Historical Inquiry : Case Study 2

What is History?

At its most basic level, Australian History is everything that has happened in the past in Australia. However, it is never possible to determine exactly what happened in the historical past.

History is also an inquiry or investigation into what happened in the past. The word 'history' comes from the  Greek word meaning 'learning by inquiry'. An investigation into the past requires historians to ask questions to discover what happened.

The finished product of historians' inquiries is also called history. Such histories are really historians' interpretations of what happened in the past, based on their investigations and research. These histories are shaped by the kind of questions asked about the past and by the evidence used.

Questions asked by historians:

• How do we know what happened?

• What evidence is left?

• What's fact and what's opinion?

• Whose version of what happened is reliable?

• Is there more than one perspective to examine?

• Why did particular events happen?

• Is there more than one explanation?

• What were the consequences?

• Were the consequences the same for everyone?

• How have past events and their consequences helped shape Australia as it is today?

Who should be included in Australia's history?

Until the 1970s, Australian history's focus was mainly political and military history revolving around powerful and influential males, such as early governors, explorers, wealthy land owners, pioneers, bushrangers, soldiers and politicians. The histories of Aboriginal people, women, migrants, convicts, workers, the local area and social history were often ignored. However, gradually historians began to include these perspectives in their investigations, allowing more voices to be heard. Histories such as these help to provide a more complete picture of Australia's past.

New research and varying perspectives ensure that History is never static and unchanging. It must be an on-going intellectual debate between historians, and as educators we need to be aware of the dangers of disparaging others' perspectives; such as the labelling of some history as 'black-arm band' history, as if presenting another point of view undermines the integrity of history rather than strengthening the level of inquiry.

What viewpoints or perspectives can be used when writing history?

Each historian writes about the past from a particular point of view. They could be influenced by their gender, age, family background, education, religion, values and political beliefs, their life experiences and the time in which they lived.

Events in Australia's history can be presented from different perspectives.  Australia's involvement at Gallipoli in World War One has traditionally focussed on our 'baptism by fire', our emergence as a nation, and various heroic themes were developed such as the story of Simpson and the donkey. Very little has been written on the Turkish perspective or the experiences of the young men captured and held as prisoners of war for over three years, or the experiences of the nurses camped nearby. The campaign was rarely described as an invasion of a foreign land and a campaign that ultimately failed.

A national history needs to include a balance of political, military and social perspectives and to include the experiences of a range of people, not just the prominent and powerful. Our country's history includes successes and failures. An understanding of all perspectives of our history can help us see how Australia came to be the nation it is today, and it can give us direction for the future.

Jennifer Lawless, with excerpts from K. Cameron's Introduction from Cameron, Lawless & Young (2000) Investigating Australia's 20th Century History, Nelson.

Sources and Evidence

Historians base their research on sources that are relevant to their inquiry. They need to analyse them to discover if they hold any evidence.

An historical source may be a gravestone

In  loving memory

of

Mary Smith

born

16th Dec. 1802

Kilkenny, Eire

and

died 20th may 1872.

Much loved mother

of

Jennifer, Kate & Carmel.

RIP.

The evidence is the information contained in the source and we can retrieve it by asking relevant questions:

Question 1: What do we learn of the tomb owner?

• The question to this can be answered quite easily from the grave inscription:
• The owner is a woman, Mary Smith.
• She was born 16th December, 1802 in Kilkenny, Eire.
• She died 20th May 1872.
• She had three surviving daughters, Jennifer, Kate and Carmel.

Question 2 : Who are her parents and how did she die?    

We cannot answer these questions from the gravestone.  We need to either:

Change the question

or

Find another source of information, eg. Mary‚s death certificate.

So, some sources contain useful information but often not all of the evidence that is needed by the historian. So:

A source is not the same as evidence. A source becomes evidence if it is used to answer a question on the past. It may be evidence for one aspect of history but not for another, eg. Mary‚s gravestone provided some basic evidence about her but does not provide evidence about her parents or how she may have died.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are those produced at the time of the event or period under investigation. Australian historical primary sources include a very broad range, depending on what survived from the period:

Personal sources such as letters, diaries, personal narratives, photographs (after 1850s), memoirs.

Official sources such as newspapers, government publications and archives, speeches, birth and death certificates, shipping lists, court records, council records, maps, military records such as enlistment papers.

Artifacts such as tomb-stones, buildings, war memorial, foundation plaques, war medals, tools, household implements.

Questions to ask of a primary source:

• Is it really a primary source? Is it authentic?
• Who wrote / drew / made it?
• When was it written / made?
• Where was it found?
• Why was it written / made?
• How reliable is it?
• Who was its intended audience?
• What sources were used to write it?
• What else was found with it?

Questions to ask of a photograph:

• Who took the photo?
• Where was it found?
• Where was it published?
• What is its date?  Location?
• What is its caption?
• What is written about it?
• Why was it taken?
• Was it posed?

What further questions do you need to ask?

If we know very little about a photo, it will be difficult to use as a reliable source.  We need to know its origin or provenance.  Photos can also provide much information about objects or people in the background.

Questions to ask of an artifact:

• What is it?
• What is it made from?
• What size is it?
• Where did it come from?
• When was it made and by whom?
• What was its function?
• What is its significance?
• How has this source been interpreted by others?
• Is this type of artifact still in use today? If not, what is used in its place?
• What else was found with it?
• What does it tell about its society?

Questions to ask of a Building

(if conducting a field survey for local history)

• What is its location / address?
• What type of building is it?
• When was it built?
• What was its original purpose?
• How is it used today?
• What materials is it made from?
• Any specific decoration?
• What condition is it in now?
• What is the future of the building?
• How important is it as a heritage building?

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are those sources produced after the period or event under investigation. They may include histories written over one hundred years after the event, later newspaper accounts, biographies, documentaries, political commentaries and encyclopedias.

Secondary sources may provide an overview of an event or issue, different opinions and / or interpretations of events, access to statistics, photographs, maps and other sources and provide the latest research and scholarship on a particular historical subject.

Questions to ask secondary sources:

• Who wrote it?
• When was it written?
• What sources were used to write it?
• Are these sources reliable?
• What has been omitted?
• Why was it written?
• Who was the intended audience?
• Have any facts been omitted?
• Have emotive phrases or words been used?
• Has the writer any reason to be one-sided?

How can sources survive?

Sources for Australian history may vary from being many  thousands of years old, such as Aboriginal artifacts and sites, to recent sources such as politicians‚ speeches on the refugee issue.

Sources that have been kept on purpose may range from personal or family items that are deemed valuable (such as family heirlooms, grandmother‚s birth certificate, old family photographs, grandfather‚s war medals) or official sources kept in the National Archives, the Australian War Memorial or State libraries.

Sources that survived by chance could include forgotten items in family attics, old newspapers found under linoleum or artifacts recovered unexpectedly in the garden or in an archaeological dig.

Some historical sources may even have been deliberately destroyed.