Black armband view of history
The
'black armband' view of history is a phrase coined by
Australian
historian Professor
Geoffrey Blainey in his 1993
Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture to describe a view of history that focuses on the dispossession of the Aboriginal people. He contrasted this view with the
Three Cheers view of history. Use of the term is part of the larger debate about the interpretation of Australian history known as the
History Wars.
The phrase is used
pejoratively by some
Australian
social scientists,
politicians,
commentators and
intellectuals about historians who are seen to be writing critical Australian
history 'while wearing a black
armband' of mourning and grieving, or
shame.
Some of the opponents of this critical historiography argue that Australian history should tell a story of individual struggle,
heroic British cultural triumph and growth. They want to give primacy to the story of
ANZAC and the
digger. They see these as being the foundation of the Australian nation. They see the official policy, practice and treatment of Australia's
indigenous peoples since settlement as humane, and maintain that any specific instances of mistreatment are aberrations.
They strongly contest interpretations of Australia's history since
1788 that argue that the history is marred by both official and unofficial
imperialism,
exploitation, ill treatment,
colonial dispossession and
cultural genocide.
John Howard's involvement in the
National Museum of Australia controversy and
Keith Windschuttle's claims about
Tasmanian settlement constitute arguments within this theoretical perspective.
The 'black armband' view of our history reflects a belief that most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. (
John Howard - 1996 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture).
Particular historians and histories that are challenged include
Henry Reynolds and the histories of
massacres, particularly in
Tasmania but also elsewhere in Australia.
The converse view is that until thirty years ago the history of Australia was a 'white blindfold' history. It ignored invasion of sovereign territory, dispossession, the massacres and resistance of the Indigenous inhabitants, and maintained that the country was peacefully settled. In the last thirty years historians have sought to correct this view of colonial history.
The basis of the historical argument is partly methodological; there is an argument about the value and reliability of written records and oral tradition. There are systematic issues of bias and perspective in both indigenous oral sources and colonial written and oral sources.
*
Australian Aborigine **
Tasmanian Aborigine***
Black War - a period of conflict between the British colonists and Aborigines in
Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in the early years of the
1800s*
Torres Strait Islander *
List of Australian Aboriginal massacres**
Gippsland massacres**
Myall Creek massacre*
Stolen generation*
History Wars*
Mark McKenna, Different Perspectives on Black Armband History Australian Parliamentary Library - Research Paper five 1997-98*
The Age:
In the global arena December 9, 2003.
*
Geoffrey Blainey, 'Drawing Up a Balance Sheet of Our History', in
Quadrant, vol.37( 7-8), July/August 1993
