Speaker Purpose Aim to give an account of the history behind the “An relationship between Australian the Europeans and history for Aboriginal us all” inhabitants 1996 Illustrate the need to recognise - Australia discrimination and take responsibility of the past, present and future Encourage an open, harmonious and hopeful vision of reconciliation as opposed to focusing on assigning guilt Traces Australian history and focuses on the relations between Europeans and Aboriginal inhabitants through reference to a series Pearson Context Themes Structure Law & history graduate & an Abo activist leader. One of Aus’s most influential Abo in Aus’n politics His speech was inspired by the High Court decisions & political statements of the time Newly elected PM John Howard – proposed amendments to Native Title Act. Days prior to his speech John Howard criticised historians who Racism Focuses extensively on the racist history of Australia Shed light on Aboriginal relations with European settlers who dispossessed the indigenous people on their land and culture Outlined the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’land belonging to no one and didn’t recognise Aboriginal inhabitants Doesn’t dwell on the injusticeslooks to the future and the Structure of a discussion. Chronological structure. He deliberately chooses to appeal to the intellect of his audience, rather then their emotions through the language and structure of discussion. This is apparent through his use of many allusions to authorities including Professor Bill Stanner’s Boyer lectures, Robert Hughes, Henry Renolds and Quotes + Techniques Uses critical, academic, formal language – befits the formal occasion “historiography of colonial relations” Colloquialism & clichés – “hot button issue”, “live and let live” to lighten the mood & make the speech more accessible to the audience. Pearson refers to prominent politicians, historians and other social commentators with direct quotes – esp. John Howard. Reception Original In the original interpretation, Pearson spoke at a time when indigenous issues were topical and controversial in Australian politics and in the community (Mabo, Wik & Native Title decisions occurred), and thus the speech generated coverage in the national media & evoked a mixed reception. His speech was also highly political as it criticised the Prime Minister John Howard and other politicians. Pearson’s position isolated him from many member of the Aboriginal of scholars- who all presented what acknowledged the he called the injustices faced by new ‘black the Aboriginals armband view of Australian Argued that if history’ which reconciliation is to emphasised the be achieved there is European actions a need to recognise of the discrimination ‘dispossession, that did exist and exploitation and still exists today and violence’. to take Pearson was responsibility for against this view this – that we should Doesn’t advocate acknowledge it. the ‘Black Following this, Armband’ view of there was a Aus history- prefers widespread to deal with facts at debate over the hand issue of how Told his audience Aust’ns should there is no need for respond to their them to feel guilt past over what occurred, He took a more but they should conservative acknowledge that approach to Abo the injustices did politics, strongly take place and bear criticising his some responsibility for this- calls for ‘an own community for the high rates opening of our of substance hearts’ as we strive abuse and to overcome the reliance on inequities of our means to overcome the ongoing racism within Australiapraises the move forward Challenges his immediate audience and the nation to ‘accept responsibility for and express shame’ in relation to our past, believing that this could be the best path toward reconciliation Puts great emphasis on the need for the Aboriginal and European communities to reconcile in order to move forward. War and Peace Denies the history of ‘peaceful settlement’ and significant Inclusive language political figures is cleverly weaved such as Paul into the speech Keating and when he John Howard as repeatedly refers well as legal to ‘our nation’ and references to the action that the Mabo case, ‘we’ have to take Wik decision to correct the and Native injustices of the Title, to past - Has the extensively effect of illustrate his reconciling the profound ideas divide between & add weight to Indigenous and the argument of European his speech. Australians; unifying the nation Rhetorical question - “has the so-called black armband view of history been about apportioning guilt?” Cumulative list of what has been taken from the Aboriginal people in the past - ‘You have taken from us not just our land and not just all of the icons of community and he also found a lot of criticism in the wider community. Many Australian’s at the time agreed with John Howard’s condemnation of the “black armband” view of history. There were and still are some Australian’s who feel we do not need to take responsibility for the mistakes of our ancestors and express our shame. Therefore, Pearson’s views would not have found wide support within the broad Australian community. More conservative Australian’s would have viewed Pearson’s speech as being biased towards his own people and cultural background. However, many Australian’s would have also appreciated past and build a future on the foundations of justice and equality Pearson’s academic speech aims to debate and question the history of Australia, supports the role of reconciliation, and represents a step forward in the battle to improve relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The debate is not about the facts of