Narratives of Place and Land: Teaching Indigenous Histories in Australian and New Zealand Teacher Education

Abstract

This article offers a trans-Tasman critique of approaches to the teaching of history in New Zealand and Australia. Taking knowledge out of place and time and presenting it in textbooks is a conflicted task for schooling in both countries. The disembodiment of knowledge in history books has led students to the proclamation that the teaching of history in schools is 'boring' and irrelevant to their lives. The authors seek a way out of this dilemma in proposing that the teaching of Indigenous history in schools must recognise that Indigenous historical narratives are intimately tied to the ecologies of places - whether they rural, remote or urban. We propose an approach to teaching history that gets students out of the classroom, and 'into place' alongside Indigenous custodians of local knowledge. This provides a means of creating an affective and emotional sense of 'belonging' to history that textbooks cannot provide.