History of Sport & Physical Activity in Australian Society (HIST3002)

Introduction

Introduction

Representing the Sporting Past

Representing the Past: History beyond the Written Word

This lecture explores how sport history is publicly remembered and represented through four key modes: memorials and monuments, museums, films, and digital media. Drawing on Munslow’s model of historical narration, it examines the interplay between content (the past), form (mode of expression), and narrator (authorial function).

Sport memorials and monuments serve as physical anchors of memory, often designed to convey specific narratives and values. However, their meanings are not fixed—they are open to interpretation, contestation, and redefinition. Museums, whether academic, corporate, or community-based, use material culture (e.g., trophies, equipment, sportswear) to educate and engage audiences through both formal and hidden curricula.

Filmic representations, including documentaries and dramas, dramatize and emotionalize the past, often simplifying complex histories for broader appeal. While they can reach large audiences, they may sacrifice accuracy for narrative clarity. Finally, digital platforms democratize historical storytelling, allowing diverse voices to contribute, but also raising questions about credibility and authorship.

The lecture emphasizes that each medium offers unique ways of engaging with the past, and understanding these differences is more valuable than judging them against traditional written history. It concludes by highlighting the open-ended and public nature of historical narratives.

Memorializing the Past: Monuments Introduction

Memoralising the Past: Sport Memorials

This lecture explores the cultural, emotional, and political dimensions of sporting memorials, using the case of Australian boxer Les Darcy to illustrate broader themes.

The lecture begins by distinguishing monuments (typically vertical, figurative, and made of enduring materials like bronze or marble) from memorials, which can include parks, trophies, roads, and museums. These structures serve to preserve memory, evoke emotion (affect), and tell specific stories about individuals or events.

Les Darcy’s memorials—especially his tombstone—are used to explore how monuments can embody pride and anger. Darcy, a working-class Irish-Catholic boxing champion, became a controversial figure during World War I after secretly leaving Australia for the U.S., leading to accusations of disloyalty. His death in 1917 sparked polarized reactions: the working class and Catholic community mourned and honored him, while middle-class Protestants and government figures condemned him as a shirker.

The lecture emphasizes that memorials are not static; their meanings evolve over time. While Darcy’s early memorials reflected deep social divisions—class conflict and sectarianism—contemporary memorials focus more on his athletic legacy and local pride, often omitting the political tensions of his era. Memorials, therefore, are dynamic cultural texts shaped by changing societal values.

Memorializing the Past: E.S Brown Stadium

Memorialising the Past: Sport Memorials

This lecture explores the complex and contested meanings of memorials, focusing on the case of the E.S. Brown Stand in Toowoomba, Queensland. Edward Stanley Brown was a celebrated rugby league player and community leader. A stand at the Toowoomba Sports Ground was named in his honor in 1960, using his nickname, which included the N-word—a term now widely recognized as racially offensive.

The lecture examines how this memorial became a site of public controversy, especially after Dr. Stephen Hagan, an Aboriginal academic and activist, challenged the use of the term in 1999. Hagan pursued legal and political avenues, including appeals to the Human Rights Commission, the Federal Court, and the United Nations. His campaign sparked national debate about racism, historical memory, and the role of public monuments.

The lecture highlights how memorials are not static; they are interpreted differently over time and by different communities. The E.S. Brown Stand became a symbol of both pride and pain—celebrating a local hero while also perpetuating a term with deep racial connotations. The stand was eventually demolished in 2008, reflecting changing societal values and the power of activism in reshaping public memory.

Memorializing the Past: Eddie Gilbert

Memorialising the Past: Sport Memorials

This lecture explores the emotional and political complexity of public memorials through the statue of Aboriginal cricketer Eddie Gilbert. Gilbert, from Cherbourg, Queensland, was a fast bowler known for famously dismissing Don Bradman. Despite his talent, Gilbert faced systemic racism under the Aboriginal Protection Act, requiring government permission to play and travel, and enduring discrimination from teammates and the public.

The lecture highlights how the statue of Gilbert at Allan Border Field evokes different emotional responses—anger, shame, and pride—depending on the viewer. Academics interpret the statue through a lens of historical injustice and racial exclusion. The artist, Pauline Clayton, was motivated by a sense of shame and a desire to honor an overlooked Aboriginal hero. For the Cherbourg community, the statue is a source of pride, celebrating Gilbert’s achievements and cultural identity.

