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the commencement and proliferation of these very public debates. Originating as a result of
the contestation of the different versions of the impact on Indigenous Australians of British
colonisation, particularly issues of land and cultural displacement commencing from 1788,
and whether this period in Australian history should be seen as settlement or invasion, the
debates broadened significantly as more key stakeholders became involved. The debates can
now be seen to encompass a variety of topics including those between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians, such as land rights, social justice and equity; experiences of minority
immigrants; Australia’s relationship with Asia; and topics of national interest relating to
cultural events such as Anzac Day and Australia Day. These debates have become so
significant outside of the usual closed academic doors that their impact on schooling,
particularly curriculum, across Australia has occurred in significant ways. Where the debate
intersects with public discourses and school curriculum (often controversially), is of
particular interest here.
The timeframe of this overview begins with historian Geoffrey Blainey’s April 28 1993
Latham Memorial Lecture, “The Black Armband view of history” (Blainey, 2005, pp. 30-37).
This now-historic lecture was instrumental in starting a prolonged series of debates about
both the accuracy of published historical facts and the appropriateness of the historical facts
selected to represent Australia’s past. Blainey created a divide between politically left and
politically right historians, explicitly and overtly politicizing discussion on Australian history
through provocative statements such as:
To some extent the Black Armband view of history might well represent the swing of
the pendulum from a position that had been too favourable, too self-congratulatory,
to an opposite extreme that is even more unreal and decidedly jaundiced... (Blainey,
2005, pp. 32)
The divisive language used by Blainey, through selection of wording such as Black Armband
(referring to historians who only saw Australia’s past as negative) and Three cheers (referring
to historians of the past who recorded Australia’s history as wholly positive) created an
environment that enabled the history/culture wars to flourish, forcing historians to select a
side of the debate to belong to, inhibiting and silencing perspectives other than the Black
Armband or Three cheers view.
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