Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Resource Analysis
Resource Analysis
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EDMT5679:
This article published in 1938, gives an insightful overview into the proceedings which
occurred during the 1938 protest by the Aboriginal community now more popularly referred
to as the day of mourning. This article ties into the NSW Education Standards Authority (2017)
syllabus for teaching stage 5 history, specifically the depth 4 study which requires students to
examine the significance of Aboriginal activism during this period which involved many
changes to Aboriginal rights and freedom. The article gives information of the issues that were
raised during this meeting which was inclusively intended for only the attendance of people
with ‘Aboriginal blood’. The article which voices the issues raised at this protest is accurate
regarding the events that were taking place during this period. ‘White’ Australia was
celebrating the progression that country had made throughout the past 150 years, however for
the Aboriginal community it was a reminder of their exclusion from rights and laws which
could improve their way of life (Maynard, 2007). The article gives an Aboriginal perspective
of their exclusion, a perspective which is not romanticized yet simply to understand: Aboriginal
people were not treated fairly to the ‘white’ population, which plays into the issue of racism
from this period. This article details a protest which was conducted under the authority of
mainly Jack T. Patten, an Aboriginal civil rights activist, who was one of the founders and
president of the Aborigines’ Progressive Association (APA). The article states that all
Aboriginal people who fell under the jurisdiction of the Aboriginal Protection Act (1898) were
welcome and that non Aboriginal people were not. Overall the article is a great piece of
evidence, however there as some issues which need to be addressed within the article. Firstly,
the terminology which is used throughout the text is improper now, referring to Aboriginal
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culture as one singular culture, which is not case and as such the term is now considered
inappropriate to use when referring to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The other
issue is the actual name of the newspaper, which uses the term ‘Abo’ which is considered racial
mourning-and-protest-aborigines-conference-75th-anniversary/26th-january-1938
Resource 2: The Policy of Assimilation, January 26th and 27th 1961: Canberra
This resource is a transcript released in 1961 regarding the native welfare conference held in
Canberra by the Commonwealth and State ministers. The article details the decision agreed
upon by all states of Australia regarding the proceedings of the Policy of Assimilation, a law
which had a great impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This resource
also fits into the depth 4 study of the stage 5 syllabus for the history curriculum, expect this
source falls under the expectation which asks students to identify the key impacts that the
assimilation policy had on the rights and freedoms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people (NSW Education Standards Authority, 2017). Although the policy is presented in a
positive manner to help better the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, what it
ended up causing was a destruction of identity/culture and provided a justifiable law for actions
which were callous. Aboriginal Studies academic, Michael Dodson (1996) said in an interview
that the policy of Assimilation was embedded with a clear ideology of culture inferiority, that
white culture and their way of life was superior to that of Aboriginal culture and in turn the
policy was a means to protect but to extinct Aboriginal people and their culture. The transcript
plays into this popular generalization that the Aboriginal way of life is inferior to the white
way of life, whilst it’s political romantic wording tries to establish the positivity of the policy,
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however the events that followed the commencing of the policy indicate otherwise. The
transcript, as well as the conference lacks Aboriginal support or involvement, in-fact it sought
to oppress the say of Aboriginal people within society. The policy was a manifestation of white
government and their control over the country (West & Murphy, 2010). The source is
extremely ethnocentric, through its assumption that White-European culture is superior, whilst
the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is neglected, rather they are all
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study of rights and freedom is the newspaper article published by the Abo Call in 1938 about
the event which is now referred to as the Day of Mourning. The aim of implementing this
resource into the classroom is to provide a perspective which comes directly from the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as too often the resources readily available
are produced without the viewpoint of the group or individuals directly involved. This provides
a deeper and richer understanding not only historical events but also Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander culture (Shipp, 2013). Similarly, from a historical perspective the resource is a
very valuable way of teaching key historical skills, like differentiating between primary and
secondary sources. This will help students to meet one of the key outcomes set by NESA,
which states from students should learn to select and analyse a range of historical sources to
2017). This a very important resource which requires students to think critically about the
struggles that were occurring within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community as
the time. A positive learning strategy for this task would be to get students in pairs and have
them read over the article and then identify one issue they thought was important and one
concept they didn’t understand and then coming together as a class for a discussion. The
resource directly links to the syllabus produced by NESA, which requires students to learn
about the struggle for rights obtaining rights and freedom within the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander community, as well as also fitting into the section which requires students to
engage with early about early twentieth-century activism with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander community. This will contribute to student’s other outcome implemented by NESA
includes being able to identify group or individual actions which had an impact on how society
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is now shaped and teaches how to use relevant sources to construct arguments and ideas within
Reference List:
NSW Education Standards Authority. (2017). Core Study – Depth Study 4: Rights and
freedoms (1945–present). Retrieved 19 April 2017, from
http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/hsie/history-k10/content/835/
Shipp, C. (2013). Bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into the
classroom: Why and how?. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 21(3), 24-29.
The Abo Call. (1938). Our Historic day of Mourning & Protest, p. 2. Retrieved from
https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/catalogue_resources/r000006632049n1p2.pdf
The Policy of Assimilation. (1961). Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Studies. Retrieved 19 April 2017, from
https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/catalogue_resources/18801.pdf
West, B., & Murphy, F. (2010). A brief history of Australia (1st ed.). New York, NY: Infobase
Publishing.