Your Story or Mine-AB272 Wk 3

Henry Ford’s claim that ‘history is bunk’ refers to Australia’s history being written from white social memory, and with no input from the indigenous of Australia. The white social memory refers to how documentation of events from the view point of the European settlers is written with biased opinions and built upon the systematic and technically rigorous examination of documented records. (Nugent. 1968. p. 36) The involvement of indigenous Australians in the writing of history before the nineteenth century is minimal and their knowledge of events, not included in history but their “local knowledge” of where these historical events took place are evident in the many memorial plaques that are being erected and telling a new history involving the indigenous Australians.

In the context of Aboriginal history and education, the ‘Aboriginal eyewitness’ reinforces the ‘changing use and meanings of Aboriginal testimony about historical events, particularly as they are deployed, or indeed dismissed, in the new context of public memory and history’. (Nugent. 1968. p. 39). Colonist required Aboriginal knowledge to preserve their own past, only referring to the indigenous for where events happened but never what happened from their point of view, and continues to do so in the twentieth century, preferring to research ‘old ways’ through sorting through collections of pre-contact materials and not drawing on living Aboriginal people as sources of information. (Nugent. 1968. P. 43)

Aboriginal Education was overseen by a European appointed “Protector of Aborigines”. From 1905 onwards Aboriginal people had every aspect of their lives controlled by the protector. Government agencies and church groups decided that Aboriginal children needed to be educated, some would say assimilated to European ways. No involvement of Aboriginal people was sought about what to teach children or how to teach their children, but that they were to be ‘Christianised and civilised and taught ‘useful’ skills. (Mounsey. 1980. P. 30) This attitude is built on the European understanding of history, that ‘because of their limited mastery of English literacy and numeracy, Aboriginals were only educable only to fourth or fifth grade’, an assumption assumed because of one view of history.

The late 1960’s inclusion of recorded oral histories of Aboriginals bought with it a new history which depicted the relationship between Aboriginal and non Aboriginals from the view point of the Aboriginals, a classic example of this is Mission Training (Mowaljarlai, D. & Malnic, J.) and ‘A Lousy Six-pence’ (Nugent. 1968. P. 38) This acceptance of the oral stories, motivated Aboriginal people to become involved in decisions concerning Aboriginal people, especially in areas of education and history.

"The history and achievement of Aboriginal people must occupy its rightful place in literature, textbooks and educational programmes offered in Australian schools and not portray the stereotypical view of ‘culturally deprived, lazy, dirty, drunken, modern day Aboriginal but embrace the environmental and cultural differences of all Australians.”(Mounsey. 1980. p.403)
Documentation from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sources supports the fact that Aboriginal people wanted their children to ‘acquire mastery of functional literacy and numeracy skills and develop self-sufficiency and gain an independence from domination and manipulation by non Aborigines". (Mounsey. 1980. p.404)

Australian History is a shared history and should be a collaborative project involving non-Indigenous forms of history and the Indigenous forms, whether oral, painting or dreaming stories. A consensus should be met in relation to time, place according to each cultures view of time and space .As Mounsey states on page 404, ‘The success of many Aborigines has come from the contributions they have made to Australian society in general rather than from their contributions to their own communities....and the demand to have a say in the determining of what will be taught to, and about Aborigines in Australian Schools’ shows Aborigines want the right to be included in Australia’s History as Australians. (Mounsey. 1980. p.404)


References:

Mounsey, C. F, (1980) Aboriginal Education-A New Dawning. In R. & C. Berndt. Aborigines of the West. Their Past and Present (pp394-404). University of WA Press: Perth.

(Mowaljarlai, D. & Malnic, J.) Mission Training. In Yorro Yorro Spirit of the Kimberley. Magabala Books. Magabala Books: Western Australia.

Nugent, M. (1968) Aboriginal History: Historical Encounters. Aboriginal History, volume 30, 33-47