This is the presentation by Patrick Watt
This does not include some images that are pending approval.
Quick thesis: In Australia we are shaped by great moments in sport.
What is it that makes us who we are?
Our attitudes, thoughts, mindsets, feelings are shaped by what we know and what our families know and the community in which we exist. We call these values: they are the important things which we treasure, would like to put a price on but cannot.
A value is important to us.
Values are: a fair go, mateship, no dobbing – whistle blowing, loyalty, mastery, freedom, unity, leadership, no throwing kids overboard – sanctity of life, brotherhood of love…
Communities are shaped by the some total of its attitudes. Today these communities are more global because of media, internet etc.
There are levels of community and there are levels of shaping by that community.
If a community is threatened by an outside force, it bands together and becomes closer, tighter, stronger. In the face of adversity we can learn a lot about ourselves: this is very true for my community shaped by the floods of 2003 and the community of Macedon that was victim of the bushfires in 1983.
But the people that know these attitudes etc move on. New people come and go and the memories of events belong to fewer people and the moments in history have less significance and so the defining attitudes of that community may change.
There are also communities that become divided over issues: the pursuit for wealth and or sustainability versus the fear of change: e.g. wind farms. But that too helps shape who they are.
So, we can be shaped by forces that we may not even be aware of.
Many communities are shaped by good things: by plain virtue of where they live: land of milk and honey.
Many international communities are shaped by war.
A town under threat of a common enemy may share a similar attitude. Value. Often these attitudes come with the refugees that establish themselves in new communities.
The next part is a tangent; I will use it to demonstrate how we are shaped and how distant events add to our complexities.
I (Patrick Watt) am partly shaped by the scars of the British upon the Irish…because I am of Irish descent, I have studies Eureka, I have studied by past, I have relatives in Ireland, I have been to Northern Ireland. Belfast, Bushmills, Omagh and Derry in particular and I list:
I cant believe the news today
Oh, I cant close my eyes and make it go away
How long...How long must we sing this song? How long? how long...
Broken bottles under childrens feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I wont heed the battle callIt puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
And the battles just begun
Theres many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
(the shaping of our values)
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart
You can learn more about Values education and there are a lot of resources here:
www.curriculum.edu.au/values/
The National Sports Museum focuses on the Moments That Made us. Moments in Sports that have helped shaped us and define who we are as Australians. As a nation we have not been shaped by war.
Yes there was a rum rebellion…that was an English war amongst English.
There was eureka and as I have demonstrated, the scars still exist, but it was not something that shaped us nationally: we were not under threat from an outside force…or were we?
There was Darwin…more an more we are learning that this was much more significant and history writing needs a lot more revision here …it’s happening…but the fact is…because it was kept quiet, because their was a lack of communication, through pure ignorance we were not affected by it.
My thesis is this: this nation has been shaped by moments in sport. One moment in particular happened after an event and it was that that created division and ulitmatley unity.
Let’s remember it.
Let’s see it.
So there was:
Flag
Tunstall
Debate
Division
So we had the debate, Cathy got injured but in Athens…silver.
But then came Sydney…
