Teachers' Notes
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A THREE-PART JOURNEY TO NATIONHOOD ‘The Land’, ‘The People’, ‘The Nation’ 3 x 55 minute documentary programs A Film Australia National Interest Program produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. TEACHERS’ NOTES Subject areas Contents General interest and key curriculum areas including • Introduction 2 Civics & Citizenship–Discovering Democracy, • Program synopsis 2 Australian History, Politics, Studies of Society, • Table of key points 3 Media, and English • Federation ‘lingo’ 4 • Who’s who of federation 4 Level • Issues, values and attitudes 5 Primary, secondary, VET, tertiary, general public • What they said 6 • Considering the past, present & future 7 • Images of federation 7 • Useful references 8 INTRODUCTION Hints for using Federation • The FEDERATION series consists of three 55-minute ‘We can easily take our democratic freedoms for granted.’ episodes, although each episode can stand alone. Dr John Hirst, Chair of the Commonwealth • For younger students, it may be easier to divide the Government’s Civics Education Group program into even smaller sections, as there are many characters and events to identify and understand. ‘Federation was not inevitable.’ • You will need to prepare students for issues such as Greg Craven, constitutional lawyer women’s suffrage, the treatment of Aboriginal people and the overt racism that is evident in the thinking, writing he three-part series FEDERATION has come at the and images of the time. right time for anyone involved in citizenship • Make sure you have seen the program yourself first. T education or general public awareness of such • Alert students to what you want them to look for in a issues. This entertaining product of seven years’ work and particular segment or episode. research brings to life the events, personalities and • Find out what they already know about the topic first, experiences that led up to the federation of the Australian so that you don’t assume too much and so they feel that colonies in 1901. they know something. • When you watch the program, listen for the key words FEDERATION depicts a struggle to create an Australian and alert students to them. democracy. It does not glorify events or characters or • Turn key words into a ‘bingo’ sheet for each program as avoid the nastier facts of our past. It faces the hard issues a quick pre-test for understanding the concepts. of who was excluded from the rights and privileges of • The three programs in this series cover a wide range of Australian citizenship, and so includes the voices of topics and can be used across the curriculum. They raise women and Indigenous people who were largely ignored at questions that teachers can help students answer through the time. preparatory and extension activities. However, no television series can cover everything, and time It is told as a ‘ripping good yarn’, narrated at a cracking constraints mean that some episodes gloss over or ignore pace by John Doyle (aka Rampagin’ Roy Slaven) from some important issues. This can be turned to the ABC-TV and Radio 2JJJ. The story is enlivened through teacher’s advantage by making a note of these issues the use of interviews with descendants of federation during an episode and exploring them afterwards as a characters and contemporary commentators, interwoven challenge for students. Omissions or gaps can stimulate with well-known actors speaking the words of characters discussion and help set research topics. of the period. Leo McKern (Rumpole) is the voice of the grand patriarch of the federation movement, Sir Henry Parkes. PROGRAM SYNOPSIS FEDERATION focuses on primary source material such as photographs, letters, journals and newspapers from last EPISODE 1–The Land century. It even includes rare cinema footage of federation Winner of an AWGIE from the Australian Writers Guild, celebrations in 1901. Documentary-Public Broadcast Category 1998 Discovering Democracy: his episode tracks our first attempts at making a nation. In the winter of 1889, Henry Parkes, School Materials Project T the grand patriarch with the big white beard and three-time premier of NSW, decides he can federate Film is one of the best learning resources for bringing the past to life. The Federation series can be a particularly the colonies. effective education tool when used with the Discovering Democracy: School Materials Project which is available as a However, he is dealing with isolated regions separated kit and also on the Internet. See by armies, train gauges and customs houses, with every http://www.curriculum.edu.au/democracy/about/material.htm capital setting its own time. It will take more than the or grand vision of one elder statesman to create a nation. www.curriculum.edu.au/democracy/teaching/teaching.htm A constitution is written, but the squabbling colonies These teachers’ notes offer suggestions as to how the two can’t agree. could be used together. You will also find a list of books and key websites on the subject of civics and citizenship on They do agree on a national political map. The next page 40 of Discovering Democracy: School Materials Project. generation of politicians would use these boundaries to These provide excellent guides for primary and secondary create the modern nation called Australia. levels through developmental units on key themes. The units include key ideas, indicators of student outcomes, and suggested content areas. 