SERIES 7

© ATOM 2016 A STUDY GUIDE BY KATY MARRINER

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

ISBN: 978-1-74295-927-6 http://theeducationshop.com.au n Who Do You Think You Are? Curriculum links personal histories of the selection of (Series 7) eight well-known Austral- prominent Australians featured in Who ians play detective as they go in ‘History is a disciplined process of Do You Think You Are? with a view to search of their family history. Taking inquiry into the past that develops teaching students the value and impact us to all corners of Australia and the students’ curiosity and imagination. of tracing one’s ancestry. The study of globeI are stories of individuals seeking Awareness of history is an essential family history has an immense value. On to find the definitive answer to where characteristic of any society, and histori- a personal scale, family heritage helps an they came from. Along the way secrets cal knowledge is fundamental to under- individual to make sense of their identity are uncovered and histories revealed – standing ourselves and others.’ – Aus- and belonging. It also helps an individual an Irish rebel, a South American freedom tralian Curriculum: History Rationale to place themselves and their family in fighter and a family who mastered music history. for 150 years. The Who Do You Think You Are? (Series 7) study guide has been written Who Do You Think You Are? is a chroni- A DNA test solves a long-held paternity for secondary students at all year levels. cle of the social, ethnic and cultural question. A man finds family he didn’t It provides information and suggestions evolution of Australia’s national identity know existed and another considers for learning activities in Australian His- and of the history of Australia. The family changing his surname after discovering tory, Australian Studies, English, The Hu- stories of the participants also embrace the truth about his grandfather. Combin- manities – Geography and History, Media the histories of other countries around ing emotional and personal journeys with and cross-curriculum projects exploring the world. In addition, Who Do You Think big-picture history, these inspiring and the concepts of identity, belonging, fam- You Are? teaches students how the sto- sometimes challenging stories, remind ily, inheritance and generational change. ries of families and the past can be com- us how Australians have come to be the Teachers are advised to consult the municated. In general terms, the series’ people that we are today. Australian Curriculum online at http:// value is evident in its potential to expand

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au and and enrich students’ understanding of SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Considering Australia’s multicultural curriculum outlines relevant to their state human experiences. background, this is a global story, with or territory. each celebrity tracing their ancestors around the world. They travel to the As a curriculum resource, Who Do You places where their forebears would have Think You Are? is both an informa- lived, loved and died and learn about the tive and entertaining account of the hardships and hurdles their ancestors importance of genealogy. This study overcame. guide aims to introduce students to the

2 Episode Guide

Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for students to develop: • an interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study; • a knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape Episode 1 | Geoffrey Rush AC Episode 2 | Toni Collette individuals and societies; • an understanding of Internationally celebrated actor Geoffrey Actor Toni Collette delves into the historical concepts; Rush believes he hails from a long line of enigma of her grandparents and uncov- • a capacity to undertake farmers but an exploration of his heritage ers a tale of abandonment and tragedy, a historical inquiry. sees him discover an ancestor fight- secret wartime affair, and an unexpected ing for justice in the face of corruption ancestor. A DNA test serves only to Series run time: and another desperate to succeed in a deepen the mystery. 8 × 52 minutes golden age of creativity. http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-2/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-1/ toni-collette geoffrey-rush

Episode 3 | Luke Nguyen Episode 4 | David Wenham Episode 5 | Dawn Fraser

Successful chef and restaurateur Luke On the trail of his ancestors, actor David Australia’s greatest Olympian Dawn Fraser Nguyen discovers his grandfather left be- Wenham delves into the mystery be- is on the trail of the grandparents she never hind a wife and child in China when he mi- hind his father’s fostered childhood and knew. She learns, like herself, her grandmoth- grated to Vietnam. Luke searches a remote uncovers tales of valour and horror in the er spent time battling officialdom. She also SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 corner of China to bring long lost family trenches of the Great War, the double life finds her grandfather hailed from Peru. As members back into the fold. He then travels of a homecoming hero, and a mother’s she delves into her South American heritage, to Vietnam and looks into the troubled his- struggle to stay connected to her son. Dawn discovers a freedom-fighting ancestor tory of his parents’ homeland, searching for who sacrificed everything for his country. clues to explain his own painful past. http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-4/ http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/who-do david-wenham who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-5/ -you-think-you-are/episode-3/luke-nguyen dawn-fraser

3 Episode 8 | Ray Martin

A lifetime spent in journalism has seen Ray Martin witness some of the defining moments of his time. Looking into his own history he finds his forbears were also on the frontline of nation shaping Episode 6 | Greig Pickhaver Episode 7 | Peter Rowsthorn events – discovering an ancestor at the scene of Australia’s greatest armed Iconic entertainer Greig Pickhaver known Comedian Peter Rowsthorn best known rebellion. On his maternal side he inves- for his comedic alter ego HG Nelson for his role as Brett in Australian televi- tigates his recently discovered Aboriginal investigates the leading characters in sion series Kath and Kim, finds humour heritage and walks in the footsteps of his family history. His search uncovers a in the exploits of his first Australian his Indigenous great great grandmother. wanted criminal, on the run from police ancestors who have a knack for steal- He also follows his convict trail back to after a massive fraud and reveals a side ing and discovers the truth behind his Ireland to find a notorious bandit with a to his mother he never knew. grandfather’s mysterious death. rebel heart. http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-7/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-6/ who-do-you-think-you-are/episode-8/ greig-pickhaver peter-rowsthorn ray-martin

Engagement activities

• Are you a fan of Who • Has Who Do You Think to depict your answer Do You Think You Are?? You Are? inspired you to the question, ‘Who to learn more about do you think you are?’. When • Which episode did you enjoy your family’s history? the class have completed the most? Why? this task, photocopy the • As a class, discuss the • What do you think motivates responses and compile them meaning of the series’ well-known Australians to to form a class album. title. As an individual create become involved in Who Do an A3 statement using You Think You Are?? images and words SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

For further information about Who Do You Think You Are? Series 7 visit the SBS program page at: http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/who-do-you-think-you-are

4 EPISODE 1 Geoffrey Rush AC Internationally celebrated actor Geoffrey Rush believes he hails from a long line of farmers. By exploring his heritage he discovers his great great grandfather was a convict who fought for justice in the face of a corrupt and brutal penal system. He also finds a talented German ancestor, born in the time of JS Bach, who was desperate to succeed during the golden age of baroque music.

Focus 1: Geoffrey Rush actors. But a life treading the boards In 2005 Rush’s portrayal of the title was a risky one, full of uncertainty. role in HBO’s The Life and Death of • Had you heard of Geoffrey Rush Then came the movie Shine. An Peter Sellers earned him an Emmy, a before viewing this episode? Oscar followed along with a Holly- Golden Globe and a SAG Award. In wood career that has made him one 2007 he starred in Ionesco’s Exit The Use the Internet to find out more about of the most celebrated actors of his King at the Malthouse in Melbourne Geoffrey Rush. Begin your search at generation. and Belvoir Theatre in Sydney. After http://www.biography.com/people/ a triumphant season in New York in geoffrey-rush-21232319. Share your Rush is among only twenty-two 2009, Rush received a Tony Award as findings with others in the class. people internationally who have been Best Actor for his Broadway debut. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 awarded the Triple Crown of Acting Alternatively, teachers may choose to – an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. He Since 2003 Rush has played the provide students with the following has received four Oscar nominations swashbuckling Captain Barbossa in biography: for his performances in lead and sup- Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates Of The porting roles in The King’s Speech, Caribbean tetralogy. Other interna- Geoffrey Rush began his acting ca- Quills, Shakespeare In Love and tional films include The Book Thief, reer on the stage. He would become Shine for which he won Best Actor The Best Offer, Munich, Intolerable one of Australia’s leading theatre in 1997. Cruelty, Frida, The Banger Sisters,

5 Geoffrey Rush was born to Roy Baden Rush and Merle Bishof in 1951. He knows nothing about the origin of his passion for the perform- ing arts. He is keen to learn if it can be found in his family’s history.

What does Geoffrey Rush know about his family’s history?

Why does Geoffrey Rush want to learn about his family’s history? Elizabeth, The Tailor Of Panama, How does Geoffrey Rush view his Mystery Men and Les Misérables. career and career achievements? § Geoffrey: With John Rush on one side of the family and with Johann Australian film credits include The § Geoffrey: I would love to know if any- Willms on the other side of the family, Eye Of The Storm, Bran Nue Dae, one in my ancestral line was around I’ve found the kind of sense of iden- Candy, Lantana, Swimming Up- in Elizabethan London or revolu- tification that they prevailed because stream, Ned Kelly, Children Of The tionary France or the golden age in of not just accidental indifference to Revolution and Dad And Dave: On Austria when Viennese culture was the world around them they wrote Our Selection. intense in terms of a real explosion in letters to very important people to try art and literature and music. I don’t and improve their lot, and ultimately Rush currently serves as President of know – they are probably all farmers! they survived. the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. In 2012 Rush was named as Australian of The Year for his contribution to the Arts, and was honoured as a Commander of the Order of Australia in 2014.

§ Geoffrey: I describe myself as a dressing room slut. I love, I love

dressing room life, I love the cama- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 raderie of actors, the ensemble feel and I like the circle of wagons on a film shoot.

Geoffrey: I feel extremely lucky that a film script like Shine came along exactly when it did.

6 Despite living centuries apart what thief or he was in dire poverty. what kind of life his ancestor would do Geoffrey ancestors Johann Willms make for himself in the new world. and John Thomas Rush have in com- Geoffrey discovers that John Thomas mon? Rush was a convict transported from § Geoffrey: I’m kind of in awe of the Ireland to Australia for seven years original John Thomas that he, for Having researched his ancestry, what after stealing cash. Official docu- famine maybe, or whatever the does Geoffrey Rush believe he has ments reveal this was not his first reason was for migrating, to come to inherited from his ancestors? offence. Australia in 1820, a six-month boat journey, you go this must have been § Who do you think you are? Why does Geoffrey Rush call his like going to Mars. great great grandfather a ‘rogue’? What do you think Geoffrey Rush Use print and electronic texts to would say in response to this ques- Research what life was like in Ireland research what Sydney was like in the tion? Draw on your existing knowl- in the early 19th century. Can you 1820s. Based on your research, write edge and the content of the episode make any connections between a description of John Thomas Rush’s to complete this task. these circumstances and John initial impressions of Sydney. Thomas Rush’s crime? Focus 2: Justice John Thomas Rush was assigned to The transportation of convicts from a convict gang. He was sent up the Geoffrey: I’ve got my fingers crossed Ireland to Australia began in 1791 Hawkesbury River to clear land. that, for John Thomas, that it was good and ceased in 1853. The exception for him to get out of Ireland, and it was to this was the transportation of per- § What was a convict gang? How did good for him to come to this country, sons who were involved in the Fenian convict gangs contribute to the build- and that he might have seen the error of Rising of 1867. Twelve percent of ing of the colony? his ways or found redemption or some- all convicts transported to Australia thing, I don’t know. were Irish. Geoffrey discovers a document show- ing John Thomas Rush was charged Geoffrey Rush can trace his paternal line Learn more about Irish convicts online at with making false charges against the back to his great great grandfather John the National Museum of Australia: http:// overseer: Thomas Rush, the first of his ancestors www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/irish_in_ to arrive in Australia. However he knows australia/family_history/irish_convicts ‘Charged with mutinous conduct and nothing of this man’s earlier life in Ireland with having entered into a conspiracy SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 or why he came to Australia. To find out Do you have Irish ancestors? Were with intent to injure the overseer of the more about this mystery man, Geoffrey they convicts or free settlers? Clearing Party of A. Bell Esquire.’ flies to Sydney to meet with a distant cousin Pat Sheriff. Pat has thoroughly John Thomas Rush, who was described (Source: Record of charges, NSW State researched the family tree and has infor- as aged forty-seven, arrived in Sydney Records Colonial Secretary’s Corre- mation that Geoffrey is looking for. Harbour aboard the convict ship Isabella spondence 27/5290, 15 November 1823) in March 1822. As Geoffrey takes a water § Geoffrey: Well he’s either just a rotten taxi across Sydney Harbour he wonders John Thomas Rush had complained

7 to his overseer that the gang would be unable to meet their required clearing targets if the overseer did not return the men he had removed for the illegal use of Archibald Bell. Affronted by the accu- sation, Archibald Bell had John Thomas Rush brought before the courts.

John Thomas Rush was transported down the Hawkesbury River to the Windsor Courthouse. Windsor Court still stands today. Geoffrey is able to sit in the same dock his great great grand- father stood in on the day and get the same nasty surprise. The court transcript reveals Archibald Bell was one of the magistrates sitting in judgement. Consid- ered a leader in the community Archibald Bell had been appointed as a Magistrate. In this case he ignored his conflict of interest and did not remove himself from Archibald Bell was a powerful figure in What role did Archibald Bell play in the the hearing. the Colony of New South Wales. Some Rum Rebellion? years earlier Bell had been heavily impli- Although it seems like a minor misde- cated in the only military coup in Austral- § Why was Port Macquarie considered meanour the penalty was harsh. John ian history known as the Rum Rebellion. to be an ideal place for a penal set- Thomas Rush was sent to Port Macquar- Like most involved in that controversy tlement? ie for three years. Bell went on to prosper, gaining position and power. Why were the worst offenders sent to § Geoffrey: He’s six months short of Port Macquarie? completing his seven-year sentence. § Who, What, When, Where, Why and He could just keep a very low profile How? Why did it gain a reputation for being and not be seen as an upstart or a one of the harshest penal settlements in troublemaker or whatever. It seems Write a summary of the Rum Rebellion. Australia? as though he has a sense of having been wronged and he could be being Use the questions: Who? What? When? Useful links: pretty plucky or smart or he could be Where? Why? and How? to organise quite fool hardy your summary. http://search.records.nsw.gov.au/ agencies/2103 Was John Rush a troublemaker or a Useful link: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/ man of principle? discover_collections/history_nation/ http://www.portmacquarieinfo.com. terra_australis/rebellion/ au/media/ebrochures/16/Convict HeritageBrochure-18022602.pdf

In 1826 a Government Inquiry found that many of the inmates at Port Macquarie had in fact been sentenced too harshly and that some should not be there at all. Having survived there for nearly three years John Thomas Rush, along with hundreds of others, was returned to Syd- ney and the Hyde Park Barracks.

Visit the Hyde Park Barracks online at SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 http://sydneylivingmuseums.com. au/hyde-park-barracks-museum. The website currently features a story about Geoffrey Rush’s convict ances- tor: http://sydneylivingmuseums.com. au/2015/08/07/humble-petition -convict-john-rush

8 Focus 3: A creative life In a letter dated June 7, 1827, John Why does Geoffrey Rush refer to Thomas Rush writes to the Colonial John Thomas Rush and Alexander Geoffrey: This is a bit like time travel be- Secretary Alexander Macleay seeking Bell’s conflict as ‘a David and Goliath cause I didn’t expect that we were going a ticket of leave. He claims that he was battle’? to go back quite so far, so I’m looking at not only harshly sentenced but he was seven greats, and those first five were in fact innocent of any wrongdoing and After serving out his sentence John all speilmann, they were all musicians in wants to be released early. Archibald Thomas Rush would not rattle the the community. I don’t know what they Bell’s response to the Colonial Secre- system again. Instead he became a played, whether it’s a kind of folk music tary’s correspondence was forthright. farmer and father of eight children. John or belonged to the church, and I don’t He wrote that John Thomas Rush was Thomas Rush died aged eighty, in 1871. know how much of that great, sort of, to be ignored. Legal Historian Professor Geoffrey’s great great grandfather had burst of creativity going on musically in Bruce Kercher shows Geoffrey, the letter Germany from Bach to Haydn and Mo- written on behalf of John Thomas Rush zart and Beethoven and I’d love to know to the Colonial Secretary, Alexander what they played, what instrument and Macleay. what sort of music.

