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The first hundred years represents Australian Indigenous culture/s as primitive, particularly
by reference to “study of the aborigines by anthropologists” (Palmer and MacLeod, 1969, p.
186). Yet, different from the majority of these representations, this textbook explains this as
being a consequence of “a limited environment” (Palmer and MacLeod, 1969, p. 187) and
that in actual fact due to “inventiveness…Richness of imagination showed in their art, their
myths and legends” (Palmer and MacLeod, 1969, p. 187), an attempt by the authors to
demonstrate a respect for a variety of knowledges. This fluidity of knowledge is then
extended to compare contemporary ideas of relationships between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians to former, paternalistic relationships, through the following sentence:
“The idea that the white man’s function was to ‘smooth the pillow of a dying race’ was
slowly being replaced by another: that there was no basic difference between the two races,
and that full acceptance was the solution” (Palmer & MacLeod, 1969, p. 187). However,
there is still no mention of contemporary events such as the Wave Hill Station Strike or the
1967 Referendum, major events in Australia’s 20 th century history. Overall, the presentation
of knowledge as fluid and open to change is a feature of the representation of Indigenous
Australians in this textbook, and presents as an anomaly to other textbooks.
Providing an alternative reading to discourses of primitive is evident in other textbooks too.
Social studies for Queensland schools grade 6 (Department of Education, 1955/1966),
although containing only one page of text and two images, represents Indigenous knowledges
as different from and equally valid to non-Indigenous (that is, European) knowledges in
discussing the use and value of natural resources. Rather than the usual discourse of treating
Indigenous Australians as a primitive group of people prior to colonisation, this type of term
is not used, and furthermore is not an underpinning ideology or perspective running between
the lines of the text. The language in an extract from the textbook (see below) used to
describe Indigenous Australian is consistently to refer to the protagonist by his name,
Kooloona. When the reader is first introduced to him, he is referred to as “Kooloona the
aboriginal” (Department of Education, 1955/1966, p. 5) and from thereafter as Kooloona.
There are no references to Kooloona as a ‘native’, ‘black fellow’, ‘savage’ or other similar
terms prevalent in textbooks. It is clear that Kooloona is a fictional character, representative
of Indigenous cultures prior to colonisation. Using a fictional character to illuminate
historical narratives is not unusual for the Department of Education published and supplied
Social Studies for Queensland schools textbook series. This series typically includes a variety
of narrative and genre structures within and across textbooks in order to sustain student
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