2 EPISODE 2–The People EPISODE 3–The Nation Highly commended by the History Council of NSW, Max Kelly Medal or years federation had defeated all those who’d tried. In 1897 the ‘men with beards’ tried again, he federation issue, which had been left Fin three conventions in three cities to bring the floundering in the doldrums of the Depression of colonies together into one nation. Western Australia T the 1890s, was revived. Some now realised that remained defiantly apart until the last moment, insisting creating a nation would require the will of the people. But on a better deal. in creating a nation, they were also creating Australians and now there were new demands for a fair go, for the This is the story of the bargains struck, the drunken right to vote, and for a fairer, more egalitarian society. arguments, lost tempers, lost causes, the constitutional crises, and bad poetry all written in the name of But what does it mean to become part of one nation? federation. The constitution, rejected by the people in the How was Australia defined in the decades leading up to first poll, would be accepted in the second. And then the federation? Some people would become Australians, haggling with Britain begins, because the constitution had others would be deliberately excluded by the constitution. to be an act of the British Parliament. This is the story of the winners and losers, of the struggle not just to create an Australian nation but to make an Australian democracy. TABLE OF KEY POINTS ome of the key themes, issues, people, dates, terms and images from the FEDERATION programs are listed in this table. The list is just a sample: some concepts and people appear in all episodes, and you will find many others. SSee also ‘Aims of civics and citizenship education’ in Discovering Democracy: School Materials Project, page 7. Themes Issues People Dates Terms Images Emerging national Borders and taxes Parkes 1889-1891 The Commonwealth Advertisements feeling Episode 1 Protectionism Barton Tenterfield speech Cartoons Distance The Land Provincialism Deakin Woman’s Christian Designs Identity Temperance Union Republicanism Kingston Aboriginal photos Groundwork for federation The Bulletin Forrest A democratic Chinese people Reid constitution Aboriginal peoples Lawson A ‘map’ of Australia Women Jandamarra Republic Quong Tart Workers’ rights The Depression Time of change Aboriginal rights Deakin 1891-1897: the Women’s suffrage Woman on soapbox Depression Episode 2 The people Universal suffrage Quick ‘Soothing the pillow of Cartoons 1893: The Corowa Plan, the dying race’ The People Women’s rights Environment Barton the vote for women in The lion tamer SA, first election with One people, one destiny Premiers Parkes women voting, Premiers’ Conference Women in politics Spence 1897: Elections in SA Western Australia Wilson Voting rights Reid Constitution The arbitration power Kingston 1897: Premiers’ Night of the long Contemporary drawing Conference drinks of Australia Episode 3 Time White Australia Reid 1898: Constitutional Compromise and Political cartoons The Nation WA Gold Rushes Chinese people Forrest Convention conciliation Democratic Document Deakin Balance of power The Senate Balzano States’ House Referendum in WA Isaac Isaacs Convention Delegation and Qld The Lord Chamberlain The Privy Council Aboriginal voices Separation from Britain 3 customs search he experienced when travelling between FEDERATION ‘LINGO’ states he wrote ‘I personally encountered no difficulty, but I presume that I have no trace of smuggling ingenuity alking about politics, federation and the republic in my countenance’. involves many specialised political words that • Show students how opinions in any community vary, by T may be new to some students. Whatever their setting up a human ‘graph’ in the classroom or against age, students need to have an understanding of these any wall. Choose any controversial topic such as the terms in order to participate effectively in the political republic, and ask students to arrange themselves in process. Listed here are some of the words used in the separate lines, starting with those