§ What was a ticket of leave? Geoffrey Rush’s mother Merle is from a long line of German immigrant farmers Why did John Thomas Rush believe arriving from Europe in the mid 1800s. that he was entitled to a ticket of Amongst Merle’s family memorabilia is leave? the death certificate of her great grand- father, Johann Willms, one of the first § ‘Your petitioner was attached to a of their German ancestors to come to government gang that was clearing Australia. It reveals an unexpected detail. party of Mr Bell’s Estate at Belmont, Johann Willms’ father and Geoffrey’s when Petitioner’s overseer allowed great grandfather was a musician in 5 men of the gang improperly to the Germany. use of Mr Bell, contrary to Govern- ment orders, which left the remainder In Hamburg, Geoffrey discovers that cen- of the Gang unable to satisfy in their sus records indicate that Johann Willms’ monthly return.’ father also named Johann Willms was a musician. Having fallen on hard times, ‘Petitioner told the Overseer to take Johann Willms Senior was dependent on the men from Mr Bell’s use and to charity to support his family. reattach them to their Gang.’ the fortitude to shake off his past, sur- § What external forces impacted on – Extracts from John Thomas Rush’s vive the harsh beginnings of European Joann Willms Senior’s ability to make letter Australia and create a new life in the new a living as a musician in the mid 19th world. century? What does John Thomas Rush’s letter to Alexander Macleay suggest § Geoffrey: ‘He’s got a feisty personal- Genealogist Andrea Bentschneider has about John Thomas Rush’s character ity and they were trying to hose him discovered that Johann Willms was the and his values? down into submission.’ last in a long line of musicians stretching back five generations. A baptism register Amongst Macleay’s surviving Geoffrey: ‘He showed outrageous in a Lutheran Church in the village of documents is a note referring to John strength, and in a way perhaps he Brokdorf reveals more about Geoffrey’s Thomas Rush’s petition: was one of potentially many voices German ancestors. An entry made in that were from their lowest position 1795 records the baptism of Johann ‘This man says he was sent to Port on the social ladder vigorous and Willms, the son of musician Peter Willms. Macquarie by Mr Bell merely be- rigorous enough to want to challenge Peter Willms’ marriage record indicates cause he gave information that the the system. I can see in his life it’s he was the son of another Johann Willms Gentleman was improperly using comparable to the profession that who was a musician, in this case a spiel-

certain Government men ‘ – Novem- I’m in that he kind of lived without mann (bandsman). Johann born in 1750 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 ber 10, 1824 any sense of a five-year or ten- was the son of Claus, whose occupation year plan. He was dancing with the is listed as dorfspeilmann (village bands- Did Alexander Macleay act on John circumstances as they came up. But man). The records date back to 1680 Thomas Rush’s allegation of corrup- we know that he spoke up when he to yet another Johann Willms whose tion? needed to.’ occupation is listed as playing a musical instrument. § Geoffrey: ‘It’s a David and Goliath Describe Geoffrey Rush’s view of his battle.’ great great grandfather. § Describe Geoffrey Rush’s reaction to

9 the information about his musically • Johann Willms, Geoffrey’s seven § Preben Ahlefeldt: Johann was work- talented ancestors. times grandfather was a contempo- ing for him and there he probably had rary of Johann Sebastian Bach. to play fanfares when people arrived § Geoffrey Rush is surprised that he there, he played in the church for the has found evidence of his ancestors Why is Johann Sebastian Bach choir when they sang, he played at dating back to 1680. How far back regarded to be the best composer of banquets and balls and whenever Carl can you trace your ancestors? the Baroque era? Read some online wanted him to play. biographies for Johann Sebastian The earliest of the Johann Willms per- Bach. Do the two musicians share What is patronage? How did the formed during the artistic period known any common ground? patronage of Count Ahlefeldt allow Jo- as the Baroque. This was one of the hann Willms to pursue a creative life? great artistic periods in history, with its origins in the Italian Renaissance. Ba- • ‘Your most Serene Highness most roque music was full of new complexities great powerful most gracious he- and ornamental flourishes bringing great reditary King and Master, Your Royal drama and emotion to compositions. Majesty. Most obediently I must lament my misery, as I - after I had § Use print and electronic texts to attended on the Count Ahlefeldt from research the Baroque period. Work Gravenstein with music for three in small groups of students to cre- years, I settled four years ago in the ate 5 PowerPoint slides to add to a city of Wilster. Some of the privileged class PowerPoint about the Baroque local musicians do not grant me to period. earn my bread every once in a while with the learned music I hear with Choose from one of the following Johann Willms was probably a general beg of your Royal Highness most foci: instrument player. Historical documents obediently that you, most mercifully indicate that he was employed at the grant me such freedom that when I

o Early Baroque, c. 1590 – c. 1625 court of Count Ahlefeldt. Patronage am requested from someone I am SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 o High Baroque, c. 1625 – c. 1660 was a way for a musician to earn a liv- permitted to attend on them with my o Late Baroque, c. 1660 – c. 1725 ing, be exposed to the latest trends in music so that through your Royal o Baroque art music and to grow as an artist. Geoffrey mercy the ruin of myself and my fam- o Baroque architecture secures an audience with the current ily will be turned away.’ o Baroque music Count, Preben Ahlefeldt to learn more o Baroque theatre about the time when musicianship in his – Extract from a letter written by family was beginning to thrive. Johann Willms to King Frederick in April 1717

10 I suppose for me in my profession, it would be like if all the doors seemed to be closing rather than opening up. You think well, I’ve got a lot of experi- ence now and a fairly, you know, wide range in repertoire and worked in many different cities in different mediums and so forth. Ah, to have all that shut down would be, you’d feel a When Count Ahlefeldt’s empire was sional start in his career but then he bit desperate as a, as an artist. under siege, Johann Willms was has to confront the kinds of ups and forced to return home. downs that can most likely happen in Geoffrey: He saw his son gain privi- the trajectory of an artist’s, you know, lege. He created a magnificent legacy Given Johann Willms’ experience and professional life. I can identify with for his descendants about 110 years success as a musician, why did Jo- the uncertain nature of what’s going of successful musicianship. It kind of hann find it difficult to prosper upon to come next in the life of a creative makes me think about the shape of

his return to Wilster? person. The artist is always at the my life. Are there many many others SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 mercy of the people in power, the equally as talented but buffeted by § Explain the significance of the letter people with money, the people who circumstance that never get to fulfil from King Frederick IV to Johann are dishing out the funds. themselves? Willms dated 21 April 1752. Geoffrey: His prospects don’t look Drawing on these claims, explain § Geoffrey: Johann obviously has great great but I can feel him kind of yearn- Geoffrey Rush’s attitude to his ances- faith in his own ability and looks as ing to have a job because that’s what tor Johann Willms and his struggle to though he is off to a great profes- he was trained to do. It would be like succeed.

11 EPISODE 2 Toni Collette Toni Collette’s journey to Hollywood stardom set out from humble beginnings. Born in Blacktown in western Sydney in 1972, Toni is the oldest of three children to Robert Anthony Collett and Judith Ann Cook, otherwise known as Bob and Judy. She added the extra ‘e’ to her name in her teens. While Toni recalls her own upbringing fondly she knows very little about her grandparents with the exception of her father’s mum, Norma.

Focus 1: Toni Collette recognised and celebrated actors, surrounding her young son’s paranormal having worked internationally in film, powers. This was followed About A Boy • Had you heard of Toni Collette before television and theatre. Her career has for which she received a British Acad- viewing this episode? seen her win both Emmy and Golden emy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Globe awards and receive an Academy nomination; and the critically acclaimed Use the Internet to find out more Award nomination. Toni made an indel- The Hours alongside Nicole Kidman, about Toni Collette. Begin your ible impression with her performance as Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. search at http://www.biography. Muriel Heslop in PJ Hogan’s 1994 film

com/people/toni-collette-9542293. Muriel’s Wedding. The film earned her a Throughout her international career Toni SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Share your findings with others in the Golden Globe nomination and began an has also maintained a strong presence class. international career now spanning three working in Australia; one of her stand-out decades. local film credits –being Japanese Story Alternatively, teachers may choose to in 2002 which saw her win numerous provide students with the following In 1999, Toni earned an Academy Award local awards. In 2007 she starred in the biography: nomination for her role in M Night independent Australian film The Black Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, playing a Balloon which was awarded the Crystal Toni Collette is one of Australia’s most mother trying to cope with the distress Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

12 In 2005 Toni starred opposite Cameron Diaz and Shirley McLaine in the hit film In Her Shoes. This was followed with the huge critical and box office success of Little Miss Sunshine. Other films across this period include The Night Listener opposite Robin Williams, Alan Ball’s Tow- elhead and Evening opposite Vanessa Redgrave. In 2014, Collette appeared in A Long Way Down and Lucky Them. Her most recent film credits include Miss You Already, Glassland and Unlocked.

Showtime’s hit series United States of Tara was Collette’s first foray into U.S. series television. Collette portrayed the title character of Tara, a woman with multiple personality disorder. The show premiered in January 2009 and garnered Collette an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Com- edy Series, as well as two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. The show played for three successful seasons, ending in 2011.

Collette has also performed on New York’s Broadway in George C. Wolfe very young her mum died giving birth § Toni: Mum and dad are amazing. and Michael John LaChiusa’s musical to her sister and when that happened They were able to kind of turn it The Wild Party and Will Eno’s play The her dad took off and all the kids in around in one generation. They Realistic Joneses. the family were kind of shipped off to just came from such pain and such different relatives to bring them up. broken scrappy lives of … messy § Toni: I basically grew up with one It’s really bloody sad. And Dad’s dad relationships and emotional pain … grandparent that was my dad’s mum may or may not be whom everyone and they’ve turned it around and they everybody else is a bit of mystery. assumed it to be, so that’s a huge are so giving and so understanding. It’s kind of baffling to me how little I mystery as well. know about my family history and I Having researched her maternal and think it would be so wonderful for my What does Toni Collette know about paternal grandparents, how does kids to have a little bit more knowl- her family’s history? Toni Collette view her parents? edge. Who wouldn’t be curious about your family history? Why does Toni Collette want to learn § Who do you think you are? about her family’s history? Toni: I know that when my mum was What do you think Toni Collette would say in response to this ques- tion? Draw on your existing knowl- edge and the content of the episode to complete this task.

Focus 2: Duty

Toni: So it seems Grandpa Joe was a bit of a rebel, which I like, he just did

whatever he wanted. I mean reading into SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 it, it just seemed like family came first and, no matter what world he was in, he would just make whatever decision he needed to make in order to take care of his family.

Toni Collette’s mother, Judith (Judy), was born in 1947 in Bathurst to Joseph

13 William Cook and Ivy Myrtle Fowler. Judy was just six when her mother died in childbirth. All Judy knows is that her father, Joseph, left the family after her mother’s death and the children were fostered out to relatives. Judy ended up at her Aunty Lola’s, her father’s sister, where she endured a harsh childhood.

§ Toni: It’s just heartbreaking; my -history/australia-wwii/home-wii/ Hold a class forum to debate the mother’s childhood is heartbreaking. conscription-debate contention: That the Australian Govern- ment should never reintroduce national How does Toni Collette view her Had Joseph Cook had a choice in the conscription. mother’s childhood? Do you think matter, do you think he would have she blames Joseph for what hap- enlisted? Toni learns that after four months of pened to Judy? basic training Joseph was sent to join § At what other times in Australia’s his- the 54th Battalion based at Bathurst. On Joseph Cook and Ivy Fowler married tory has military service been com- October 9, 1941 the Battalion declared on March 23, 1941, in Bathurst. He was pulsory? Why? Did the introduction him unfit for duty. The record shows that twenty-six, she was twenty-two. The of compulsory military service during for the remainder of 1941 and into 1942 marriage certificate is a sign of happier these times unite or divide Australian Joseph was in and out of hospital and times. Joseph’s military service record society? casualty clearing stations with various tells a different story. A Mobilisation At- health complaints. His battalion was dis- testation Form reveals that Joseph was Useful link: https://www.awm.gov.au/ patched to Darwin without him. Joseph conscripted within two months of his encyclopedia/conscription/ remained in Bathurst, unfit for duty. marriage to Ivy. § Toni Collette pieces together Joseph § What is conscription? Cook’s story by reading his military service record. Why were Australian men conscripted to join the armed forces during WWII? Have you researched the military service of your ancestors? Drawing Was there any opposition to compulsory on oral histories, family photographs military service during WWII? and other memorabilia begin to as- semble a record of military service

Useful links: for one or more of your ancestors. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Use print and electronic resources to https://www.awm.gov.au/ further your research and add to your encyclopedia/conscription/ ancestor’s record of military service. https://www.awm.gov.au/ § Make a list of the men and women in encyclopedia/conscription/ww2/ your family who served or may have served in the Australian Defence http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore Force.

14 The National Archives holds records At a District Court Martial Joseph was about service in the Australian De- charged with desertion for a period of fence Force from Federation in 1901. six months from November 1942 to May The National Archives also hold other 1943. records relating to wartime service, including: Toni reads Joseph’s testimony, ‘I went Useful links: home and found my wife was in hospital o civilian service she was five months pregnant at the time https://www.awm.gov.au/research/ o courts-martial files and the result was they had to take the infosheets/medals/ o merchant navy child away and she was very ill for some o munitions workers time afterwards.’ http://www.defence.gov.au/ o soldier settlement Medals/Australian/Australian o veterans’ case files § Why didn’t Joseph ask permission -Defence-Medal.asp o war gratuities rather than go AWOL? What do Joseph’s testimonies suggest about § Toni: The thing I find most moving Under the Archives Act, you have a his understanding of duty? How does I think because they’ve just been right of access to Commonwealth Toni view Joseph’s choices? sitting there since the early forties Government records that are in the and no one really knowing that they open access period. In mid-1943, Joseph was declared existed or that he was owed them for medically unfit for military service and his funny little two-year stint in the Begin your research at http://www. discharged from the army. In their as- army where he didn’t do much. Yeah, naa.gov.au/collection/explore/de- sessment of Joseph the military doctors I mean, to be honest I’m not one for fence/service-records/. noted, medals but it does mean something and you know he’s not around so it’s Share your findings with the class. ‘Small build, pale, sallow and anxious the closest I’ll ever get. looking man with a tremor in his hands In September 1942, Joseph was de- and moist palms. This man is totally unfit Why are the medals important to clared absent without leave (AWOL). In a for army life and should never have been Toni? sworn statement Joseph explains, enlisted.’ Have any of your ancestors received ‘I rang my mother and asked how my Joseph was entitled to two medals, medals for their military service? young brother was, he was in hospital the British War Medal and the Austral- What medals have they received? at the time and she told me they would ian Service Medal in official recognition What do these medals recognise? probably take off his leg the next morn- of his time in the military. The medals ing. For that reason I boarded the next have never been claimed. Toni travels to Having established Joseph’s sense train to Bathurst to see if I could stop my Bathurst, where her grandfather served of family responsibility, Toni is more SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 brother’s leg being taken off.’ to collect his medals. confused about why her grandfather de- serted his children after his wife’s death. Joseph going AWOL to deal with a § Use the Internet to research the At Bathurst Court House, medical his- domestic crisis was not uncommon. British War Medal and the Australian torian, Madonna Grehan, has the court Tens of thousands of other soldiers did Service Medal. Find an image of each report into Ivy’s death. Ten years after his exactly the same. Joseph was confined medal. Use annotations to describe discharge from the Army, Joseph finds to barracks and fined but within a couple the features of each medal. himself in the Coroner’s Court, describ- of more months he was in trouble again. ing the death of his wife and child:

15 easy. Joseph’s police record is a litany of seph was only forty-seven years old. petty offences including theft, drunk and disorderly. Valma’s police record tells a Focus 3: A well-kept secret similar story. Approaching middle-age, plagued by ill health and alcoholism, Toni: I can’t believe he’s finally done a Joseph was virtually unemployable. DNA test that will bring forth a whole heap of information and then there’s this beau- Somehow Joseph ended up living with tiful letter that my grandmother wrote to a Valma in makeshift accommodation on man that she clearly cared deeply about. Humpy Boulevard in Kew, Victoria. Toni So it’s all very intriguing and exciting. is devastated when she reads the final charges on the police record are for Born in November 1946, Toni’s father child neglect. Joseph and Valma’s two Bob Collett is the second child to Norma children were taken into care. Ruby McWhinney and Harold Stanley Collett known as ‘Big Stan’. Norma initi- § In the aftermath of World War II, Aus- ated divorce proceedings in 1945 and the tralia was beset with chronic housing divorce was granted in 1947. Both Norma shortages. and Stan are now deceased.

