TASMANIA AND R THE GREAT WA The Suspense is Awful: Tasmania and the Great War Teacher’s guide Centre for Learning and Discovery A guide to TMAG’s First World War exhibition i Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction This teacher’s guide has been developed to accompany 2 Developing an overview of WWI (pre-visit) the temporary exhibition The Suspense is Awful: 3 Impacts of war (pre-visit and post-visit) Tasmania and the Great War on level one of the Argyle 5 For Freedom and Honour – Tasmanian Aboriginal Galleries at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Servicemen Written by David Boon 7 Medical Service Edited by Andy Baird 10 The war at home (pre-visit and during) 19 After the war ©Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 2015 20 The suspense was awful 21 Image list for History e-resource All imagery owned by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery with the exception noted on page 21 22 Images resources cover: Young boy at Great War peace celebrations at Waratah (detail), c 1918, purchased, 1984 Q1984.232 Introduction In October 1915, during World War I (WWI), John Burge wrote in anguish to his local Member of Parliament. He had heard that his son, Stan, had been killed at Gallipoli while storming Turkish trenches. “The suspense”, he said, “is awful”. In fact Stan survived Gallipoli and served on the Western Front where he wrote home from Pozières in August 1916 that “it was a particular Hell”. Two weeks later he was dead, killed in the battle of Mouquet Farm, at Pozières. The Suspense is Awful exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) examines the war’s impact on Tasmanians during and after the war. It shows how family, friends and the wider society coped with the prolonged TASMANIA AND R absence, and often death, of their loved ones. It also reveals the divisions that THE GREAT WA erupted throughout the island and how society changed as a result of the war. It was meant to be ‘the war that ended all wars’, but proved to be far from that. The exhibition also has its own website. Curriculum Links This resource supports aspects of the Year 6 and Year 9 Australian History Curriculum. It is not intended that a teacher would use all activities with either year level but would choose and adapt activities to match their specific inquiry focus and the students in the appropriate year level. Links to the relevant curriculum elements and how they could be connected to the exhibition are outlined in the table below: Year 6 Australian History Curriculum Year 9 Australian History Curriculum • Experiences of Australian democracy and citizenship, Year 9 includes a specific unit focus on WWI. Activities in this including the status and rights of Aboriginal and Torres resource which could contribute to the unit include a focus Strait Islander Peoples, migrants, women, and children. on: • Explore: • the reasons people did or didn’t join up; • the experiences of citizenship of Aboriginal • the places where people fought and the nature of soldiers; warfare; • the treatment of migrants from enemy countries; • exploring the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait • the changing status of women in wartime; and Islander people during the war; • the representation of ordinary Australian citizens in • the impact of WWI, with a particular emphasis on advertising. Australia (such as the use of propaganda to influence the civilian population, the changing role of women, the • The contribution of individuals and groups, conscription debate); including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and migrants, to the development of • explaining the treatment of people of German descent Australian society. during the war; and • Explore: • the commemoration of WWI. • the significant contribution of individuals to Australian society through their involvement in military and medical roles; • the contribution of significant women, children and organisations such as Red Cross in the war effort and returned service organisations after the war; and • the contribution of ordinary people who became significant Australians as a result of their contributions during the war. 1 Inquiry approach of the resource The thematic elements of The Suspense is Awful exhibition draw on the wartime “we went to vote on stories of several individuals as well as events central to experiences on the home front. While some activities focus on looking more deeply at items within the the Referrendum, exhibition, the resource also provides opportunities to explore the individuals and themes covered in more depth back in the classroom as appropriate to the inquiry as to whether focus adopted. conscription This resource utilises a number of thinking strategies, including those from the Visible Thinking website in order to help students develop an understanding of the content, concepts and skills of the Australian history Curriculum for Year 6 and 9. should become Visible thinking strategies are listed for activities but teachers should consult the Visible Thinking website for specific details on how to teach and use each of the law in Australia. strategies. I think most of Developing an overview of WWI (pre-visit) the boys voted No. Introduce students to the major events in the WWI period through exploring and/ Afterwards pay was or creating multi-level timelines that include both military events and the events on the home front such as the conscription debate and internment of members distributed.” of the German community. This will be important in helping students put the individual lives and aspects of the wartime experience in Tasmania explored into the broader historical context. After viewing the exhibition additional elements James Morris, could be added to these timelines to fully cover the themes explored in The diary, 16 October 1916 Suspense is Awful. If creating your own timelines these could be added to after visiting the exhibition to include details on the themes and lives covered. The following timelines may be useful for completing this activity • Timeline: Australia in the First World War • 100 Events of the Gallipoli Campaign • Australians at War 1901-2000 • Tasmanian Government Centenary of Anzac site • ABC 100 Years of Anzac World War 1 conscription billboard displayed on Liverpool Street, Hobart, c 1916 2 Impacts of war (pre-visit and post-visit) The Suspense is Awful largely focuses on the impact of the war on the home front. Brainstorm potential impacts of a recent war or current military action such as Iraq on the serving members of the armed forces and on different aspects of life both in the area the action is taking place and on those back home connected to those serving members. For example, these impacts could be written on sticky notes and grouped thematically through a class discussion. Thematic groupings that connect to the exhibition include: • emotional impacts on those serving and their loved ones; • impact on communication with loved ones; • attitude toward the enemy and impact on and treatment of members of the local community who have links to the area where the military action is taking place (for example, the Muslim community); Nurses and men at Sutton Veny Military Hospital, England, 1918-19 • impact of deaths and casualties; • debate about whether Australia should be involved in the conflict; • depiction of the conflict in the media; and • responsibility to members of the armed service when they return home. Using information gathered from the timeline and from the brainstorming activity list some of the impacts of WWI at the front and at home. Again these can be grouped thematically. Remember to include the impacts on all areas of society including men, women and children as well as groups such as Aboriginal people and German Tasmanians. World War I – People’s Stories (post-visit) Another view, in which wounded soldiers can be seen on the way to the advanced dressing The Suspense is Awful addresses a number of themes which are explored through station, 1917 the fragments of individual Tasmanian lives. The following research steps could be followed to research any serviceman or woman featured in the exhibition, including the online component: 1. Research the person on the AIF Project 2. Gather information from their service record on Discovering Anzacs “never before had he 3. Use the ‘Search for a Person’ section of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) site 4. Use the unit histories and unit diaries. http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ inspected a contingent awm4/ on the AWM site which relate to the individual. 5. If the individual died search the Commonwealth Graves War Commission site of such noble women, for details of their grave or place of commemoration 6. If the individual lived in Tasmania before or after the war, use the LINC names going to a place where index to locate other records related to their lives. no Australian woman 7. Search for the person on Trove 8. Use digitised sources such as Post Office Directories to see where individuals had worked.” went after the war Lucy Pitman, diary, 12 June 1917 3 Boy at Waratah (during or post-visit) What does the image say about the boy, his family, Waratah and attitudes to war and children at the time? Create a mind-map with the boy at the centre that includes what the image shows as well as information you have gained from pre- visit activities. Waratah and the war (post-visit) What do the image of the boy at Waratah and other images of Waratah in the exhibition (many of which are shown in the theatrette) say about Waratah and community attitudes to war? Search Waratah on the AIF Project site to see who enlisted. Create an Excel database that includes data for each individual such as the first name, surname, date of enlistment, battalion, fate, date of death/date of return.