Product Overview
Please note: This study guide contains two versions – a full-colour guide and a text-only version for printing and referencing.
This bold and provocative series asks the question: what is the idea of Australia and how might we learn from the past to make it stronger in the twenty-first century?
Across four episodes, The Idea of Australia re-examines and shares little-known histories and incorporates new stories into those we tell ourselves by braiding the past and the present. It enriches insights from experts with powerful family stories and entertaining popular culture. It delves into Australia’s little-known history to uncover tales of courage and bold innovation, producing a complex, inclusive and multi-layered sense of Australia identity.
Inspired by and based on the acclaimed book, The Idea of Australia: A Search For the Soul of the Nation, by Julianne Schultz, the series is presented by award-winning actor Rachel Griffiths. It includes in-depth interviews with historians and other experts, significant public figures, personal testimony and popular culture archives.
The Idea of Australia interrogates the recent and deep past to help make sense of the present. It encourages viewers to imagine a bolder and more inclusive future that might grow from the best of the past.
Curriculum Links
The Idea of Australia would be suitable for secondary students in Years 9-12 in the following learning areas:
- English
- Media/Film Studies
- History (Australian)
- Civics and Citizenship
It is also relevant to the General Capabilities:
- Literacy
- Critical and Creative Thinking
- Personal and Social Capability
- Ethical Understanding
- Intercultural understanding
- As well as the Cross-Curriculum Priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
This study guide examines the following topics:
- The concept of the ‘fair go’ in Australian culture
- Terra nullius and the White Australia Policy
- Multiculturalism, assimilation and integration
- Colonialism and Australian Frontier Wars
- ‘The History Wars’ and the ‘black armband’ view of Australia
- Land rights and native title claims
- Australian Federation and the Constitution
- The ‘cultural cringe’
- Mythmaking and truth in media and the arts
