The human rights unit designed by the Curriculum Support Directorate can be used to support the new Stage 6 syllabus in Modern History. For Modern History it supports the Case Studies in the Preliminary Course (p.18).

The project, Human Rights, is part of a broader international civics project, One world, many democracies: Citizens of the world. As part of this project schools are asked to register; however, for the Higher School Certificate, the materials are a resource, and it is not necessary to register.

Case Studies that are covered by the human rights
unit are:

• A1 The trans-Atlantic slave trade
• A8 Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragette movement
• A12 The civil rights movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s
• A13 The struggle for indigenous rights in Canada in the late twentieth century
• B13 Tibet’s fight for survival in the modern world
• B14 The Chinese Government and Tiananmen Square

Example of a Case Study
A13 The struggle for indigenous rights in Canada in the late twentieth century

• British and French colonisation of Canada (This topic is not covered in the Internet unit).
• The impact of colonisation on indigenous peoples
• Recognition of land rights in Canada during the twentieth century
• International reaction to the Canadian solution

The Internet unit:

Task 1 Introduction
Task 2 Organisations
Task 3 Contemporary issues
Task 4 National responses
Task 5 Historical developments
Task 6 Why do we need human rights?
Task 7 What are human rights?

The impact of colonisation on indigenous peoples

Colonisation is a human rights issue.
Students learn to:

• ask appropriate and relevant historical questions about the modern world
• gather, select and organise information from a range of primary and secondary sources in
  response to specific historical questions about the modern world
• use available information technologies to gather information about the modern world.

Students learn about:

• racism
• the impact of change on the society or period studied and beyond
• the historical context
• the variety of primary and secondary sources available for the depth studies
• factors contributing to these events
• main features of the events
• the impact of the events on the history of an individual nation, region or on the world as a whole.

Activities
Task 1: Introduction
Students should have prior knowledge of colonisation in general, and specifically the colonisation of Canada.

Print out the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (see resources section).
Establish how colonisation is a human rights issue by using the Declaration of Human Rights:
How did the colonisation stop the indigenous peoples of Canada from determining their own lives?

Task 2: Organisations
There are a number of links in the resources section to Canadian indigenous organisations and government departments.
Students locate these Internet sites. They gather, select and organise information about such issues as education, socioeconomic status, death, imprisonment and suicide rates, drug and alcohol abuse and government departments responsible for indigenous affairs.

Use the table on the Internet (http://www.abc.net.au/ civics/rights/organ.htm) to organise material.

Task 3: Contemporary issues
There are Internet links to over 4000 newspapers. Students are asked to find a human rights issue and follow it through over a time period. This may not be possible because not all issues are reported regularly or are hot topics and many fade out of the news. If Canadian newspapers are not reporting an issue relevant to your study:

Contact an indigenous organisation or a newspaper in Canada via e-mail.
Write to the organisation or newspaper and ask permission to make contact about the issue. If permission is given, devise a series of relevant questions based on the analysis of an issue at (http://www.abc.net.au/civics/rights/contemp.htm)

Task 4: National responses
National responses is about how the governments, organisations, indigenous and non-indigenous people have responded to an issue. This task is designed as a web publishing activity. Teachers may follow the task as designed or complete it as a class exercise.

Task 5: Historical developments
Students are asked to look at the historical development of a particular human rights issue. When part of the HSC course it is advisable for this to be completed as part of Task 2: Organisations.

Task 6: Why do we need human rights?
This is an image-based exercise. There are many images of indigenous peoples at the Internet sites (resources section). Students locate appropriate images from the Internet about indigenous Canadian peoples. Students then complete the exercise.

Task 7: What are human rights?
Students are asked to complete a table about human rights. They can complete it with emphasis on Canadian human rights issues.
After completing all the tasks, students return to the focus, the impact of colonisation on indigenous peoples, and synthesise material:

Using evidence outline the key features of the impact of colonisation on Canada’s indigenous people.

N.B. In doing this unit of work there are culturally sensitive issues of which students need to be aware. These include:

• Copyright of their stories and images.
• Beliefs about life and death cycles.
• If you are in any doubt, contact an indigenous organisation for appropriate guidelines.

Chris Dorbis