Uncovering Hidden Histories: Evaluating Preservice Teachers' (PST) Understanding of Local Indigenous Perspectives in History Via Digital Storytelling at Australia's Sovereign Hill
- Authors: Weuffen, Sara , Cahir, David (Fred) , Barnes, Alice , Powell, Bryon
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Diaspora, indigenous and minority education Vol. 13, no. 3 (2019), p. 165-181
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- Description: Non-Indigenous-led organizations and education programs have long been criticized for sanitized teachings of Aboriginal perspectives in history, while scholarship touts the transformative benefits offered up via decolonial and immersive pedagogical approaches. In this case study, we explore the impact of a cross-cultural venture, titled Hidden Histories: The Wadawurrung People, between a living history museum, the local Aboriginal community, and a regional university on teacher preparedness to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives in history curricula. Through a cultural interface lens, we examine the ontological and epistemological developments of 112 preservice teachers postinteraction with an intercultural digital-kinaesthetic education tool. Our findings suggest that PSTs enjoy engaging with the tool, yet while on site, they prefer to immerse themselves in the museum environment. Our findings indicate also, however, that the tool is an accessible cross-cultural predatory tool that encourages a lifelong commitment to integrating Aboriginal perspectives in history curricula.
"My Country all gone the white men have stolen it" : The invasion of Wadawurrung Country 1800-1870
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: "The Wadawurrung are the Aboriginal people whose Country includes the cities now known as Ballarat and Geelong. Fred Cahir examines the contact history in the period 1800-1870 of the Wadawurrung and the ngamadjidj (generally translated as white stranger belonging to the sea). Divided into chronological and thematic section, the book chronicles three waves of invasion: the early invasion period incorporating trespassers predominately from the sea, the sheepherders or squatters who followed in their wake and usurped the Wadawurrung of all their Country for sheep runs, and the third wave of invaders - the gold seekers. This historical study is transformative as it presents a compelling argument of how the Wadawurrung were active agents of change and sought cultural enrichment in the midst of the frontier war on their Country." --back cover.
The children of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate : An anthology of their reminiscences
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: During the life of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate from 1839 until late 1849 some 35 children of the Protectors were associated with the Protectorate. These children have been largely neglected by scholars and rendered historically invisible. Six of them have however left 28 distinct records of their experiences. In this work we hear the voice of Protectorate children - the authors bring them out of the shadows of their fathers and allow them to appear as influential actors in their own right, with their own motivations, goals, ideas, and relationships with Aboriginal people. Detailed biographical entries, where possible, are included on every protectorate child and on their spouses. For the first time, the reminiscences of William Jackson Thomas and Albert Le Souef are published in their entirety, and all of the writings of the Protectorate's children are brought together so that their contribution to our understanding of the Protectorate may be acknowledged and interpreted.
Black gold : A history of the role of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria, 1850-70
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Reconstructs the history of Aboriginal people and gold mining in Victoria from 1850-1870.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
The attraction of gold mining in Victoria for aboriginal people
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Australasian Mining History Vol. 6, no. (2008), p. 46-69
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- Description: Aboriginal people were a very visible presence on the goldfields in nineteenth century Victoria. This paper examines why Aboriginal people were attracted to the gold fields of nineteenth century Victoria and explores the extrinsic and intrinsic motivating factors such as new wealth, new sights, new sounds, new alliances which prompted Aboriginal people to participate in 'gold society'.
Kurrburra the Boonwurrung 'wirrirrap' and bard (1797-1849)-a man of high degree
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Schlagloth, Rolf , Cahir, David (Fred) , McGinnis, Gabrielle
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Biography and History Vol. , no. 4 (2020), p. 73-91
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- Description: Kurrburra (aka Mr Ruffy) (1797-1849), Aboriginal wirrirrap (doctor, healer, bard), sage counsellor of his people, consultant with koalas, and heroic slayer of a feared orangutan-like cryptid that lived in the ranges north of Western Port, is believed to have been born in 1797, and was a member of the Yawen djirra clan, the eastern-most group of the Boonwurrung People whose Country stretched from Wirribi-yaluk (Werribee River) to Wammun (Wilsons Promontory) in Victoria. His moiety was Bunjil and in the early 1840s he had 2 wives: Kurundum (1819-?) and Bowyeup (1823-?), and 2 children, whose names are not known. Kurrburra's traditional Aboriginal name is the Boonwurrung word for the iconic marsupial Phascolarctos cinereus, more commonly known as the koala.
The disputatious protector - William le Souëf : A history
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This book is the first detailed biography of William Le Souef and, amongst other things, explores his relationships with Aboriginal people and with his superiors - Robinson and La Trobe - when he was employed as assistant protector. It does this using the qualitative research methodologies of interpretive biography and thick description. It makes use of contemporary publications, protectorate records, personal diaries, familty records, and newspaper articles.
Finding Indigenous history in the RHSV collections
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 85, no. 1 (2014), p. 12-30
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- Description: This paper is a fuller version of a lecture delivered at the RHSV for the Annual Melbourne Day Lecture in 2011, which focused on locating Aboriginal history in the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) collections. This paper highlights some of my finds within the RHSV archives over the years - sometimes just a rakish sentence, and other times a major peeling back of the historical onion. In addition, the strengths and challenges of researching Aboriginal history, and specifically at the RHSV, are discussed, providing a greater indication of the enormous worth of the RHSV manuscript collection in adding to our knowledge of the impact of Aboriginal Victorians on the development of the colony.
Continuing "assimilation"? : A shifting identity for the Tiwi 1919 to the present
- Authors: Morris, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: The Tiwi are the indigenous people of the Tiwi Islands, located off the Northern Territory mainland. In 1919, as a unique and distinct people they appeared to be in a position to maintain their identity, to resist absorption into western culture and to avoid some of the serious social problems that came to affect some other Indigenous communities. While aspects of the Tiwi culture and lifestyle were gradually modified or abandoned through contact with outside societies between 1919 and 2000, other traits remained strong or were strengthened. These included their relationship with the land, the local language, dancing and singing, and adoption customs. Forms of visual art, some introduced, brought fame to the Tiwi. Government policies on Indigenous matters changed dramatically over the twentieth century. The earlier ones, including assimilation programmes were discriminatory and restrictive. Later approaches to Aboriginal and Islander welfare, including land rights, had significant consequences for the Islanders, some beneficial, others detrimental in nature. From the 1970s, the departure of resident missionaries and government officers from the islands led to an influx of private European employees. The exposure to these people added to that which the Tiwi experienced as they travelled far beyond their islands. After 1972, the policies of self-determination and, then, self-management placed enormous strains on the Tiwi as they strove to meet the requirements of government, private enterprise and the wider society. New forms of land and local government controls replaced the law of the elders. A younger, western-educated generation now spoke on behalf of the people. Ultimately, under the influence of outside pressures, degrees of socio-cultural absorption occurred in the islands even though the official policy of assimilation had been abandoned. Fortunately, the strong identity of the Tiwi ensured a level of social cohesion capable of combating full assimilation into a wholly western lifestyle.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy