ISSN: 2202-5561 ©
Heritage Guardians campaign against the unnecessary and ill-considered $498m extensions to the Australian War Memorial: contact your federal MP and ask them to oppose this project
Latest from the campaign: two detailed papers from former War Memorial senior officer, Richard Llewellyn, one examining questionable process and a flawed design choice, the second putting the case for the Mitchell Option – using the Memorial’s existing premises in a Canberra suburb – which is cheaper. This paper also notes the Memorial’s conflicting arguments for expanding Mitchell and for expanding the main building at Campbell.
New on the Honest History website
We have a piece by John Shield about soldier settlement in Queensland after World War I, a link to a review by Richard Broinowski of Hugh White’s important recent book, How to Defend Australia, and some evidence from Indigenous elders via historian Timothy Bottoms about massacres of Indigenous Australians in Queensland
PLUS
(Under Top recent posts) reviews of books on an epic flight in 1919, the birth of rowing’s King Cup (also 1919), the recent history of the Australian War Memorial (written by a former Director), the Irish in South Australia, the US defence lobby in Australia, and same-sex relations in the forces during World War II (a novel). Also: Indigenous military service, the Tune Review of the National Archives, why representing the RSL is not the biggest issue for the Council of the War Memorial, and the place of place in the Australian character.
From the Honest History vault
For four years, we collected resources (links and original pieces) on the relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The material, under the heading First Peoples, included items on the Uluru Statement from the Heart 2017. That document and the issues surrounding it were the subject also of a recent speech by retired Chief Justice, Murray Gleeson. Excerpted on Inside Story, it is well worth the read.
