Wominjeka! Yumalundi!*
We pay respect to First Nations people and to their Elders past, present and emerging. This website was developed in Kamberri (Ngambri and Ngunnawal people) and Naarm (Kulin Nation) on land that always was and always will be Aboriginal and has never been ceded. The website contains information and images (including images of people who have died) that may cause distress to First Nations people.
Honest History promotes balanced consideration of Australian history by offering contesting, evidence-based interpretations to students, teachers, universities, journalists and the public. We challenge the misuse of history to serve political or other agendas.
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Honest History website: more than ten years on and we have wound back a bit; but, for the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Frontier Wars, see our sister site, defendingcountry.au
‘The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an essential part of Truth-telling and as a first step to reframing Australian national commemoration.’
A summary of events at the Memorial from September 2022 to September 2023: dithering, dissembling, mixed messages, redactions and un-redactions, pressure from the Nats.
Action Plan for Frontier Wars recognition, commemoration
The Big Build at the Australian War Memorial: total $548m (and counting)
The Anzac Parade facade of the Memorial, August 2024 (supplied), night view, lit up in a garish way never envisaged by CEW Bean, and rather reminiscent of Brasilia Airport at night or perhaps of Leni Riefenstahl’s visions of Germany in the 1930s. Also compare with remarks from the Memorial at various times (eg here) that its facade would be unchanged by the redevelopment. Ha! More pictures.
Audit Office (ANAO) performance audit on management of the War Memorial project
The report was scathing: the ANAO is always very cautious in its reports but if it gave marks out of 10, this came in as a bare pass, perhaps a 6 out of 10. The Memorial’s quick reaction tried to make the best of things but convinced few observers.
Then the trail went cold: Minister Keogh in April asked for an urgent briefing from the ANAO, followed by discussions with Memorial management. Both of those events happened in April but it took seven months for that to be admitted publicly – and it took our FOI claim to bring it about.
Why were they so coy? Perhaps because the FOI revealed some tension between Minister and Memorial and Memorial and ANAO. Check it out.
Looking back
Top recent posts
Honest History Book
AWM Alt Guide
Highlights & Archives
Australia 1916-18
Centenary Watch
Australia is more than Anzac – and always has been
* Wominjeka means ‘welcome’ or ‘come with purpose’ in the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Yumalundi means ‘Hello’ in the Ngunnawal language of the Canberra traditional owners.
[Broken links on this site: Broken links are inevitable in a more than ten-year old site, due to other sites’ redesigns and deletions and to effluxion of time. Please notify us at admin@honesthistory.net.au of any broken links encountered.]