Use print and electronic resources to § Toni: Right. So, dad, it’s 2015. Do you research this social issue. think it might be time to do a DNA test? Tick tock, you know what I’m How did Australian Governments saying? respond to the housing crisis? Were the governments’ solutions success- Why does Toni want her father to take a ful? DNA test? What does the test confirm? ‘On the 1st of March, 1953, I retired to bed at about 8.30. During the early § Toni: Those poor bastards! He had Among Norma’s possessions is a letter hours of the following morning I was no luck. It was just tough times the written by her in February 1985 to a Mr awakened by my wife getting in and whole way. Irving H Robitshek at an address in the out of bed, she was suffering dysen- United States. The letter was returned tery. She wanted to get up and go to What does the story of Joseph Cook unopened. The US service record of work. I insisted that she stay in bed. suggest about the challenges facing Lieutenant Colonel Irving Robitshek indi- I took her a cup of tea, to bed. She the marginalised in Australian society cates that he was assigned to the South remained in bed then. I went to work then? Is contemporary Australian West Pacific Theatre of Operations from that morning. I next returned about society better equipped to sup- February 1944 to September 1945. 12.30 pm when my wife was laying port those living on the margins of on the floor. She was unconscious. society? § Toni reads from Norma’s letter: There was a lot of blood about and I lifted her up and put her on the bed. Joseph Cook’s life ended sadly on 8 ‘Dear Irving, I hope this letter finds When I turned round to go out into June 1962 when he was knocked down you well and happy. I thought about the kitchen I saw the baby on the by a car in Shepparton. He was under you at Christmas, as every Christmas floor. She must have been laying on the influence of alcohol at the time. Jo- … My thoughts have been with you top of it. I then had a closer look at the baby and I noticed it was dead.’

§ Toni: What I don’t understand now is if he loved his family so much and he’s got these kids, he took off. Mum says he took off, after Ivy died.

Having learnt about the tragic details

of the death of Ivy and the infant, SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 how does Toni respond? Did Joseph abandon his children? Do you think Toni has changed her mind about her grandfather?

Toni learns that Joseph remarried in November 1954. For Joseph and his new bride Valma Rose Crutchfield life was not

16 always over the years. I think my Dad What does Toni think of Norma’s took the letter you wrote with your choices? army address. I had it in my dressing table drawer. When I went to get it, it What does the case of Collett v Collett was gone, so if any mail came later tell us about attitudes to divorce then as on, Dad would probably destroyed it. opposed to now? I hope this letter finds you. It would be wonderful to hear from you. You WWII saw an influx of Americans into weren’t very happy or well when you Australia. Australian women were encour- wrote so I hope your life and your aged to make them feel welcome as part health has improved. Love to you of the war effort. The Americans were often always, Norma.’ charming, worldly, better dressed and bet- ter paid than their Australian counterparts. Who was Irving H Robitshek? Hotels, clubs and theatres came alive to cater for them and their female compan- What does Norma’s letter suggest ions. Romances bloomed and by war’s end, about her relationship with Irving H ships were transporting brides and children Robitshek? to their new homes in the United States.

Bob Collett was born in 1946. When Toni § When and why did America enter does the maths it appears that neither when you were last home … Please WWII? Stan nor Irving are Bob’s father. The try to forgive me. Your Wife, Norma.’ DNA test confirms that Stan is not Bob’s Why were American service personnel in father. While Irving has passed away, the ‘I returned home on leave from Australia during WWII? details provided by his family confirm Darwin and shortly after returning that he could not be Bob’s father either. home I had a conversation with my Did the Australian Government welcome wife. I said to my wife: “What do you America’s involvement in the war and Divorce in Australia was relatively rare mean by writing this letter and what presence in Australia? before WWII. Between the 1940s and is the whole trouble?” She replied: 1960s divorce rates rose steadily, how- “Now that you are home, I will tell What impact did American service ever it was not until the introduction of you. I don’t love you; I don’t want to personnel have on Australian society? the Family Law Act in 1975 that the rate settle down to married life … While Your response to this question, should of divorce increased substantially. you were away I committed adul- address both the economic and social tery.” I then said to her: “What is the impacts on Australian society. Useful link: https://aifs.gov.au/facts name of the person with whom you -and-figures/divorce-australia committed adultery?” She said: “That Useful links: is none of your business. That is my At the NSW Records Office, Toni ac- affair. I am prepared to give you a http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore cesses Norma and Stan’s divorce confession, but I won’t tell you his -history/australia-wwii/home-wii/ papers. Norma and Stan were married name. He is an American.’ – Stan americans-australia in 1941 but the honeymoon period was short-lived. The divorce papers dated ‘I saw the Respondent on no less http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/allin/ from 1945 track the deterioration of the than seven occasions visit the said yanksdownunder.html marriage. Capitol Theatre at night accom- panied each time by an American https://www.awm.gov.au/ § ‘To whom it may concern, I Norma serviceman. The last time I saw the encyclopedia/homefront/us_forces/ Collett have committed adultery with Respondent there was in the month someone whose name I do not wish of August 1944 when I said to her: § Watch the following archival footage: to mention for reasons of my own.’ “Don’t you think you are making it a bit hot on your husband?” She said, https://www.youtube.com/ ‘This is the most difficult letter I have “My husband and I are finished”. I watch?v=YtREVHwb-_A ever had to write and it is only after said “Why?” She replied, “I am going

much thought I do so. I have been to marry an American serviceman.” https://www.youtube.com/ SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 trying to tell you for some time now I said: “What is his name?” She watch?v=sm_CjWTKvI0 that I don’t feel the same towards replied, “That is my affair.”’ you and don’t wish to live with you http://www.britishpathe.com/video/ as your wife again. It makes me very What do these statements reveal australian-war-brides-for-us unhappy to have to tell you this but about Norma’s character? I think deep down in your heart you What does this footage suggest about have known this. Believe me Stan, In what ways was Norma’s behaviour the presence of American service I really did try to make you happy unconventional? personnel in Australia during WWII?

17 al’s personal history and also provide cannot find it. Everyone has some an insight into the history of society. secrets and, I can understand that she didn’t want to reveal it all. It was What does the photograph of Norma personal and it was important and it and the U.S. serviceman tell Toni was, kind of, frowned upon, given the A photograph amongst the divorce pa- about her grandmother and her pos- context of when it happened. pers is evidence of Norma being with an sible biological grandfather? American serviceman. The man may or What reasons are given for Norma’s may not be Bob’s father and Toni’s bio- Find the oldest family photograph refusal to name the serviceman who logical grandfather. Military historian Mat that is in your family’s album. Scan was implicated in her divorce? Why SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 McLachlan examines the photograph. the photograph. Use the scanned im- does Toni believe Norma chose to He concludes that Norma’s mystery man age to create an annotated descrip- keep the man’s identity a secret? was a Chief Commissary Steward in the tion of the photograph and all that it US Navy. reveals.

§ Toni: She looks pretty damn happy. § Toni: My nan wanted to keep this man’s name, his identity, from every- Photographs document an individu- body and she was very thorough. We

18 EPISODE 3 Luke Nguyen Chef and restaurateur, Luke Nguyen, was born in 1978 into a world of danger and uncertainty – his family was among the two million Vietnamese who fled the Communist regime after the Vietnam War. While the Nguyen family eventually found safety, settling in Cabramatta, Sydney – their life in Australia was anything but easy. Luke began working at five years of age, and along with his three siblings worked long hours in the family restaurant.

Focus 1: Luke Nguyen his very own restaurant – Red Lan- recently inducted into the Food Hall tern. In 2012, he opened his second of Fame for his cooking and travel • Had you heard of Luke Nguyen be- restaurant, Red Lantern on Riley & programs, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, fore viewing this episode? Red Lily Cocktail Bar. He is also the Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong, Luke man behind Fat Noodle, an Asian Nguyen’s France and Luke Nguyen’s Use the Internet to find out more Noodle Bar concept at The Star in U.K. Nguyen is also the judge and

about Luke Nguyen. Share your find- Pyrmont, Sydney and The Treasury in host of Master Chef Vietnam series 1 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 ings with others in the class. Brisbane. and 2, and has appeared in Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape and Mas- Alternatively, teachers may choose to Luke is the author of six bestselling terChef Australia. provide students with the following and award-winning cookbooks, Se- biography: crets of the Red Lantern, The Songs Luke is Ambassador for award of Sapa, Indochine, Luke Nguyen’s winning travel group APT; hosting At the age of twenty-three, Luke Greater Mekong, Food of Vietnam culinary discovery trips to Vietnam, Nguyen fulfilled his dream by opening and Luke’s Food of France. He was Cambodia, China, Burma and Japan.

19 He is also the Food Ambassador for ETIHAD Airways, designing First Class, Business Class and Economy Class menus. In March 2015, Luke opened GRAIN Cooking Studio in Saigon; of- fering hands on cooking classes where guests experience a cooking and cultural journey of Vietnam.

§ Luke: In cooking the biggest les- son that my parents taught me was my parents become who they are, balance of flavour. How do you get Luke: I was a bit scared to do this you know, just through learning about all those flavours to work in harmony because I wasn’t sure if I was going my grandparents and I understand together? But, there was no balance to be proud or if I’m going to be em- why my mum’s the way she is and or harmony at all in the family life … barrassed or ashamed and I have not why my father’s the way he is. I’ve it’s chaotic. Were we a close family? felt embarrassed or ashamed one bit. still got a lot of pain in there but has it No. You know, my parents would be I’ve just been so proud. released some of it? Yes. working all the time … sometimes not enough time to be parents. You Luke:’ I guess for both sides of the What does Luke Nguyen know about know, we were disciplined a lot so it family the common theme is sacri- his family’s history? was very violent. Very violent. fice. My grandfather in China sacri- ficed his family to find a better life. Why does Luke Nguyen want to learn Drawing on this statement, discuss That was survival. My grandfather on about his family’s history? Luke Nguyen’s relationship with his my father’s side, you know, fighting immediate family. against the French for the country, for What do Luke’s ancestors have in freedom, for survival. My own parents common? § Luke: There was never a point in fled Vietnam, and that was survival. time where we would sit and parents Myself, my brothers and sister, today, Having researched his ancestry, what would say, ‘Well, kids, this is your we don’t have to fight for survival. does Luke Nguyen believe he has history. I’ve learnt a lot about what has made inherited from his ancestors?

What does Luke Nguyen believe are the benefits of knowing his family’s history?

§ Who do you think you are? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 What do you think Luke Nguyen would say in response to this ques- tion? Draw on your existing knowl- edge and the content of the episode to complete this task.

20 Focus 2: Vietnamese refugees to Australia Useful Link: http://www.nma.gov. § More than just a kitchen utensil, the au/online_features/defining_ mortar and pestle that Luke Nguyen Luke: I knew that my parents fled Vi- moments/featured/vietnamese_ uses is a symbol. Explain the signifi- etnam by boat. And my father actually refugees_boat_arrival cance of the mortar and pestle. built his own boat with one of his army buddies. And built a little hidden deck for § How did the Australian Government The Nguyen family settled in Cabramat- their wives and the children and pre- of the time respond to the influx of ta, New South Wales. tended to be fishermen and just left the Vietnamese refugees? docking area in front of everybody. § Aside from Cabramatta, where else How was the response of the govern- did Vietnamese refugees settle after Luke Nguyen is one of the many who ment then different from the response arriving in Australia? How have Viet- came to Australia as refugees after the of the current Australian Government namese people living in the suburbs Vietnam War. Luke’s mother was preg- to people seeking asylum in Aus- you have listed influenced life in nant with him when the Nguyen family tralia? these suburbs? Choose one of the escaped on a fishing boat, which took suburbs from the list and undertake them first of all to a Thailand refugee Episode 3 begins with Luke in the Red research to determine the answer to camp – where Luke was born. Lantern kitchen using a mortar and this question. pestle to make a paste. The mortar and § Who, What, When, Where, Why and pestle were brought to Australia by his § Luke Nguyen is one of the many How? Task: parents. Like most refugees who arrive prominent Australians with Viet- by boat, Luke and his family were not namese ancestry. Who are some of More than 80,000 Vietnamese people able to bring possessions with them on the others? How have these people moved to Australia in the decade their journey from their home country. contributed to Australian society? following the Vietnam War, many as refugees.

Useful links:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/ article/2015/04/14/vietnamese -refugees-who-changed-white -australia SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 http://www.abc.net.au/news/ 2012-06-20/timeline-of-vietnamese -immigration-to-australia/4080074

Write a summary of Vietnamese immigration to Australia after the Vi- etnam War. Use the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? to organise your summary.

21 Focus 3: Sacrifice left home I wasn’t able to utter a word. It’s as if I was dead inside. Luke begins his search into his origins My spirit had gone. At that time if I with his mother, Cuc Phuong. could open my mouth it’s possible that I wouldn’t be able to hold back In 1937 when Ha Lam Sanh was twenty § Luke: I just can’t believe I’ve never my tears and it would weaken your he left China for Vietnam. His wife and seen this stuff before, Mum! When I resolution and wouldn’t want to son stayed in China. In Vietnam he mar- have kids, I would share everything leave. The fact that you two left home ried again and started another family. like this with them. for the future of your children is very Polygamy was not illegal in Vietnam and good. Your mother and I wish you it was common for a man to have several What information about her family two and our grandchildren well and wives. Cuc Phuong knows that her Chi- does Cuc Phuong share with Luke? hope things go right for you.’ nese half-brother is now deceased but How does Luke react to the informa- she does not know what has become tion that she shares? Letter from Ha Lam Sanh to of her other Chinese relatives. She asks Cuc Phuong, Ho Chi Minh City, Luke if he can try to find them. Do your parents tell you about your 17 February, 1978 family’s history? Why do you think Armed just with the translation of an that people may sometimes choose What does Ha Lam Sanh’s letter sug- address from a forty-year-old letter, not to disclose their family’s stories? gest about the sacrifices that are part Luke sets off in search of his Chinese of family relationships? aunty – Tang Cui Ying. In the rural village Luke knows his maternal grandfather, Ha of Nan Keng, located in the Guangdong Lam Sanh, was born in China, but Luke Province, the village chief tells Luke that never met him and knows nothing about his Aunty Tang Cui Ying is no longer at him. Cuc Phuong shows Luke a letter the address on the envelope. Nan Keng that his grandfather mailed to her after is a Hakka village, it has been inhabited she had escaped Vietnam. Grandfather by the ethnic minority Hakka for approxi- Ha assures Luke’s mother that leaving mately 500 years. Luke’s grandfather her home for the future of her children was Hakka. was the right thing and that he wishes her and his grandchildren all the best for § Using Google Earth or an online the future. Luke is struck by the gentle- atlas locate the village of Nan Keng. ness of his grandfather’s words. Sadly by Drawing on your online research and the time Cuc Phuong received the letter the footage of Nan Keng from Epi- from her father he had passed away. sode 3, write a postcard from Luke SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 to Cuc Phuong that describes the § Cuc Phuong: So you know the day village that was once home to their we escaped? Very hard for my father. ancestors. Very, very sad. Famine in Nan Keng during the 1930s ‘My dear children Lap and Cuc resulted in an exodus of people search- Phuong, This is 1978, February. The ing for better lives. Like Luke’s parents, day you two and our grandchildren his grandfather was a refugee.