The lecture emphasizes that memorials are not neutral; their meanings shift based on context, location, and audience. The statue’s orientation toward Cherbourg and its depiction of Gilbert’s bowling style are particularly meaningful to his community. Ultimately, the lecture argues for viewing memorials “from all sides,” recognizing their layered and contested significance in shaping public memory.

Staging the Past: Museums Introduction

Staging the Past: Sport Museums

This lecture explores the diverse roles and forms of sport museums, emphasizing that they are more than just repositories of objects—they are dynamic spaces that engage the senses and emotions to tell stories about the past.

The lecture outlines four main types of sport museums: academic, corporate, community, and vernacular. Each type serves different purposes, from education and branding to community connection and commercial appeal. Museums are analyzed using Munslow’s framework of narration, content, and mode of expression, highlighting how stories are shaped by who tells them and how they are told.

A key case study is the Ration Shed Museum in Cherbourg, Queensland, a community museum that preserves and shares Indigenous experiences under the Aboriginal Protection Act. Through exhibits like “Play the Ball,” the museum uses sport to reflect both oppression and resilience. It showcases how sport was both a tool of control and a source of identity and pride for Aboriginal people.

The lecture concludes that sport museums are powerful cultural institutions that generate emotional responses—such as pride, grief, or nostalgia—and play a vital role in shaping public memory and heritage, especially for marginalized communities.

Staging the Past: Academic Museums

Staging the Past: Sport Museums

This lecture explores how sport museums function as immersive, multisensory educational spaces that go beyond traditional academic storytelling. Rather than being “just a book on the wall,” academic museums use material culture—such as trophies, equipment, sportswear, and memorabilia—to evoke emotional and cognitive responses. These objects help visitors connect with the past in ways that written texts cannot.

The lecture emphasizes the pedagogical power of museums through five key senses: visual (artefact displays and labels), tactile (handling objects), auditory (commentary and soundscapes), kinaesthetic (movement-based learning), and spatial (layout and navigation). These sensory experiences allow visitors to engage with history physically and emotionally, creating a deeper understanding of the sporting past.

Using the National Sports Museum and the Ali Center as case studies, the lecture illustrates how museums can provoke empathy, reflection, and embodied learning. For example, interactive exhibits simulate historical experiences, such as racial segregation, to foster emotional insight.

Academic museums are shown to be dynamic cultural institutions that mediate diverse viewpoints, preserve heritage, and promote public education. They should be evaluated on their ability to engage and move audiences, not solely by academic standards of analysis or critique.

Screening the Past: Film Introduction

Screening the Past: Filmic Sport History

This lecture explores how sporting history is represented through film, focusing on the case of Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser. The lecture introduces key genres used to “screen the sporting past”—documentaries, biopics, TV series, and dramatic films—and emphasizes that these forms prioritize emotional engagement and entertainment over academic accuracy.

Dawn Fraser is portrayed as a national icon and quintessential “Aussie larrikin”—a rebellious, working-class figure who defies authority and embodies Australian values of egalitarianism and defiance. Her biopic Dawn! (1979) dramatizes her life, highlighting her Olympic triumphs, clashes with officials, and personal relationships. The film uses flashbacks, original footage, and stylized storytelling to create a layered narrative that blends fact with artistic interpretation.

A central theme is how Fraser’s larrikin image is both reinforced and complicated by the film’s depiction of her same-sex relationship with writer Joy Cavill. This portrayal challenges traditional, masculine-coded notions of larrikinism and disrupts dominant narratives of heterosexuality in sport.

The lecture concludes that while Fraser’s larrikin persona dominates her cultural memory, her sexuality is largely erased in later portrayals. Filmic representations, therefore, shape public memory selectively, emphasizing certain traits while omitting others to fit prevailing cultural ideals.

Screening the Past: WDYTYA

Screening the Past: Filmic Sport History

This lecture examines how the SBS series Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA) uses documentary storytelling to explore personal and national histories through the lens of celebrity. The episode featuring AFL legend Michael O’Loughlin serves as a case study in how sport, identity, and Indigenous heritage are represented on screen.

The lecture highlights how WDYTYA blends autobiography, genealogy, and social history, using emotional storytelling and expert testimony to build both trust and affect. O’Loughlin’s journey uncovers themes of family, displacement, colonisation, pride, grief, and belonging, offering viewers insight into the broader Indigenous experience in Australia. The documentary format uses archival records, oral histories, and in-situ filming to create a sense of authenticity and emotional resonance.

