Rosemary Simons

By teaching it in a way that is geographically and historically connected to the student, provides a base of knowledge which can help inform decisions about our future and feels relevant to the student’s lives and their community. By using the teaching process to further build and archive of knowledge about our history. Constraints: Unfortunately, there is a major gulf to overcome here. Victoria’s history, is like a piece of weaving where some strands have been slashed and need to be reconnected. Strands have been and are still being broken. Examples follow. (NB. Not in order of priority) 1/ By government policy e.g. The recent stopping/pausing of the truth telling project in Queensland. 2/ By the destruction of cultural sites. e.g., Constructing, in recent years, a path around Griffith Island that cuts through a midden. 3/ By a lack of informed press coverage. (Nb There have been improvements) 4/ By governments preventing First Nations people from passing on their culture, language and history to their children by government, church or other policies that forbade cultural practices, removed people from their country and removed First Nations children from their families. 5/ By parents and other relatives failing to tell their children about their family history either because they felt it was not important or they were ashamed or embarrassed about what they knew. Alternatively, they were part of the ‘conspiracy of silence’ and they themselves simply were not told. 6/ By children being educated overseas or with parents born overseas adding obstacles to the accessing education about Australian history. Approach – Acknowledge and address the absences whilst simultaneously building the archive. 1/ By recognising the deliberate and/or accidently gap in our knowledge of First Nation’s history and culture. history and culture. 2/ By accommodating the range of backgrounds and knowledge levels existing in the student body and in the people close to them. 3/ By having First Nations people, if not directly teaching the courses, at least with crucial roles in the creation of the syllabus and at the heart of visits to cultural institutions such as galleries, museums, libraries and Aboriginal run organisations such as the Koorie Heritage Trust, Budj Bim, Tower Hill, Coranderrk etc. etc. Ideally, on such visits, students can be taken on tour of a collection or country with First Nations guides. (It is really important that children of all backgrounds meet or connect in some way with First Nations people to help the history come alive and feel connected to them). 4/ By having children do their own research. E.G. Have them visits aged care homes, where they can meet and speak with residents including First Nations residents and/or staff, about their lives and what they know about our history. 5/ Have them discuss with their immediate and extended family or guardian(s) (Who may or not be First nations themselves), about what they know of First Nations culture and history.. (There is a body of untapped knowledge in the community, material which could be collected and integrated into courses for future students). NOTE: Care would need to be taken to ensure that such sharing is done, recorded and archived, in a way that is safe for those involved. First Nations people have various reason for being guarded about what they share and non-First Nations people may feel inhibited by shame, embarrassment or some other discomfort.

My Story The approach outlined above stems from my own experience, so I include it in case it helps. I was fortunate enough to be selected as the exhibition designer of the first exhibition at the Brambuk Living Cultural Centre, Halls Gap.

Representatives from five Western Victorian communities heading up the project and they opened my eyes to my country’s history, leading to me feeling totally short changed by my education to that point. (I was born in 1951.) So much richness, wonder and terror in my country’s past! Ways of being and social structures in which there was a lot to admire, had all been hidden from me – it was a revelation. Inspired by this gift of knowledge from those on the committee, to whom I am extremely grateful, I began my own research. Part of this involved recording my own memories and asking family and friends questions about their recollections of First Nations people and their history. It was a rich haul, including:- -A story of a boy, not Aboriginal, who took to wandering after he acquired a brain injury. He may never had made it home unless a kind and compassionate First Nations family in the vicinity, had not, more than once, found him and returned him to his mother . (My research suggest that this kind family may have been the Peppers). -A memory of me and my sister playing with a small boomerang when we were children, which, too my shame, we lost. Reportedly this boomerang was found by a family member during the 1930’s to 1960’s, in the heart of a tree fern in the Dandenong’s. -When I asked my Uncle, who lived in Kew, his memory of Aboriginal people, he had only one. Imprinted on his mind was the image of an Aboriginal man walking through the cutting in Kew, with blood down his shirt. (I hope it is OK to mention this. It was upsetting to my Uncle and to me, however, somehow, it feels important to mention.) -My sister I think, found a photograph taken by my grandfather in the 1920’s. It was taken at Lake Tyres and shows some First Nations people, baskets, buildings and other items. (That photograph is now in the collection of the Koorie Heritage Trust) -When I was a child in the 1950’s or early 1960’s, I saw a photo in the newspaper of a couple of pretty Aboriginal girls with bows in their hair, frilly dresses and frilly petticoats. They were on a staircase. How I envied those girls! They must have been in a rich person’s house as they had stairs and oh, I so wanted to dress as they did. (This is an example of how what is going on can be misrepresented. Perhaps these girls thrived, however, I now know how they may have come to be in that home and how challenging their lives many have been). -When I asked a friend about their recollections, she spoke of an Aboriginal man who taught her and many other children to swim. -A man told me of driving around northern Victoria, I am guessing it would have been in the 1970’s or 1980’s, and being told that the roads were built from “Black fella ovens” mined from banks of the Murray River. The above anecdotes may already be well recorded but it is possible that there remains an untapped wealth of information that could be collated from First Nations and non-First Nations people, as part of the education process, through students doing their own questioning and research. Whilst such anecdotes may not comply with conventional research practices, perhaps there is some way to have them an accepted part of our story and archive. Such an archive, on a state wide scale, could help fill in some gaps for both First Nations people and non-First Nations People. Potentially they could build respect and gratitude toward First Nations people from the wider community and, in general, build knowledge of our history, our connection to our country and connections between First Nations people and other members of Victoria’s community. (Note that as very year that goes by, more of our history may be lost, thereby lessening our opportunity to connect the threads.) Obviously the anecdotes would only form a small but valuable part of the syllabus. Thank you very much for the opportunity to make this submission.