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The 1967 referendum - unit of work

Teacher guide The 1967 referendum - unit of work

TLF ID M009605

This is a unit of work about the significance of the 1967 referendum on changing the Australian Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and include Aboriginal people in the census. Intended for upper secondary students, the unit is organised around historical research into three questions: What rights did Aboriginal people have between 1901 and 1967? Why did Australian attitudes towards Aboriginal people change? What were the consequences of the referendum? The unit makes use of 'Australia's democracy: a short history' by John Hirst.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • Although written for years 11 and 12, this unit is easily adapted to and valuable for the year 10 history depth study 'Rights and freedoms (1945-the present)'. The unit's focus questions and use of John Hirst's compilation of sources make it particularly relevant to content descriptions in the depth study about the background to the struggle of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for rights and freedoms before 1965 and the significance of the 1967 referendum.
  • The unit's research-based approach is very useful in developing and enhancing year 10 students' historical skills. Students are given opportunities to sequence events chronologically to demonstrate the relationship between events in different periods and places, to synthesise information from a range of sources to use as evidence in a historical argument, and to identify and analyse the perspectives of people from the past.
Year level

10

Topics Aboriginal history Attitudes Referenda Torres Strait Islander history Secondary sources Timelines
Learning area
  • History

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Name: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Organization: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.deewr.gov.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Unknown
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
Rights
  • © Commonwealth of Australia 2009. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and the DEEWR logo and copyright material that is owned by third parties, you may use the material in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 3.0 Australia licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/ provided that appropriate acknowledgement is made, the material is not subjected to derogatory treatment and any derivative work attributes the original material and identifies the changes that have been made to it.