National Identity in the History Curriculum in Australia: Educating for Citizenship

Abstract

History education can be seen as a vehicle for promoting national identity, especially when subsumed under “the politics of remembering and forgetting” in relation to matters of national historical importance, and its manifestation in contemporary ideas of what it means to belong to a nation. This chapter shows a diachronic perspective of how the Aboriginals as well as non-“white” early Australian migrants are represented in the syllabus and textbooks. The two case studies (“The Batman Treaty” and “The Afghan Cameleers”) demonstrate that both groups—previously excluded from any curriculum—are now structural rather than fringe parts of the unit, although as minor partners. They are only included when the topic specifically addresses them while the curriculum largely maintains the mainstream, “white” representation. The two groups are seemingly included in relation to the dominant culture and identity rather than for their own sake, engaged in civic life and featured in Australian history only when exotic, out of the ordinary and/or far removed from the “usual” Australian experience.