Hey History!

How do you teach and talk about Australian history with kids?

This is a bonus episode for teachers, carers and parents featuring Professor Anna Clark and  Professor Clare Wright.

Teaching and talking about history with kids can be rewarding and challenging.

From their experience studying and teaching history, Clare and Anna tackle questions like:

• How can kids in primary school work with history’s complexity?
• How can primary students consider the moral lessons of what they’re learning?
• How do you encourage kids when they’re interested in history but get some facts wrong?
• What’s one crucial thing to get across to kids about history?

Anna and Clare look at a concern about saying the wrong thing when talking about Australian history, and look at how to do Reconciliation while teaching or talking about history with kids?

And you’ll hear why asking questions is an important part of how you talk about history, and how to use primary sources and historical objects to connect kids with the history of our country.

Voices

• Anna Clark is a Professor of History at the University of Technology, Sydney.
• Clare Wright is a Professor of History and Public Engagement at La Trobe University.

Episode image 

Photo of Clare Wright (left) and Anna Clark (right) in the recording studio at University of Technology Sydney.

Music

Thannoid by Blue Dot Sessions.

What were the Gold Rushes? Why did people from all over the world get ‘gold fever’?

What was life like on the Ballarat goldfields of Victoria, on Wada Wurrung Country?

With so many different groups of people, how did everyone get along?

Did First Nations people mine gold too? What was the Eureka Stockade?

How did the Gold Rushes change Australia?

Students from Preshill Primary School and Westbourne Grammar in Melbourne tell us what they know about the Gold Rushes.

Fred Cahir, Andrew Pearce, Sarah Van de Wouw and an oral history about a Chinese miner share the different experiences of goldfields life.

How to use this episode in your classroom

• Play all the way through (28 minutes) or play half the episode (14 minutes) and pause.
• We’ll tell you when you’ve reached halfway, and recap the episode.
• Use the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF with your class, and find more resources on our website.

Voices

• Professor Fred Cahir is a professor in Australian History at Federation University.
• Andrew Pearce is the Learning Program Leader at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.
• Sarah Van de Wouw is the Education Officer at the Eureka Centre, Ballarat.
• Gabrielle Wang interviewed by Anna Zhu for the Australians with Chinese heritage oral history project, from the National Library of Australia online catalog.

Episode image 

Gold panning dish. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Australia.

Music

Lady Marie, Rush to the Clearing, Borough and Jespen by Blue Dot Sessions.

Why did kids get transported from Britain to Australia?

What were their crimes? Did they miss their families?

What was life like as a convict in Van Dieman’s Land, an open air prison on Palawa land?

Students from Princes Street Primary School in Hobart tell us what they know about convict kids.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Marcelle Mangan tell the story of transportation, convict tattoos and tokens, and convict life at the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart.

They answer kids’ questions and reflect on what the evidence can and can’t tell us about the convicts.

How to use this episode in your classroom

• Play all the way through (32 minutes) or play half the episode (16 minutes) and pause.
• We’ll tell you when you’ve reached halfway, and recap the episode.
• Use the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF with your class, and find more resources on our website.

Voices

• Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a specialist in convict history and is at the University of New England.
• Marcelle Mangan is a tour guide at the Cascades Female Factory, Hobart.

Episode image 

Convict love token from J. Fletcher. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Australia.

Music

Less Jaunty and Apollo Diedre by Blue Dot Sessions.

In 1770, Captain Cook got secret instructions to find the ‘Great South Land’.

His ship The Endeavour sailed into Kamay Botany Bay, the land of the Gweagal people.

How did the Gweagal people meet Captain Cook and his crew?

How did they communicate?

What happened over the eight days that Captain Cook stayed in Botany Bay?

Students from Marrickville West Primary School in Sydney tell us what they know about this encounter.

Ray Ingrey and Paul Irish, along with Captain Cook’s own diary, tell the story of this first meeting, answer kids’ questions, and reflect on how it went.

How to use this episode in your classroom

• Play all the way through (23 minutes) or play half the episode (11 minutes) and pause.
• We’ll tell you when you’ve reached halfway, and recap the episode.
• Use the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF with your class, and find more resources on our website.

Voices 

• Ray Ingrey is a Dharawal person from the La Perouse Community. He is a Director of the Gujuga Foundation.
• Paul Irish is a professional historian who has worked for the past twenty years with Aboriginal heritage and history.
• Captain’s Cook diary is voiced by Nick Hopwood.

Episode image 

Gweagal spears reproduced with the permission of the Dharawal and La Perouse community, and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, formerly MAA D 1914.1-4

Music

Curiously and Curiously and Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessions.

How did First Nations people learn before books, school and the internet?

What are some of the teaching places on Country? Can a cave or a beach be a classroom?

What’s the role of rock art, like engravings, stencils and prints, in the ‘oldest classroom’?

What are the different kinds of classrooms First Nations kids learn ion today?

Students at La Perouse Primary School in Sydney tell us what they know about how their ancestors learnt on Country.

Wayne Brennan and host Axel Clark visit a very old rock shelter on Dharug and Gundungurra Country. We hear about different kinds of rock art, learning when you’re ready and ways of passing down knowledge.

Merrikiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs invites us into her classroom at Yirrkala Bilingual School in North East Arnhem Land.

How to use this episode in your classroom

• Play all the way through (24 minutes) or play half the episode (12 minutes) and pause.
• We’ll tell you when you’ve reached halfway, and recap the episode.
• Use the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF with your class, and find more resources on our website.

Voices 

• Wayne Brennan is an archaeologist at the University of Sydney , a Gamilaraay person and Blue Mountains custodian.
• Merrikiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs is the Principal of Yirrkala Bilingual School, a Yolngu woman and leader.

Episode image 

Red ochre used in painting. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Australia.

Music

Thannoid and Highway 94 by Blue Dot Sessions.

A podcast all about Australian history where the kids ask the questions.

Go back in time to the Gold Rush. What happened at the meetings between Captain Cook and First Nations people at Kamay Botany Bay? Experience life as a convict kid, and hear how First Nations people learn on Country.

Each episode has music, stories, primary sources and sound-rich scenes with Australia’s top historians and experts.

Listen to our 4 episodes in any order. And, there’s a bonus episode How to talk with kids about Australian history.

Hey History! follows the Australian curriculum so teachers can use it in class for Stage 2 and 3, along with Learning Materials on our website heyhistory.net

It’s made by two history professors and is produced by The Australian Centre for Public History and Impact Studios at the University of Technology Sydney, in partnership with La Trobe University.