VCE Australian history - units 3 & 4

Students investigate how Australian democracy and society were challenged in the post-colonial world that emerged after 1945 and the extent to which these challenges were influenced by perspectives of, and events in, other nations.

The end of World War Two saw increased challenges from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples claiming citizenship and land rights, struggles for improved workers’ rights and conditions, the push for women’s equality and demands for LGBTIQA+ rights.

Over this time there was increasing awareness and acceptance of social movements and protests as a feature of Australian democracy. (VCE History Study Design 2022–2026 p.61)

Research Guides

• Protests, activism & dissent in Victoria
• Aboriginal people and the law
• Koorie Victoria and State Library of Victoria collections

Aboriginal land rights

• Attwood, Bain and Andrew Markus Thinking black: William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines' League 
• Attwood, Bain and Andrew Markus The struggle for aboriginal rights: a documentary history
• Attwood, Bain and Andrew Markus The 1967 referendum: race, power and the Australian Constitution   
• Foley, Gary,  Andrew Schaap and Edwina Howell (eds) The Aboriginal tent embassy : sovereignty, black power, land rights and the state
• Loos, Noel  and Koiki Mabo Edward Koiki Mabo : his life and struggle for land rights 
• Moreton-Robinson, Aileen The white possessive : property, power, and Indigenous sovereignty 
• Morris, Barry Protest, land rights and riots : postcolonial struggles in Australia in the 1980s 
• Terrill, Leon  Beyond communal and individual ownership : Indigenous land reform in Australia 
• Tonkinson, Robert The Wentworth lectures : honouring fifty years of Australian Indigenous studies

Equality for women

• Connell, Raewyn Confronting equality: gender, knowledge and global change
• Papadelos, Pam From revolution to deconstruction: exploring feminist theory and practice in Australia
• Summers, Anne Damned whores and God's police
• Summers, Anne The misogyny factor

LGBTIQA+ rights

• Queen City of the South : gay and lesbian Melbourne LaTrobe Journal No 87 May 2011
  • contains a collection of articles
• Heritage Victoria (2021). A history of LGBTIQ+ Victoria.
• articles on the Marriage Equality debate and vote
• ebooks on Marriage Equality debate and vote

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