Broadening the focus of Australian war commemoration to include First Nations deaths in the Australian Wars would give those deaths a status, a respect they have not previously had. Positive action now would help counter decades – centuries – of systemic racism. (para 24 of the Defending Country submission)
The Defending Country Memorial Project Inc. (DCMP) has lodged a submission to the inquiry by the Australian parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (JSCATSIA) into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. DCMP publishes the Defending Country website.
The Defending Country submission (submission 50) addresses two key terms of reference of the inquiry: 'The nature, prevalence and impact of racism, hate and violence towards First Nations people, including trends over time (TofR1); 'Initiatives that are effective in combating racism targeted at First Nations people and reduce individual and collective harm' (TofR3).
The submission defines systemic racism and shows how it lay beneath the Australian Wars from 1788 and the subsequent 'Great Australian Silence'. It then describes how equal recognition and commemoration of First Nations' Australian Wars deaths would help solve racism against First Nations people.
Changing how Australia does commemoration is about equality of respect. A continuing failure to act would be a denial that Australia is ‘the land of the fair go’. Not distinguishing – by skin colour or descent or the identity of the enemy – the worth of service and sacrifice, would help end systemic racism in Australia. The story of the Australians who fought and died in the Australian Wars is at least as important as that of the survivors of Australia’s overseas wars ... (paras 27-28)
The submission contains three recommendations: amending the Australian War Memorial Act 1980 to make the definition of 'Australian military history' and the 'functions' of the Memorial apply in the same terms to the Australian Wars as to Australia's overseas wars; amending the Act to make the powers of the Memorial's Council subject to views expressed by the responsible Minister in writing from time to time; providing for memorials to the Australian Wars to be declared Military Memorials of National Significance under the Military Memorials of National Significance Act 2008.
Submissions to the inquiry must be lodged by 5 May and the Committee is required to report by 15 September.
Contact officer for the Defending Country submission is Dr David Stephens.
Picture credit: 'Mounted Police and Blacks', an 1852 lithograph by WL Walton, depicting the killing of Aboriginal warriors at Slaughterhouse Creek in 1838 by colonial police troopers (Australian War Memorial).
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