During 1925, two sets of articles appeared which discussed the issue of fostering “Australian sentiment”.
Australian literature and labour
Herald (Melbourne), 27 November 1929, p 16
During the year, John McKellar (1881-1966) gave lectures on topics relating to literature and labour or the working class. On February 12, a newspaper titled Labor Call advised that at the February 17 meeting of the Malvern Branch of the ALP, Mr McKellar would speak on “Literature: Its relation to working class progress.” I didn’t know John McKellar but he has an entry in the ANU’s Labour Australia site. He was an “engineer, trade union official, editor and author”. He unsuccessfully stood for Labor in both state and federal elections and was associated with the Jindyworobak movement which focused on promoting Australian culture. He published books of essays, and historical articles, including one on a Gippsland-based Christian Socialist commune. His political and cultural interests are clear.
Anyhow, on June 11, this Labor Call wrote on another address given by Mr J. McKellar to the ALP’s Port Melbourne branch:
The lecturer prefaced his remarks by instancing the deep and lasting pleasure to be gained from the cultivation of the love of books. He spoke of the wonderful wealth of literature in the English language, and said that a feature of modern literature was that it got closer to the lives of the people.
He said writers like Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and G. K. Chesterton “held the mirror of life by their works”, and recommended other works, including The Communist manifesto. But, reported the paper, he also said that
Too little appreciation was shown for our own Australian writers. One of the planks of the Australian Labor Party declared for the cultivation of an Australian sentiment. This was not, he stated, to be taken only in a political sense. The cultivation of an Australian sentiment was equally the work of Australia’s literary men.
And he apparently named some who had done just this, including Fernlea Maurice (actually Furnley!), R. H. Long, and Vance Palmer. (R.H. Long does appear in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. It says he wrote “wrote topical verse, prompted to do homage to Nature and to denounce capitalism …”)
A few days later, on June 17, The Australian Worker reported on the same lecture. They also wrote of his comments on the lack of appreciation for Australian writers, and on the fact that one of the ALP’s planks was “the cultivation of an Australian sentiment”. They continued:
He might have added that, generally speaking, Australian writers have to go to London for an audience that will appreciate — and pay for — their songs and stories of the land that froze them out.
Ouch!
Australian literature and art in schools
Quite coincidentally, the topic of teaching Australian literature in schools that came up in my 1925 Trove research also came up, briefly, in comments on a #Six Degrees post this weekend – on host Kate’s (booksaremyfavouriteandbest) post, in fact. She linked to David Malouf’s Ransom because one of her children had studied it at school this year (as they had, the American starting book, Shirley Jackson’s We have always lived in the castle). Rose (RoseReadsNovels) chimed in saying her children had, in the past, read another Australian novel for school, Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi. I remember being disappointed when my children were in Year 11 and 12 that there was little if any contemporary (or any) Australian literature in their curricula.
The inclusion of Australian books in school curricula was also mentioned, in passing, in a Canberra Writers Festival session I attended – Poems of Love and Rage – with both Evelyn Araluen and Maxine Beneba Clarke mentioning that their books, Dropbear (my review) and The hate race (my review), were taught in schools. I love that recent Australian books speaking to current lives and issues are being taught. I know it’s neither easy nor cheap for schools to teach recent books, but I believe it is important.
This is not, of course, a new issue. It was discussed in the newspapers in late 1925 – on December 17 in Sydney’s Evening News (briefly) and The Sydney Morning Herald, and on December 18 in Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (not then part of the SMH group) – after members of the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA) had met with Mr Mutch, the Minister for Education. They argued that “to foster a pure Australian sentiment” there needed to be “an increased study in the schools of Australian literature and art”.
The best definition of “pure Australian sentiment” came from the critic A.G. Stephens, who, said the SMH, declared that “our literature was the mirror of our lives, and naturally we desired to see reflected in it our own country, lives, and characteristics.” He argued, wrote the SMH, that it was better “for children to read of gum-trees and their 400 varieties than of oak and fir trees” but that children were only learning “scraps of Australian literature, the lives, personalities, and ideals of the writers”.
