Finally Our Government is Back From Cultural AWOL
Finally the Federal Government is listening to the complaints of many Australians, from the Culturally Conservative side of politics, as well as those from the Sensible Left, with regard to the inappropriateness of including Bruce Pascoe’s book, Dark Emu in our school’s curricula.
And let’s not forget the large number of Aboriginal people themselves who have spoken out against the ‘rubbish’ espoused by Pascoe in his book with regard to traditional Aboriginal societies (see here for a collection of discredited supporters and vindicated critics of Dark Emu).
The wheels of the education bureaucracy are moving slowly, but we are hopeful of the day when Bruce Pascoe’s book, Dark Emu, is off all the school’s recommended reading lists.
Similarly, the day will arrive when librarians quietly move Dark Emu from their history, non-fiction sections to the fantasy fiction section, next to Erich von Daniken’s, Chariots of the Gods?. Hallelujah!
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge on the 2GB Radio show.
‘Speaking on the Ben Fordham radio show on September 9th 2021, Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has conceded controversial book Dark Emu should be removed from schools.
Bruce Pascoe’s claims in Dark Emu that Indigenous Australians were more advanced than originally thought, has been debunked by academics.
When pressed by Ben Fordham, the Minister admitted the book should not be taught to children.
“If those are in libraries and they’re offered to kids as the truth, they should be removed.”
Similarly, Minister Tudge also expressed his disappointment in a draft national curriculum.
In the proposed new curriculum, a portion of Year 9 history dealing with the first world war includes “different historical interpretations and contested debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend and the war”.
Minister Tudge told Ben Fordham he’s “so disappointed” in the proposal.
“I will certainly not be supporting a curriculum document that has ANZAC Day as a contested idea.
“It’s offensive to the diggers, all of our veterans.” - Ben Fordham, 2GB 9/11/2021
Henry Reynold’s is a critic of the Australian public’s narrow heroic and sacred version of the Anzac tradition.
Minister Tudge’s criticism of the “different historical interpretations and contested debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend and the war” is possibly a reference to the ‘history revisionism’ of historians such as Henry Reynolds.
Some critiques of the Australian public’s, and their government’s, version of the Anzac Legend appear by Henry Reynolds, here , here and here.
A good summary of the Left and Right’s cultural and historical interpretations of Anzac Day are in this Conversation article by ‘revisionist foot-soldier’, Peter Cochrane, Honorary Associate, Department of History, University of Sydney.
