Noel Pearson- ‘An Australian history for us all’
http://tutortales.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/an-australian-history-for-us-all-by-noel-pearson/
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/advanced/critical/2471/Speech_Noel.html
Speaker
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Pearson enrolled in a history degree at Sydney University where he completed a History
and Law degree.
As Pearson is an Aboriginal Australian he has been strongly involved in campaigning for the
rights of Cape York Aboriginal people, and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the
Cape York Land Council in 1990.
Pearson also worked on both Native title cases including the historic WIK decision. The
resulting High Court decision is recognised as one of the most important Native Title cases in
Australian History.
Pearson also participated in the drafting of the Cape York Heads of Agreement for which he
and other Cape York leaders were signatories on behalf of Cape York Aboriginal people.
In 2004 he became the Director of the Cape York Institute, a new regional organisation
sitting at the nexus of academia, policy formation and community engagement and
providing policy oversight for other Cape York oriented organisations.
Audience
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He was invited to address a distinguished academic gathering at the University of Western
Sydney.
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Given there was a national debate about indigenous issues and Australia history, the
speech was covered by national media.
Both Australians and Aboriginals, politicians and historians were his audience.
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His host was his former history professor, the Chancellor, Professor Derek Schreuder. His
topic, inspired by High Court decisions and political statements at the time, was Australian
history.
Pearson's speech was constructed with full awareness of its audience. The formal language
contrasts with that which Pearson uses in interviews.
Context
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Pearson’s agenda was: The way Australian history presented the historic
relationships between the European settlers and the Aboriginal peoples they had
found in the country.
Delivered on 20 November 1996
Indigenous issues and the Australian past were very topical and controversial in
1996, when Pearson gave this speech.
This speech was given as a response (few days after) to John Howard’s accusation
that historians were creating a “black armband” view of Australian history and
putting unnecessary guilt upon Australians.
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The topic was very much in the news in l996 for a number of chief reasons, each of
which Pearson alludes to.
Firstly, in l992, the landmark Mabo case resulted in the High Court decision that
stated that the legal idea of 'terra nullius' could not apply to this piece of Australia.
Yet the doctrine of 'terra nullius' was the legal concept applied to the rest of
Australia.
This decision led to a new approach to Aboriginal land rights. In December, l993, the
Commonwealth government passed a law making it possible for some groups of
Aboriginal people to gain control of their lands. 1994, the Native Title Act 1993 was
passed and began operation.
Just a few days before Pearson's speech, the newly elected Prime Minister, John
Howard, had deplored what was called "the black armband view of history". He
implied that the guilt for such actions was now being laid upon the whole nonAboriginal population, who very much resented it.
Pearson quoted what the Prime Minister had told a radio interviewer:
“Of course we treated Aboriginals very, very badly in the past-very, very badly-but to
tell children whose parents were no part of that maltreatment, to tell children who
themselves have been no part of it, that we're all part of a sort of racist, bigoted
history is something that Australians reject.”
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The use of many allusions to authorities, including Professor Bill Stanner's Boyer
lectures, Robert Hughes, Henry Reynolds, and the High Court judges in the Mabo
decision, adds weight to the argument of the speech. Pearson's point is that: The
debate is about how Australians should respond to the past.