22 § Luke: So my grandfather is also a How does Luke respond to this rev- separation from his family? How is boat person? elation? Given that Ha Lam Sanh was Luke changed by the experience of a refugee, how does this knowledge being in his grandfather’s home? Luke: Well, where I am standing at shape your understanding of his let- Explain the symbolism of Luke be- the moment is the exact point where ter to his daughter? ing able to cook in his grandfather’s my grandfather walked to this pier to kitchen and prepare an offering to his hop on a boat to head to Vietnam. The village chief of Nan Keng finds Tang ancestors. I’m just so shocked and surprised Cui Ying and Luke meets his long lost that it’s the same story, you know, Chinese family. He is shown the family Focus 4: Rebellion and as my parents, you know, they fled pedigree book that includes references resistance Vietnam in the seventies to search to Luke and his immediate family. for a better life for themselves and Luke travels to Ho Chi Minh City in their family. And my grandfather, to § What do these scenes reveal about Vietnam to investigate the paternal side find out that he went through the Aunty Tang and her view of family? of his family. He meets his Aunty Tung, same thing, just made that letter that who is Lap Nguyen’s younger sister. he wrote to my mum just so much § Luke: ‘I feel so fortunate that I am Tung has a family pedigree book sent deeper. here to experience this and I can, I from Luke’s Great Uncle Canh, who lives can see where my grandfather lived in the USA. Luke never met his paternal and his room and meet family’. grandfather Nguyen Toan, who died in 2005. The family pedigree book informs Luke: ‘I was taken by their family Luke that his grandfather was born near values, how much respect is there, Hanoi in North Vietnam. Luke learns that

how much honour and culture and his great grandfather, Nguyen Ngac, was SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 integrity’. also born in the North. Great Grandfather Ngac worked at the Astronomical Obser- Luke: ‘This whole trip has been a vatory in Haiphong, North Vietnam. real fairy tale, I’ve learnt what a good family is all about.’ § What was French Indochina and why was Vietnam a part of French Indo- What does Luke learn about his china? grandfather and his grandfather’s

23 Letter from Cahn Nguyen to Luke the French forces in the jungles north of Saigon at a Viet Minh base called War ‘The French stole our country. They Zone D. War Zone D was a safe haven gagged our mouths. They tied up our for training Viet Minh troops, for gather- limbs. They blinded our eyes. Are we ing intelligence and for planning and going to sit back and relax instead of implementing military operations against rising up to ring the bell of freedom? the French Army. The French rarely We should be determined to break entered this area because the jungle was this vicious cycle of oppression.’ too difficult to navigate. Luke is taken down a hidden trapdoor and into one of Source: Colonialism Experienced: the tunnels used by the Viet Minh to run Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism their guerrilla warfare operations. 1900 – 1931 by Truong Buu Lam Construct an annotated timeline of § Luke: I was a little bit hesitant to feel French rule in Vietnam. What does Luke learn about his proud, you know, because I wasn’t grandfather’s education at Lycée sure what the Viet Minh actually Nguyen Toan attended Lycée Albert Albert Sarraut? were. But I have learnt that they were Sarraut, an elite French school. After the fighting for Vietnam, they were fight- family moved to Saigon in 1940, Toan left What was the resistance movement? ing for their country, for their inde- home to join the resistance movement pendence. It’s quite incredible how against the French. Why did Vietnamese people like patriotic and how passionate he was Toan Nguyen who had been raised to live that life for his country. § ‘We lived in the house for staff at in French colonial Hanoi oppose the the station midway to the top of the presence of the French in Vietnam? What do Uncle Hiep’s stories reveal mountain. Life was peaceful and about Toan’s commitment to the safe. Around 1937 your Great Grand- When war broke out against the French resistance movement and his com- father Ngac was posted to Hanoi and in 1946 many Vietnamese joined the Viet mitment to his country? here my older brother, your Grand- Minh – Ho Chi Minh’s Nationalist Army. father Toan, attended school at the How does Luke’s visit to War Zone prestigious Lycée Albert Sarraut. He § Construct another annotated timeline D influence his opinion of his grand- was the only one who got a French alongside the first. The purpose of father? education in the family. Then around this timeline is to document the chal- 1940 father was posted to Saigon. lenges to French rule by the Vietnam- § ‘If instead of strolling in the direction At that time there was a movement ese. of the shops, one went in the oppo-

of students leaving home to join site direction for just one block one SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 the resistance. I remember father § Who was Ho Chi Minh? When and landed in the most notorious testimo- was getting water from a well in the why was the Viet Minh formed? How ny of the French presence in Indo- backyard of the house when Toan ran successful was the Viet Minh in the china. The building, euphemistically in wearing a Colt pistol at this side he fight for Vietnam’s independence? called the Catinat Police Station.’ said, “Father I’m going to the base to fight the French.” This was the Luke’s Uncle Hiep, Toan’s son, also tells Source: Colonialism Experienced: beginning of your grandfather’s long Luke that between 1947 and 1954 that Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism association with the resistance.’ Grandfather Toan was fighting against 1900-1931 by Truong Buu Lam

24 Dear Luke, fearing the spread of Communism, poured financial and military aid into the There was a day in 1948 when a South. The war would rage for the next group of French police came to our decade, leaving its scar on many fami- family home. Everyone was there lies, including the Nguyen family. including my father Ngac, your great grandfather. The police searched the § ‘A new war found our family truly house, throwing things everywhere, divided: fathers and sons on different and then took Ngac away. Everyone sides of the conflict.’ knew he’d been taken to the Catinat to the camp and only came back Police Station. The French beat him Letter from Vy Nguyen to Luke after ten years.’ up for two or three hours … He was then dragged backed to our house. Toan continued to support his former Luke: I guess my father was like … His face was so badly beaten. I know Viet Minh comrades, who had now We got to go now or else this would that the main reason for Ngac’s ar- become the Communist Viet Cong. happen to me … (and so) they had rest and imprisonment was Toan’s Toan’s younger brothers and sons, to flee. involvement with the resistance. A including Lap, fought for the South few weeks later they sent my father Vietnamese army, against the com- Vy Nguyen was a captain in the de- to Omar, a camp run by the French. munists, alongside American and feated Southern army. He spent ten Ngac was forced to do hard labour … Australian troops. years in a re-education camp at the Ngac never recovered from the treat- end of the Vietnam War. Toan went ment he received in prison. His health Despite being on opposite sides of to work for the Communist Govern- deteriorated and he died prematurely the conflict, what did father and son ment. Cahn Nguyen was also sent to at the age of fifty in 1950. have in common? re-education camp.

Letter from Vy Nguyen to Luke § Who, What, When, Where, Why and What were re-education camps? How? Task: What do the archival photographs What does Luke learn about the price suggest about the conditions in the that Toan paid for his involvement in Write a summary of the Vietnam War. re-education camps? the resistance? Use the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? to § Luke: Despite everything did you and organise your summary. your brothers still love grandfather?

In 1954, France was defeated. The end § Vy: ‘I remember when the Republic of Vy: It didn’t matter. Because brothers SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 of colonialism did not lead to a united Vietnam was defeated by the Com- will always love each other … No one and independent Vietnam. Instead the munists. I went to see your Grandfa- was against anyone. country found itself split in two - with the ther. I wanted to ask if he knew what communists ruling in the North and an would be the fate for people like me. What does Luke now understand anti-communist republic in the South. He said, ‘Maybe you’ve to go to the about his father having learnt about Unifying elections were planned but nev- re-education camp.’ He revealed his father’s life in Vietnam and the er took place. In 1959, a divided Vietnam then that he’s working for the new experiences of his paternal relatives? plunged into civil war. The United States, government. One month later I went

25 EPISODE 4 David Wenham Actor David Wenham rose to fame as Diver Dan in the long-running television series SeaChange. He has inhabited countless characters in a thirty-year career spanning theatre, television and film but the characters in Wenham’s own bloodline remain largely unknown to him. David was very close to his father, Bill Wenham, now deceased, yet he knows remarkably little about his background. In delving into the mystery of Bill’s fostered childhood, David uncovers the truth.

Focus 1: David Wenham One of Australia’s most respected Wenham’s television credits include: actors, David Wenham has received Top Of The Lake, Banished, Killing • Had you heard of David Wenham critical acclaim for his diverse perfor- Time, Better Man and SeaChange. before viewing this episode? mances in film, theatre and television. Most recently he starred in The Code. His theatre credits include: The Use the Internet to find out more about Seagull, Hamlet, Splendids, The

David Wenham. Begin your search Tempest, Cosi, Jerry Springer: The SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 at http://www.imdb.com/name/ Wenham’s film credits include: The Opera, Cyrano De Bergerac and True nm0920992/. Share your findings with Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers West. others in the class. and The Return of the King, 300, 300 Rise of an Empire, Gettin’ Square, § David: There are many unanswered Alternatively, teachers may choose to Van Helsing, The Proposition, Public questions in my family history. I don’t provide students with the following Enemies, The Boys, Beyond The know terribly much at all. I think infor- biography: Known World, Pirates of the Carib- mation is king; knowledge is a pow- bean 5 and most recently Lion. erful thing, without having answers

26 How does David Wenham view family § Who do you think you are? history? What do you think David Wenham § David: Certainly questions have been would say in response to this ques- answered and I’m very, very happy tion? Draw on your existing knowl- about all of that. There’s another side edge and the content of the episode of me that feels as though in a really to complete this task. weird way it feels as though I’ve opened up somebody’s drawer … I Focus 1: Childhood do want to close the drawer now. I understand possibly his motivation § Episode 4 begins with David Wen- one goes throughout life just wonder- for just wanting to keep some things ham spending time with his daugh- ing. One of the motivating factors, in the past, in the past. ters. why I’m sitting in this chair right now, has to do with my ten-year-old What does David Wenham know What do these scenes suggest about daughter. She came to me and said, about his family’s history? David’s understanding of fatherhood? ‘Oh, dad, we’ve got a school project, you – you’ll have to help me with the Why does David Wenham want to David Wenham was born in 1965, the family tree,’ and I said, ‘Well, darling learn about his family’s history? youngest of seven children to Bill and I’d love to but it’s going to be a very Kathleen Wenham. small tree, in fact, it’s going to be a Having researched his ancestry, how shrub.’ does David Wenham view his ances- § David: My childhood was a wonder- tors? ful childhood. We grew up in a family with not very much money at all. It was a very working class family. Probably poor but never felt that. We felt a really rich, happy, nourishing, loving family environment.

What do David’s observations and the Wenham family home movies and photographs reveal about his child-

hood? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

§ Having spent time discussing the childhood of David Wenham and of David’s daughters, think about your own experience of childhood.

What are your most vivid memories of childhood?

27 What clues does the letter provide to Bill’s relationship with his grand- father? What does David learn about the letter and how it came to be in Bill’s possession? Why do you think Bill kept the letter?

What is a keepsake? Do you have any keepsakes? What makes these items keepsakes?

Lay out your keepsakes in an at- Make a list of the defining moments Use this claim to discuss David’s tractive way on a flat surface. Take a of your childhood. view of his father. photograph of your keepsakes from above. Format the photograph as an Drawing on your reflections, write a Having watched Episode 4, how do A3 document and then add annota- personal narrative that provides the you think Bill Wenham’s approach to tions that explain the significance reader with an insight into your expe- life may have been influenced by his of the items selected. Think of your rience of childhood. childhood experiences? response to this task as a double page photo-story that you might see Bill Wenham was born Stanley Joseph Bill Wenham died in 2009. One of Bill’s in a magazine or periodical. William Bateup in 1922. David knows keepsakes, discovered by David’s sisters that Bill’s father, Stanley Bateup left Kathryn and Anne, was a letter that he Focus 2: Heroism when Bill was a child and that he was wrote to his grandfather in 1930 when fostered by the Wenham family. he was eight-years-old. While the letter § Marriage certificates are key records is initially a mystery, as David investi- for people interested in learning more § David: My father, joined the St Vin- gates his father’s past he learns that this about their family tree. cent de Paul Society and he basi- letter was written by Bill to his maternal cally spent his life doing charitable grandfather. What information is shown on the works for that organisation … after marriage certificate of Stanley Reu- dinner or whatever, while we were § ‘Dear Grandfather, ben Bateup and Lillian Violet Kidney? either doing homework or playing or How does the information shape watching television, or whatever, he Just a line, glad to hear that you got David’s view of his paternal grand-

would disappear, out into the neigh- some work. I hope you’ll make a start parents? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 bourhood where he would go and again on Thursday … Daddy Wen- visit people and either deliver food ham told me you said if I wrote and Ask a relative if they have a copy of a vouchers or find them clothing or find told you what size hat you would buy marriage certificate that you can look them places to stay. That’s what gave me a nice new one … Goodbye ’til I at. What does the marriage certificate him a great, rich inner life. That was see you again. I remain your loving tell you about your ancestors? the thing that fired him more than grandson. anything else. Stanley Bateup was enlisted in the Army Bill.’ when he married Lillian Kidney. A Private

28 in the 20th Battalion, 2nd Division, memorial located at Woolloomooloo While news of the Gallipoli casualties Stanley embarked from Woolloomooloo Wharf? was reported in the Australian media of Wharf in Woolloomooloo Wharf, Sydney the time, the gruesome reality of war was with thousands of New South Wales Useful link: https://www.warmem glossed over. One reason for disguising servicemen in June 1915. He had been orialsregister.nsw.gov.au/content/ the truth of trench warfare was the need married for less than three weeks. woolloomooloo-bay-mothers-and for men to continue to enlist. -wives-memorial-soldiers § When and why did Australia join § David: … it’s certainly not ‘Boys’ Own WWI? How was Australia involved in Adventure’, which is probably what a lot the war? Draw a map to show where of guys thought that they were getting Australian troops were located? Why themselves into by going over there. was WWI called the Great War? What does David mean when he says § David: I find it nearly impossible to ‘Boys’ Own Adventure’? put myself in the shoes of Stanley and Lillian. Lillian I’m sure would Recruitment refers to the action of be a little bit melancholy about the finding new people to join an organi- fact that only a couple a weeks prior sation or a military service. Through- she’d just married somebody that out Australia’s military history, recruit- one would presume she was in love ment posters have been used to with and I suppose the same would persuade men and women to enlist. go for husband as well. § The 20th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Use the Australian War Memorial’s Woolloomooloo Wharf is important website to source WWI recruitment for its historic and symbolic associa- Learn about the 20th Battalion online posters. tions with Australia’s involvement in at the Australian War Memorial both World Wars, as the embarkation website at https://www.awm.gov. Use one of the posters to answer the and disembarkation point for troops. au/unit/U51460/. following questions:

Writing from either the perspective of Did any of your ancestors serve in What can you see? Hint: make notes SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 either an Australian troop or a woman WWI? What unit did they serve with? about the words and images. What who would have waved her husband, does the poster make you think? son or boyfriend goodbye describe Research the story of your ancestor’s How does the poster make you feel? the experience captured in the archi- military unit online at the Australian Who is the audience of the poster? val images of Woolloomooloo Wharf War Memorial website – http://www. What persuasive devices have been during WWI. awm.gov.au/units/. Share your find- used in the poster to influence men ings with the class. to enlist? What is the significance of the war

29 At the NSW State Library, David views David: I would have loved to have an exhibition of some of the 1100 diaries known him. You can’t help but admire collected after WWI. A diary by Oscar that courage. It’s an amazing thing Rhodes, a journalist, who was in the 20th that he did but I don’t think anybody Battalion with Stanley, is in some way could endure what he did over those descriptive of Stanley’s experience of months overseas and to not have war. had a profound effect on his life.

§ The following excerpts are taken from The newspapers of the time celebrat- Oscar Rhodes’ diary entry for 26 ed returning soldiers. August 1915: How does the news report published ‘Thursday the 26th of August 1915. I in The Mirror on January 5, 1918, had a restless night. Our snipers on portray Stanley Bateup? the hill above were very active and stray bullets from the enemy were Having researched Stanley Bateup’s continually plugging into the sand life, how does David view his grand- around us. Rest Gully … is becoming father? very dirty and a harbour for vermin, rats, etc.’ Focus 3: Hard times

‘Our fellows in the front trenches are § David: I’m very interested to find out suffering and undergoing great trials. what my grandfather did when he Perhaps their worst enemy is the did return from war in 1918 because unendurable stench from the Turk- there’s a number of years between ish trenches where the bodies of our cal personnel as ‘severe’. Early in 1918, then and when my father was born. heroes lie rotting side by side with after almost a year in hospital, Stanley Maybe mentally he was not com- those of the enemy.’ was sent home and discharged from the pletely stable when my father came Army. along. ‘Many of the bodies are maggoty and eaten away by rats and other vermin § ‘Sergeant Reuben Bateup – awarded David: I’m sure these guys including and the nauseating odour floats for consistent work and devotion to Sergeant Bateup at the time when through the trenches with the even- duty. This NCO showed conspicuous they returned home must have felt as ing breeze in stifling intensity.’ bravery by bringing in the wounded though they’d been to outer space at Fleurs after an attack by the 5th and back. And suddenly they’re back Why are primary sources such as Australian Infantry Brigade on the in what was familiar territory but Oscar Rhodes’ diary an important 14th of the 11th 1916’. probably seems very strange indeed. historical record? Stanley was awarded a Military Medal. What does David learn about Stan- What was the reality of Stanley Ba- The citation is stated above. ley’s civilian life? Do the findings of teup’s war experiences? Use primary his investigation change his opinion and secondary sources to determine Use the Internet to research the Military of his grandfather, the returned war the answer to this question. Medal. hero?

