Study history to connect to ourselves and the world around us.
[Music]
well
good morning everyone before i begin i
just want to say what an absolute
pleasure it is to be here today
so like i said my name is lydia and i am
an old girl
and there’s kind of a large part of me
that wants to fling on my old uniform
and come and sit alongside you all up
there
i’ve spent so many hours of my life in
this very room
at various choir rehearsals exams
concerts
the list goes on it feels very natural
to be back
having said that though i also can’t
help but feel like an entire lifetime
has passed since i was at school
so i finished school at the end of 2013.
i’m 25 now
since 2013 we have had five prime
ministers
we’ve had three u.s presidents we’ve had
brexit we’ve had
mexit we’ve had trade wars military
coups the rise of tick tock
and that’s even yet without mentioning
the pandemic
i feel it would be remiss of me not to
acknowledge the impact that covert 19
has had on you all
high school’s hard enough to navigate as
it is without the added trauma that this
last year’s had on so many
and i want to commend you on your
resilience and your perseverance
that you are here today as a testament
to your dedication to your education and
i don’t want you to forget that
so when i compare myself to you i can’t
help but feel like you all must be much
more worldly and mature than
me when i was at school not only because
of the pandemic but you have things at
your disposal that i didn’t have
you’ve exposure to world news and
current events which is completely
unprecedented
as well as social media which has
exploded since my time
so i feel you probably have a lot you
could teach me
but it’s me up here and i’m going to
talk to you about my
most important life learning
it’s actually something i began to learn
at school it’s something i then
studied further at university and upon
realizing what i’m about to tell you
i’ve been able to practice it in every
single aspect of my life
it’s the best way to connect yourself
the best way to connect to others and
the best way to connect to the world
around you
it is in my opinion the only way that
you can effectively understand
critique and challenge the present in
order to change the future
you need to study history you need to
connect with the past
now i promise i have not been bribed by
a history teacher to come and talk to
you all in this today
this is not a joke this is not something
that i thought of last minute
this is the most valuable piece of
advice i can give you in order to be an
engaged citizen
a critical thinker and an effective
political
social cultural and economic commentator
in the modern day
now i don’t mean learning history in
terms of memorizing timelines or
reciting kings and queens in
chronological order
i mean critically examining things that
we take as truth
i mean asking why we do things the way
that we do
i mean looking at the traditions that we
have and questioning the purposes that
they serve
i mean understanding where we have come
from and why we have changed
in order to visualize and lead progress
this is because history teaches you
three things history teaches you about
the future
history teaches you about identity both
that of your own
and of others and history forces you to
question what is important
teaches about the future i hear you ask
well let me give you an example
look at this map of europe so this is a
satellite image
taken at night time so the lights are
indicative of bigger cities
the yellow lines they represent 80 000
kilometers worth of roads built by
the ancient romans now a group of danish
economists from the university of
copenhagen
they realized that many modern european
cities laid upon ancient intersections
that were built
thousands of years ago upon further
statistical analysis
they found that areas that tended to
have a greater density of ancient roads
were more prosperous economically in the
modern day
now why does knowing this matter why are
economists of all people looking at
history
it’s because by understanding how the
past has shaped the present you can
better plan for the future
these economists by understanding how
these roads have shaped how we live
do business exist today are making
better and more informed
decisions about policy resourcing
housing
and more you can understand and
all sorts of life questions by taking
the time to study the steps we’ve taken
to get to the present
and you can apply this to anything the
english language for example
so the ancient english people the saxons
they spoke a type of german
that’s why we have words like brother in
our language from the german buddha
then the vikings invaded we get words
like thursday
which break down to thor’s day yes
we have a day of the week named after
the norse god
of chris hemsworth marvel fame
then the normans invade in 1066 and we
reintroduced latin into the mix
we get words like july from julius
caesar august from caesar augustus
we’re living proof of how social
politics a thousand years ago is still
impacting how we communicate today you
can begin to think about what
language might look like in the future
for example
what might be the impact of social media
and technology have on language
words like lol and selfie are already
well and truly integrated into our
vocabulary
how might it change further what might
history tell us
so what else can we learn from history
when you ask someone about themselves
they will tell you their personal
history why is that
because the events in someone’s past
shape their present gives you an idea as
to what they’ve stood against
what they have overcome so that they and
