As noted previously (including link to Defending Country written submission), Defending Country was invited to give evidence at the parliamentary committee (JSCATSIA) inquiry into racism against First Nations. A transcript of the evidence given 6 August by Defending Country Treasurer and website editor, David Stephens, is now available on the JSCATSIA website (pages 56-59) in proof form. Some key bits follow; we've added some paragraph breaks, some sub-headings, and a couple of links.
Recognition to reduce racism
CHAIR (Senator Jana Stewart): I will now invite you to make a very brief opening statement ....
Dr Stephens: A nation commemorates what it regards as important, and Australia's failure to properly commemorate First Nations deaths in the Australian Frontier Wars shows that we do not regard those deaths as important. It's an example of systemic racism.
On the other hand, what a nation does commemorate becomes important. We've seen that with more than a century of Anzac commemoration. Many Australians see Anzac Day as our real national day and the Australian War Memorial and shrines in capital cities as our most sacred institutions.
In our view, broadening the focus of Australian war commemoration to include First Nations deaths in the Australian wars would give those deaths a status and respect that they have not previously enjoyed. It would help counter decades and centuries of systemic racism.
The Australian War Memorial has made some progress, but we see it as tentative and narrowly based, and the committee has an opportunity to help cement this proper commemoration in places like the War Memorial, other shrines and memorials and around the country, thus reducing systemic racism in Australia. (page 56)
...
Not just a matter of more space
Mr VENNING: You criticised the memorial for sticking with a plan to devote 'just 1 per cent of post redevelopment gallery space to the Australian wars'. Paragraph 36 says that plan effectively perpetuates racism. What portion do you believe is appropriate?
Dr Stephens: ... For many years the memorial said, 'We're going to give you 204 square metres, and we're going to divide it between the Frontier Wars, the people that went to New Zealand in the 1840s and 1850s and the people that went to the Sudan.' They backed away from that very quietly. Now it's 204 square metres, which is still about one per cent. It's difficult to see how they could do more, given the structure of the place—the walls and so on. I don't think we'd go too much further on floor space.
We would probably say things like, 'Let's see what you do with the 204 square metres. Do you know those things around the reflecting pool? You have what they call Australian theatres of war? It starts with the Sudan. It should start with the Australian wars. There should be a note somewhere or plaque somewhere on the Roll of Honour.'
You can't give names for the tens of thousands of First Nations people who died, but you can at least say: 'If we could have, we would have done that. We can't, because the bones of tens of thousands of them were buried or burnt, and we don't know what the exact number is.' There are more things that can be done than just allocating particular space and filling it with relevant things. (pages 56-57)
Not just blackfellas' business, not just battles
Senator THORPE: Firstly, no disrespect, but an elderly white man coming here to talk about Frontier Wars is exactly what we need happening in this country. You've come in here truth-telling today, and I commend you. I thank you for being brave to do so ... I want to say thank you for that.
You advocate for this recognition, with the allocation of the floor space and online presence, with the importance of the Frontier Wars, I know there is a two-day history conference coming up on imperialism and resistance, but what response have you got from the Australian War Memorial on including it in the permanent commemorative scope?
Dr Stephens: ... I think part of the issue is—some people say to us, 'This is blackfellas sacred business.' We say: 'Yes, it is. It's obviously important to blackfellas to have this recognised in a certain way. But, if you look at Paul Keating's Redfern speech, we did the murders. It's us as well. We've got to be involved.' That particular line always upsets me.
The memorial's made that little change about the 204 square metres very subtly, very quietly. They didn't announce it. In their submission to this committee, they've repeated that, and they've said: 'We will focus on battles. We won't look at victimhood. We will focus on battles and where it looks as if black people were fighting back like white people.'
They've tried to narrow the focus in a number of different ways over four or five years. I think Kim Beazley was saying something like that maybe three years ago, 'We need to focus on the dignity of resistance,' but it comes out as blackfellas fighting like white people.
We think there's an issue—that that will be as far as they go. The little space, the 200-and-something square metres will have the Battle of One Tree Hill, the Battle of Battle Mountain or the Eumerella Wars. Then you'll say, 'What else was there?' and unless there's some bigger context, people will say, 'Was that all, just a few battles?' (page 57)
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Prospects for Truth-telling
Senator THORPE: ... Why do you think there is such resistance from the Australian War Memorial and even the government, through the ministers that make these decisions, to not have the Frontier Wars recognised and acknowledged? ... Why are they resisting so much? What is the problem? Because, if we were to do that, it will bring the country together. It's truth-telling.
Dr Stephens: That's what we try and say to people. One of my colleagues was an artillery man. There's a saying that artillery men and women have: 'Up the guts with bags of smoke.' Go hard. Be prepared to accept opposition ... As Larissa Behrendt said somewhere, we'll never come to terms with this country unless we acknowledge the way it was colonised and we work together to build a different sort of country. That is not seen, I don't think, by many people at the memorial ... They're starting, but it's very slow and it needs a push from recommendations—possibly from this committee—saying, 'Come on, men and women, get off your arses and do something positive about this.' We've been living with it for 200-and-something years. (pages 57-58)
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Change the Memorial's Act?
Dr Stephens [was asked about doing something under the Military Memorials of National Significance Act and went on:]
I think the bigger change would be to change the relevant sections of the Australian War Memorial Act so that it said exactly the same thing about service in uniform as it did for people fighting in the Frontier Wars. That would be a hell of a big bite ... There would be difficulties in getting it through the legislative program, for a start. But, if people were game to do that, it would then be up to the War Memorial to say: 'Look, we've got this legislative requirement that we treat deaths in the Australian wars in the same way as we treat deaths in uniform. We haven't got as much kit, as much stuff, to display on the Frontier Wars as we have on uniform wars, but let's go. Now that we've got this legislative requirement, let's try a bit harder to get it, folks.' (page 58)
Picture credit: WL Walton, 'Slaughterhouse Creek Massacre, 1838', frontispiece to GC Mundy, Our Antipodes: or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian colonies, with a Glimpse of the Goldfields (London, 1852) (Australian War Memorial). This lithograph was the sole Australian (Frontier) Wars item in the Memorial's Colonial Conflict gallery from 1986 until the area was gutted around 2020 as part of the Memorial redevelopment.
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