and massacres, means there was a resistance, regardless if it was recognised as a declaration of war. I always found this distinction interesting. As an American, and American historian, you sometimes hear the about the conflicts in Korea (1950-54) and Vietnam (1965-75) explained away as police actions as the US Congress never officially declared war. I look at this in the same way. The Australian government didn’t really exist at the time of the Frontier Wars and the British didn’t see it as a war, but as territorial colonial conflicts; therefore, no war.

All that said, I hope this new curriculum recognises the recognition that the ‘winners’ often get to write the history, and the nonrecognition of the Frontier Wars as wars, doesn’t assume that Australia was simply a peaceful colonial settlement or the preposterous notion of Australia being discovered. One change that is being made in this regard as noted in the proposed new curriculum, follows:

The current curriculum states: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country/Place.

This has been changed to:

The occupation and colonisation of Australia by the British, under the now overturned doctrine of terra nullius, were experienced by First Nations Australians as an invasion that denied their occupation of, and connection to, Country/Place.

While this is an improvement over the very neutral statement in the previous iteration, I suggest it doesn’t go far enough. In order to really foster a sense of reconciliation, we need to look at history from the point of view of the victim as well as the victor – a true history presents multiple points of view and helps children or students to draw conclusions based on facts, not on the stories people want to tell about the history. Many students are already well aware of the fanciful tale of the incorrectly ranked Captain Cook and his heroic voyage to Botany Bay to claim the Australian territory, at the least the east coast, for the British crown. Many, are also aware that this tale is not entirely true. They understand that one cannot claim terra nullius on a land that is inhabited. Thankfully, the concept of terra nullius has been officially overturned. However, both of these stories are western stories, told by the dominant culture and a more progressive dominant culture, respectively.

What about the victim’s voice? Where is the indigenous voice in this story? And where is that Story today, because it is not over. If we want to move forward as one society, then we need to really be honest about where we are and how we got there. A truthful history recognises that Indigenous Australians have never ceded their land to western invaders. If we accept that our history as white Australia is fraught with atrocities and wrong-doing, only then can we make real progress. We do not need to dwell in that past to make our white students feel guilty, but they should be taught history and recognise the real history of this country so that we can make changes to the current situation and recognise the indigenous voice in our community as a way to move forward together.

We owe our children the truth and access to the real history of this country from multiple perspectives.  The promise of the new curriculum is encouraging, but it will take dedicated and knowledgeable teachers to communicate this history in a respectful way. It’s time we all come together to Heal Country and schools and the education of future generations is one of the most important ways this can happen.