Anonymous 1307

I understand that it was fraught with deception, mistreatment and massacres. I know that men like John Batman abused systems of Treaty and the First Nations traditions of passing through country to steal land from the Victorian Aboriginals and were eventually pushed further and further of their country.

I went to school in Victoria between the years of 1998 – 2010 and feel very strongly that the teaching of First Nations history was near non existent. We were taught of the existence of Aboriginal Australians but merely a mention without any significant discussion. At points we were exposed to ideas of mistreatment, particularly in the build up to Kevin Rudd’s apology but I never grasped the depth of this history. Whether that was my being an ignorant teenager or a failing of the education system could be debated. But it was around that time when I first consciously remember hearing that First Nations people are the world’s longest continuous culture, and date back as far as 20,000 years. (I know this as much as 60-80,000 years now). This blew my mind but I only learned this when I was 17 or so. This then peaked my interest in First Nations history and for the last 15 years I have been seeking out books on First Nations history to educate myself. Not only because I feel the need to understand the truth about our nations history but because our pre-colonial history is amazing and I think it is one of the coolest things ever that we live in a country with such a long and incredible history. This is the pride and curiosity I try to instill in young learners today so they don’t have to wait until they are 17. I have now been a primary educator in the Victorian education system for 7 years and I have seen many improvements in the amount of time spent on First Nations History and even in my 7 years I’ve seen how teachers have advanced their knowledge and pedagogy in this area. Having said that this comes from teachers like myself up skilling themselves through their own research or regular reading of First Nations historical texts or seeking their own professional development. I don’t believe their is enough compulsory professional development for this area of teaching thus teachers may avoid teaching First Nations history out of concern that they do not know how to teach it properly, or even teachers who go in confidently and naively and find themselves in culturally inaccurate or inappropriate situations.

More compulsory professional development around the teaching of First Nations history and teaching First Nations Perspectives, and department of education funded school budget specific to First Nations history whether the school uses this for extra professional development for staff, or incursions and excursions for students.

I think to start we need to be open to alternative histories from the ones we were taught growing up, we need to, as adults, educate ourselves as most of us were not provided a proper First Nations history during our years in the education system. We also need to listen, listen to First Nations Victorians and not make decisions or form perspectives on behalf of them.

I think to start we need to be open to alternative histories from the ones we were taught growing up, we need to, as adults, educate ourselves as most of us were not provided a proper First Nations history during our years in the education system. We also need to listen, listen to First Nations Victorians and not make decisions or form perspectives on behalf of them.