February 2022 | PAUL DALEY

Bunbury, WA – just one of Australia’s many places named after the killers of Indigenous people | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Tue, 15/02/2022 - 12:06pm

A start has been made in righting some of the egregious wrongs of the nation’s nomenclature, but there’s far to go

Just who is remembered, even eulogised, in the nomenclature of place is becoming one of the most burning questions at the heart of 21st-century public history.

No less vexed than the so-called “statue” wars that flare up intermittently across the world (not least in the United States over confederate “heroes”, in the UK over slavers and here, in Australia, over murdering colonisers) are place names given to towns and other landmarks.

‘How’s this for a beginning?’: the tricky work of writing the story of Australian history

Submitted by Paul Daley on Sun, 13/02/2022 - 6:00am

Anna Clark set out to write the history of Australian history. In grappling with the past, she faced up to the giants in her own family

Scott Morrison’s cliched myths about Australian resilience won’t drown out the national cry of anguish | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Fri, 04/02/2022 - 10:41am

The prime minister says we’ve faced the pandemic like Anzac-spirited stoics. His gaslit assurances ignores our collective fear, weariness and sadness

Perhaps the greatest myth some of our political leaders are intent on weaving about the pandemic’s profound emotional impact is that Australians are uniquely, interminably resilient.