29 March 2006 - Schoolchildren
could learn the ‘unfiltered, raw’ early history
of Australia from the 12,000km voyage of a tiny
Dutch replica ship – the Duyfken – due to sail from
Fremantle next week, the Minister for the Environment
and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, said today.
The Duyfken’s nine-month, all-states voyage to mark
the 400th anniversary of the first recorded European
contact with the Unknown Southern Land would tell
history in the raw and without the filters of interpretation,
Senator Campbell said.
“This commemorative journey marks in a very real
way the discovery and mapping of this continent
by the extraordinary seafaring explorers of the
small number of developed countries in the northern
hemisphere, in this case the Netherlands.
“When Willem Janzoon and his crew landed on the
western side of Cape York Peninsula in 1606, they
started the gathering of knowledge that led to the
settlement and development of one of the world’s
great democracies.
“The chronology of that part of Australia’s history
is not as well known as I think it should be, and
I agree with the Prime Minister’s view that we need
to know our beginnings to understand ourselves.”
In a speech to mark Australia Day this year, the
Prime Minister said:
“… what I want is a recognition that you cannot
get people to understand the history of a country
unless you have some kind of chronological narrative
teaching of history. And this idea that we should
move away from sort of knowing when the battle of
Hastings was or knowing when Captain Cook came to
Australia or knowing when certain things occurred
simply because that's an old hat rote way of learning
is ridiculous. You have to have some structure.
You can't learn history by teaching issues. You
can only learn and understand history by knowing
what happened, why it happened and of course teaching
of issues and influences is clearly part of that.”
(Prime Minister, National Press Club, 25 January
2006)
“This voyage by the Duyfken will give thousands
of schoolchildren and adults alike the opportunity
to get an authentic feel of what it was like for
those intrepid sailors to journey to the unknown
land 400 years ago and to appreciate history in
the raw.”
Senator Campbell was speaking at the National Museum
in Canberra at the launching of commemorative group
Australia on the Map’s 400th anniversary celebrations.
He said the Australian Government had committed
$495,000 to the voyage.
The voyage was a partnership between the Australian
Government, as major sponsor, Australia on the Map
and the owner-operators of the ship, the Duyfken
Replica Foundation in Fremantle.
Senator Campbell said the Duyfken (which means ‘Little
Dove’) would visit 25 ports.
