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Australia contains further significance as it views British heritages as changing, fluid
throughout time and moving towards ‘goodness’ as a sign of progress attributable to British
heritages; whereas other topics, such as Indigenous representations are viewed as static and
unchanging. This combined with the preface (see the Key Syllabus Documents section of this
chapter) demonstrates both overtly (in the case of the preface) and mitigated (in the case of
this example) the values of progression in human history. The passage reads:
A story from the travels of Mr. David Carnegie in West Australia will interest you.
When searching for gold, he journeyed through the sandy plains with a caravan of
camels, horses, and a few white companions. He came upon a native hut, in which
crouched an old man whose grey beard was plaited into ends like rats’ tails, and his
back hair was twisted into a knot and covered with a net of string. An unhappy black
boy lay there, his eyes being sore; and flies settled on the boy’s eyelids and caused
him much distress. Mr. Carnegie anointed the lad’s eyes with some lotion which he
carried in his medicine chest. The old man held the patient, and gave nods with his
head to show that he was pleased. The lotion relieved the boy’s eyes.
Later on in his travels Mr. Carnegie again passed by the native camp. The old
man approached the European, accompanied by a group of friends, all looking very
mysterious. They gave Mr. Carnegie a parcel—something very hard, wrapped
between two sheets of tree-bark. Having opened the packet, he found inside a flat
piece of wood, carved on both sides with rough patterns. The Australians thought
very highly of this article. In their eyes it was a treasure which they thought Mr.
Carnegie would be glad to accept. Of course he took it and thanked them. It was a
mark of their gratitude. Savage as they were, their hearts could understand a kind
action done to a black child by a strange white man. (F.J. Gould, 1909, pp. 37-38)
The binary logic of this is apparent by terms used to describe Indigenous Australians as a
group. In this and other passages, terms such as “savage”, “wild”, “natives”, “savage as they
were, their hearts could understand a kind action done to a black child by a strange white
man” (F.J. Gould, 1909, p. 37, 38) describe the way of life of Indigenous Australians as
primitive. Whereas, on the other hand, except for this one occasion where Carnegie is
described as a “strange white man” (F.J. Gould, 1909, p. 38), at all other times he is referred
to as either “Mr. David Carnegie” (p. 37) or “Mr. Carnegie” (p. 37, 38). Whilst these
attributes are given to the two distinct groups, it is important to analyse this textbook within
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