A Study Guide by Robert Lewis
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© ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-492-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au This study guide is in four parts, one for each episode. The introductory activities and sum- mary activities are repeated each time, so if students have already seen any episode of The War That Changed Us they can skip these and concentrate on the questions and activities that are specific for that episode. conflict, personal and political, on the home front. Along the way we learn how Australians struggled to reconcile what the war meant for them as individuals, communities and as a nation – how it changed us. CURRICULUM OVERVIEW APPLICABILITY The War That Changed Us (Electric Pictures 2014) is a 4 x The War That Changed Us is a relevant resource for middle 57 minute dramatized documentary that tells the story of and senior students (Years 9-12) in: Australia’s war effort from 1914-1918 through the focus or filter of six key historical characters: ώ AUSTRALIAN HISTORY YEAR 9 • General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott Depth Study: World War 1 • Sergeant Archie Barwick • Nurse Kit McNaughton An overview of the causes of World War I and the reasons • Peace campaigner Vida Goldstein why men enlisted to fight in the war. • War supporter Eva Hughes • Radical socialist Tom Barker The places where Australians fought and the nature of war- fare during World War I, including the Gallipoli campaign. The series follows these six characters through their stories as told in their vivid and evocative personal testimonies The impact of World War I, with a particular emphasis on — revealed in letters, diaries, speeches and newspaper Australia (such as the use of propaganda to influence the articles written in the heat of the moment as the events of civilian population, the changing role of women, the con- the war unfold at home and on the frontline. scription debate). Driven by human stories, rather than the detail of military The commemoration of World War I, including debates history, the series offers an opportunity to get close to the about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend. actual experience of war, and to learn how it changed the lives of those involved. As a result the political becomes ώ ENGLISH YEAR 10 personal and the epic everyday. We watch the series pro- tagonists struggle with the opposing influences of imperial- Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, ism and independence, militarism and pacifism, Old World objects and concepts are represented in texts, including me- enmities and New World utopian ideals. dia texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices. The War That Changed Us uses dramatic reconstruction, Biography. location filming, expert analysis and colourised black and white archive to tell a gripping tale spanning three conti- ώ MEDIA ARTS YEAR 9 AND 10 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION nents over four brutal years. Evaluate how genre and media conventions and technical It chronicles the rise of the Australian peace and labour and symbolic elements are manipulated to make represen- movements as well as our military role in the Great War: tations and meaning. both were theatres of war. In doing so the series honours the heroism of those who fought and died on the battle- Evaluate how social, institutional and ethical issues influ- front and those who lived through a period of bitter, divisive ence the making and use of media artworks. 2 4 THE SIX CHARACTERS IN THE WAR THAT CHANGED US He is a remarkable character who becomes Australia’s ARCHIE most famous fighting general. Through his constant stream BARWICK 1 of letters to his wife Katie to whom he tells all, we gain a rare insight into a General’s experience of war and the toll that high-command exacts. Foot soldier ARCHIE BARWICK is a tough fair-haired blue-eyed 24-year old Church of England farmer from TOM Campania, a grape-growing region in the Coal River Valley BARKER of southeast Tasmania. Among the first to join up in August 4 1914, he is assigned to the now legendary First Battalion. Archie serves first in Gallipoli and then in the trenches on English born, farm labourer’s son TOM BARKER is a the Western Front. Wounded several times and rising to militant activist and no stranger to trouble. As an organ- the rank of Sergeant, Archie not only survives the War, but iser for the Industrial Workers of the World and editor of leaves us with one of the most detailed, vivid and revealing its newspaper Direct Action, Barker becomes the most written accounts to emerge from it. It’s through his excep- determined and vociferous opponent of what he calls the tional sixteen volume war diary that the series builds an in- ‘capitalist war’. Drawing on his radical speeches delivered timate portrait of the horrors that engulfed young Australian on Sydney’s Domain, his editorials and articles, letters, and soldiers and the awful toll it exacts on their lives. memoirs, Tom Barker’s role in the anti-war movement on the home front and his vehement opposition to conscription KIT comes to life. McNAUGHTON 2 VIDA GOLDSTEIN Army nurse KIT MCNAUGHTON is a Roman Catholic 5 farmer’s daughter from the small town of Little River in southwest Victoria. Bold, cheeky, eagle-eyed, Kit travels on Stylish, articulate and fearless, VIDA GOLDSTEIN is the a heroic journey from Little River to Lemnos near Gallipoli, poster woman of the revolutionary feminist movement. In then on to France, before returning to Australia. Through the decades before the war, she becomes internationally the pages of Kit’s diary, we meet the men and women famous for trailblazing the fight for Australian women’s right whose fates collide: lovers, friends, patients, servicemen to vote. As war sweeps the world, Vida turns her attention and civilians. She is a young woman with a defiant spirit, to pacifism, working tirelessly as the leader of the Women’s filled with a sense of duty and drawn by the call of adven- Political Association and the founder of the Women’s Peace ture. Kit keeps her precious diaries, three small books, with Army. This important and largely untold history is revealed her for four years. They document a voyage of self-discov- through her own words drawn from her editorials and ery, adventure, romance and burgeoning independence; articles in her newspaper Woman Voter, and in speeches as well as her strong sense of identification with both the delivered in public halls and on Melbourne’s Yarra bank. Empire and the ANZAC corps. In her diaries she details her struggle with the nursing hierarchy, the gruelling workload EVA and the bloody horrors of war. 6 HUGHES HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ ELLIOTT EVA HUGHES is from the Australian upper-class and is 3 married to a pastoralist who has mining and business interests. She absolutely defends Australia’s right and, she For 36-year old Boer war veteran HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ believes, ‘obligation’ to be part of the war. She believes ELLIOTT from Northcote in Melbourne, the decision to in King, she believes in country and she in a wife’s duty enlist is rooted in a sense of duty to defend his country to stand by her man. As the President of the Australian and his family. The Melbourne solicitor served as a lieuten- Women’s National League, by far the leading women’s 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION ant colonel in the peacetime militia, and is given the same association in Australia, she appeals to a sense of female rank in the Australian Imperial Force commanding the 7th obligation in an extraordinarily powerful and successful Battalion. During the War he rises to the rank of Brigadier pro-war movement. Through her speeches and articles in General. He is charismatic, controversial, volatile, forthright the Australian Women’s National League publication The and extraordinarily brave. His men know he would never Woman, we gain an authentic insight into the mighty forces send any of them anywhere he is not prepared to go him- supporting the war that dominate the home front for most self and he often seen fighting beside them in the frontline. of the War. 3 4 BEFORE WATCHING down what you think. You will be interested to see if your THE FILM ideas have changed after viewing The War That Changed Us. ώ ACTIVITY 2 – RECORDING ώ ACTIVITY 1 – RECORDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAR YOUR IMAGE OF THE WAR The first activity was to do with images and ideas. This ac- What is your image of the war, and particularly these tivity is to do with facts. What do you know about Australia aspects: and the war? Again, do not worry if you do not know much, • The Anzacs as soldiers or think that you need to find out the correct answers • Australian Nurses before you write them down Recording Your Knowledge work- • The nature of the war sheet on page 5. Just record what you think you know, then • The Australian home front during the war come back to these answers after watching The War That • The Anzac Tradition/Legend/Spirit — that idea of Changed Us and see if your knowledge has changed and Australian nationalism that emerged from the war and developed. which we commemorate on Anzac Day After you have watched The War That Changed Record your ideas in the Recording Your Image table below. Do Us look at these questions again and see if you not think they have to be detailed, and do not worry if you do would change any of your answers.