I just thought I'd share this really cool piece of historical fiction by my eldest boy, Elijah (age 9). Shall we say, I'm a proud dad :)
A Convict's Life
By: Elijah Leo
Person: Heffision Lecardo age 27 (pronounced heff e shion le car do)
Date: 09/05/1787
Dear Diary
Ever since I was found with a knife at the age of 9 I have been on this ship for 18 years. Half of those years were spent on the river in London or somewhere in Great Britain! I can’t remember too well. Now we are sailing to a new land called New South Wales. This land was discovered by Captain Cook and us convicts are on a fleet there commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip. The food on the ship is terrible and we are not treated very well, we’re treated like cockroaches on board. And the Marines aren’t helping either; they keep giving us dirty looks and blaming us on things we didn’t do and after that we get worse punishments. The worst punishment was flogging. Flogging is where we were whipped by a cat-o'-nine tails which cut into our skin and made blood flecks fly everywhere! When we passed out the officers would get a bucket of seawater and throw it over our wounds. We would scream in agony as the water rushed onto the wounds. Then after that we were put into a cage which hung over the bow and when the ship went under the waves we had to hold our breath. I think New South Wales will be much better than this, it just has to be! I think I’ll be set free when we get there! I can’t wait to be set free.
THE END
This post is intended as an example for students enrolled in the CR181 Introduction to History & Geography unit at CHC. My students are asked to write entries that utilize ICT technologies and that
illustrate the cross-curriculum priorities of the Australian Curriculum as they
are reflected in this course.
The key words are 'illustrate' and 'reflected in
this course'.
This means that students need to take specific examples and case
studies from the course. The course mirrors and identifies the ACARA
curriculum as its basis – therefore, anything mentioned in the ACARA curriculum for History is fair game as well. You then need to
analyse the case study for the evidence of how it would help you teach the
cross-curriculum priority you have identified.
Please be aware that this is NOT a general discussion of these
priorities but are to be specific and explicit examples of HOW these priorities
can be evidenced within the course. As the use of primary documentation
is fundamental to the teaching of history, I would advise that your case
studies be built around primary document(s). So, with that in mind, here goes......
-------------------------------------------------
I came across the following image several years ago in the book A Nation for a Continent: the history of Australia, 1901-1975 by Russell Ward (1977). Called 'The Nigger and the Woodpile', it was originally published by Melbourne Punch, 14 May, 1925.
The caption beneath the cartoon reads: 'The Last of the Tribe: "My word, pretty soon no place in Australia for us Aussies!"'
As a cartoon, it is quite confronting, especially in a period in which as Australians, we are much more aware of the negative experiences of the Indigenous populations of this land during European settlement. We are also living in a period which John Keane, Professor of Politics at University of Sydney, describes as a greening of democratic politics.
futures-oriented, focusing on protecting environments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action. Actions that support more sustainable patterns of living require consideration of environmental, social, cultural and economic systems and their interdependence.
To this end, the cartoon can be quite valuable in outlining issues of the cross-curricular priority of sustainability in the ACARA History Curriculum with students.
The Australian Aboriginal sits folornly in ragged clothing (reinforcing the negative stereotypes of indigenous people of the period) on a rocky outcrop overlooking a deforested landscape. Not a tree is left standing. It is an example of clear felling, a process which lays claim by the unidentified settler to the landscape. Connected to this image is the lament that there will be 'no place ... for us Aussies!' Here we are clearly being positioned to feel some sympathy for the Aboriginal but only because he has 'lucked out' and has been pushed to the social periphery, an outcome which was not necessarily perceived as a negative in this period. Indeed, approximately 40 years later, in 1959, Professor JA La Nauze of ANU wrote that
Unlike the Maori, the American Indian or the South African Bantu, the
Australian aboriginal is noticed in our history only in a melancholy
anthropological footnote (quoted
in H Reynolds, ‘History’ in R Nile (ed), Australian Civilisation,
Oxford University Press: Melbourne, p. 25.)
What is distinctly interesting in this particular cartoon is how it emphasises the notion of terra nullius and attitudes of imperialism and colonialism that was a distintive part of the ideological framework of the colonial and early twentieth-century Australia. The landscape is there for the taking, the resources are to be utilised in a fashion that that clearly has no thought for the aridity of the landscape and potential soil degradation that could follow. The farming practices evidenced here are part of the 'large and properous class of yeoman farmers' that Richard Waterhouse shows is significant in our history of poor farming practices.
As a document, it clearly asks us to consider how the attitudes to the natural landscape, European-influenced farming practices and attitudes to the Indigenous peoples of this country are a necessary part of sustainability education. We are being directly challenged to reflect on how attitudes of the past were not futures-oriented in a way that considered the vagaries of the natural Australian landscape. Likewise the ecological impact has a direct effect on the socially just outcomes for indigenous peoples. The attitudes towards the landscape are directly connected with attitudes that push Indigenous people to the periphery of society.
Not long after this cartoon was originally published, the last Tasmanian Tiger died in a captivity (1936) in a Hobart Zoo.
It too was a victim of the same attitudes exhibitied in this cartoon as recent research by the University of Adelaide has confirmed. The animal was seen as a pest by farmers in Tasmania and so the Tasmanian Government offered a bounty between 1886 and 1909. Consequently, human attittudes that had not been trained by sustainability education as we understand it today, are a key contributory factor in the extinction of the Thylacine.
Between the clear-felled trees, marginalised Aboriginal and destroyed Thylacine, we can see how historical documentation can assist us in developing sustainable patterns of living that meet both the needs of the present and of future generations.
Some professional reading for the holidays. A great little book that emphasises one of the key elements of good teaching. Indeed, the research is now out that highlights that feedback is the KEY element to success. Rocket Science really......
As a book, some great practical ideas to implement in your classroom to provide simple easy feedback on the learning process. Some good ideas that I'll be trying in my own lectures and tutes this coming year also. As a book, it becomes a bit repetitive towards the last couple of chapters - I flicked through the last 2 1/2 as I was getting a bit bored. But for any teacher (new or old hand) beginning to think about the year ahead (and with the sun out and the beach calling, I wouldn't be yet if I didn't have to!) this is well worth the read to build up your professional toolbox for the coming year.
I am a husband, father, educator and general traveller of life. For my professional connections, bio and interests go to: http://chc.edu.au/about-us/staff/academic-schools/education/richard-leo/