Did any of your ancestors serve in Useful links: Stanley Bateup was not even four-years- WWI? What do you know about their old when he was placed in foster case. military service? Use online resources https://www.awm.gov.au/research/ to access information about your an- infosheets/medals/ At the State Records Office, David cestors’ military service during WWI. accesses his grandparents’ divorce https://www.awm.gov.au/research/ papers. Lillian filed for the divorce citing Records of Australian servicemen and infosheets/honours_awards/ desertion as the grounds. At that time of women who served in WWI in the first Stanley and Lillian’s marriage, only five

Australian Imperial Force (AIF) are pre- Find an image of the medal. Use an- percent of marriages ended in divorce. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 served in the National Archives: http:// notations to describe the features of the For a marriage to be legally dissolved, www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/ medal. the courts needed to find either husband defence/service-records/army-wwi. or wife at fault. It was a costly and also aspx § David: I, one can only be impressed very public exercise as indicated by from a distance of a hundred years newspaper reports from the time. In April 1917, Stanley was wounded in as to what this man did under quite action. His injury, a gunshot wound to indescribable conditions really. § ‘Lillian Violet Bateup alleges that you the thigh, was described by the medi- have without just cause or excuse

30 § David: I’d love to know that my father did know his mother and have something to do with her. However my gut feeling says that’s not going to be the case. Why do I think that? Well at the age of eight he’s written to his grandfather asking for something. There’s no mention of his mother.

David: It’s reassuring. It’s not as though you know my father was dumped on somebody’s doorstep or left with a family and had nothing to do with the biological family. It all sort of makes sense now. It seems as though at least those three people my father, Andrew Kidney and Ed- ward Wenham seemed to get on.

Death certificates are key records for people interested in learning more about their family tree.

wilfully deserted her.’ – extract from Where? Why? and How? to organise What stories are told by the Will of Lillian’s application for divorce your summary. Probate for Andrew Kidney, David’s maternal grandfather, and Lillian What information do the divorce pa- Useful link: http://www.australia.gov. Bateup’s death certificate? pers and the documents filed in sup- au/about-australia/australian-story/ port of the divorce application such great-depression How do these documents inform as the letter from Stanley to Lillian David’s knowledge and understand- dated 26 January 1925 provide David What does David learn about the ing of his father being fostered by the in regard to his family’s history? impact that this economic event had Wenham family? on his ancestors? Why did Lillian choose to divorce § Lillian was a single mother without Stanley? Some students in the class may have an income. What decisions was she a Grandparent or Great Grandpar- forced to make? Were the odds in What reasons are given for Lillian ent who was a child during the Great Lillian’s favour? How would Lillian’s persisting with divorce proceedings? Depression. Ask those students to options be different if she was living speak to their relative about their in contemporary inner city Sydney? § What does David learn about Lillian’s memories. Some students may have decision to place her son in foster at home a family photograph from Why did Lillian allow her son to be care? Does the evidence suggest the 1930s. What does this photo- fostered by the Wenhams? that Lillian was a responsible moth- graph suggest about the life of their er? Is David accepting of Lillian’s de- ancestor(s). § David: ‘I just think he was genuinely cision to place Bill with the Wenham allowing us to live in the present and family? § Lillian was a resident at the Brooklyn to look forward because looking Hotel now The Morrison Hotel at 225 back on his family history was not an § In the 1930s, the world was experi- George Street, Sydney. overly happy tale.’ encing an economic depression. This period in history is referred to as the Why does social historian Naomi David: ‘The Wenhams obviously gave Great Depression. Parry claim this precinct was ‘no my father a solidity and foundation place for a lady’? that was fundamental in how he went

A depression is a time of low eco- on the rest of his life’s journey and SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 nomic activity. It is distinguished from Have you ever visited this part of how he then brought up his children.’ a recession by being prolonged and Sydney? What does this part of Syd- sustained. ney look like today? Use the Internet What sense does David make of his to research what life was like in this father’s decision to keep the story of Write a summary of the Great Depression precinct when Lillian Kennedy lived his relationship with his birth parents in Australia. there. What is gentrification? How a secret? has gentrification transformed this Use the questions: Who? What? When? part of Sydney?

31 EPISODE 5 Dawn Fraser Swimming legend and Aussie icon, Dawn Fraser is the youngest of eight children, born to Kenneth Fraser and Rose Miranda. Her search for her family’s history takes her back to her childhood home in Balmain, Sydney. There, Dawn discovers the story of her grandmother who was widowed young and who then married her former husband’s best friend. Next, Dawn’s investigation takes her to the birthplace of her grandfather in Peru, South America. As she delves into this mysterious Latin American ancestry, she uncovers the story of a freedom fighter that sacrificed everything for his country’s future and a wife and mother struggling to survive after her husband’s tragic death.

Focus 1: Dawn Fraser AO MBE Dawn Fraser was born in Balmain, New Fraser won two more gold medals at the South Wales on September 4, 1937. She 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, • Had you heard of Dawn Fraser before started swimming at the age of four because Wales, and another gold at the Rome

viewing this episode? she was asthmatic. In 1955, Fraser won her Olympics in 1960 for the 100 metres SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 first Australian title in the 220 yards freestyle freestyle. By this time she had attained Use the Internet to find out more and, during that summer season, sett new the status of an Australian sporting about Dawn Fraser. Share your find- Australian records in all freestyle events up to legend. ings with others in the class. 880 yards. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Fraser won the 100 metres freestyle gold After winning four gold medals at the Alternatively, teachers may choose to medal in world record time and took gold in 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, provide students with the following the 100 metres freestyle relay and silver in Fraser finished her international swim- biography: the 400 metres freestyle. ming career at the Tokyo Olympics in

32 1964 by winning a gold medal in the 100 metres freestyle at the age of twenty- seven. Her total Olympic medal count is four gold and four silver medals.

In 1988, Fraser returned to public life as an independent member of the New South Wales Parliament. She has since maintained an active role in the sporting and wider community through her work for the Cerebral Palsy Sports Associa- tion, Wheelchair Sports Association of Victoria and Ladies Professional Golf As- sociation. Fraser is a founding member of the Laureus Sports Academy, a mem- ber of the Sport for Good Foundation and Vice President of the World Associa- tion of Olympic Winners, and supports sporting clubs across the country. What does Dawn Fraser know about Dawn: I like to think that I can her family’s history? show the strength that my great- Source: http://www.dawnfraser.com. grandmother showed and also my au/profile.htm Why does Dawn Fraser want to learn grandmother showed. I think there about her family’s history? is something in my DNA from these § How does Dawn Fraser view her life women. achievements? § Dawn: Apart from winning gold med- als it’s the most exciting thing I think Having researched her ancestry, what § Dawn: I know a little bit about my I’ve done in my life … There was a lot characteristics does Dawn Fraser father’s side of the family. Dad came of mystery in my life, but the puzzle believe she has inherited from her out from Scotland but from mum’s it’s now been completed. ancestors? side, nothing, at all. I don’t even know my grandmother’s name, Dawn: It was really … surprising What does Dawn Fraser believe are except that she’s grandma Miranda. I to find the sadness that they went the benefits of knowing her family’s

don’t have the history of that side of through in their lives, but there were history? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 the family. And I really do want to find lots of times when I felt very proud it. of what they had achieved. I felt § Who do you think you are? involved with these people and I felt Dawn: Before I die I’d like my part of their life. I think all the passion What do you think Dawn Fraser grandson to know about his family. that’s been shown throughout the would say in response to this ques- Jackson is at the age now he wants history of my ancestors. I feel it. I feel tion? Draw on your existing knowl- to know about his history and I can’t that passion. edge and the content of the episode tell him. to complete this task.

33 Interview an older relative about their childhood. Write a transcript of the Focus 2: Olympic Gold interview. Edit the transcript so that it reads like an interview that you would In Episode 5, Dawn Fraser returns to read in a magazine or periodical. Balmain, the neighbourhood where she Your interview should have a title and spent her childhood and has also loved include a photograph of your subject. during her adulthood. Dawn learnt to swim at the local public pool that now Dawn suggests that place plays a bears her name. She recollects, formative role in a person’s identity. How do you think the place that you ‘My brothers used to take me up on live has shaped who you are? the 3 metre tower and take me off on their back. I used to just jump in with § Dawn: I can remember the secretary them and then they’d say, “Right, general of the Australian Swimming it’s your turn to learn to swim.” I just Union slapping his desk and saying Having researched Dawn’s sporting really worked hard to be good at it to me, “You’ll never swim for Austral- success, why do you think she refers to because I wanted to make something ia because you come from a working herself as a ‘tough competitor’? of my life.’ class family.” Dawn’s swimming career came to an § Dawn: In front of our house there was Why is Dawn Fraser regarded as abrupt end after she was accused of an old coal mine. We had no hot wa- one of Australia’s most successful stealing a flag at the Olympic Games in ter. We had no refrigerator. I saw my Olympians? Tokyo in 1964. The ban resulting from mother and father go through hard the accusation restricted Dawn from times. Money wasn’t very good, but Who are Australia’s other successful swimming at official meets. Watch Dawn they survived. It was a tough area, Olympians? win the gold medal for the 100m free- but it made me the tough competitor. style online at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=JFg4jJudtuU.

§ Write a summary of Dawn Fraser’s misdemeanour at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games.

Use the questions: Who? What?

When? Where? Why? and How? to SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 organise your summary.

Was this the first time that Dawn found herself embroiled in contro- versy?

34 Focus 3: Tragedy

An online search reveals that Dawn’s maternal grandmother was born in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Her grandmother’s name is also a surprise. It is listed as Christina Canning and also as Christina Litto.

Christina Canning married Michael was often far from his family. Christina support for the boy, being dependant on Litto in 1879, two years after she had had to manage on her own. A police charity herself. Stepfather respectable as been convicted for theft at the age of report suggests that this arrangement far as known. Police give the mother a seventeen. When Michael died in 1892, took its toll on the family. Twelve-year-old bad report.’ Christina became a single mother to their Michael Litto made the following state- six children. ment: A street kid beyond his parents’ control, Michael was sent to the Sobraon reform A letter from Michael’s great grand- ‘I was sent here for sleeping out. I have ship which was moored within view of daughter, Rhonda Eyre, explains how been before the court five times before Balmain. Christina came to be known as Christina sleeping out, stealing, and shooting Miranda: stones. I have no home, my mother is § What was a reform ship? Use online out of work, Mr Kemp saw me sleep- resources to research this period in ‘Dawn, the story that has been passed ing out and took me home with him. My Australia’s history. down the family is that Michael Litto and father is on the steamer St George.’ Lorenzo were best mates, both being Useful link: http://gallery.records.nsw. sailors and perhaps also due to their The police blamed Christina for her son’s gov.au/index.php/galleries/50-years shared Latin roots. After Michael’s tragic wayward behaviour: -at-state-records-nsw/4-02/ death Lorenzo came to the rescue step- ping into take care of his mate’s widow ‘The boy’s mother, states that she is liv- Drawing on your research, evaluate and six children.’ ing apart from her husband and has no whether or not this form of youth justice was beneficial? § Dawn: He stepped in to look after her, in those very tragic circum- § Dawn: She had a bad report at sev- stances and helped her with the six enteen years of age when she was children. So, that’s fantastic but obvi- arrested, and wasn’t given the op- ously they must have fallen in love portunity to rectify it. They were men because then my mum came along. giving an assessment of a woman that’s tried to keep a family together. A widow for two months, Christina Women were second-class citizens married Lorenzo on April 19, 1892. and I think, the police report reflected the insecurity that working-class

What does Dawn think of Lorenzo’s women went through. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 decision to marry Christina? Why are Dawn’s sympathies with Dawn’s mother, Rose Christina Miranda, Christina? was born on April 19, 1896, in Balmain Sydney. Her father was Lorenzo Miranda. The electoral rolls reveal Christina’s fate. Late in life, her address on the electoral Lorenzo’s work as a fireman aboard rolls from 1930 and 1936 show her living ocean-going steam ships meant that he with her children.

35 Focus 4: Heroism § Electoral rolls are key records for peo- historical significance of this fact. In ple interested in learning more about the third column, describe Dawn’s their family tree. Dawn’s interest in Lorenzo Miranda takes response to this fact. her to Peru. In Lima, researcher Deborah What is an electoral roll? What infor- McLauchlan has traced the Mirandas to During her time in Peru, Dawn learns a mation is shown on an electoral roll? Barrios Altos. Lorenzo’s birth certificate, lot about her great grandfather Lorenzo as well as that of Dawn’s great aunt, Miranda Senior. Peru had declared How does the information on the elec- Maria Del Carmen, shows that the family independence from Spain in 1821, but toral rolls inform Dawn’s knowledge once lived in the neighbourhood. then endured violent social upheaval and and shape her view of her ancestors? a succession of military coups. Lorenzo § Make a three-column table. In the Miranda Senior fought on the winning § Dawn: I didn’t really know my first column, list the facts that Dawn side of a revolution and for that he was grandparents and I wanted to have learns about her Peruvian ancestors. rewarded with a new job as a policeman grandparents. In the second column, explain the in Lima’s seaport, Callao.

Dawn: I can see that my grand- In 1866, simmering tensions erupted parents struggled hard. I think the into armed conflict. A fleet of Spanish toughness and the endurance have gunships set sail for Peru to teach its come through to me. Finding them former colony a lesson and their target has put a full stop into my brain. was Lorenzo’s new workplace: the port I’m not wondering anymore, I know of Callao. Peruvians flocked to Callao, where they are. ready to defend their nation. Troops massed on the beaches, women and What do you know about your grand- children were evacuated and nearly parents and their lives? seventy cannon sights were trained on

the bay ready for the invaders. At the SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Dawn is a grandparent herself, how Real Felipe Fort, Dawn listens to the does she regard her relationship with translation of a speech made by the then her grandson? Why is knowing about Peruvian President that that would have her grandparents important to her? been heard by Lorenzo Miranda Senior, on the eve of the battle: What does the death certificate of Dawn’s grandmother suggest about ‘Peruvians, tomorrow people fighting for her ancestors’ sense of family? their honour and liberty are invincible.

36 50 canons defend the national honour grandmother Dona Rosa Garcia on 20 an early age. The women were left against 300. They have force, we have July 1866. He died six days later. with the children to bring them up. It justice. soldiers and sailors, the time would have been very difficult for my of battle approaches. Every man to his § Dawn: The tragic part about it is the great-grandmother to survive, but I post! We defend the honour and liberty fact that they had been together in think because he made the marriage of a continent. Long live Peru!’ a relationship for quite a number of legitimate, that maybe she would be years. A wedding is supposed to able to obtain a pension. § What type of man was Lorenzo be very joyful and exciting but here Miranda Senior? What do you think he was dying. He was a hero not Dawn reflects on her great-grandfa- Dawn will tell her grandson about his only on the battlefield, but a hero ther’s untimely death so soon after great great grandfather? in death. My father died before my getting married. mother and I saw the sadness. The Lorenzo Miranda married Dawn’s great men in the family have all died at What did the death of her husband mean for Rosa Garcia and her chil- dren?

Why does Dawn call Lorenzo ‘a hero’?

§ Dawn: I got goose bumps. When I walked through those gates at the fort, I could imagine my great grand- father walking through there. And it gave me a certain feeling of, you know, part of me belonged here. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 How does Dawn’s visit to Peru shape her sense of belonging?

37 EPISODE 6 Greig Pickhaver Greig Pickhaver’s search for his family history uncovers a scoundrel of a great grandfather who made his fortune as a sheep trader, only to lose it at the racetrack and resort to fraud to finance his lifestyle. He also investigates the events that shaped his mother’s life and, in turn, his childhood.

