Daley, Paul: Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?

Paul Daley

Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?Guardian Australia, 4 April 2018

There is an awakening among constitutional progressives that perhaps the Australian republic ought not be so divorced from the cry out of Uluru last May for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament and a formal truth-telling. Australia is nearing the inevitable moment where it might define itself through introspection – away from the palace, Gallipoli or John Howard’s sheriff, the USA. This continent’s timeless Indigenous occupancy, meanwhile, with its miracles of spirit, culture and essential love of country, continue to find increasing purchase in our national psyche. Could, then, this enduring Indigenous continental presence come to form the bedrock of an Australian republic?

Paul Daley is one of Honest History’s distinguished supporters. He contributed a chapter (‘Our most important war: the legacy of frontier conflict’) to The Honest History Book.

Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Review, mentioned in Daley’s piece, will be reviewed on Honest History shortly. McKenna is also a distinguished supporter of Honest History. He also had a chapter in The Honest History Book (‘King, Queen and Country: will Anzac thwart republicanism?’) which concluded thus:

Australians will need to discover a new way of speaking about the prospect of change, one that finds the courage to imagine that national dignity and constitutional renewal will come not from the removal of monarchy alone but from within.

For other material on the Uluru Statement from the Heart, use the Honest History search engine.

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