This media release has gone out today. It advises of the launch of our associate website defendingcountry.au. Honest History’s long time interest in the War Memorial and the Frontier Wars will continue on the new site. *** 15 November 2023…
Search results for: frontier wars
From the Honest History vault: Australian War Memorial has a role in Truth-telling about Frontier Wars
Fourteen months ago, we posted this below (originally in Pearls and Irritations) on the need for the War Memorial to step up and do a proper job on the Australian Frontier Wars. Since then, the Memorial’s stepping has been forward,…
From the Honest History vault: Frontier Wars arguments were clear in 2014 – and long before that
There’s a repost below of something that first appeared on the Honest History site more than nine years ago (Updates July-November 2014) during NAIDOC Week 2014. It shows Honest History’s early engagement with the need to properly remember the Australian…
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017 Recent controversy about what was or was not included in the Uluru Statement somewhat missed an important point: the strength and…
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.: Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 5 in a series
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.[1] ‘Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 5 in a series’, Honest History, 23 August 2023 updated The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an…
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.: Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 4 in a series
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.[1] ‘Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 4 in a series’, Honest History, 20 August 2023 updated The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an…
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.: Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 3 in a series
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.[1] ‘Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 3 in a series’, Honest History, 16 August 2023 updated The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an…
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.: Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 2 in a series
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.[1] ‘Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 2 in a series’, Honest History, 13 August 2023 updated The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an…
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.: Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 1 in a series
Defending Country Memorial Project Inc.[1] ‘Time to be honest about the Australian Frontier Wars: No. 1 in a series’, Honest History, 9 August 2023 updated The Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars as an…
Stephens, David: Frontier Wars: fig leaf and credibility gap at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘Frontier Wars: fig leaf and credibility gap at the Australian War Memorial, Honest History, 10 July 2023 updated Update 19 July 2023: Peter Stanley in Pearls and Irritations (‘The Native Mounted Police: extermination on the Australian frontier’) asks…
Closing the Frontier Wars Credibility Gap at the War Memorial: Honest History’s David Stephens talks to 3CR’s Jan Bartlett
David Stephens sat down with 3CR Community Radio’s Jan Bartlett and their 30 minute chat was broadcast on 3CR’s Tuesday Hometime on 2 May. Start from about mark 32.40. Runs for about ten minutes. (Earlier part of the broadcast from…
Stephens, David: Is this ‘substantial’? War Memorial finds another two square metres for the Frontier Wars (and four other Pre-1914 conflicts)
David Stephens* ‘Is this “substantial”? War Memorial finds another two square metres for the Frontier Wars (and four other Pre-1914 conflicts)’, Honest History, 5 May 2023 For some time now, Australian War Memorial Council Chair, Kim Beazley, has been making…
Smith, Aaron: Calls grow for Australia’s frontier wars to be remembered on Anzac Day
Aaron Smith ‘Calls grow for Australia’s frontier wars to be remembered on Anzac Day‘, Guardian Australia, 25 April 2023 updated Update 26 April 2023: Anzac Day and the Frontier Wars discussed in other articles: ‘Should Frontier War heroes like Windradyne…
Holbrook, Carolyn, Frank Bongiorno & Michelle Arrow: The Australian War Memorial must deal properly with the frontier wars
