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Listed under:  History  >  World history  >  Aboriginal history
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Rock painting, Carnarvon Gorge, 1938 - item 2 of 2

This 1938 sepia photograph of a large Indigenous rock painting displays many stencilled hands, boomerangs, coolamons and a net-like shape, possibly representing a cycad, on a cliff wall in Carnarvon Gorge in central Queensland. A large rock near the wall shows some engraved art. The photograph was taken during the second ...

Audio

Bonita Mabo recalls Eddie Mabo’s land rights battle, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Bonita Mabo, widow of Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo. She recalls how her husband declared he would fight for recognition as the owner of his traditional land on Mer Island, also known as Murray Island, in the Torres Strait after learning it was officially regarded as crown ...

Audio

Alf Turner remembers his grandfather, William Cooper, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Alf Turner, grandson of Indigenous activist William Cooper. Turner describes moving to Melbourne to live with his grandparents in about 1936 in the house then used for meetings of the Australian Aborigines' League (AAL). He recalls Cooper's frustration at the lack of results from the ...

Image

Forehead ornament, c1916

This is an Aboriginal forehead ornament from the Northern Territory, believed to have been made in the early 1900s. It comprises more than 30 kangaroo teeth, each embedded in beeswax and then attached to a string. Lengths of string extend out at both ends of the ornament. The ornament is 45 cm long and 9.5 cm wide.

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Pacific Islander workers on a coffee plantation, c1900

This black-and-white photograph shows indentured Pacific Islander labourers manually gathering coffee beans from lines of bushes on a Kuranda coffee plantation on the Atherton Tableland in Queensland. This image shows male, female and child labourers standing among the shoulder-high coffee bushes. The Pacific Islanders ...

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Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895

This is a black-and-white photograph showing nine Pacific Islander men using picks and axes to clear undergrowth and small trees from a clearing in a thickly vegetated area at Farnborough in central Queensland. The men are bare-chested, hatless and barefoot, with some wearing sarong-like garments. A white man stands in ...

Interactive

Primary history: historical inquiry - interpreting and analysing historical documents

These seven learning activities focus on interpreting and analysing historical documents using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), and illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers assist ...

Interactive

Secondary history: historical inquiry - research

These seven learning activities focus on research using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), and illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers provide appropriate guidance and scaffolds ...

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Pacific Island labourer recruiting ship 'Para', c1880

This is a drawing of the two-masted brigantine 'Para', probably completed by Master Mariner William Wawn during a successful five months voyage to the Solomon Islands in 1894. One of a series of sketches of his impressions of the islands in pencil, ink and watercolour, it shows the recruiting ship offshore at anchor, as ...

Image

Pacific Islanders at irrigation channels, c1905

This sepia photograph shows around 20 Pacific Islander men posed on either side of a narrow irrigation channel in a cane field at Bingera Plantation near Bundaberg in Queensland. Some are holding long-handled hoes or shovels. A junction of the irrigation channel is visible in the foreground with equipment necessary to divert ...

Video

Chinese Anzacs in World War I

Among the 420,000 Australians who served in World War I, 300 people were of Chinese descent. This was in spite of the introduction of the Commonwealth Defence Act in 1909, which stated that soldiers had to be of "substantially European origin". George Lee Kim was one such soldier. He received the Military Medal for his ...

Online

Australia's Trade through Time

Using an interactive timeline created by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, this Teacher guide provides 12 series of learning experiences that engage students in the analysis and interpretation of data about Australian trade from 1900 to the present day. Students study videos, tables, images and texts in order ...

Online

The Conversation: human rights

This resource contains a series of articles that examine the legal and ethical issues around human rights in Australia and internationally, including recent practical examples. The resource can be used to provide examples of human rights in Australia and the international community, including discussions of its relationship ...

Video

Mabo: the native title revolution

This a multi-layered website about the life and times of Eddie Mabo and the part he played in Indigenous land rights, produced by the National Sound and Film Archive. There are section headings on: The Mabo film; Mer; The man; The case; Native title; Land rights; and Terra Nullius. Each heading has multiple subheadings ...

Text

The Australian Colonies: Gold

This inquiry-based unit presents students with a range of visual primary sources to spark curiosity about life in the 1800s. Each activity introduces a new concept related to the Australian Gold Rushes.

Video

What have we got here: fish traps

This four minute video examines the Indigenous Australian people’s special relationship with the Darling River, focusing on a unique fish traps site in Brewarrina NSW, known as Baiame's Ngnhhu. The site has been used by people from many Aboriginal Nations throughout the millennia; it is a special location people where people ...

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Victorian Heritage Database

This is a rich, interactive resource that lists Victoria’s most significant heritage: places, objects, shipwrecks and archaeological sites. It has four main sections: Introduction; Explore heritage map; Recommended tours; and Timeline browser. The Explore heritage map searches for sites and provides information and images ...

Online

Royal Australian Mint: units of work

This suite of teaching and learning units of work related to Australian currencies for middle and upper primary students. The units explore the role coins play in commemoration and the history of Australian currency from colonial times to post Federation. Lessons are supplemented with a range of cross-curriculum lesson ideas.

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The Invisible War: A tale on two scales

The Invisible War is a graphic novel set on the Western Front in 1916. The novel is an interdisciplinary text that includes a large science-history reference section (hyper-linked within the novel). Told from two points of view – human and microbial – the story describes a deadly infection by dysentery-causing Shigella ...

Text

Race, rights & rivalries

This resource explores the history of Broome and the rich multicultural community that supported its pearling industry. The site features a virtual museum providing a range of primary source material including photographs, newspaper extracts, historical documents, video and audio recordings. The site explores the history ...