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places the viewer of the image ‘in the shot’ as though they are part of the group. Doing so
provides a ‘grass roots’ feel to the process of setting up the Tent Embassy. The
accompanying questions to the caption reads: “The Aboriginal Tent Embassy set up in front
of the Federal Parliament Building in 1972 to demand land and compensation. Do acts like
these suggest that there is a growing sense of nationalism among Aborigines? If so, to what
sense of ‘nation’ is it directed?” (Cowie, 1982, p. 311). This provides a further stimulus to the
written text that discusses what nationalism means to Indigenous Australians as a group—
formerly and in more contemporary times. Despite the Tent Embassy being of major
importance to contemporary Australian history, it receives little attention in textbooks during
this era. Apart from this textbook, it gets a brief mention in The modern world emerges
through the statement: “Aborigines set up an “embassy” of tents on the lawns of Parliament
House to protest against the lack of action on the land rights issue. As the police moved one
group off the lawns, another replaced it, much to the embarrassment of the government”
(Lawrence et al., 1986, p. 377).
Source 7.35. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy image from Crossroads: Imperialism
and race relations (Cowie, 1982, p. 311).
7.9 Category 6: The Wave Hill Station Strike
The Wave Hill Stations Strike is included in only two textbooks selected for analysis. One
instance is in Crossroads: Imperialism and race relations (Cowie, 1982); and the second in
the junior high school textbook, Case studies in Australian history (Stewart, 1986). It is in
this second textbook that the event is covered in depth, with the entire chapter, Chapter 11:
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