Carolyn Holbrook, Frank Bongiorno & Michelle Arrow, ‘The Australian War Memorial must deal properly with the frontier wars‘, The Conversation, 24 April 2023 The authors note the recent efforts of War Memorial Council Chair, Kim Beazley, and the resistance provoked.…
Stephens, David: Australian Frontier Wars: credibility gap at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘Australian Frontier Wars: credibility gap at the Australian War Memorial‘, Pearls & Irritations, 17 April 2023 This piece summarises the arguments the author, Peter Stanley and Noel Turnbull recently put in two articles on the Honest History site.…
War Memorial is overdue answering a Senator’s question about the Frontier Wars – and 21 other questions
Questions on Notice put to Senate Estimates Committees are an overlooked source of information – provided they are eventually answered. Here below is one such question, currently unanswered and overdue for providing to the Senate Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade…
Credibility gap at the War Memorial: Frontier Wars initiative lagging (Media release)
5 April 2023 Credibility gap at the War Memorial: Frontier Wars initiative lagging There is a credibility chasm between the willingness of Australian War Memorial Chair, Kim Beazley, to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars and, on the…
Stephens, David, Peter Stanley & Noel Turnbull: An Action Plan for Australian Frontier Wars recognition and commemoration (continued)
David Stephens[1] Peter Stanley[2] Noel Turnbull[3] ‘An Action Plan for Australian Frontier Wars recognition and commemoration (continued)’, Honest History, 3 April 2023 updated This article covers ACTIONS 3, 4 and 5 in a proposed Action Plan. Our earlier article covered…
Stephens, David, Peter Stanley & Noel Turnbull: Voice, Treaty, Truth: an Action Plan for Australian Frontier Wars recognition and commemoration
Update 1 December 2023: An updated, shorter version of the Action Plan is now available on the Defending Country website. The earlier version is retained below for the record. HH. *** David Stephens[1] Peter Stanley[2] Noel Turnbull[3] ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth:…
Stephens, David: A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography: Part II: From the Big Build via the Frontier Wars to Boeing – but a lot left out
David Stephens* ‘A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography’, Honest History, 21 February 2023: Part II: ‘From the Big Build via the Frontier Wars to Boeing – but a lot left out’ Part I of this…
Stephens, David: Kim Beazley, Chair of War Memorial Council, makes welcome progress towards proper recognition of Frontier Wars – but now needs to drag others along, too
David Stephens* ‘Kim Beazley, Chair of War Memorial Council, makes welcome progress towards proper recognition of Frontier Wars – but now needs to drag others along, too’, Honest History, 7 February 2023 updated Update 22 June 2023: Earlier this month,…
The Wire: Australian War Memorial set to provide greater recognition of the Frontier Wars
The Wire ‘Australian War Memorial set to provide greater recognition of the Frontier Wars‘, The Wire, 20 January 2023 updated Update 24 February 2023: Important article by Bronwyn Carlson and Terri Farrelly in The Conversation: ‘Friday essay: “killed by Natives”.…
Stephens, David: The War Memorial is again running away from the Frontier Wars
David Stephens* ‘The War Memorial is again running away from the Frontier Wars‘, Pearls and Irritations, 5 December 2022 updated Note: the P&I post linked here is an updated version of our earlier post. *** The Australian War Memorial has…
Stephens, David: Walking backwards for Christmas: Estimates Committee transcript shows the War Memorial’s Frontier Wars retreat
David Stephens* ‘Walking backwards for Christmas**: Estimates Committee transcript shows the War Memorial’s Frontier Wars retreat’, Honest History, 28 November 2022 updated Update 3 May 2023: FOI claim on War Memorial delivers heavily redacted version of Memorial’s briefing notes for…
Recent media reports on the Australian War Memorial big build and related matters, especially the Australian Frontier Wars
The Honest History website has been partly out of action for a while due to a technical issue (and illness among our army of Honest History elves and their nearest and dearest), but the hiatus gave us a chance to…
Stephens, David: War Memorial misses opportunity to clarify confusion about Frontier Wars
David Stephens* ‘War Memorial misses opportunity to clarify confusion about Frontier Wars’, Honest History, 3 November 2022 updated Update 28 November 2022: Analysis of the Estimates transcript confirms the Memorial’s backsliding from the position of 29 September. The Memorial has…
