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Some emotion is attributed to this historical event, but not from the people or primary source
documents of the time. Instead, the narrative which is written as a letter (see Source 6.27) to
‘David’ from a school friend ‘Tom’ who had moved to Tasmania from Queensland concludes
the section on the genocide of Tasmanian Aborigines with a detached, “It is a sad story, don’t
you think?” (Department of Education, 1954/1963/1966, p. 94).
Source 6.27. Extract of letter between Tom and David from Social Studies for Queensland
schools grade 4 (Department of Education, 1954/1963/ 1966, p. 94).
The grade 7 book in this same series, Social studies for Queensland schools grade 7
(Department of Education, 1960/1963), builds on the grade 4 textbook by including
significantly more information and at a deeper cognitive level, and still within a discourse of
government policies and control (as well as the introduction of other discourses, being:
remorse and regret for violent actions against Indigenous Australians; discourses of
criminality; and discourses of a ‘dying race’). Unlike the grade 4 textbook, Indigenous
representations form a central focus of the section on Tasmania’s early colonial history;
which demonstrates the sequential planning undertaken when constructing the Social studies
for Queensland schools series of textbooks. After setting up an initial discussion of violent
interactions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, this textbook then moves to
a discussion of the general built environment, progress and increasing economic activity of
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