43 Perspectives of Civil Rights Movements in Australia by Hannah Grace
Land rights for First Australians: Analysing sources
First day of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, outside Parliament House, Canberra, 27 January 1972. Left to right: Billy Craigie, Bert Williams, Michael Anderson and Tony Coorey, State Library of New South Wales, No known copyright restrictions
| Curriculum Context | VCE Modern History: Unit 2 The Changing World Order (VCAA, 2020) |
| Historical context | Political and social movements |
| Historical thinking concepts | Change and Continuity
Use sources as evidence |
| Learning Intentions | To investigate diverse perspectives and sources about in civil rights movements in Australia that have impacted continuity and change in modern history through the evaluation of primary and secondary sources. |
Activity
1. The first part of your task is to analyse a pamphlet used to petition for land rights for First Nations Australians and answer the following questions:
- Is this a primary or secondary source? Justify your answer.
- How do you know that this source is reliable?
- What is the social/political context?
- What is the purpose of the pamphlet?
- Discuss how groups of people can promote societal and political change.
Source
Land Rights for Aborigines: Answering your questions by Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, 1968. National Archives of Australia.
2. The second part of this tasks requires you to to research and find one primary source and one secondary source that provides evidence about the Aboriginal land rights movement. You also need to justify why you think it is a primary or secondary source as well as showcase its relevance and usefulness. The purpose of this task is to work towards being able to identify the types of sources and correctly apply them as an essential skill history students must possess. This framework on source criticism from historyskills.com may also be help you think about evaluating sources.
Suggested websites to guide research:
References
AIATSIS. (n.d.). Land rights. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/land-rights
Australian Museum. (n.d.). Land rights. https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/land-rights/
History Skills. (n.d.). How to analyse and evaluate historical sources. https://www.historyskills.com/source-criticism/
NAA. (n.d.). National Archives of Australia. https://www.naa.gov.au/
National Library of Australia (n.d.). Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/
VCAA. (2020). VCE Study Design: History 2022-2026. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/history/Pages/index.aspx