Media roundup on Australian Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial: RSL grumbles; united front crumbles
Update 4 November 2022: Honest History/Heritage Guardians analysis of material provided by Memorial under Freedom of Information. ‘War Memorial Council Chair, Dr Brendan Nelson, made some remarks on 29 September about the Memorial’s intentions regarding the Frontier Wars. Since then,…
Encouraging noises from War Memorial about future treatment of Frontier Wars – but need to wait and see, folks
Update 4 November 2022: Later material: here; here. Update 18 October 2022: Media roundup. James Massola in Nine Newspapers quotes Greg Melick, RSL National President and War Memorial Council member, attempting to minimise the importance of what the Memorial has…
Stephens, David: Uluru Statement shows the way on Australian Frontier Wars
David Stephens ‘Uluru Statement shows the way on Australian Frontier Wars‘, Pearls and Irritations, 18 August 2022 ‘We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country’ (Uluru Statement) Empowerment grows not just…
Defence of Country motivated Indigenous soldiers in Vietnam: time to recognise and commemorate Defence of Country in Frontier Wars
News today that the Australian War Memorial has published a list of 250 Indigenous men who served with Australian forces in the Vietnam War. Media release but not an actual list. The ABC story has a crucial quote attributed to…
Stephens, David: Australian War Memorial needs to own Australian Frontier Wars
David Stephens* ‘Australian War Memorial needs to own Australian Frontier Wars‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 August 2022 Proper recognition and commemoration of the Australian Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial would be a practical expression of the Spirit of…
Turner, Ross: John Maynard says Frontier Wars deserve Canberra memorial
Ross Turner ‘John Maynard says Frontier Wars deserve Canberra memorial‘, NITV Living Black, 2 August 2022 Extensive interview by Karla Grant of Professor John Maynard of the University of Newcastle, a Worimi man from the Port Stephens region of New…
Bargwanna, Stephen: Australian War Memorial needs to tell stories of Frontier Wars in colonisation of Australia
Stephen Bargwanna ‘Australian War Memorial needs to tell stories of Frontier Wars in colonisation of Australia‘, Canberra Times, 29 July 2022 (pdf from our subscription) The author is a descendant of WJ Wills of Burke and Wills fame, who died…
An agenda for Albanese: (1) Frontier Wars commemoration at the Australian War Memorial would express the Spirit of Uluru
The new government has a lot to do. Here’s one thing that it could do, quickly and decisively, using existing mechanisms: fill some of the proposed new space at the Australian War Memorial with a Frontier Wars Gallery, commemorating the…
Collard, Sarah: ‘It must all be a part of our reckoning with the truth’: Albanese acknowledges Frontier Wars in House
Sarah Collard ‘“It must all be a part of our reckoning with the truth’”: Albanese acknowledges Frontier Wars in House‘, SBS/NITV News, 16 February 2021 updated Update 23 February 2021: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia Albanese’s fine words in federal…
Bottoms, Timothy: Massacre recollections Elder stories of Frontier Wars in FNQ
Timothy Bottoms ‘Massacre recollections Elder stories of Frontier Wars in FNQ‘, YouTube, 16 July 2019 North Queensland-based historian, Tim Bottoms, has posted this 13 minute video in which Aboriginal Elders recount specific instances of frontier violence. The late Kenny Jimmy…
Stephens, David: Another wrinkle on why the Australian War Memorial will not commemorate the Frontier Wars: in 2013 it offloaded the job to the other end of Canberra’s lake
David Stephens ‘Why the Australian War Memorial will not commemorate the Frontier Wars: in 2013 it offloaded the job to the other end of Canberra’s lake – plus some statutory sleight of hand’, Honest History, 19 November 2018 updated Senator…
Nine alternative views for Anzac Day – including Lisa Barritt-Eyles on how Lake Macquarie tackled the Frontier Wars
Rather than keep up with the flood of formulaic Anzac Day stories, we collected these few, some of them from our associates, all of them, to varying degrees, coming at ‘the One Day of the Year’ from different angles. (There…
Reynolds, Henry: Brendan Nelson and the War Memorial – what about the frontier wars?
