One of the key aims of the Museum of Australian Democracy is to inspire Australians to celebrate, debate and experience the past, present and future of Australia’s democracy. With this aim in mind, we’ve developed an extensive resource package for schools in conjunction with Curriculum Corporation based around the passage of Australia’s colonies to Federation.

Now available for free download, Getting It Together, is a middle years schools resource.

Students will use Getting It Together to actively discover and explore the story of Federation: the social and political journey that led the people of six separate colonies to agree on a Constitution which brought the nation of Australia and its federal parliament into being in 1901. While using the packages to study the past, students will also engage with issues affecting Australia’s present and future development and identity.

Several key ideas highlight the connections between past, present and future. These ideas underpin the Museum’s programs and are woven through Getting It Together:

• Australian Democratic Society – Australia has built a democratic society that recognises its past, supports the present and shapes its future.
• Leadership – Leadership is (and has always been) critical to defining Australia’s democracy, and we all have the opportunity to provide leadership.
• Active Citizenship – We shape our own unique democracy, and the health of our democracy relies on our participation, debate and response to change.

Exploring Federation is a powerful focus for the development of a historical understanding of social and political developments in late 19th century colonial Australia—essential to an understanding of the formation of a national identity. It also builds students’ historical understanding of Australia’s political institutions and the values on which they are based.

By comparing these distinct periods in Australian history—the colonial period and the period since Federation—students will be able to engage with the fundamental historical concepts of continuity and change. These points also relate directly to the importance of developing historical literacy, defined by the National History Project.

The packages: national and colony-specific perspectives

Getting It Together is organised into seven packages. Each is designed for use as a stand-alone teaching/learning resource or in conjunction with other packages or selected parts of them. While developed specifically for schools, the general reader will also find much in these packages to stimulate an interest in this period of our history.

One package provides an overview of the journey to Federation from a national perspective, including the establishment of the national capital. The remaining 6 packages are for New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland. Each engages students in exploring the journey to Federation from the perspective of a particular colony, and discovering what makes that colony’s Federation story unique. The focus is on:

• the colony’s particular interests and concerns in the late 1800s;
• how these were shaped by aspects of social, political and economic life at that time and earlier; and
• how they influenced popular attitudes towards uniting with the other colonies to become part of an Australian Commonwealth.