The AJA also said that “the Australian author and artist were not getting a fair show in their own country”. They wanted the Department to work towards a “proportion at least 50 per cent” of Australian works in the schools. The Minister, a political being of course, disagreed with some of their condemnation but generally agreed with their sentiment! However, he said that “The department suffered from a constant financial malnutrition, and the purchase of Australian books was restricted on this account”. (The NMH&MA described the money issue as “a chronic state of financial stringency”.) Then he offered them another tack. They could
also arrange with the grand council of the Parents and Citizens’ Association that at least half of the prizes purchased for distribution at the end of the year should be Australian-made.
Nothing like passing the buck! But, not a bad suggestion all the same. The Evening News had its own suggestion. It argued that “if Australian literature were used largely in the examination papers, it would be taught as a matter of course in all the schools” and suggested that rather than approach the Minister, the delegation approach the University! I presume examinations were set by the University at that time.
And so it goes … (to use my best Vonnegut).
Thoughts, anyone?
Whispering Gums 
Apparently not. Look what you’ve done, ST – written what five people like but have nothing to say about ! Whereas, comme d’habitude, I confess to finding it waaaay above my head but will say that politics and literature ought not be discussed in the one forum. Why ? – because the former has created a mindset that informs the latter.
Besides, I’m up to dolly’s wax with politics of any colour, right now, she added intemperately …
Fair enough re your last point, but would you like to explain a bit more what you mean about politics and literature?
Serpently, my love ! [cudgels ‘brain’]
A dedicated political attitude/belief/creed/whatever influences a writer, regardless of topic.
I thought that’s probably what you meant. I think it’s hard to avoid, and I’m not sure I’m overly concerned, because whatever values a writer has – political, philosophical, religious, etc – will make their way into their writing? It’s the nature of being a creator I think? But I don’t like it when the writing/art becomes polemical, when it is hammering a point of view rather than exploring one. Even then, it can be a matter of how it is written?
On the other hand MR, we revolutionary types like to see a bit of Political – ie. anti capitalist – action in our Lit; and we rejoice in deconstructing the capitalist and colonial attitudes inherent in so much apolitical Lit. Frank Hardy writes my Australia. Well Furphy does really but a man has to make a point.
I’ve said before that my father was in charge of primary curriculum in Victoria in the 1980s and he hardly read an Australian book – a bit of Lawson, a bit of Miles Franklin – apart from War stories.
Haha, Bill, I just replied before I saw your response. I agree with you … the main point for me is for ideas to be explored well, thoughtfully.
Bill, I can only think that it’s fairly exhausting, being a revolutionary type; where do you find the energy to read ? [grin]
Haha, MR, good question!
It’s certainly exhausting being wound up all the time, yet I do nothing about ‘it’ – the state of the planet, wealth inequality, racial inequality – except argue. Reading is my relaxation.
I’m so glad I’ve never needed to take issue with anything dropping from your lips— sorry, fingers !! 🙂
You are both probably tarred with similar brushes.
We once had a maid who delighted in creating Mrs Malaprop-isms: this one became “tied to the one brush”. [grin]
Haha, love it MR.
This sounds like Mr Gums, Bill. Gets wound up but …
Love that Araluen and Beneba Clarke are regulars on the school curriculum – so they should be! But it’s my understanding that it’s still entirely possible for an Australian child to complete Year 12 without ever being asked to study a book by an Australian woman. In Victoria it likely can’t happen (because of the texts set as compulsory), but entirely possible in some other states (where each school can choose texts from a male-heavy list). My data is a bit dated, so maybe things have changed – not holding my breath though.
That’s interesting Michelle re compulsory versus selection. But my, the wheels of curriculum turn slowly.
The Stella Schools Program will hopefully change that. I believe the initiative was trialled last year, because I know that WA writer Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s West Girls was studied (I went to Stella Day out here in Perth a couple of weeks ago and heard Woollett speak about it). The program encourages reading, writing and critical thinking in teenagers by focusing on Australian women writers. Apparently it has funding to do more of this in the year/s ahead!
Thanks Kimbofo. That’s a good point. I donate to Stella and have heard about Stella Day Out (but have not been able to get to one) and their schools program. I love that they are doing so much more than just the prize.
The Stella Prize is wonderful. But it’s not the most interesting thing Stella does. The schools program, and the Stella Count, also make a real difference. Stella Day Out seems fun, but I wish they’d offered funding to existing writers festivals throughout Australia to run Stella sessions, especially the little ones, rather than set up in competition with them.