Henry Reynolds ‘Brendan Nelson and the War Memorial – what about the frontier wars?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 10 April 2018 Historian of invader-Indigenous relations in Australia considers the proposed extension to the Australian War Memorial and the Memorial’s inadequate recognition…
Victorian government survey on Anzac Day recognition of Frontier Wars provokes predictable pile-on
In August last year, the Victorian government did some research on ‘the social value of war commemorative events’. Among many other questions, the research (using a sample of about 500 people) asked whether the deaths of Indigenous Australians in the…
Frontier Wars commemoration in Canberra in Anzac Week
There will be a number of Frontier Wars-related events in Canberra in the week leading up to Anzac Day: Frontier Wars Story Camp 2016, 18-24 April at the Aboriginal Embassy (details on Facebook; flyer); Dr Libby Connors, University of Southern…
First Peoples, Frontier Wars and the Queen’s uniform: 2014
Update 19 December 2014: Black Anzac teaser Background to the Redfern mural (see Update 5 December below) and teaser for documentary. This link came from street artist Hego, who tweets @artisthego. Update 15 December 2014: Ben Quilty paints frontier massacres…
Berzins, Hannah: Lest we forget the Frontier Wars
Berzins, Hannah ‘Lest we forget the Frontier Wars‘, Vimeo (video, 2014) The 2o minute video describes massacres at Murdering Island and Poison Waterholes Creek, near Narrandera, NSW, and considers how such events, and the Frontier Wars generally, should be commemorated.…
First Peoples, Frontier Wars and the Queen’s uniform
This post brings together under a new heading and then updates a collection of material that we began at NAIDOC Week in July 2014. (There were some technical issues with updating the original post, anyway.) The post enables us to…
McQueen, Humphrey: Pioneering writing on Frontier Wars
McQueen, Humphrey ‘The real battle for Australia: pioneering writing on the Frontier Wars (Parts I-III)’, Honest History, 2 September 2014 Introduction by David Stephens With the co-operation of the author, we have collected here three pieces of writing by historian…
Black Diggers and Frontier Wars
Honest History has a number of resources on these related issues. This article provoked by NAIDOC Week 2014 includes links to a number of articles discussing both the Frontier Wars and the rediscovered role of Indigenous servicemen. Peter Stanley gave…
Peacebus: Frontier Wars 2014
Peacebus ‘Lest we forget the Frontier Wars 2014: report of the fourth annual “Lest we forget the Frontier Wars” March @ the Australian War Memorial, 25 April 2014‘, Peacebus, 1 June 2014 Describes and illustrates demonstration held to commemorate the…
Remembering Lyndall Ryan: repost of her review of Stephen Gapps’ The Sydney Wars
Emeritus Professor Lyndall Ryan died nine months ago after a distinguished career as a historian, particularly of First Nations, and most recently with the University of Newcastle’s massacre maps. Professor Ryan wrote a review for Honest History of Stephen Gapps’ then recently published The Sydney…
Waterford, Jack: Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars
Jack Waterford ‘Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars‘, Canberra Times, 26 January 2024; pdf from our subscription; also in Pearls and Irritations (no paywall). Update 29 January 2024: two articles taking a wide view of Australia…
National Press Club of Australia: Rachel Perkins and Professor Henry Reynolds on The Australian Wars
This was broadcast on 23 November and transcripts are available at a modest cost. (The ep is available online till 23 December 2022.) Some of what we picked up from the remarks of Rachel Perkins (from about mark 5.0) and…
Stephens, David: Publicity for SBS documentary, The Australian Wars, provokes response from War Memorial but public input is needed
David Stephens* ‘Publicity for SBS documentary, The Australian Wars, provokes response from War Memorial but public input is needed’, Honest History, 23 September 2022 updated Update 5 October 2022: NITV panel discussion including Rachel Perkins: Land Wars. ‘It’s a story…
Canberra Times: Australian War Memorial must formally address frontier violence
Canberra Times, ‘Australian War Memorial must formally address frontier violence‘, Canberra Times, 25 July 2022 (pdf from our subscription) This editorial (page 14 of the hard copy under heading ‘Frontier wars should be back on agenda’) is a significant development…
Frontier War stories on Boe Spearim podcast: adding to our knowledge of a bloody past