Focus 1: Greig Pickhaver Greig Pickhaver arrived in Melbourne weekend fixture on the ABC’s Triple and began working for the Australian J for twenty-two years, followed by • Had you heard of Greig Pickhaver Performing Group and 3RRR FM. three years of The Life on Triple M. before viewing this episode? During this two decade run Pick- The radio station encouraged haver and Slaven have presented a Use the Internet to find out more about Pickhaver to use his knowledge of number of television shows including Greig Pickhaver. Begin your search at popular music to develop innovative This Sporting Life, Club Buggery, http://www.rgm.com.au/portfolios/ programmes and allowed him time The Channel Nine Show, Win Roy greig-pickhaver. Share your findings to explore sports broadcasting. This and H.G.’s Money, The Dream, The with others in the class. eventually led to the creation of H.G. Ice Dream, The Dream in Athens, SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Nelson, a character he was born The Monday Dump, The Cream and Alternatively, teachers may choose to to play. Since 1986, Pickhaver has The Memphis Trousers Half Hour provide students with the following appeared as H.G. Nelson in various amongst many others. biography: radio and television programs usually with John Doyle appearing alongside In recent years Pickhaver has worked After graduating from Flinders Uni- him as Rampaging Roy Slaven. on a wide variety of television includ- versity in South Australia and spend- ing Bush Slam, It’s a Knockout and ing time overseas driving trucks, This Sporting Life was a regular The Russian Revolution. Other recent

38 projects include covering sport for The Project, calling Rugby Union and covering the Winter Olympics from Sochi in February 2014 for the Samsung Stadium app.

§ Greig: What I understand about my family is very limited. You just didn’t talk about these things. I grew up imagining that if it didn’t happen five years ago it didn’t happen. In some families all this would be churned over endlessly. In our family it wasn’t at all.

One of five children, Greig was born in 1948 to Beryl Skuce and Gordon Pickhaver. Throughout his child- hood the family’s history was rarely ents, from our great grandparents to feel a lost opportunity. discussed. our children is something that is both a blessing and a curse. Having spent Ian Turpie died in 2012, but Greig is What does Greig Pickhaver know a whole lifetime being someone else keen to establish whether the story about his family’s history? I’m now more prepared to be myself. is true. And if you imagine that coming from Why does Greig Pickhaver want to an hour of television then that is quite What does Greig discover? learn about his family’s history? an achievement! Are there any stories told by your § Greig: We set off on this journey Having researched his ancestry, how relatives about your family that you looking for people who might explain does Greig Pickhaver regard his fam- would like to determine to be either why there’s a H.G. Nelson. Every ily’s history? fact or fiction? turn of the family we find people who weren’t – who were sort of not them- Part of Greig’s family folklore is a link to § Who do you think you are?

selves, who had other agendas that Australian entertainer Ian Turpie. In the SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 they kept hidden … 1960s, Ian ‘Turps’ Turpie was one of the What do you think Greig Pickhaver biggest names in Australian showbiz. would say in response to this ques- Greig: What I’m gonna do is try I Decades later, Roy and H.G’s variety tion? Draw on your existing knowl- think to unravel more of why I ended TV series Club Buggery revitalised his edge and the content of the episode up being the sort of person I am and career. to complete this task. speculate more on how this, river which flows through all of our lives § Greig: Without working out how from our parents, from our grandpar- closely related I am to Turps, I would

39 investigate how the discovery of gold transformed colonial society.

Begin your investigation online at: http:// www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/ Focus 2: Boom and bust What do you think when you look at australian-story/austn-gold-rush. the photograph? What do you feel Greig Pickhaver’s great grandmother when you look at the photograph? By 1890, Samuel Coutts Rinder had Alison Turpie and great grandfather Drawing on your answer to these established himself as one of the leading Samuel Coutts Rinder were prosperous questions, write a brief statement to stock agents in the Bendigo area. landowners. Married in Bendigo in 1881, accompany a scanned image of the Alison was already pregnant with their photographic portrait. § What does Greig learn about Sam- first child. uel Coutts Rinder’s enterprise and When Samuel and Alison were married in wealth? § Greig: “Look at a picture like this Bendigo in 1881, the town was enjoy- and see a theatrical pose and a neat ing its boom years, fuelled by one of § Greig reads a newspaper report from family arrangement here but we don’t history’s greatest gold rushes. Samuel 1891 describing a horse race Rinder see the drama of their lives.” Coutts Rinder was one of the many who took part in. His horse Lady came prospered during this time. second but after a stewards enquiry What does Greig see when he looks was declared the winner. at the photographic portraits of his § The gold rush caused the popula- ancestors? tion of Australia to boom from over What does this anecdote suggest 400,000 people to over 1,000,000 about the personal qualities of Find a portrait of a family member from 1845 to 1896. Samuel Rinder? from a past era. What do you see when you look at the photograph? Use print and electronic resources to Between 1890 and 1893, a severe eco- nomic depression caused the closure and collapse of many banks and build- ing societies. Those who had borrowed heavily to fund their own speculative in- vestments, found themselves facing eco- nomic ruin. Rinder was not immune from financial troubles. His land and property was put up for sale by the authorities to pay back creditors.

§ Write a summary of the Australian

economic depression of the 1890s. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

Use the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? to organise your summary.

§ ‘Notice is hereby given by the Su- preme Court of the Colony of Victoria and directed to the Sheriff of the

40 Midland Bailiwick, requiring him to levy certain moneys of the real and personal estate of Samuel Coutts Rinder.’

Source: The Bendigo Advertiser, 11 February 1892

‘It will come as a shock to the com- munity to learn that a warrant was issued today on the sworn informa- tion of Mr. A. G. Randall for the arrest of Mr. S. C. Rinder, one of the largest sheep and cattle dealers of the Northern district.’

Source: Bendigo Advertiser, 23 Janu- ary 1892

Greig: This looks like a modern day Bernie Madoff pyramid scheme draw on the information provided by § Postal directories are useful records where he’s promising people, paying the primary and secondary sources. for people researching their family some off with money he’s borrowed history. from other people and so on. The From May 1892 to August 1897, Alison greatest crime of its sort in the his- Rinder made a living for herself and her Greig accesses the Sands & tory of the colony. That’s something children as the postmistress at Salisbury McDougall Adelaide directories. you can hang your hat on. West. Turn-of-the-century residency records reveal that the family moved What types of information can be Why did Rinder become a wanted to South Australia. An online search found in the directories? man? turns up a 1919 record for a Mrs Alice Rinder living at 11 Hughes Street, North Do you know where your ances- How do the newspaper reports from Unley in Adelaide. A memorandum of tors lived? Ask some of your older the time view Rinder’s behaviour? transfer for the sale of 11 Hughes Street relatives about the places where indicates that his great grandmother your ancestors lived. Addresses can How does Greig react to the revela- paid 150 pounds for the property. Even also be found on significant family tion of his great grandfather’s crime? more surprising is that the mortgagors documents. You can also search the are listed as Allison Rinder and Samuel postal directories for your state or Imagine that you are Samuel Coutts Coutts Rinder. territory by using a family name. Look Rinder, write a letter to your descend- through the family photograph album ent Greig Pickhaver that tells your § What type of woman was Alison for photographs of houses where you side of the story. In writing the letter Rinder? ancestors lived.

Your task is to undertake an online investigation of the addresses that your ancestors have called home. Turn the findings of your investigation into a family keepsake.

§ Greig: I don’t know how he sleeps straight in bed at night to be quite honest! What was it like when he walked back in the door and said,

‘Honey, I’m home’? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

Greig: He appears to have got away scot free with the money. Where are the Coutts millions today, I ask myself?

Greig: Was it all planned that some- how after a period of time they would

41 decide to get together again? Were weeks without them talking. dons her and she’s left to make her letters exchanged going backwards way in the world with an aunt. and forwards, remember she’s the Greig: I think my Mum probably found postmistress so she could intercept having five kids a ruinous burden. In my Greig: The school record here shows his mail. estimation my mum only showed an af- a person enjoying life. I think that’s the fection to me once … I’m not sure what most important thing … who’s confident, Given all that Greig has learnt how made her do it. enjoying life and looking outwards to does he now view his great grand- the horizon. The school looks to have parents? § Share your thoughts and feelings been all-consuming for her, and therefore about Greig’s claims with the class. whatever troubles she might have had at Focus 3: The impact of WWII home, she was able to leave them there. What do Greig’s claims suggest Greig’s admissions about his experience about an individual’s perspective of Greig: The life of the party at school, of family and his relationship with his their parents and how it may change the Queen of Adelaide, all that sort of parents are honest and very personal. over time? stuff. It makes me feel proud of my mum Some of the statements he shares in this in a way that I probably haven’t felt episode of Who Do You Think You Are? In what ways is your relationship with proud before. Discovering that person, are listed below: your parents changing as you grow phew, where was that person when I older? was young? I would have loved to have Greig: As we grew older, and my parents talked through all those things through grew apart … There was a strong sense Greig’s mother, Beryl Skuce, was the with my mum. If only she’d let me in that my parents were living separate eldest of two children born to Benjamin enough to do it. lives in the one house. You took this as Skuce and Elsie Bertram who were mar- normal. You thought that’s what every- ried in 1909. Beryl was eight-years-old How does the knowledge of Beryl’s one else does … that’s what happens to when her father died on May 30, 1919 childhood and adolescence experi- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 everybody. This has been papered over of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. When Elsie ences cause Greig to think of his like all these things – papered over with remarried just over a year later, her new mother and their relationship? very thin wallpaper. But it did leave a husband did not want his wife’s children profound effect on me. to live with them. Beryl was sent to live § Greig: The missing piece of the puz- with an aunt. zle so far is my father. They didn’t Greig: There was very little conventional, seem to be on the same page. interaction between my parents in this § Greig: And so at the age of eight or house. Their lives that seemed to go for nine her dad dies, her mum aban- Greig’s father self-published a book,

42 called Some Aspects of Life of Gor- memories of Beryl Skuse of signifi- relationship with his mother? don Samuel Pickhaver from 1918 to cance? 1998. § ‘I still have that note you gave me on Germany invaded Poland, prompting the station that Saturday night when A memoir is an account of an individ- Australia’s entry into WWII. By March we left. … thank you for your prayers ual’s personal life and experiences. 1940, one in six Australian men of mili- for my safety I have certainly very tary age had enlisted. much to fight for and come back to. Explain the significance of this mem- It will be worth it to meet together oir for the Pickhaver family. § Using print and electronic resources, again after it’s all over.’ investigate the social impacts that Has any member of your family writ- WWII had on Australia. ‘So far I have seen nothing of any ten a memoir? beauty here. Barbed wire tank traps, Working with your peers, create an anti-invasion measures of all kinds. Write the first chapter of your own exhibit that you might see in a mu- Since I have left home I have not story titled ‘Some Aspects of Life of seum to communicate the findings of made a friend, for the simple reason …’ Add your name to the title. your investigation to an audience. that you raise the standard too high. … All my best wishes and thanks to Greig travels to Murray Bridge, South An online search indicates that Vincent you. Yours sincerely, Vin. PS: How Australia where his parents first met. Mansell, a teaching colleague of Beryl’s about coming to Oxford after the war At the school where his mother once at Murray Bridge, was one of the many to do History while I dabble in Eng- taught, a former pupil Elizabeth Michel- who stepped away from civilian life. lish. Wouldn’t it be marvellous?’ more has vivid memories of a favourite teacher: § Greig: Was Vinnie Mansell just a Source: Excerpts from Vincent Man- momentary ship in the night, romanti- sell’s letters to Beryl Skuse

‘She was the warmest, most lovely cally speaking? … part of the passing SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 teacher that anybody could have. I really parade of good blokes who thought Beryl kept Vincent Mansell’s wartime adored her. She managed to open your that Beryl Skuce was a great catch? letters a secret for over fifty years. mind to literature and poetry. I later be- came a teacher myself, probably inspired What does Greig learn about Vincent Why are primary sources such as by Beryl Skuce and I tried hard but I Mansell’s civilian and enlisted life? Vincent Mansell’s letters an important couldn’t be as good as Beryl Skuce.’ historical record? Does Greig find the answers to his § Why are Elizabeth Michelmore’s questions about Vincent Mansell’s What do Vincent’s letters suggest

43 about his experience of war? its troops, Beryl gave birth to their first Useful link: https://www.awm.gov.au/ child. commemoration/anzac-day/ § Greig: Dare I say it? My mother was somebody who she didn’t really want § Greig: One of the big stinks in the Beryl Skuce died in 1994. She was 83 to be. house was my Dad’s enjoyment of years old. In accordance with her last ANZAC Day and my Mum’s absolute wishes, Beryl’s ashes were laid to rest in Greig: If you lose one man in your head under the pillow sort of re- Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery. Greig life in the war you’d be desperately sponse. visits her grave for the first time and happy that the other one came home. learns that his mother, despite having Greig: Dad was able to relive all these been abandoned by her mother at the How does the knowledge of Beryl’s adventures and camaraderie con- age of eight, asked to be buried with her relationship with Vincent Mansell nected with his war experience. He parents. cause Greig to think of his mother? would come every year and march and bring the kids along. But as I got § Greig: This does catch you a bit, this, Greig’s father Gordon also enlisted. He older I realised that Anzac Day was a that my mum, after all of this, thought was sent to the Kokoda Trail. big dividing line in the house. It was a that the best thing in death would very private day for mum. be to reunite with her parents, this § Working with a partner, investigate speaks to that fundamental desire of what life was like for the Australians Do you participate in any ANZAC Day children to be loved by their parents. who served on the Kokoda Trail? commemorative activities? It’s a hell of a bond.

Begin your research at http://kokoda. Hold a class forum to discuss students’ Explain the significance of Greig’s commemoration.gov.au. answers to the following question: observation. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

Use Prezi or PowerPoint to format Is ANZAC Day an appropriate way to Why is this a fitting way to end this the results of your investigation. commemorate the sacrifices made by episode of Who Do You Think You Australians during times of war? Are? When Gordon returned from active service in 1944, he married Beryl. The Use the internet to access information following year, as war drew to a close about ANZAC Day. and Australia celebrated the return of

44 EPISODE 7 Peter Rowsthorn Peter Rowsthorn’s investigation into his family’s past has him amused by ancestors with a knack for stealing. In contrast, his quest to understand the tragic story of the grandfather he never knew leaves him pondering a name change that may better reflect the truth of his heritage.

Focus 1: Peter Rowsthorn Rowsthorn has appeared regularly on Source: http://peterrowsthorn.com Thank God You’re Here and Talkin’ ‘Bout • Had you heard of Peter Rowsthorn Your Generation and hosted Can We Help. § Peter: The older you get the more before viewing this episode? Most recently, Rowsthorn has had televi- you go, ‘where am I from?’ That sion roles in Underbelly: Squizzy, It’s A question as a young man never en- Use the Internet to find out more Date and Timothy, and appeared on stage tered my head. about Peter Rowsthorn. Share your in The Importance Of Being Earnest and findings with others in the class. Laughter On The 23rd Floor. He has also What does Peter Rowsthorn know starred in the films Welcome To Dookie about his family’s history? Alternatively, teachers may choose to and Paper Planes. In 2015, Rowsthorn

provide students with the following appeared in the film Looking For Grace Why does Peter Rowsthorn want to SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 biography: and Black Swan State Theatre Company’s learn about his family’s history? production of Glengarry Glen Ross. Peter Rowsthorn is a high energy, fast § Peter: I’ve got a full story now. It’s not paced stand-up comedian one minute Rowsthorn is probably best known a happy story but it’s a story from the and a measured character actor the next. as long-suffering husband and pants- family that’s a legitimate story that’s A masterful MC of corporate and private man Brett Craig on Kath & Kim. He where we are from. functions, he has been performing stand reprised this role on the silver screen in up for almost two decades. 2012 in Kath & Kimderella. Peter: The whole thing has really

45 helped me understand Dad a bit more and understand my Nanna more.

Peter: I would like to revert my name to Holliss. I feel I could get some of my heritage back.

Having researched his ancestry, how does Peter Rowsthorn view his fam- ily’s history?

§ Who do you think you are?

What do you think Peter Rowsthorn would say in response to this ques- tion? Draw on your existing knowl- edge and the content of the episode to complete this task. ancestors Ann and Jonathon Turner Use the questions: Who? What? by visiting their gravesite? When? Where? Why? and How? to Focus 2: Convict beginnings organise your summary. § Peter: I’m very excited Lyn because Peter Rowsthorn’s investigation of his I was hoping to have a convict and I § Peter: So someone’s done something family’s past begins in the Hunter Valley got one! naughty. I love it. Prisoner 37960, where his paternal grandmother Doris Jonathon Turner. McCosker was born. At the town’s cem- Peter wants to find a convict in his etery, Peter visits the gravesite of Ann family tree. Is he like other Austral- Peter views Jonathon Turner’s Cer- and John (Jonathon) Turner. Ann and ians in this regard? tificate of Freedom dated January 27, Jonathon Turner are Peter’s great great 1848. great grandparents. What do the archival records tell Peter about Jonathon Turner? What is a Certificate of Freedom? § Death certificates, cemetery records and gravesites are useful to people Do you have any convicts in your Useful link: https://www.records. interested in learning more about family tree? nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes their family tree. -online/indexes-to-convict-records Useful link: http://www.convict /index-to-certificates-of-freedom What types of information do these records.com.au. sources provide? What does Peter learn about his Write a summary of convict transpor- ancestor Jonathon Turner by reading What does Peter learn about his tation to Australia. his Certificate of Freedom?