the past, but how we should respond. “The debate is about how Australians should respond to the past” Main aim is to analyse the issue of Aboriginal reconciliation and its progress in Australian Society He strives to reconcile the relationship between welfare payouts speaks out against the Advocate of doctrine of terra increased responsibility for nullius. the Aboriginal Makes reference community to the ‘colonial Continuing work frontier’ and the war that took to find practical place between solutions to the whites & Abo’s. problems faced by Abo’s Audience is placed him at the made to relive centre of many the atrocities and political debates injustices of the war through the Youth and accounts of conservative William Cooperapproach has learn a gained him policeman shot respect within and killed 31 Australian aboriginals in community Asked to address revenge for killing of a an academic single white man gathering at the Uni of Western Brings the realities of the Sydney war frontier to Chose to speak life, he gives on Aus’n himself a History platform from focusing on the which he can relationships more openly between the advocate the European need for peace settlers and the indigenous Australia…” language creates a divide between indigenous and European Australians throughout the repetition of ‘you’ Makes sarcastic political allusions to Prime Minister Keating’s ‘recession we had to have’- ‘the turmoil and confusion the country had to have’ - use of political satire is important in that it alludes to former PM Keating who is a great proponent of reconciliation Refers to Keating’s call to ‘open our hearts’ creating a hope that reconciliation can be achieved Series of legal references to cases Pearson’s attempt to objectively trace the history of Australia and present a wide range of views. His ideas of justice, peace and the struggle against oppression would have been received as representing core Australian values. There were two High Court decisions – Mabo and Wik which were the first time Australian legislation and case law recognised Aboriginals as the original inhabitants of Australia. Some Australians do feel responsible and the need to take responsibility for our mistakes But many Australians disagreed with the seeing guilt as an inevitable emotion tied to an apology Modern Indigenous and nonAboriginal indigenous people Australians and to Speech acknowledge the considered the past injustices that political context the Aboriginal Followed the population faced. Mabo decisionwhich Audience – educated overturned the academics, people doctrine of Terra interested in history, Nullius (land formal occasion, belonging to nodelivered at Western one) Sydney Uni. Native Title and Mabo- provided a momentous changed in Aus’n history and for the 1st time legislation and case law recognised Aboriginals as the original inhabitants of Aus and reconciliation Guilt and Responsibility Most controversial theme Debate whether Australians should feel guilt for their past Promotes the idea that ‘guilt is not a useful emotion’ and that Australians should collectively take responsibility for the ‘present, future and past’ Reminds Australians that they ‘celebrate and share in the achievements of the past’ thus should ‘feel responsibility for and express shame in other aspects of their past’ and native title In the modern claims interpretation, his youth and Emotive language and negative conservative approach dictionhas gained him ‘derogation and a respect within the diminution’ and ‘a Australian community legacy of and his speech is a unutterable call to all Australian’s shame’ show to “open their hearts” historic suffering to reconciliation, of Aboriginal which still resonates Contrasted with today. positive words His ideas are attacked such as by some Aboriginal celebration, spirit leaders and by of compromise, politicians on both open and generous sides of politics. - Tries to adopt a Some people today positive sense of think John Howard is harmony and notorious for not reconciliation for apologising to the the future Aboriginals for past injustices and that it is the collective responsibility of all Australians to deal with contextual issues. Everyone’s views depend on their own political beliefs and our Aboriginal rights beliefs. In 2008, Prime Requests that Australians acknowledge the ‘truths of the past’ and accept responsibility Controversial position- not many Aboriginals held this viewIsolated him from members of Aboriginal community Criticised within Australian community Advocacy of feeling responsibility rather than guilt is symbolic of his mature approach to reconciliation Minister Kevin Rudd gave a national apology to the Aborigines on behalf of Australia for the past injustices they suffered and this bought tremendous relief to the Aboriginal community in moving a step closer to achieving reconciliation. Due to this notable event and others in the 1990’s people now look at his speech in a new context – one that acknowledges Aboriginal people illustrating that interpretations of a text shift and change with time and place. International Reception If Pearson’s speech had been presented internationally, it would have generated great interest. The international community would receive his speech as a good representation of the need to free the oppressed and accept responsibility for the past in order to pursue the future. The international audience would be free from contextualisation & distanced from the references to Australian politics, the judgements of them and also the Australian legal cases. They would focus on universal principles of equality, reconciliation and freedom from oppression found within the speech.