There is a lot of material on the Honest History site about the Frontier Wars and massacres of First Australians. Use our Search engine to find these posts or scroll through our special subject 2014-17, First Peoples. There’s also Jane…
Daley, Paul: As the toll of Australia’s frontier brutality keeps climbing, truth telling is long overdue
Paul Daley ‘As the toll of Australia’s frontier brutality keeps climbing, truth telling is long overdue‘, Guardian Australia, 4 March 2019 updated Major article on our continuing neglect of killings of Indigenous Australians from 1788 till at least 1928. Examines…
Clark, Melanie: From frontier to front line: Indigenous Australians and Australian war memory
Melanie Clark* ‘From frontier to front line: Indigenous Australians and Australian war memory’, Honest History, 12 December 2018 Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains images of people who have died. *** ‘Policeman…
Reynolds, Henry: Frontier conflict and the War Memorial: an enduring controversy
Henry Reynolds ‘Frontier conflict and the War Memorial: an enduring controversy‘, Meanjin (blog), 20 November 2018 Discusses War Memorial resistance to commemoration of the Frontier Wars, casualty figures, the nature of the conflict, Mabo, and terra nullius. It [frontier conflict]…
Daley, Paul: How do we settle the “statue wars”? Let’s start by telling the truth about our past
Paul Daley ‘How do we settle the “statue wars”? Let’s start by telling the truth about our past‘, Guardian Australia, 29 June 2018 The author says colonial-era statues, properly considered, can lead us towards an honest history. The article riffs…
Ryan, Lyndall: The Sydney Wars 1788-1817: mythbusting around the Harbour and the Hawkesbury
Lyndall Ryan* ‘The Sydney Wars 1788-1817: mythbusting around the Harbour and the Hawkesbury’, Honest History, 19 June 2018 Lyndall Ryan reviews The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817 by Stephen Gapps It seems extraordinary that, after 230 years,…
Gapps, Stephen: The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817
Stephen Gapps The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018 The Sydney Wars tells the history of military engagements between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians – described as “this constant sort of war” by one early colonist –…
Frontier War Story Camp; Peter Greste on Monash; le footy and le cricket feature in Monashfest in Picardy
These things are happening during Anzac season 2018: Frontier Wars Story Camp and Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars March, Canberra, 19-25 April; former ABC journalist, Peter Greste, has a two part doco on Sir John Monash (and his connections…
Stephens, David: Lest We Forget again: Anzac Day is an opportunity to confront our violent frontier past and its shadow today
David Stephens ‘Lest We Forget again: Anzac Day is an opportunity to confront our violent frontier past and its shadow today’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 updated Yassmin Abdel-Magied, 2017 (Guardian Australia/ABC) Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a young Somali-Australian Muslim woman, was…
Stephens, David: We need to talk about how we commemorate our wars in other people’s countries – and our own
Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: others in the series _______________________________ David Stephens ‘We need to talk about how we commemorate our wars in other people’s countries – and our own’, Honest History, 18 August 2016 updated…
Ørsted-Jensen, Robert: Website of resources related to his book Frontier History Revisited
Robert Ørsted-Jensen Webpage of resources related to his book Frontier History Revisited Brings together a collection of resources related to the author’s 2011 book, Frontier History Revisited: Colonial Queensland and the History War. There are extracts from the book, as well…
Kerkhove, Ray: Fortified frontiers and white and black tactics
Kerkhove, Ray ‘Barriers and bastions: fortified frontiers and white and black tactics: paper presented at “Our shared history: resistance and reconciliation”, CQU seminar, Noosa, 11 June 2015‘, Honest History, 22 June 2015 Nineteenth century Australia had fortifications erected to protect…
War dances and real wars: Honest History First Peoples miscellany
‘War dances and real wars: Honest History First Peoples miscellany’, Honest History, 7 June 2015 Update 8 June 2015: Helen Davidson writes about Wayne Quilliam’s photographs of and interviews with the women of Indigenous Australia. Quilliam’s exhibition opens at UN…
McQueen, Humphrey: Review Other Side of Frontier