Many convicts were transported for petty crimes. Peter is hopeful that his ancestor didn’t just steal shoes or bread.

‘I would like something a bit more jazzy. Something Robin Hood style, perhaps. Maybe stole from the rich give to the poor, something with a bit of va-voom.’

§ Imagine that you are Jonathon Turn- er. Write a letter to your descendent

Peter Rowsthorn explaining the story SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 of how you arrived in Australia.

In writing the letter draw on the information provided by the archival material.

Why is Peter disappointed when he learns that Jonathon Turner was

46 ‘They demanded my husband’s money. long time ago, strangely I felt a sense They knocked him down and forced the of disappointment about it. That he’s money from him. Nine one pound notes done something … only because and a new hat. Lee, I think it was, struck there was a child involved. I think that me, and the other Sullivan, struck my upset me the most … transported for stealing a pair of child. Three more men came up and shoes? Does the knowledge of Jona- stood at the back of the wheel. They How does the information about the thon’s prior offences change Peter’s had firearms with them, short pistols and highway robbery shift Peter’s opinion perspective of his ancestor? looked like those three men (pointing of Jonathon Turner? at Samuel Lemon, John Peterson and Jonathon Turner was assigned to a work Jonathon Turner). One of the three told In 1849, John (Jonathon) Turner married gang, building roads in the colony of New me to be quiet or they would blow my sixteen-year-old Ann Wood. Ann’s father, South Wales. brains out.’ Joseph Wood, gave permission for his daughter to marry. Joseph Wood and his § How was convict labour used to build A letter from a Police Magistrate states wife Margaret Brandon had also arrived the infrastructure of colonial Australia? that there is no concrete evidence to in Australia as convicts. convict the three men seen at the rear of Use print and electronic resources to the cart. Jonathon Turner never faces a § Peter views shipping records to ac- research this question. court for the offence. cess information about his four times great grandparents. Road gangs were a regular sight in § Peter: … the violence attached to Australia’s colonial settlements. The men this crime here, even though it was Shipping records are useful to people worked in teams of up to fifty men. While interested in learning more about the worst offenders wore leg irons the their family tree. majority of convicts were not shackled. What types of information do ship- § Write a diary entry about a day in the ping records provide? life of a male convict assigned to a road gang. Can your locate the shipping records for your ancestors? Useful link: http:// Useful links:

http://prov.vic.gov.au/research/ships

A police record from 1839 indicates -and-shipping SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 that Jonathon Turner was suspected of involvement in a highway robbery. A https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/ family travelling by horse and cart was state-archives/indexes-online/indexes assaulted by members of a convict road -to-immigration-and-shipping-records gang. Evidence from one of the victims, Eliza Rainey, paints a frightening picture § Peter: … life’s not got any better. She of the crime: has just lost a child to an orphanage and she has been put on another

47 Brandon. I have therefore most re- spectively to petition that your com- mittee would be pleased to transfer the boy Thomas Brandon to my care and instruction which I pledge to myself to it being my intention to bringing him up in the pursuits of Agriculture and being in comfortable circumstances and of sober decent industrious habits I am led to indulge the hope that your committee will be pleased to accede my application. Your most obedient humble servant Joseph Wood’

What type of man was Joseph Wood?

boat and taken north. I think she Australia she was separated from her Focus 3: A real sadness would be reasonably fearful of what ten-year-old son Thomas. Thomas is going to happen. was sent to a boys’ orphanage. § Peter: I am really very close to my children and I’ve been able to create a What does Peter learn about his four Use print and electronic resources situation where I’ve taken my children times great grandmother Margaret to research what happened to the with me. I hope to be a good father but Brandon from reading her trial and children of female convicts? you still make it up as you go along … criminal records? Given Margaret’s there is no textbook. crime and the circumstances of her § ‘I have become married to Margaret life at the time of her crime, do you Episode 6 begins with scenes of Peter think her transportation to Australia Rowsthorn interacting with his children. was to her advantage? What do these scenes suggest about Female convicts in colonial New Peter’s understanding of fatherhood? South Wales were imprisoned in the Female Factory at Parramatta. Why does the episode begin in this way?

Visit the Parramatta Female Factory Pre- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 cinct website at http://www.parragirls. Peter Rowsthorn is aware that his father org.au/female-factory.php. grew up without a biological father. He acknowledges, Write a diary entry describing a day in the life of a female convict imprisoned at ‘Dad had vague memories of his real fa- the Parramatta Female Factory. ther and then suddenly he just vanished from Dad’s life.’ § When Margaret Brandon arrived in

48 that Peter and his siblings were told that § Peter: There was bit of tension in the Ernest was not their biological grandfa- family. Dad carried an anger with him. ther. It took a further two decades before As a younger person I would sit back the truth about Sydney Hollis’ death was and watch it. So it was trying to read revealed. that. Which one am I going to get? Am I going to get the nice guy or am I go- Peter’s father, also named Peter, was § Peter: Nanna burnt all the letters, ing to get the one that goes mental at four-years-old when his father Sydney photographs, clothes, everything. me. I learnt how to use my personality Holliss committed suicide. Peter senior Just suddenly he was gone. Just to cut through the tension. If you like I grew up believing that his father died of wasn’t there and Dad would probably was a bit of a peacekeeper. a heart attack. say what happened and she would just go, ‘don’t talk about it’. Peter’s father has one memory of his Doris Holliss remarried in 1938. Her sec- father: ond husband, Ernest Rowsthorn, legally Peter: I had a very low opinion adopted Peter’s father, and Peter’s uncle of Nanna even though I probably ‘I don’t remember his face at all. I can Ian. Their names were changed from shouldn’t have and then when you remember standing in a workshop with Holliss to Rowsthorn and the existence read things about her trying to do him hanging onto his pants. He was of their biological father was buried. what she’s doing I feel a bit guilty. making a bookcase.’

It was only a generation later when Pe- What does Peter learn about Doris Peter senior owns the bookcase that ter’s sister Sue began asking questions and her life challenges? his father built. about the lack of family resemblance Describe the conversation between Pe- ter and his father. What does this scene suggest about their relationship?

Explain the symbolism of the bookcase.

§ Peter: I’ve got nothing against the Rowsthorn name but I feel that I have a line of my heritage brushed over or taken away.

A family name or surname is typically SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 a part of a person’s name, which ac- cording to law or custom, is passed or given to children from one or both of their parents’ family names.

What is your family name? Does your family name recognise your maternal or your paternal heritage or both?

49 Did any of your ancestors serve in WWI? What role did the ANZACs play in the What unit did they serve with? battles of the Somme Valley?

Research the story of your ancestor’s Seventeen years after the end of WWI, military unit online at the Australian War Sydney Hollis killed himself. It is not Memorial website – http://www.awm. known whether Sydney Holliss’ suicide gov.au/units/. Share your findings with was linked to his war service. the class. § Peter: Given what he would have § Peter is impressed by the photo- Sydney Hollis spent the winter of 1917 seen on the battlefield even in the graph of Sydney Holliss. manning trenches in the Somme Valley. hospitals, and what was happening to men, and the suffering, the horror What does Peter see when he looks § Using an online atlas locate the of war is well and truly enough to at the snapshot of his grandfather? Somme Valley. give you some mental scarring. Is he depressed about the arm? Is he de- Find a portrait of a family member Why was the Somme Valley a signifi- pressed just about his life in general from a past era. What do you see cant battlefield during WWI? at that time? when you look at the photograph? What do you think when you look at Using print and electronic resources ‘Sydney Hollis Parker was my hus- the photograph? What do you feel locate photographic images of the band … he was worrying about over when you look at the photograph? Somme Valley during WWI. Choose a possible operation. … he had been Drawing on your answer to these three images. What does each image operated on twice for the removal of questions, write a brief statement to suggest about the battlefield? shrapnel. … he never suggested to accompany a scanned image of the me he would take his own life … we photograph. were on good terms with one another … at times he would become very Peter visits Melbourne’s Shrine of Re- depressed.’ – Testimony of Doris membrance to view his grandfather’s war Holliss record. ‘I had known my husband since 1929 § Sydney Holliss served with the 55th and we were married in January Battalion. 1930. He was a very nervy man, irri- table. I had to be extremely careful in Make a list of the facts that Peter order to avoid little differences in the learns about Sydney’s service during home. He suffered from terrible fits

WWI. of depression during which he would SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 become very unstable and morose. The 55th Battalion was an infantry bat- Throughout our married life my late talion of the Australian Army. husband had complained of his left arm in which a piece of shrapnel Learn about the 55th Battalion online was embedded. My husband would at the Australian War Memorial website sometimes perspire freely in bed so at https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/ as to soak the bedclothes and would U51495/. often talk about the war and his ex-

50 periences there during them.’ – Doris Holliss’ return to civilian life, evaluate related to his grandfather’s death. Holliss’ application for a war widow’s the repatriation process. pension What does Peter learn about his § Peter: He seems to have a sense of grandfather’s life and the values by Peter: The night time descriptions it’s all right everybody, everything’s which he lived? from Nanna, the torment. If he’s organised. Good luck with that. I’ll doing that every night, that’s hard set that up it’s in the letter. The fact § What is the Carry On Club? work; that’s hard work for him. I don’t that he’s getting things right for other understand what he could have said people at the time when he knows Useful link: http://www.carryon in that sixth letter, except sorry I can’t he’s going to kill himself, it’s a very victoria.org.au deal with my own head, I am out of nice thing to do. He’s obviously a here. nice person. Why did Sydney Holliss leave monthly payments for members of Repatriation is the process of return- Peter accesses the inquest papers the Carry On Club? ing military personnel to their place of origin and integration back into How did the Carry On Club support civilian society following a war. the Holliss family?

Use online resources to determine What other organisations do you the repatriation of military personnel know of that have a similar function at the end of WWI. to the Carry On Club? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

What story is told by documents § Peter: ‘It actually feels good to call associated with Sydney Holliss’ Sydney my Grandfather now.’ repatriation? Having investigated his grandfather’s Drawing on your knowledge of the re- life and death, how does Peter now patriation of military personnel at the regard Sydney Holliss? end of WWI and the facts of Sydney

51 EPISODE 8 Ray Martin A journalist for 50 years, Ray Martin has been at the forefront of historic events but what does he know about his own history? Ray was born Raymond Grace but changed his surname with his mother, Mary, after they escaped his violent father. Ray never saw his father again and as a result knows very little about the Grace side of his family.

Focus 1: Ray Martin York for a decade as the ABC’s North Australia in 2011 for his journalism, American correspondent. In 1978 his work with indigenous Austral- • Had you heard of Ray Martin before Martin switched to Channel 9 to ians and his long involvement with viewing this episode? launch 60 Minutes with George Negus charities, as Chairman of the Fred and Ian Leslie, the award-winning Hollows Foundation and the Austral- Use the Internet to find out more program he still reports for today. ian Indigenous Education Foundation about Ray Martin. Share your find- and Patron of the Humpty Dumpty ings with others in the class. In between Martin hosted Midday Foundation and the Aboriginal Em-

for a decade, A Current Affair for ployment Strategy. His best-selling SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Alternatively, teachers may choose to almost as long and countless net- autobiography, Ray: Stories of My provide students with the following work specials, Federal elections and Life was published in 2009. biography: Carols by Candlelight – winning five Gold Logies, more than twenty Silver § Ray: I believe that we have connec- Ray Martin’s lifetime in journalism Logies and an unmatched number of tions with our past and you can’t began as an ABC cadet in Sydney People’s Choice Awards. ignore what went before us. I’m in 1965. After working in Perth and interested in who I am you know Canberra, he was posted to New Martin was awarded an Order of what makes up my DNA and I’m

52 Why does Ray Martin want to learn Draw on your existing knowledge and about his family’s history? the content of the episode to com- plete this task. § Ray: What great great grandfathers on both sides, the copper and the Born Raymond George Grace in 1944, convict have told me again is that Ray is the youngest child and only son of we all have fascinating stories if we George Grace and Mary Leamy. bother to lift up the rock and see interested in what people put into my what’s underneath it.’ Ray’s admissions about his experience brain to make me the person I am or of family and his relationship with his my family the people they are. I say Ray: I’m trying to find who I am and parents are honest and very personal. to people you’ve got to write your my ancestors have helped me do Some of the statements he shares in this life story you’re obliged to write it for that. episode of Who Do You Think You Are? your children and your grandchildren. are listed below: But please don’t provide me with Having researched his ancestry, how people who are dull. Don’t tell me does Ray Martin regard his family’s Ray: I was born in Richmond in New about people who were boring. I’m history? South Wales, the Air Force base. My much more interested in the colour of father was a fitter and turner and he life than the pastels. § ‘Who do you think you are?’ worked on dams. So we went from dam to dam it seemed. I’d been in What does Ray Martin know about What do you think Ray Martin would thirteen different towns from birth to his family’s history? say in response to this question? high school. And it was just wonder- ful; it was a boy’s own adventure for me, I always seemed to be on a train moving to a new house in a new town because dad had changed jobs.

Ray: My father was getting violent and was drinking too much and was abusing my Mother and so she decided to leave which was a very brave thing to do and we sort of fled, literally fled to Adelaide. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Ray: After my parents split I never saw him again. I pretty much took the line that he died.

§ Share your thoughts and feelings about Ray’s claims with the class.

53 Edmond Grace’s obituary states that § ‘So I have it in command to request before entering the police force, he was you will acquaint the Major General a soldier in the 12th Regiment. Commanding with the Lieutenant Governor’s wish that the troops § What is an obituary? ordered yesterday for Ballarat may Focus 2: Eureka Stockade be set off for with the least pos- Why are obituaries a useful record sible delay, in wagons. Any part of Ray Martin’s great great grandfather’s for people researching their family’s the 12th and the 40th, which it may death certificate reveals Edmond Grace history? be possible to spare may be held in from Kilkenny in Ireland, died in 1896 as readiness, to reinforce the military a ‘police pensioner’ in Riverstone on the What else does Ray learn from read- strength of Ballarat upon the shortest Hawkesbury River, New South Wales. ing Edmond Grace’s obituary? notice should occasion require.’

§ Death certificates are useful to peo- Trouble was brewing on the goldfields Source: Correspondence from John ple interested in learning more about over the Government imposed miner’s Foster, November 27, 1854. their family tree. license. The monthly fee was regarded as excessive. Many miners were not Use print and electronic resources to What types of information do these finding enough gold to feed their family, research the 12th and the 40th Regi- sources provide? let alone pay the tax. In addition, miners ments presence in colonial Australia. were angry about the conditions they What does Edmond Grace’s death were forced to work under. Miners held Why was it necessary for the Colonial certificate tell Ray about his family’s mass meetings to protest. When the 12th Government to draw on the resourc- history? Regiment arrived in Melbourne in 1854, es of the British military during the they were placed on standby to be sent settlement of Australia? Not far from Riverstone, Ray discovers to Ballarat to quell the unrest. the police cottage where Edmond Grace § Write a letter to the editor of The worked. The police cottage is now lo- Ballarat Times in which you express cated at the Australiana Pioneer Village. your thoughts and feelings about the miners’ complaints. § Hanging on a wall inside the cottage is a framed illuminated address to In the early hours of December 3, 1854, Edmond Grace that he received on police and soldiers combined forces and his retirement. marched from the Government Camp to the Eureka Stockade. Upon arrival they

What does this historical artefact attacked miners who had taken up arms SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 reveal about Edmond Grace and his and formed a stockade. The violent bat- status in the community in which he tle that took place was brief but remains lived and served? a significant event in Australian history.

