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group: “naked”; “In the ten thousand years during which the Australian natives occupied our
land before the coming of white men, they never advanced beyond the stone age or hunting
stage of development” (Sparkes et al., 1964, p. 46); and “nomadic existence” (Sparkes et al.,
1964, p. 47). By using these terms and phrases, from the primary source of Captain Philip’s
observation, but without contextualising it for the students reading this in the 1960s,
representing Indigenous Australians as primitive is reinforced from this 1788 source.
Furthermore, the phrase “before the coming of white men, they never advanced beyond the
stone age or hunting stage of development” (Sparkes et al., 1964, p. 46) implies that as a
result of British arrival, Indigenous Australians advanced in lifestyle and technology,
presenting a solely ‘Western’, progressive view.
By the same authors as Australia’s heritage, and written around the same time, Australia in
world history (Logue et al., 1965) also contain representations of Indigenous Australians as
primitive. An extract reads:
The Australian Aborigines—both those of the mainland and the different race that
inhabited Tasmania—were also isolated soon after they had settled in Australia.
Until 1788 they led a stone age existence as nomadic hunters. They grew no crops,
not because they were too stupid, but because they could not import seeds; and
because, in a land lacking the fertility provided by the manure of animals and leaf
mould from the deciduous trees, cultivated crops could scarcely thrive. (Logue et al.,
1965, p. 267-268)
This small paragraph, included in the introduction of the first section on Australia, represents
Indigenous Australians as being “isolated...stone age existence as nomadic hunters” (Logue et
al., 1965, p. 268). In addition, an oversimplified version of Australian history is presented by
the claim that from 1788 onwards this “stone-age existence” (Logue et al., 1965, p. 268)
ceased, ignorant that many parts of Australia were uninhabited by the colonisers until much
later in modern Australian history. Although there is a discourse of representing Indigenous
Australians as primitive, it is mediated through contextualisation of the available resources of
the natural environment, and does not use the term primitive, unlike other textbooks of the
era. Instead, the lifestyle of Indigenous Australians is attributed to the following reasons:
They grew no crops, not because they were too stupid, but because they could not
import seeds; and because, in a land lacking the fertility provided by the manure of
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