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Part III: Review of Reynolds The Other Side of the Frontier (1981)’, Honest History, 2 September 2014 Henry Reynolds’s The Other Side of the Frontier: An Interpretation of the Aboriginal Response to the Invasion and Settlement of Australia,…
Daley, Paul: Frontier war
Daley, Paul ‘Why does the Australian War Memorial ignore the frontier war?‘ The Guardian Australia, 12 September 2013 Bordered with militarily precise shrubs including the herb of remembrance, rosemary, the outer walls are adorned with a series of elaborately carved…
Ashenden, Dean: Neglected wars
Ashenden, Dean ‘The Australian wars that Anzac Day neglects‘, Eureka Street, 21 April 2013 Notes that the frontier wars are not recognised at the Australian War Memorial and other memorials and argues that ‘public and popular history should record the…
Leaked documents show War Memorial’s prevarication and faffing about on Ben Roberts-Smith
Nick McKenzie of Nine Newspapers has received some leaked papers from staff at the Australian War Memorial. He writes it up here (paywall). There is also an article from Sarah Ison in today’s Australian (also paywall), which does not use…
Piggott, Michael: Broken Years, Black convicts and Bennelong: some inadvertent irritations
Michael Piggott* ‘Broken Years, Black convicts and Bennelong: some inadvertent irritations’, Honest History, 19 November 2024 The online world seems awash at the moment with lists of things annoying baby-boomers, and indeed why they themselves are so annoying. Archivists have…
On our sister site, Defending Country: Truth-telling about our history
The Defending Country campaign believes 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. We are Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous,…
Stephens, David: Keating sinks AUKUS – and it’s not all about the subs and the nuclear waste
David Stephens* ‘Keating sinks AUKUS – and it’s not all about the subs and the nuclear waste’, Honest History, 12 August 2024 Update 2 September 2024: Paddy Gourley in Pearls and Irritations. A bit broader in scope but still right…
Keeping up the facade: new photographs of the War Memorial’s big build
Our photographers have been active around the Australian War Memorial, updating us on the $548m (and counting) redevelopment program. Photographs were taken 26-30 June, early August, early September, and December 2024, February 2025. Update 19 February 2025 Director spruiks the…
Honest History website: ten years on and we are winding back a bit
The Honest History website has been running now for ten years. Author and journalist Paul Daley well and truly launched us at Manning Clark House in Canberra in November 2013 and he has been a great supporter ever since –…
Stephens, David: Remembrance Day mysteries at the War Memorial: answers to Senate Questions on Notice
David Stephens* ‘Remembrance Day mysteries at the War Memorial: answers to Senate Questions on Notice’, Honest History, 11 November 2023 updated Accountability via Senate Estimates Committees is a slow process. The difficult or embarrassing questions often get ‘taken on notice’,…
Stephens, David: Nine embarrassing minutes: the Australian War Memorial at Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘Nine embarrassing minutes: the Australian War Memorial at Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 5 November 2023 updated When the government changed it looked, just for a moment, as if some of our less accountable institutions, like the Australian War…
Stephens, David: After the Voice: Kim Beazley’s opportunity to give Truth-telling a big boost at the War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘After the Voice: Kim Beazley’s opportunity to give Truth-telling a big boost at the War Memorial’, Honest History, 19 October 2023 updated Update 23 October 2023: a version of this piece appeared on Pearls and Irritations. *** Michelle…
Marr, David: Killing for Country: A Family Story
David Marr Killing for Country: A Family Story, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2023; available electronically A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia’s frontier wars. David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in…
Stanley, Peter: “We have seized their country by the right of might”: David Marr’s Killing for Country
Peter Stanley* ‘“We have seized their country by the right of might”: David Marr’s Killing for Country’, Honest History, 8 October 2023 Peter Stanley reviews Killing for Country: A Family Story, by David Marr Brothers Reginald and D’arcy Uhr, the…
War Memorial dithers and dissembles its way to a definitive position on Ben Roberts-Smith – or does it?
