Winter 2004

Talking History

Today's stories, yesterday's buildings

In the Year of the Built Environment, DANIELA GIORGI explores how students’ understanding of civics and citizenship is enhanced by visiting historical sites.

The Parliamentary Education and Community Relations Section of the Parliament of NSW has for many years conducted programs for students and teachers in all educational sectors. With the implementation of civics and citizenship education in NSW schools, the Education Section has become a significant support service that supplies information, resources and skills to educational providers, including student tours and role plays in Parliament; forums, conventions and mock parliaments; secondary school leadership programs; professional development programs for teachers; public tours, events and open days; and a range of information and resources.

In particular, the Education Section has supported teaching and learning of the NSW Stage 4–5 History syllabus (1998) by encouraging Site Study visits to the Parliament and by providing appropriate classroom resources and professional development programs. Site Studies are mandatory in the NSW History syllabus for years 7 and 8 (Stage 4) and also years 9 and 10 (Stage 5)*.

The NSW Parliament’s Site Study resources are designed to support the teaching of the syllabus topic Australia’s Social and Political Life to 1914 and in particular the Areas of Study: Federation and Australia’s Constitution and Suffrage and Franchise .

New South Wales and its Parliament played an important part in the development of Australia’s democracy. The NSW Parliament was Australia’s first legislature. The current Legislative Assembly was the site of the 1891 Australasian Convention which met to draft a constitution for a future Commonwealth of Australia. It was also the venue for one of the three sessions of the 1897 Australasian Federal Convention which succeeded in drafting a new Australian Constitution and adopting it as the Commonwealth Bill. Put to a referendum in all of the Australian Colonies, this bill led to the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia.

On the 1st January 1901, celebrations for the new nation took place throughout Australia. Macquarie Street in Sydney was festooned with streamers and greenery for the Federation Parade. Onlookers lined the footpaths and filled the temporary stands that had been erected, flowing onto balconies and rooftops. In the Parliament House courtyard a large stand for 1400 people was festooned with blue and gold. The Federation procession assembled in the Domain behind the Parliament. The procession route took the ten thousand soldiers, sailors, members of parliament, citizens, foreign visitors and dignitaries, trade unionists, public servants, church and civic leaders, and Australia’s first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, seven kilometres from the Domain, through the city streets and to Centennial Park for the Federation festivities.

Federation was not the only time that people have lined the streets, crowded into the Domain and lived their lives in and around the civic precinct of Macquarie Street. These places have resonated with the voices and stories of the people who lived there from the time of the original inhabitants, the Eora people, until the present. The layers of built environment created over the years inextricably link the present with the past.

History and civics and citizenship are essentially entwined. People of the past like Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton and countless others who created the foundations of our society were active citizens who participated in creating the kind of place they wanted to live in. If we think of the past as history and the present as civics and citizenship, the melding of the two can be seen as an example of democratic processes in action. As learners, we immerse ourselves in information and learn processes in an attempt to create meaning and understandings from the world around us. As citizens, we then take action within that world.

In our role as citizens and as history educators we need to see that as well as facilitating students’ understanding of what happened in the past we also ensure that they understand the processes that took place to allow these things to happen. The social, political and economic systems that we live in are constructed systems, created by people in the past and recreated every day by us through our participation—or lack of it. In learning about the history of NSW and Australia and the development of our democracy, it is essential that we critically analyse the actions and decisions of people in the past. For example, it is important to examine the decisions of the creators of the Australian Constitution to exclude Aboriginal people and women from the framework of decision making, and then also to examine the actions taken by many other people in succeeding years to include those originally excluded from Australia’s democratic processes.

By using the history of civic sites and the resources available from them, teachers can expose students to a variety of historical sources, voices and perspectives, ideas and opinions about the past. Weaving all of these together allows students to understand the complex events of the past and to empathise with the issues and ideas that have developed from them to create today’s society—the society for which, as future citizens, they will be responsible.

The unique built environments that surround us help us all to see our history, map our concepts of democracy and understand the way our society works so that we can begin to participate as informed and active citizens.

The Site Study and Civic Sites Walk resources produced by the NSW Parliament provide information about and ideas for visiting the Parliament and the important civic sites that adjoin it. Included is information on the buildings of Macquarie Street and Martin Place; the site of First Government House (now the Museum of Sydney); the Royal Botanic Gardens; and the Domain.

As the Indigenous people used to map their sacred sites long before the Europeans arrived, so we can develop maps in our heads of civic sites and use these maps to understand the complex systems and relationships in our democracy: the structures, laws and traditions that people in the past have left for us; and the legacy of understanding that change is possible because of the democratic framework we live in. This mapping is an inherent aspect of our civic responsibilities as educators, but also as citizens. It should inspire us to understand and participate, so that what we leave for future generations is something they too can walk and think through.

To obtain a copy of the Site Study Resources and Civic Sites Walk as well as other educational publications and information on visits, contact the Education and Community Relations Section of the NSW Parliament, telephone 9230 2334, email education@ parliament. nsw. gov.au, or visit the For Schools section of our website: www.parliament.nsw.gov.au

* In the new History syllabus, as of next year, Site Studies will be done as virtual or actual visits.

Daniela Giorgi is currently seconded from the NSW Department of Education and Training to the position of education officer for Parliamentary Education and Community Relations.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au