TODAY’S call from Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre state secretary Trudy Maluga for more on Aboriginal history to be taught in state schools is overdue.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Maluga has said that broadening students’ knowledge of Aboriginal history would protect stories for future generations.
“I think telling the truth about Tasmania’s history and the atrocities that Tasmanian Aboriginal people have endured, and are still probably enduring today, is very important,” she told The Sunday Examiner.
Her comments come after news that the New South Wales Board of Studies has decided to provide a greater focus in the state’s school curriculum on the environment, Asia, Aboriginal history and the role of women in modern Australian history through a set of new elective subjects.
There is no denying that all Tasmanian students are exposed to pre-colonial history but is it enough?
Any instruction on Aboriginal history needs to cover events deep in the past and the not-so-distant past.
Students need to unflinchingly learn of Aboriginal struggle.
They need to learn both perspectives of the Black War in Tasmania, the politics around colonisation versus invasion, and the enduring fight over more recent times to be not be treated as second-class citizens.
They need to examine government policy failures, such as the removal of mixed-race Aboriginal children from their mothers over six decades.
They need to learn about land rights, poverty issues and Aboriginal contribution towards international conflicts.
They need to understand discrimination more broadly: why it exists, how it develops, and how to challenge it.
Better yet, members of Tasmania’s Aboriginal community should be invited to share their stories and participate in teaching subjects.
It is pleasing to see that the state government will contribute $520,000 over two years from this year to provide more resources and training so teachers can deliver an enhanced Aboriginal curriculum.
There is no dispute that post-European Australia is important as are other tales of migration to the lucky country.
Aboriginal history is thought to extend back more than 45,000 years.
Perhaps it deserves more thorough attention than it currently receives.