Update 21 December 2024: Nine Newspapers’ Nick McKenzie reports on documents leaked by War Memorial staff which give an indication of the Memorial’s difficulties during 2023 in coming to a firm position on the Roberts-Smith saga. *** Media reports late…
Destroying ‘our most sacred place’: recent pictures of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra
The $550m (and counting) redevelopment project at the Australian War Memorial is unstoppable, regardless of how ill-advised and unnecessary it has always been and how much opposition it has generated. That history has been chronicled. The main question now is…
Reynolds, Henry: Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement
Henry Reynolds Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, NewSouth, Sydney, 2021 If we are to take seriously the need for telling the truth about our history, we must start at first principles. What if the sovereignty of the First…
Stephens, David: Three important markers on the way to a New Australia – maybe
David Stephens* ‘Three important markers on the way to a New Australia – maybe’, Honest History, 11 August 2023 All of the many voices on and around the Voice need to be listened to, some with more respect than others,…
War and peace and maybe a future: early August round-up
Bullwinkel A huge statue of Matron Vivian Bullwinkel, survivor of the Bangka island massacre and formidable post-war presence, was unveiled in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial. The main theme of reports, like this one, was that the statue…
Stephens, David: Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco
David Stephens* ‘Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco‘, Pearls and Irritations, 2 August 2023 updated There may be an upside to the Ben Roberts-Smith case. Not for the family of Ali Jan or the people of Afghanistan. Not…
From the Honest History vault: Afghanistan: The Australian Story 2017 (a documentary)
The War Memorial’s Afghanistan exhibition was opened in 2013 but is now closed during the Memorial’s $550m Big Build, part of the justification for which was to have more space available to show what Australians did in Afghanistan. The previous…
Stephens, David: What happens if the War Memorial Council goes in 13 different directions?
David Stephens* ‘What happens if the War Memorial Council goes in 13 different directions?’, Honest History, 20 July 2023 updated Honest History recently received an unsigned letter from the Hon. Kim Beazley AC, Chair of the Council of the Australian…
War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley explains how the Council works
Recently, it became clear that there were differences of view on the Council of the Australian War Memorial about how the Memorial should in future recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars. The letter below to Council Chair Kim Beazley…
Stephens, David: Dam Busters and ‘Anzackery’ at the War Memorial
David Stephens ‘Dam Busters and “Anzackery” at the War Memorial‘, Pearls and Irritations, 6 July 2023 updated The old phrase ‘once more with feeling’ could apply to much of what the Australian War Memorial does. Or perhaps not 80 years…
Turnbull, Noel: How were Indigenous warriors who did wear ‘the uniform’ treated?
Noel Turnbull ‘How were Indigenous warriors who did wear “the uniform” treated?‘, Pearls and Irritations, 25 June 2023 Riffs off the outburst of RSL National President, MAJ GEN Greg Melick, that only those Indigenous soldiers who wore the King’s or…
Quarterly Essay 90: Voice of Reason – On Recognition and Renewal, by Megan Davis: Book Note
Update 11 July 2023: Professor Davis with Professor Mark Kenny of the ANU on an Australia Institute Webinar. Update 26 June 2023: Professor Davis on Australian Story on the ABC, including transcript. *** Professor Megan Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous…
Stephens, David: ‘Alice in Wonderland’: dissembling and dithering in Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘”Alice in Wonderland’: dissembling and dithering in Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 16 June 2023 updated Update 9 July 2023: See below under ‘And there’s this …’ for our follow-up on one of the War Memorial’s claims. *** Senate…
Stephens, David: And another thing: yet more on Ben Roberts-Smith
David Stephens* ‘And another thing: yet more on Ben Roberts-Smith’, Honest History, 6 June 2023 updated 18 August 2023: Stokes/Seven resisting respondents’ access to emails. ‘As part of its application for a third-party costs order, Nine is seeking to show…
The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien: Book Note
Update 1 August 2023: Eight retired judges support the Yes case, led by Mary Gaudron, former High Court judge: [W]e confidently believe that, by raising the quality of our public debate, the proposed Voice will both enrich our democracy and…
Stanley, Peter: Anzac Day reflects changing face of the nation
