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Our hope is that students using the material offered in the Crossroads series will be
encouraged to regard the study of History as a process of ‘response to evidence’
rather than the passive reception of a ‘body of information’, and that they will
regards the ‘base-book’ as only one such source of evidence, seeking opportunities to
delve more deeply into the differing interpretations of the significance of events.
(Cowie, 1982, n.p.)
7.3 Categories emerging from analysis: Indigenous Representations
The following categories and discourses have emerged from analyses of selected textbooks.
Where possible, and appropriate, categories that were created for the Black movement in
Australia 1964-1975 era as included in Chapter 6 have been kept for this era. Where topics
that were not part of the History curriculum from this era have now been included, new
categories, with relevant discourses have been added. The categories include:
• Category 1: Traditional lifestyles and environments (including contact pre-1788)
• Category 2: Early colonial history and Interactions with explorers
• Category 4: Frontier conflicts
• Category 5: Federation and the Constitution
• Category 6: General civil action led by Indigenous Australians
• Category 7: The Wave Hill Station Strike
• Category 8: Indigenous knowledges
• Category 9: Contemporary and general representations, including special events
• Category 10: Representations in Social Studies curriculum
7.4 Category 1: Traditional lifestyles and environments (including contact pre-1788)
7.4.1 Discourses of Indigenous Australians as subjects of anthropology.
As seen in Source 7.10, Spanning Time (Power, Lingard, & Itsikson, 1985), a textbook
written specifically for year 8 students, initiates discussion on Indigenous Australians with
two pages that provide an overview of the pre-history of Indigenous Australians through an
anthropological lens. Content includes: detailing weaponry, hunting equipment and food
eaten by the three Indigenous Australian racial groups mentioned Negritos, Murrayians and
Carpentarians. Providing this type of introduction to Indigenous Australian history is an
anomaly, not extended to other cultures or races that are included in the curriculum—for
example the pre-history of British people is not included prior to the main content of the
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