AustLit

Users are advised that AustLit contains names and images of people who have died.

While the trails listed below will probably have special interest for History, they will be useful for any teachers looking for resources that will provide historical contexts for units of work. For example, an English teacher might want students to research the historical background to the Rabbit Proof Fence; a Health and Physical Education teacher might wish to provide some context for the performance of an indigenous athlete.

The place to start is the very useful BlackWords Historical Events Calendar: Significant Dates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This shows aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history from the time of white colonisation in 1788 to the present, and is a very accessible resource for both students and teachers.

As well as providing background, teachers will find a wide range of resources that would be useful in both the Humanities and English in The Stolen Generation and Our Truths: Aboriginal Writers and the Stolen Generation. Resources include: biography and autobiography; children’s literature; poetry and song; fiction (including novels); drama and film; anthology; further readings. The Stolen Generation page also includes a 32-minute video.

This trail consists of several articles about the 1967 referendum published on The Conversation website. The most recent article is from May 2017.

These resources fill a gap in much of the mainstream writing about Australian experiences in war: the focus is on resources about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers all the way back to the Boer War. Like many of the other sites, you will find biography, autobiography, poetry, fiction, websites, theatre, film, television, and children’s literature. There are also video clips to be viewed. There are obvious applications for English, Drama, Film and Television, and History. However, the resources listed here would be valuable as stories for use during ANZAC Day ceremonies.

Scroll through the trail until you come to the Oral History Anthologies. These include stories from Shellharbour Aboriginal community in New South Wales, Darwin and the Top End, and north-western New South Wales.

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