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A Study Guide by Robert Lewis © ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-489-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au OVERVIEW The War That Changed Us (Electric Pictures 2014) is a 4 x 57 minute dramatized documentary that tells the story of This study guide is in four parts, one for Australia’s war effort from 1914-1918 through the focus or each episode. The introductory activities filter of six key historical characters: and summary activities are repeated each time, so if students have already seen any • General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott episode of The War That Changed Us they • Sergeant Archie Barwick can skip these and concentrate on the • Nurse Kit McNaughton questions and activities that are specific • Peace campaigner Vida Goldstein for that episode. • War supporter Eva Hughes • Radical socialist Tom Barker. The War That Changed Us uses dramatic reconstruction, The series follows these six characters through their stories location filming, expert analysis and colourised black and as told in their vivid and evocative personal testimonies white archive to tell a gripping tale spanning three conti- — revealed in letters, diaries, speeches and newspaper nents over four brutal years. articles written in the heat of the moment as the events of the war unfold at home and on the frontline. It chronicles the rise of the Australian peace and labour movements as well as our military role in the Great War: Driven by human stories, rather than the detail of military both were theatres of war. In doing so the series honours SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION history, the series offers an opportunity to get close to the the heroism of those who fought and died on the battle- actual experience of war, and to learn how it changed the front and those who lived through a period of bitter, divisive lives of those involved. As a result the political becomes conflict, personal and political, on the home front. Along the personal and the epic everyday. We watch the series pro- way we learn how Australians struggled to reconcile what tagonists struggle with the opposing influences of imperial- the war meant for them as individuals, communities and as ism and independence, militarism and pacifism, Old World a nation – how it changed us. enmities and New World utopian ideals. 1 2 THE SIX CHARACTERS IN THE WAR THAT CHANGED US ARCHIE He is a remarkable character who becomes Australia’s BARWICK most famous fighting general. Through his constant stream 1 of letters to his wife Katie to whom he tells all, we gain a rare insight into a General’s experience of war and the toll Foot soldier ARCHIE BARWICK is a tough fair-haired that high-command exacts. blue-eyed 24-year old Church of England farmer from Campania, a grape-growing region in the Coal River Valley TOM of southeast Tasmania. Among the first to join up in August 1914, he is assigned to the now legendary First Battalion. 4 BARKER Archie serves first in Gallipoli and then in the trenches on the Western Front. Wounded several times and rising to English born, farm labourer’s son TOM BARKER is a the rank of Sergeant, Archie not only survives the War, but militant activist and no stranger to trouble. As an organ- leaves us with one of the most detailed, vivid and revealing iser for the Industrial Workers of the World and editor of written accounts to emerge from it. It’s through his excep- its newspaper Direct Action, Barker becomes the most tional sixteen volume war diary that the series builds an in- determined and vociferous opponent of what he calls the timate portrait of the horrors that engulfed young Australian ‘capitalist war’. Drawing on his radical speeches delivered soldiers and the awful toll it exacts on their lives. on Sydney’s Domain, his editorials and articles, letters, and memoirs, Tom Barker’s role in the anti-war movement on KIT the home front and his vehement opposition to conscription 2 McNAUGHTON comes to life. VIDA Army nurse KIT MCNAUGHTON is a Roman Catholic farmer’s daughter from the small town of Little River in 5 GOLDSTEIN southwest Victoria. Bold, cheeky, eagle-eyed, Kit travels on a heroic journey from Little River to Lemnos near Gallipoli, Stylish, articulate and fearless, VIDA GOLDSTEIN is the then on to France, before returning to Australia. Through poster woman of the revolutionary feminist movement. In the pages of Kit’s diary, we meet the men and women the decades before the war, she becomes internationally whose fates collide: lovers, friends, patients, servicemen famous for trailblazing the fight for Australian women’s right and civilians. She is a young woman with a defiant spirit, to vote. As war sweeps the world, Vida