By Lucy Carroll
NSW high school students will study the most comprehensive and detailed history of colonisation in the country if proposed changes to the state’s history syllabus are given the green light.
An overhaul to the year 7 to 10 history syllabus, as reported in the Herald, will include a compulsory unit on the era of colonisation intended to give students a more balanced view of the past, and deepen high school students’ knowledge about Indigenous history.
Inverell High School history and Aboriginal studies teacher Cath Jeffery with her son, Jack Jeffery, who also teaches at the school.Credit: Rhett Wyman
A spokesperson for the NSW Educations Standards Authority said, if changes went ahead, NSW schools would “lead the way” with a more complete history syllabus that mandates teaching Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of colonisation for year 7 and 8 students.
Cath Jeffery, a history and Aboriginal studies teacher at Inverell High and Wiradjuri woman, said the changes are a critical step forward that will help Indigenous students “to see themselves in school history lessons”.
“And that is huge. Students will be sitting in classrooms across the state and seeing their stories being told and acknowledged as part of Australia’s history,” Jeffery said, adding that changes will encourage teachers to speak with local Aboriginal families and community groups.
“It empowers students, and sees them represented in the classroom. The changes are a positive springboard to share national history and give a deeper, richer and more rigorous perspectives on colonisation.”
A spokesperson for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority said students, under updates made to the national curriculum in 2022, can learn about Indigenous perspectives on Australian history – including how the “arrival and colonisation of Australia was viewed as an invasion”.
“The state and territory education authorities and schools make decisions as to how they implement the curriculum,” the spokesperson said. “They have the flexibility to place emphasis on content in a way that best meets the needs of their students.”
Under proposed NSW syllabus changes, students will be taught Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of colonisation, the causes and consequences of the Frontier Wars, significant conflicts during initial contact, and the reasons for expansion over the Blue Mountains and into Tasmania.
The head of history at Corowa High in southern NSW, Martin Douglas, believes the changes are not hugely controversial or problematic and that including multiple perspectives in the syllabus is a positive step.
“We have a diverse community of students in NSW. Having different views is vital and gives us a chance to reach many pupils,” he said.
“I think what we’ve lacked in the past is the ability to know that students going through the NSW curriculum are getting an understanding of Australian history in all its forms. This ensures a narrative exists and that’s important.”
Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said history syllabuses should cover all important aspects of an era, presented in a balanced manner.
“The focus on the Indigenous experience of colonisation is part of the Australian story; as are the enormous benefits and progress that we continue to enjoy from European settlement such as the rule of law, liberal democracy and Judeo-Christian traditions,” he said.
Macquarie University historian Michelle Arrow said history syllabuses had been targeted by politicians in the past, and have become entwined in the history wars.
“Politicians have long argued about what content they think children should learn in schools,” Arrow said.
“Moving Aboriginal perspectives of colonisation as core depth study is really significant given the increased attention to the Frontier Wars, and especially as the Australian War Memorial comes under pressure to respond to, and accommodate the frontier conflict.”
Arrow said the changes mean year 7 and 8 students can investigate colonisation with more sophistication, and to “come to terms with the violence of that process and as well as Indigenous peoples’ resistance”.
“As we are coming up to the Voice referendum, one of the things that the debate so far has exposed is a continuing lack of understanding of our history in that area in particular. I think that putting colonisation in as a core study area for everyone is vital.
The increased emphasis on the Holocaust is also essential, she said, and speaks to the rise of disinformation, the far right, greater anxiety about Holocaust denial.
“We have to teach this history again because we can’t assume students have all that knowledge,” she said.