The lecture also critiques the genre’s tendency to present a linear, simplified narrative, often perceived as objective despite being carefully constructed. It emphasizes the importance of understanding documentaries as “perspective-laden narratives” that blend truth with entertainment.

Ultimately, the lecture argues that WDYTYA democratizes history by making it accessible and emotionally engaging, while also reinforcing the need for critical viewing of how historical narratives are shaped by cinematic techniques and celebrity culture.

Mid Semester Break

Screening the Past: Salute

Screening the Past: Filmic Sport History

This lecture explores the 2008 documentary Salute, which recounts the story of Australian sprinter Peter Norman and his involvement in the iconic Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. The lecture examines how the film represents history through both textual analysis and new media analysis, highlighting the complexity of historical storytelling in the digital age.

Textually, Salute uses documentary techniques—voice-over narration, “talking heads,” archival footage, and music—to construct a biographical narrative centered on Norman. He is portrayed as the film’s focal point and analyst, offering emotional and reflective commentary on the protest and its aftermath. The film positions Norman as a courageous but overlooked figure, drawing attention to his exclusion from the 1972 Olympics and marginalization in Australian sporting history.

The lecture also explores how new media—including trailers, blogs, and social media—extend the film’s reach and influence. Director Matt Norman actively shaped the film’s reception through online platforms, promoting themes of human rights, protest, and national shame. Audience responses, especially on blogs and social media, reveal a strong emotional connection to Norman’s story and critique his treatment by Australian institutions.

Ultimately, the lecture underscores how film and digital media shape public memory, offering both powerful narratives and contested interpretations of the past.

Digital History: Private Face

Digital History's Private Face

This lecture explores how digital technologies are reshaping the practice of history, particularly in sport history. It introduces the concept of digital history as both a revolution and an evolution—transforming how historians access, interpret, and present the past while still relying on traditional methods like close reading and narrative analysis.

The lecture discusses the “moment of eversion”, where digital and physical worlds merge, making cyberspace part of everyday life. It highlights the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, enabling interactive, multimedia storytelling through maps, videos, and social media. Digital history is framed as both a challenge and an opportunity, offering vast archives and new tools like distant reading, optical character recognition (OCR), and geospatial mapping.

Case studies include:

• Homophobic language in Australian sport (Gary Osmond)
• The myth of Australia’s first female surfer
• Media representations of Muhammad Ali’s name change
• Mapping Aboriginal Marching Girls (1957–1962)

These examples show how digital tools can uncover hidden histories and challenge dominant narratives. However, the lecture emphasizes that digital methods must be paired with critical interpretation to produce meaningful historical insights. Ultimately, digital history expands the historian’s toolkit while reaffirming the value of traditional scholarly practices.

Digital History: Public Face

Digital History's Public Face

This lecture explores how digital technologies have transformed the public practice of history, particularly through collaborative and accessible platforms like Wikipedia. The lecture focuses on the Australian Paralympic History Project as a case study, demonstrating how digital tools can democratize historical storytelling and reach global audiences.

The project, a collaboration between UQ, Paralympics Australia, and Wikimedia Australia, produced over 1,000 Wikipedia articles viewed more than 14 million times. It leveraged the participatory nature of Wikipedia to crowdsource content creation, involving students, volunteers, and people with disabilities. This initiative exemplifies how digital history can be inclusive, interactive, and impactful.

However, the lecture also critiques Wikipedia’s limitations. Its core content policies—No Original Research, Neutral Point of View, and Verifiability—restrict analytical depth and interpretation, making it incompatible with traditional academic publishing. Despite its democratic ideals, Wikipedia’s content is shaped by a small, meritocratic community, leading to uneven coverage.

Ultimately, the lecture contrasts the “private face” of digital history (archival research and data analysis) with its “public face” (collaborative, multimedia storytelling). It concludes that digital history is both an evolution and a revolution, offering new opportunities for engagement while challenging historians to adapt their methods and expectations.

Conclusion

Course Conclusion

This lecture summarizes the key themes of the course Australian Sport History, emphasizing that history is both the unknowable past and the constructed representation of it. The lecture revisits four major public forms of sport history: memorials, museums, films, and digital media, each offering unique ways to narrate and emotionally engage with the past. It highlights the role of affect—emotion expressed through physical and cultural forms—and explores how different mediums shape historical narratives. The lecture concludes by reflecting on the evolving role of digital history, its challenges to traditional methods, and its potential to democratize historical storytelling.