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Source 5.3. Chapter II: The Britons in New syllabus history for fourth grade
(Dunlop and Palfrey, 1933, pp. 44-45)
5.4.2 Discourses of British conflicts.
One way the category Privileging British heritages is illustrated is through discourses of
British conflicts. This discourse is mediated through poetry and historical narratives told as
stories, often with the central figure as the hero of the story. Examples from Queensland
Readers: Book IV (Department of Public Instruction, 1913a) are included here. The first
discourse of British conflict is introduced through the poem, After Blenheim, written by
Robert Southey. This poem, about a battle in Austria whereby the British defeated the
French, is widely regarded as being essentially anti-war. For example, it discusses the futility
of the lives of civilians and soldiers lost during war-time. However, there is evidence that
despite the author’s views of armed conflict as being futile, the English are portrayed as being
on the ‘right side’. This is particularly evidenced through the following extract from lines 31-
32 in Stanza 6):
“ It was the English,” Kaspar cried,
“ Who put the French to rout ; (Department of Public Instruction, 1913a, p. 16)
This is then supported in other examples from the same Reader, for example in the poem, Ye
Mariners of England (Department of Public Instruction, 1913a, pp. 102-104), where
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