That’s a good idea Michelle.
One of the things I love about your posts is that I may not have anything to say directly about the content, but my brain will spiral into other areas. For example, your post about having students reading from their own country reminded me of how when I was an undergrad in 2004, I took a Black Lit class, and I learned that the literary canon is so white and British that they needed to add “minority” lit classes to include Black and brown people in a lit class. I mean…..it’s segregating books, which is bizarre. Can you imagine if canon included just the great, important authors of specific time periods? Your post also made me think how war-centric the US is. I know very little about the history of the US because it was always taught from the perspective of which wars happened when, what battles and people were involved, what was gained or lost, etc. I can’t remember names and dates like, and so the history loses all meaning. Having this realization made me sad, as if the only contribution America has made to any group of humans is killing and taking. Later, when I was in college, I started studying Black history after the Emancipation Proclamation and realized that Black history IS American history—the culture of music, literature, dance, theater, all of it. Why didn’t I grow up studying American culture instead of American battles? Perhaps America’s culture IS war….
Oh no, don’t say that Melanie! It is much more than that. But I do understand that that’s how it has been taught and so that’s the impression you are left with. I remember going a unit on Australia 19th century history after doing one on the French Revolution and the American Civil War. The Australian unit focused on education and religion on Australia. I remember thinking how boring. Now I think what was I thinking. The lack of conflict is good BUT there actually was conflict – black massacres – it’s just that we weren’t taught that!
I love how your responses to my posts so often come from a different angle or perspective.
In my final year at school (HSC – Yr12) in 1987 (!!!) we studied My Brother Jack, which remains my favourite book of all time, but prior to that most of the books read at school where British or American, with a short stint focusing on Henry Lawson’s short stories.
I love that it has remained a favourite Kim. I did Voss in Year 12 and it had the same impact on me. I did some other Aussie books, including Vance Palmer’s The passage, but that was at the other end of high school.
The Jindyworobak Movement! Who knew, but it had me scurrying down the rabbit hole? A couple of mentions from all this. Xavier Herbert’s gets a mention in that link you supplied about the movement. Carpicornia and Poor Fellow My Country are on the TBR and have been for far too long. My one Vance Palmer Golcanda, the writing was dense and lacked life. I have the other 2 in the trilogy but have not attempted.
The conversation about school reading of our literature. I left school straight from grade 10 to an apprenticeship back in 1976 and my recall is not one local book read. It was all Dickens and Shakespeare, and I did not like it at all. My youth was Sci FI and everything else did not matter.
The comment from Grab the Lapels, ” Perhaps America’s culture IS war….” An interesting way of putting it!
It’s such a shift, when we were schooled with English writers exclusively, to have contemporary books by “local” writers on the curriculum eh? It’s commonplace now to include Canadian writers in school English classes; one friend of mine has a teenager enrolled in the BETA for an Indigenous lit English class this year, and hopefully that moves forward too (there are English teachers who include Indigenous writers, but I believe this idea of a year-long class dedicated to their work is new for Ontario).
It sure is, Marcie, though I have to say that we did have Patrick White’s Voss on our year 11-12 curriculum – along with Austen, Thackeray, Dickens, Hardy (of course), TS Eliot and the Romantic poets, Shakespeare. So MUCH English as you say. It is exciting to hear that not only are more Australian writers being inlcuded, but from diverse backgrounds and very contemporary. (Can you me “very” contemporary? Possibly not but I’m sure you get my meaning.) That’s great to hear re a year-long class devoted to Indigenous writers in Ontario schools.
Hi Sue, when I was at school in the 50s and 60s. We had the School Paper in Primary which was a mish mash of Australian stories, poetry and songs, and promoting “Made in Australia”. We also had school readers up to year 8. Mainly Australian and British stories and poems. In the readers, there were also Indigenous stories. Today “The Australian Curriculum mandates that students study a range of texts from Australian authors, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, alongside world literature. recognised as good literature”.
Thanks Meg. This was Victoria? I had some of that in Queensland, but not so much in NSW where I did high school in the mid to late 60s. I;m not sure what primary school was like there. It does sound like more and more Australian literature, and from a wider range of authors, is not getting into the curriculum, which is great, isn’t it.