turns her attention filled with a sense of duty and drawn by the call of adven- to pacifism, working tirelessly as the leader of the Women’s ture. Kit keeps her precious diaries, three small books, with Political Association and the founder of the Women’s Peace her for four years. They document a voyage of self-discov- Army. This important and largely untold history is revealed ery, adventure, romance and burgeoning independence; through her own words drawn from her editorials and as well as her strong sense of identification with both the articles in her newspaper Woman Voter, and in speeches Empire and the ANZAC corps. In her diaries she details her delivered in public halls and on Melbourne’s Yarra bank. struggle with the nursing hierarchy, the gruelling workload and the bloody horrors of war. EVA HUGHES HAROLD 6 3 ‘POMPEY’ ELLIOTT EVA HUGHES is from the Australian upper-class and is married to a pastoralist who has mining and business For 36-year old Boer war veteran HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ interests. She absolutely defends Australia’s right and, she ELLIOTT from Northcote in Melbourne, the decision to believes, ‘obligation’ to be part of the war. She believes in enlist is rooted in a sense of duty to defend his country King, she believes in country and in a wife’s duty to stand and his family. The Melbourne solicitor served as a lieuten- by her man. As the President of the Australian Women’s ant colonel in the peacetime militia, and is given the same National League, by far the leading women’s association rank in the Australian Imperial Force commanding the 7th in Australia, she appeals to a sense of female obligation in SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION Battalion. During the War he rises to the rank of Brigadier an extraordinarily powerful and successful pro-war move- General. He is charismatic, controversial, volatile, forthright ment. Through her speeches and articles in the Australian and extraordinarily brave. His men know he would never Women’s National League publication The Woman, we gain send any of them anywhere he is not prepared to go him- an authentic insight into the mighty forces supporting the self and he often seen fighting beside them in the frontline. war that dominate the home front for most of the War. 1 3 CURRICULUM APPLICABILITY The War That Changed Us is a relevant resource for middle and senior students (Years 9-12) in: ώ AUSTRALIAN HISTORY YEAR 9 Depth Study: World War 1 An overview of the causes of World War I and the reasons why men enlisted to fight in the war. The places where Australians fought and the nature of war- fare during World War I, including the Gallipoli campaign. The impact of World War I, with a particular emphasis on Australia (such as the use of propaganda to influence the civilian population, the changing role of women, the con- scription debate). The commemoration of World War I, including debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend. ώ ENGLISH YEAR 10 Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices. Biography. ώ MEDIA ARTS YEAR 9 AND 10 Evaluate how genre and media conventions and technical and symbolic elements are manipulated to make represen- tations and meaning. Evaluate how social, institutional and ethical issues influ- ence the making and use of media artworks. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION 1 4 RECORDING YOUR IMAGE MY IMAGE OF THESE ASPECTS IS THE ANZACS AS SOLDIERS AUSTRALIAN NURSES THE NATURE OF THE WAR THE AUSTRALIAN HOME FRONT DURING THE WAR THE ANZAC TRADITION/ LEGEND/ SPIRIT BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM ώ ACTIVITY 1 – RECORDING YOUR ideas have changed after viewing The War That Changed Us. IMAGE OF THE WAR ώ ACTIVITY 2 – RECORDING YOUR What is your image of the war, and particularly these KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAR aspects: The first activity was to do with images and ideas. This ac- • The Anzacs as soldiers tivity is to do with facts. What do you know about Australia • Australian Nurses and the war? Again, do not worry if you do not know much, • The nature of the war or think that you need to find out the correct answers • The Australian home front during the war before you write them down Recording Your Knowledge work- • The Anzac Tradition/Legend/Spirit — that idea of sheet on page 6. Just record what you think you know, then SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION Australian nationalism that emerged from the war and come back to these answers after watching The War That which we commemorate on Anzac Day Changed Us and see if your knowledge has changed and developed. Record your ideas in the Recording Your Image table above.
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