A website specifically designed to assist Australian teachers and students in Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocide education, was recently launched at the ANC Australia Annual Banquet.
A project of the Armenian Historical Society of Australia (AHSA), the website provides more than 280,000 senior secondary students (Years 9-12) with resources and teaching activities about these historic events, their relevance to Australia and present day implications. Created with direct links to various parts of the History syllabus of the NSW Board of Studies, the website will be expanded to include the Australian Curriculum – History once that is completed.
The Teachers Resources page describes those areas in the History Syllabus where there is scope for teaching about the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides. Sourced primarily from Australian archives, background information regarding the Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocides and related topics such as Anzac Eyewitnesses, Australia’s Response to the Armenian Genocide, Genocide Denial and Recognition and Just Resolution are easily accessed on this unique website.
The information is supplemented with video, images, maps, reading lists and activities designed to provide History teachers and students with the necessary academic resources for teaching about and studying these tragic events. In launching the website, ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian highlighted the importance of the website. ‘In recent years, students from across New South Wales studying the Armenian Genocide as part of their history curricula have approached our office to attain additional student resources.
The testimonies of Australian soldiers who bore witness to the Armenian Genocide’, Meguerditchian continued, ‘the digitised copies of Australian newspaper reports of the massacres, and information relating to the ensuing humanitarian campaign by Australians for the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide is now easily accessible for every NSW history student.’
The website was populated with content by education professionals and Armenian, Hellenic and Assyrian Genocide experts, including Dr Panayiotis Diamadis and Mr Vicken Babkenian of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The address is: www.armeniangenocide.com.au/