June 2018

How do we settle the 'statue wars'? Let's start by telling the truth about our past | Paul Daley

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Colonial-era statues don’t of themselves teach us anything. But they can be portals to inquiry that lead to honest history

Nothing divides community sentiments about the history of Australia’s violent frontier quite like a vandalised statue dedicated to a killer of Indigenous people.

Australia’s frontier war killings still conveniently escape official memory | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on

But change is inevitable. The commemoration of the Myall Creek massacre is emblematic of a broader push for recognition

Australia has a memory problem.

What it chooses to publicly remember through its special officially sanctioned days and events of remembrance illustrates equally its capacity for wilful forgetting.