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one Indigenous person. There is a very distinct grouping of behaviour by one Indigenous
Australian as being representative of all, in a way that does not occur for any other group, and
gives further weight to the argument that this group is treated as subjugated by stereotyped
traits.
6.4.4 Discourses of Indigenous knowledges.
An anomaly discourse that does not often present itself in textbooks from this era, with Social
Studies for Queensland schools grade 5 (Department of Education, 1959/1962/1966) being a
notable exception, is the valuing of Indigenous knowledges and lifestyles as superior to non-
Indigenous knowledges. In this example, the inclusion of Indigenous Australians; although
highlighting the superior knowledge the Indigenous people held (it is expressed in past tense
in the textbook) about living in the desert where resources, such as water, are scarce; is still
legitimised through their connection to the explorers. The perspective taken is that when
Indigenous Australians have knowledge that the explorers will value, than it is considered
noteworthy. Other Indigenous knowledges, such as kinship, are typically not included in
textbooks during this era. Considering certain knowledges as valuable is communicated in the
following statement:
The natives were able to live in the desert because they always knew where to find
water. Where the water was, lived the kangaroos and the emus and other birds which
they hunted for food...They [Indigenous Australians] were angry because they
through the strangers [explorers] and their horses would drink all the water. Well they
knew that water meant life. (Department of Education, 1959/1962/1966, p. 79,
emphasis added).
6.4.5 Narratives of Batman’s Treaty.
There is mention across several textbooks of farmer John Batman’s 12 attempt to make a
Treaty (the only treaty recorded in Australian history) with the local Indigenous population at
the site of the current day Melbourne city. The three textbooks that make mention of
12 John Batman, an Australian born settler moved from his birthplace of Parramatta (New South Wales), to
Tasmania (then Van Dieman’s Land) and was known for his capture of a bushranger. In 1835 he arrived by boat
in what is now modern day Melbourne from Launceston, Tasmania with a group of other white settlers and
Indigenous people (they were from Sydney). Batman, with the assistance of the Indigenous people, negotiated a
so-called Treaty (that became known as Batman’s Treaty) with the local Indigenous population, exchanging vast
tracts of land for blankets, tomahawks and other items and with the promise that these types of goods would be
supplied each year. The Treaty was soon abandoned as the government of the day, led by Governor Bourke,
refused to recognise it.
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