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Source 6.16. Migration from Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen’s Land) to
present day Victoria extract from Australia and the near north: The Commonwealth
in the modern world volume 2 (Connole, 1962, p. 29).
It is significant to include Source 6.16 as it is a really illustrative example of just how much
Indigenous Australians were under represented in textbooks during this era. A second
example of Batman in a high school textbook reads:
In 1835 John Batman from Van Diemen’s Land landed near present day Melbourne,
and finding a tribe of Aborigines, offered to buy their land. Batman made an unusual
deal with them and ‘bought’ 600, 000 acres of land for a few tomahawks, mirrors,
knives and blankets. While this seems laughable it was the first time that any white
person had offered the native people of Australia anything in return for the land they
had taken. Batman’s claim to the land was not accepted by the authorities.
(Blackmore et al., 1969, p. 56)
In this small passage, no explanation of why this Treaty “seems laughable” (Blackmore et al.,
1969, p. 56) is provided, nor attempts to mediate this for students. What can be deduced from
content relating to Batman’s Treaty is that as the most comprehensive coverage of Batman’s
Treaty is in the grade 4 Social Studies textbook, students will finish their schooling with only
a very elementary understanding of the event.
6.4.6 Narratives of Jacky Jacky.
Jacky Jacky was a companion to the explorer Kennedy in far north Queensland. His story is
significant due to the loyalty he displayed towards Kennedy, even after the death of Kennedy.
Jacky Jacky (also referred to in history books as Jacky or Jackey) is categorised in this
analysis with his own discourse as he presents as an anomaly to general representations of
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