How does this information shape § Comprehensive accounts of the Bat- Ray’s view of his great great grand- tle of the Eureka Stockade can be father? read online at:

54 http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore have had a good time. I imagine the -history/golden-victoria/impact attitude towards the Red Coats was -society/eureka-stockade pretty horrible and they’d have been watching the shadows. http://www.australia.gov.au/about -australia/australian-story/eureka Why is Ray relieved to learn that Ed- -stockade mond Grace was not present at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade? http://www.eurekaballarat.com/ media/209212/eureka_timeline.pdf Drawing on print and electronic re- sources, write a letter from Edmond Drawing on your reading and re- Grace in which Edmond describes search, create a multimedia pres- the restoration of order on the Bal- Visit M.A.D.E online at http://made.org. entation that tells one of the many larat goldfields in the days following stories of the Eureka Stockade. Your the battle at the Eureka Stockade. § Ray: Probably there’d be no more PowerPoint should use 5 to 10 slides. important flag in Australia than this, is Use a combination of words, images At the Museum of Australian Democracy there? and audio to tell the story that you (M.A.D.E.) Ray views the Eureka flag. have selected as your subject. Now considered a historic relic, the flag Ray: It’s a sacred bit of cloth isn’t it? was torn down at the stockade and It represents so much in terms of our Not all of the 12th Regiment had arrived brought to the Government camp. independence doesn’t it? in Ballarat by the time the battle took place. Ray reads a list of all those sol- The editor of The Ballarat Times was diers present during the assault on the sentenced to six months for the stockade. To his great relief he finds Ed- crime of sedition because he referred mond Grace arrived two days later and to the flag as ‘the germ of Australian his role was purely as a peacekeeper. independence’.

Ray: And my poor old Irish great Draw and label the Eureka flag. The great grandfather is in the thick of labels should provide concise de- this. scriptions of the features of the flag.

Ray: It seems now as though he went What did the Eureka flag symbolise up to the goldfields to try and put then and what does it symbolise

down the rebellion, as it was. I know now? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 what happened there from the books that I have read. § Ray: Now we look at this as maybe the most exciting period of Austral- Ray: It’s a relief that he wasn’t actu- ian history, but it’s certainly one of ally attacking the rebels but if he the real signposts of where we were arrives a couple of days later there is going. What happens here is also obviously a lot of tension, lot of emo- a realisation that working men and tion around here and they wouldn’t women can actually make a differ-

55 ence and actually take on authority and change the rules. It’s funny to think that Edmond Grace was just one of a thousand foot soldiers around here, doing what he was paid to do, he’d have had no idea that this was going to be a significant moment in Australian history.

What is democracy?

Do you think the rebellion at Eureka was influenced by the miners’ desire for democracy?

Do you think the Eureka Stockade contributed to democracy in Aus- tralia?

§ Ray: By nature I would have been on the side of the rebels. ‘Cause they’re public. Divide the class into two teams. William and Bertha Leamy and why their the people I like, I like the ratbags The affirmative team should prepare children Jane and John did not inherit and the rebels and I like troublemak- the case that Australia should become the family property. ers. I like people who make you think. a Republic. The negative team should That’s probably why, you know, I prepare the case that Australia should § Ray: Gunnedah means home. Mum’s want to change the flag and why I’m not become a Republic. Each speaker is family lived there pretty much all of a Republican … required to present a one-minute speech my life. When I come to this part to support the team’s case. Each speak- of the country I feel liberated, I feel Ray identifies as an Australian Re- er, aside from the first person affirmative really relaxed and fresh, I feel like a publican. must begin with a rebuttal. weight’s been lifted off my shoulders. It feels like, I’m home. Use the internet to research the Focus 3: Inheritance history of Republican Movement in Where do you call home? Why? Write Australia. Make an annotated timeline Ray knows that his maternal great great a personal reflection about home to show moments of significance. grandfather was William Leamy, an Irish by drawing on your answers to the convict from Tipperary. He also knows previous questions. Useful link: https://ouridentity.org. that his great great grandmother Bertha au. was an Aboriginal Australian of the Kami- § Ray: I know a bit about Mum’s laroi Tribe. Ray travels to Gunnedah, his background but I could be wrong. Organise a class debate to argue wheth- mother’s hometown in northeastern New Anecdotally I’m told that my great er or not Australia should become a Re- South Wales to investigate the life of great grandfather William Leamy came here from Ireland as a convict in about 1829, he went to Sydney and then came up here as a shep- herd working at a property that was called Keepit Station, which was a sheep and cattle station at the time. And he met an Aboriginal woman whose name was Bertha and they married and had two kids umm Jane and John.

Ray: My mother knew about it and SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 she didn’t tell me and I asked my Mother why and she said it re- ally wasn’t important. I think it was important and I think that if you’re working class as they were the last thing you want was another handle that said Aboriginal.

56 Ray grew up never knowing anything ‘I think to come out here must’ve about his Aboriginal ancestry. It was been like going to another planet. Ray’s sister Kay, who discovered this Everything was different, all the family secret. trees, the animals are strange, and the landscape’s different and the What reasons are given for keeping only women around are Aboriginal the family’s Aboriginal ancestry a women.’ secret? brutal. One of the worst atrocities oc- § Ray: … you dig the dust and there I curred at Myall Creek. The Myall Creek Investigate previous attitudes to am … Massacre involved the killing of up to Aboriginal Australians. How did these thirty unarmed Australian Aborigines by attitudes impact on individuals and Why does Ray feel a sense of be- European settlers on 10 June 1838 at families of Aboriginal descent? longing to Keepit Station? Myall Creek, just over a 100 kilometres from Keepit Station. When William Leamy arrived in Australia § In 1841, the Government of the time he was assigned to work on Keepit Sta- undertook a census of the Colony of § Write a summary of the Myall Creek tion. While Keepit Station is now Lake New South Wales. Massacre. Keepit, historically low water levels have revealed parts of the original settlement What is a census? What type of in- Use the questions: Who? What? and allowed Ray to walk on the land that formation does it provide, particularly When? Where? Why? and How? to was once associated with his ances- to people researching their family organise your summary. tor. When Leamy started working on history? What information does the Keepit Station the property was beyond census provide about life on Keepit Comprehensive accounts of the My- the legal limits of the New South Wales Station? all Creek Massacre can be found at: Colony. Ray learns that the region where Keepit Station was located was lawless, The Kamilaroi resisted European inva- http://www.creativespirits.info/ isolated and dangerous country. Ray sion by stealing or injuring the squatters’ aboriginalculture/history/myall reflects, cattle. The settler’s response was often -creek-massacre-1838# axzz3uXjLzd3b

https://www.environment.gov.au/ heritage/places/national/myall -creek

http://www.myallcreekmassacre.

com/Myall_Creek_Massacre/ SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Home.html

Teachers are advised to preview these websites.

To learn what life would have been like for his Aboriginal ancestor, Bertha, Ray meets Kamilaroi Elders. The women

57 heritance because they were Aboriginal. the next minute he’s a shepherd and the next minute he’s got property. § ‘I, William Leamy, of Cookaboy in the District of Liverpool Plains I will and Wills are useful records for people bequeath to my much beloved chil- researching their family history. dren, the whole of the above property to be divided equally between them What does Ray learn about his great after they come of age. great grandfather from reading his will? Signed William Leamy. Does William Leamy’s will provide Signed witness James Brand. Ray with the answers to his ques- tions about William Leamy and his invite Ray to pay his respects to Bertha A true copy.’ estate? at the site of one of the old Kamilaroi camps on Keepit Station, where her clan § Ray: The big question mark I’ve had How does the information provided would have stayed. for some years is what was Cooka- in the will shape Ray’s view of William boy? And what happened to it? Be- Leamy? § Ray: I’ve seen a lot of Aboriginal sites cause clearly that becomes important around Australia. I’ve never seen part of his life. I’m amused by the Focus 4: The White Boys anything quite like that pathway. It’s fact that he’s a criminal one minute, clearly a graveyard and I’d like to Ray is keen to learn more about William think Bertha’s buried there some- Leamy’s life in Ireland, particularly the where. reasons for his transportation to Austral- ia. Travelling to his great great grandfa- Ray: I’m very proud of the Aboriginal ther’s country of birth, provides Ray with part of me, so this is got to be my the opportunity to walk in his ancestor’s spiritual homeland. footsteps.

What does Ray learn about Bertha § In Dublin, genealogist Karol De Falco and about the status of Aboriginal shows Ray a Tithe Aplotment Notice women during the time that William from 1826. Leamy was living on Keepit Station? The tithe noted in this document was

Does Ray feel a sense of belonging a tax levied for the support of the SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 to Kamilaroi Country? Protestant Church.

William and Bertha Leamy’s property Why was the tithe resented by the was known as Cookaboy. Ray wants to likes of William Leamy? know who inherited William’s estate. Co- caboy as it is now known is a forty-acre, Ireland in the nineteenth century was freehold piece of land. Ray believes that primarily an agricultural country. Ray William’s children were denied their in- travels to Cahir, where the Leamy family

58 were tenant farmers. During this time the his cousins, was a member of a criminal Useful link: https://en.wikipedia.org/ Leamy’s landlord also had possession of gang. It is more than likely that this gang wiki/Whiteboys. the town’s imposing castle. On the castle was the Whiteboys. ramparts, Ray reads from the Tipperary Write a summary of the Whiteboys. Free Press, April 14, 1827, of William § Ray: It seems that from what we now Leamy being charged with appearing in know that his gang of cousins and Use the questions: Who? What? When? arms. mates was pretty well organised, they Where? Why? and How? to organise weren’t simply just you know smash- your summary. § What does Ray learn about William’s ing windows and taking stuff out. He’d offence? become pretty well schooled and If you were a resident of Ireland at this skilled. And he had a political bent. time, how would you have viewed the William Leamy was imprisoned in Clon- So he’s a different character to what I Whiteboys? mel Gaol. Historical evidence suggests ever thought he was going to be. that William was still organising crimes Released in April 1828, William Leamy from his cell during his twelve-month Use the internet to research the White- was sentenced again in August 1828. sentence. William, along with some of boys. Share your findings with the class. It was this conviction that resulted in transportation.

§ Ray: I have no idea what great great grandfather William did in Ireland in Tipperary that got him sent out here for life but I’d like to know ‘cause I, I

like him already. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016

What does Ray learn about William’s offence and sentence?

Why does Ray ‘like’ William Leamy, after all, his ancestor was hardly law- abiding?

59 For Media students § As a class, discuss the challenges of making a documentary series Media productions like Who Do You like Who Do You Think You Are?. Think You Are? are constructed through Do you think the presence of a film a long and laborious process, involving crew influences the behaviour of the many professionals both creative and participants? Do you think an ordi- managerial working collaboratively to nary person could achieve the same create a final product. knowledge about their family, or is it a case of who you know and having § The media production process is a television crew behind you? comprised of three separate stages: pre-production; production; and § Whose family story would you like to post-production. know more about? Name the notable Australians that you would cast in § What primary sources are a part of As a class, list and discuss the pre- Who Do You Think You Are? Series 8. your family’s archives? What informa- production, production and post- Explain your choices. tion do they provide? How are these production challenges of making a primary sources being maintained for documentary series like Who Do You Keeping records future generations? What secondary Think You Are?. Before you begin, sources are relevant to your family’s make sure that every member of the In History, primary sources are objects history? class can define the different stages and documents created or written dur- of production. ing the time being investigated. Exam- § Has technology changed everything? ples of primary sources include official Do you think that modern ways of § Working in a small group, analyse the documents, such as laws and treaties; keeping records will mean that we do use of story and production elements personal documents, such as diaries not lose track of where we have come to create meaning in one episode of and letters; photographs; and film. These from? Who Do You Think You Are? Series 7. original, firsthand accounts are analysed by the historian to answer questions § Take a look through your family’s Story elements about the past. photograph albums. Does it provide a record of your family tree? o the opening, development and Secondary sources are accounts about resolution of the narrative the past that were created after the time In what ways is your family document- o cause and effect being investigated and which often use ing the story of the current generations o establishment and development or refer to primary sources and present of the family? of and relationships between a particular interpretation. Examples of characters secondary sources include writings of Do you think that it will be easy for the o point/s of view from which the historians, encyclopaedia, documenta- future generations of your family to narrative is presented ries, history textbooks, and websites. track their ancestors? o the function of setting in the nar- rative § Working as a class, list some of the § Are you making a record of your life o the relationship between multiple examples of primary and secondary story? Is it difficult to conceive that storylines sources used in Who Do You Think future generations will want to know o the structuring of time and its You Are?. about you? impact on narrative progression

Production elements o Camera techniques Credits o Acting o Mise en scene Series Producer Claire Forster o Editing o Lighting Line Producer Robin Eastwood

o Sound SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 Executive Producers for Artemis International Brian Beaton & Celia Tait The analysis should be formatted as a PowerPoint. Limit your Power- Executive Producer for Serendipity Productions Margie Bryant Point to ten slides. Use text, images, video and audio to communicate the Episode Directors Russell Vines, Ili Barè, Kay Pavlou, information. Steve Peddie, Bruce Permezel

60 Researching your entire family tree is an Extended responses enormous task. It is up to you to decide which family lines you wish to trace. § ‘Every family’s story is interesting.’ Many people concentrate on just their Do you agree? surname line, or the ancestry of their mother and father. It is also possible for § ‘Who Do You Think You Are? is an you to research one side of your family innovative approach to telling his- tree more than another. tory stories.’ Do you agree?

Gather as much information as possible § ‘Who Do You Think You Are? from other family members. Ask your acknowledges the importance of parents about their childhood and what identity and belonging.’ Discuss. they can remember about their own par- ents and grandparents. Birth, marriage § ‘While Who Do You Think You Are? Who do you think you and death certificates provide many is primarily the stories of Geoffrey details about family members. Rush, Tony Collette, Luke Nguyen, are? David Wenham, Dawn Fraser, Peter Your family history website should Rowsthorn, Greig Pickhaver and The study of your family history has a include a family tree. Create pages for Ray Martin, it is also an important personal and societal value. Your family the individuals featured on your fam- account of the complexities of any heritage helps you make sense of who ily tree. Make connections between a family’s story.’ Do you agree? you are today. It also helps you to place family member’s history and the broader you and your family in history. context of Australian history and/or the Who Do You Think history of your family member’s country The following questions are intended as of origin. Try to write about at least four You Are? Online engagement questions for students to generations beginning with you. This consider before undertaking one of the means that you will write about your par- The Who Do You Think You Are? summative assessment tasks that follow. ents, your grandparents and your great website provides information about grandparents. Series 7 and previous series, as well as § What do you know about your fam- links to resources to help you discover ily’s history? You do not have to share everything your family history. about your family. Some stories and Share your stories of your family his- details may be kept private. http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ tory with the class. who-do-you-think-you-are OR Do your relatives speak about the http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/ family’s past? What stories do they 2. Create a digital story about your fam- who-do-you-think-you-are/ tell? ily’s history. genealogy-resources

§ What role, if any, does family history A digital story uses multimedia tools and Who Do You Think You Are? on play in your everyday existence? visual and audio resources from personal Facebook archives. Most digital stories are approxi- § Why is it important to know about mately two to five minutes in length. You https://www.facebook.com/Who your family’s past? will need to construct a storyboard, write -Do-You-Think-You-Are-Australia a script and source photographs and -181180921921561/timeline/ § When did your family settle in Aus- other keepsakes to compose the story. tralia? How have your family contrib- Then there are other decisions. Who Further information about Who Do uted to the history of Australia? will narrate the story? What sounds and You Think You Are? can be accessed music will be part of the digital story? online at 1. Your task is to create a family history What is an appropriate title? Don’t forget website. to include a dedication at the beginning http://www.artemisfilms.com/ of the digital story and credits at the end productions/who-do-you-think-you

Website builders mean that making a of the digital story. -are-series-7. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2016 website is easy. It is important that you use a website builder that allows you to Further information about digital stories Further information about researching password protect your website and limit can be found by typing the search term family history can be accessed online who has access to your family’s history. ‘digital stories’ into a reliable search at Your teacher will recommend a website engine. builder that is appropriate for use in http://www.ancestry.com.au. educational settings.

61 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2016) ISBN: 978-1-74295-927-6 [email protected] For information on SCREEN EDUCATION magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit . Join ATOM’s email broadcast list for invitations to free screenings, conferences, seminars, etc. Sign up now at . For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies, visit .