You need to be historians, not antiquarians.
Author and historian Dr Anurag Subramani made the remark last Friday during the presentation of his book The Fiji Times at 150: Imagining the Fijian Nation (or A Scrapbook of Fiji’s History) at Lautoka’s Natabua High School.
An academic at USP, Dr Anurag said he was shocked by the fact that many students in his literature courses were unaware of such important events in the world.
“Let me talk to you about why I am so passionate about history,” he said.
“And why I take every opportunity to inform young minds about the importance of not just knowing history but understanding the complexities of history as well as writing history.
“So, I’ve been an academic at the University of the South Pacific for 15 years, and I’ve taught both literature and history.
“I am shocked at the fact that so many students come into my literature courses without any knowledge of such important events in the world, such as colonialism, the indenture system, and slavery.
“And I am wondering what is going on? Why is this the case.”
Dr Anurag said a few years ago, he conducted a survey and was invited to speak as part of a panel on FijiVillage for the commemoration of Girmit Day.
“And what I did was, I took a survey of the year 12 and year 13 history books, and I found two things: that the content was outdated. Not only outdated, but also sanitised — whitewashed — that the very important questions, the very troubling questions, were not discussed.
“I also found out that the way history was taught is the way we learned history in high school, and that is basically learning names, learning dates, learning who came when, and regurgitating these things during examinations. So, basically, rote learning, memorisation.
“We were not taught to be critical thinkers. But this is what I’m trying to tell you: when you approach history, you need to approach history critically.
“You need to be historians, not antiquarians.”
He said antiquarians were people who liked to collect bits and pieces of information.
“And that is how history has been taught, you’ve been taught to be antiquarians, not historians.
“And we were taught the same way.
“I was lucky to have excellent English and excellent history teachers; one of the most influential teachers in my life is the well-known public figure, Professor Steven Ratuva.
“He was my history teacher at Suva Grammar School, and because of this one person, I’ve learned to approach history in a more critical way.”
