Black armband view of history
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The 'black armband' view of history is a phrase used 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. The lecture was subsequently published in conservative politician and literary journal, Quadrant.[1]
Blainey 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.
Although it is claimed that Blainey coined the term, the phrase in the context of Australian history predates Blainey's 1993 speech by at least more than a decade. Leading up to the 1988 Bicentenary, Aboriginal protesters and white sympathisers used the phrase 'black armband' to describe the post-1788 history of Aboriginal Australia. In particular, a 1986 poster in Alice Springs asked Australians to 'wear a Black Armband' for the 'Aboriginal year of mourning'.[2]
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. They 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.[2]
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. As was argued by Howard in the 1996 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture:
| “ | 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.[2] | ” |
Manning Clark was identified as being on the liberal left of the debate and was specifically named by Blainey in his 1993 speech as having "done much to spread the gloomy view and also the compassionate view with his powerful prose and Old Testament phrases."[1] Particular historians and histories that are challenged include Henry Reynolds and the histories of massacres, particularly in Tasmania but also elsewhere in Australia.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Geoffrey Blainey, 'Drawing Up a Balance Sheet of Our History', in Quadrant, vol.37( 7-8), July/August 1993
- ^ a b c McKenna (1997). Different Perspectives on Black Armband History: Research Paper 5 1997-98. Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary Library. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
