© ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-490-5 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 Australia’s war effort from 1914-1918 through the focus or filter of six key historical characters: • General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott • Sergeant Archie Barwick • Nurse Kit McNaughton • Peace campaigner Vida Goldstein • War supporter Eva Hughes • Radical socialist Tom Barker. The series follows these six characters through their stories as told in their vivid and evocative personal testimonies — revealed in letters, diaries, speeches and newspaper articles written in the heat of the moment as the events of the war unfold at home and on the frontline. This study guide is in four parts, one for Driven by human stories, rather than the detail of military each episode. The introductory activities history, the series offers an opportunity to get close to the and summary activities are repeated each actual experience of war, and to learn how it changed the time, so if students have already seen any lives of those involved. As a result the political becomes episode of The War That Changed Us they personal and the epic everyday. We watch the series pro- can skip these and concentrate on the tagonists struggle with the opposing influences of imperial- questions and activities that are specific ism and independence, militarism and pacifism, Old World for that episode. enmities and New World utopian ideals. The War That Changed Us uses dramatic reconstruction, location filming, expert analysis and colourised black and The places where Australians fought and the nature of war- white archive to tell a gripping tale spanning three conti- fare during World War I, including the Gallipoli campaign. nents over four brutal years. The impact of World War I, with a particular emphasis on It chronicles the rise of the Australian peace and labour Australia (such as the use of propaganda to influence the movements as well as our military role in the Great War: civilian population, the changing role of women, the con- both were theatres of war. In doing so the series honours scription debate). the heroism of those who fought and died on the battle- front and those who lived through a period of bitter, divisive The commemoration of World War I, including debates conflict, personal and political, on the home front. Along the about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend. way we learn how Australians struggled to reconcile what the war meant for them as individuals, communities and as ώ ENGLISH YEAR 10 a nation – how it changed us. Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including CURRICULUM media texts, through language, structural and/or visual APPLICABILITY choices. Biography. The War That Changed Us is a relevant resource for middle and senior students (Years 9-12) in: ώ MEDIA ARTS YEAR 9 AND 10 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION ώ AUSTRALIAN HISTORY YEAR 9 Evaluate how genre and media conventions and technical and symbolic elements are manipulated to make represen- Depth Study: World War 1 tations and meaning. An overview of the causes of World War I and the reasons Evaluate how social, institutional and ethical issues influ- why men enlisted to fight in the war. ence the making and use of media artworks. 2 2 THE SIX CHARACTERS IN THE WAR THAT CHANGED US He is a remarkable character who becomes Australia’s ARCHIE most famous fighting general. Through his constant stream BARWICK 1 of letters to his wife Katie to whom he tells all, we gain a rare insight into a General’s experience of war and the toll that high-command exacts. Foot soldier ARCHIE BARWICK is a tough fair-haired blue-eyed 24-year old Church of England farmer from TOM Campania, a grape-growing region in the Coal River Valley BARKER of southeast Tasmania. Among the first to join up in August 4 1914, he is assigned to the now legendary First Battalion. Archie serves first in Gallipoli and then in the trenches on English born, farm labourer’s son TOM BARKER is a the Western Front. Wounded several times and rising to militant activist and no stranger to trouble. As an organ- the rank of Sergeant, Archie not only survives the War, but iser for the Industrial Workers of the World and editor of leaves us with one of the most detailed, vivid and revealing its newspaper Direct Action, Barker becomes the most written accounts to emerge from it. It’s through his excep- determined and vociferous opponent of what he calls the tional sixteen volume war diary that the series builds an in- ‘capitalist war’. Drawing on his radical speeches delivered timate portrait of the horrors that engulfed young Australian on Sydney’s Domain, his editorials and articles, letters, and soldiers and the awful toll it exacts on their lives. memoirs, Tom Barker’s role in the anti-war movement on the home front and his vehement opposition to conscription KIT comes to life. McNAUGHTON 2 VIDA GOLDSTEIN Army nurse KIT MCNAUGHTON is a Roman Catholic 5 farmer’s daughter from the small town of Little River in southwest Victoria. Bold, cheeky, eagle-eyed, Kit travels on Stylish, articulate and fearless, VIDA GOLDSTEIN is the a heroic journey from Little River to Lemnos near Gallipoli, poster woman of the revolutionary feminist movement. In then on to France, before returning to Australia. Through the decades before the war, she becomes internationally the pages of Kit’s diary, we meet the men and women famous for trailblazing the fight for Australian women’s right whose fates collide: lovers, friends, patients, servicemen to vote. As war sweeps the world, Vida turns her attention and civilians. She is a young woman with a defiant spirit, to pacifism, working tirelessly as the leader of the Women’s filled with a sense of duty and drawn by the call of adven- Political Association and the founder of the Women’s Peace ture. Kit keeps her precious diaries, three small books, with Army. This important and largely untold history is revealed her for four years. They document a voyage of self-discov- through her own words drawn from her editorials and ery, adventure, romance and burgeoning independence; articles in her newspaper Woman Voter, and in speeches as well as her strong sense of identification with both the delivered in public halls and on Melbourne’s Yarra bank. Empire and the ANZAC corps. In her diaries she details her struggle with the nursing hierarchy, the gruelling workload EVA and the bloody horrors of war. 6 HUGHES HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ ELLIOTT EVA HUGHES is from the Australian upper-class and is 3 married to a pastoralist who has mining and business interests. She absolutely defends Australia’s right and, she For 36-year old Boer war veteran HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ believes, ‘obligation’ to be part of the war. She believes ELLIOTT from Northcote in Melbourne, the decision to in King, she believes in country and she in a wife’s duty enlist is rooted in a sense of duty to defend his country to stand by her man. As the President of the Australian and his family. The Melbourne solicitor served as a lieuten- Women’s National League, by far the leading women’s 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION ant colonel in the peacetime militia, and is given the same association in Australia, she appeals to a sense of female rank in the Australian Imperial Force commanding the 7th obligation in an extraordinarily powerful and successful Battalion. During the War he rises to the rank of Brigadier pro-war movement. Through her speeches and articles in General. He is charismatic, controversial, volatile, forthright the Australian Women’s National League publication The and extraordinarily brave. His men know he would never Woman, we gain an authentic insight into the mighty forces send any of them anywhere he is not prepared to go him- supporting the war that dominate the home front for most self and he often seen fighting beside them in the frontline. of the War. 3 2 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 not have a strong or detailed image in your mind. Just write down what you think. You will be interested to see if your THE FILM ideas have changed after viewing The War That Changed Us. ώ ACTIVITY 1 – RECORDING ώ ACTIVITY 2 – RECORDING YOUR IMAGE OF THE WAR YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAR What is your image of the war, and particularly these The first activity was to do with images and ideas. This ac- aspects: tivity is to do with facts. What do you know about Australia and the war? Again, do not worry if you do not know much, • The Anzacs as soldiers or think that you need to find out the correct answers • Australian Nurses before you write them down Recording Your Knowledge work- • The nature of the war sheet on page 5. Just record what you think you know, then 2014 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION • The Australian home front during the war come back to these answers after watching The War That • The Anzac Tradition/Legend/Spirit — that idea of Changed Us and see if your knowledge has changed and Australian nationalism that emerged from the war and developed. which we commemorate on Anzac Day After you have watched The War That Changed Us look at Record your ideas in the Recording Your Image table above.