their families could be where they are
today
imagine then if you could scale up this
understanding that what someone’s past
impacts their present when i started
this speech for example
i spoke about what’s happened since i
left school pandemics politics world
events
those things have shaped our shared
history they therefore shape our
worldview and our sense of self as a
result
imagine then how much better you can
connect with people
by taking the time to study the past of
the societies and the cultures that they
belong to
studying history means you will never
again judge a person the same without
taking the time to consider their
context
it can take you to the far-flung corners
of the earth meet people you have never
met before
recognize similarities and differences
between you as well as give you an idea
as to why those differences might exist
understanding people and the present
better will help you
in every single aspect of your life even
in my career in banking
you might think it has nothing to do
with history but it has everything to do
with history
i can better navigate the corporate
sphere by taking the time to understand
why it exists in the form that it does
today by studying the history of the
company i work for
i can better implement their corporate
strategy because i know the reasons
behind its existence
economic history i’m better equipped to
recognize
early signs of economic depression or
recession and make better decisions off
the back of it
by understanding the history of women in
the workforce i know how hard
women before me have fought so that i
could be where i am today
therefore i’m better able to also fight
for equal representation
and equality
now don’t get me wrong i’m not saying
you shouldn’t study other
things i would not dream of steering
such a capable room full of students
away from other fields such as
medicine language mathematics because
all knowledge is valuable
what i’m saying is that paired with the
study of history
knowledge goes from being valuable to
being powerful
because it forces you to question what
is important
everything else i studied taught me what
what is an interest rate and what does
it do history is unique
in its ability to get you to ask why
not what is an interest rate but why
does our economy function with them and
why were they ever designed
why is australia democracy why does it
look so different to ancient
democracies like that that was
originally built in athens or other
modern democracies like the usa or india
why are the countries not democracies
and how does that impact how we interact
with them
why were women only given the vote in
1902 and why might that help explain why
to this day
there exists a gender pay gap
why do we celebrate certain public
holidays and why might there be
controversy about these dates
why are we pulling down statues of
historical figures and why are we
cancelling people
why is it that what these people stood
for at a certain point in the past is no
longer compatible in the modern day
and why does that matter
why is there such a life expectancy gap
between indigenous and non-indigenous
australians
why do land borders exist where they do
why do we fight
wars over religion why was the great
wall of china built why did the berlin
wall fall
why do we drive on the left side of the
road why does game stop matter
not asking why and accepting things the
way that they are
will doom you to complacency and
inaction
saying this is the way that we’ve always
done things is a cop-out
and i know that every single student in
this room
is so much more capable than that
so therefore i challenge you
to go out and to learn learn
good history learn humanity’s
accomplishments
study who the leaders were in movements
and events that you admire
who the change makers were and model
yourself off them
find out the battles they face so that
you could sit where you are today
and never take that for granted
learn bad history people say history
repeats itself
study humanities mistakes so that you
can hold yourself
personally accountable to making sure
that they never happen again
learn history that makes you
uncomfortable and upset
learn to recognize the early rumblings
of a dictatorship or a genocide
learn to recognize changes in political
tides that you know where you want to
align yourself
learn to understand the forms that
inequality has historically taken in our
world
so that you can call it out when you see
it
learn forgotten history people say
history was written by the winners
find out who the losers were minority
groups women
lgb qti groups find out what they had to
say
find out those who have written out of
history who weren’t given a seat at the
table
and think about what might be different
if they had been given the same
opportunities
finally learn your own history
find out what’s happened in the past to
make you you
ask your grandparents about their lives
study the past of the institutions you
belong to and the political party that
you vote for
befriend people with radically different
life experiences to you
mental those less privileged than you
never stop yearning to understand
what it is that makes others who they
are
it is always important and it is always
relevant
to study the past by connecting with the
past
you can lead change by studying history
you know who you are
you know who others are and you know how
to better connect with them
you can see how far we have come but you
can also see
how much further we have to go and in
doing that
you can be a more effective empathetic
and visionary leader
into the future thank you
[Music]
you