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terminology of European is stated where Britain would be more appropriate and historically
accurate (for example the colonization of the Australian continent by Great Britain marked by
the arrival of the First Fleet); they are included in much greater depth in the junior high
school years.
This presents as an example of the dichotomy in History curriculum and the silences that
operate. It is not overtly stated, and nor is there an overt comparison between British
heritages and Indigenous heritages, whereby one is placed above the other as superior or
more important. However, the hidden messages of the curriculum become obvious when
conducting an analysis of textbooks across school grades in the same era and the two
exemplar topics are tracked consistently. Here it emerges that British heritages are considered
far more important than Indigenous representations, effectively placing British heritages in
the canon of Australian history (so far as school curriculum goes) and Indigenous
representations firmly on the fringe of history content, usually included as bridging topics to
units of work (see, for example Primary Social Studies sourcebook year 5, Department of
Education, 1988a). Indigenous histories are interesting to learn, whereas histories of British
heritages are important to learn is the dominant perspective communicated, when viewing the
curriculum in its entirety, not as individual textbooks or school year levels.
One of the most significant and constant changes that can be seen in textbooks during this
era, is that representations of Indigenous Australians are no longer mediated through their
inclusion with stories of other historical events, for example the way Indigenous Australians
had been included on the fringe of stories of early inland exploration in previous eras. Instead
Indigenous Australians during this era were included as having their own, legitimate history
as a distinct group, much in the same way as other groups were represented in History
textbooks during this era, whether categorised by racial grouping, such as the case with race
relations in the USA; or some other demographic, for example emancipation of women (see,
for example, Cowie, 1982). However, this also has a downside in that Indigenous
representations are still not being represented anywhere else in the curriculum outside of
Indigenous specific content, maintaining the positioning of Indigenous Australians on the
peripheral of history. Indigenous Australians are located distinctly by themselves, and the
only times Indigenous representations are included are during specific units about Indigenous
peoples, cultures of events. So, Indigenous representations are not seen throughout the
general curriculum, in images of families, celebrations, and other support images. On the rare
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