Peter Stanley ‘Anzac Day reflects changing face of the nation‘, The Australian, 24 April 2023 (pdf from our subscription – excluding comments) Historian and Heritage Guardian Peter Stanley ranges widely over the significance of Anzac Day, referring to early Anzac…
Honest History submission to Joint Select Committee on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum
We sent this yesterday. There is still time to make a submission. JSCVR Enshrining the Voice in the Constitution is the prerequisite to Closing the Gaps in so many areas of Australian society today, including the Commemoration Gap, where we…
Medals and meltdowns – and gunrunners getting an inside track: non-MSM news roundup
Noel Turnbull, Vietnam veteran and fellow traveller with Honest History, has posted this piece on his blog. It’s about the medals being given to Vietnam veterans and their families on the 50th anniversary of Australia’s departure from that war. Turnbull…
Stephens, David: Movement at the Memorial: recent remarks from Chair Kim Beazley hold promise of change – but more needed
David Stephens* ‘Movement at the Memorial: remarks from Chair Kim Beazley hold promise of change – but more needed’, Honest History, 10 April 2023 updated (pdfs from our Canberra Times subscription: page 1 article, page 2 article, editorial) Update 15…
Stephens, David: Australian War Memorial $550 million redevelopment: Memorial provides some important clarifications and corrections
David Stephens* ‘Australian War Memorial $550 million redevelopment: Memorial provides some important clarifications and corrections’, Honest History, 17 March 2023 updated Update 5 June 2023: War Memorial answer to Question on Notice from Senator Shoebridge confirms that wrong information was…
Stephens, David: Another skirmish of attrition in Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘Another skirmish of attrition in Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 23 February 2023 Honest History watched this live on 15 February for the War Memorial’s appearance. We glanced at the video (from 20.07). Nothing leapt out from either medium.…
Stephens, David: A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography: Part I: From Med School to the War Memorial via the Menin Gate
David Stephens* ‘A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography’, Honest History, 19 February 2023: Part I: From Med School to the War Memorial via the Menin Gate’ Part II of this review *** David Stephens reviews…
Carlson, Bronwyn: ‘Change the date’ debates about January 26 distract from the truth telling Australia needs to do
Bronwyn Carlson ‘“Change the date” debates about January 26 distract from the truth telling Australia needs to do‘, The Conversation, 26 January 2023 updated As every year for many years, 26 January generated debates this year, made more significant by…
Stephens, David: More lunge-parry-thrust in Senate Estimates on War Memorial matters
David Stephens* More ‘lunge-parry-thrust** in Senate Estimates on War Memorial matters’, Honest History, 7 December 2022 updated Update 3 May 2023: FOI claim on War Memorial delivers heavily redacted version of Memorial’s briefing notes for this Estimates hearing (Ref No. 2022-23-08). Very little…
Kerry Stokes makes a comeback at the Australian War Memorial – but just to give the Remembrance Day Address
The War Memorial has a recent tradition of comebacks, with Brendan Nelson returning as Chair (then announcing he is going again), having been Director. Now, Nelson’s predecessor as Chair, Kerry Stokes, returns as the giver of the Remembrance Day address…
Stephens, David: Startling events at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘Startling events at the Australian War Memorial‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 October 2022 For those who came in late, a rundown of cost blowout and secrecy surrounding it, changes on the War Memorial Council involving Stokes, Abbott and…
Stephens, David: The growing cost of the War Memorial’s vanity build: Part III: hot stuff, heavy hints, loose ends, and a bunch of dates
David Stephens* ‘The growing cost of the War Memorial’s vanity build: Part III: hot stuff, heavy hints, loose ends, and a bunch of dates’, Honest History, 4 October 2022 updated Part I of this series looked at correspondence between Honest…
Stanley, Peter: The Australian War Memorial goes AWOL
Peter Stanley ‘The Australian War Memorial goes AWOL‘, Pearls and Irritations, 1 September 2022 Post from military historian and former Principal Historian, Australian War Memorial. The Memorial has plugged an inaccurate book, The Digger of Kokoda, and refuses to debate…
From the Honest History vault: Review of Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (2018), edited by Anita Heiss
Just after Garma and at a time when the Voice is growing, along with the push to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars, it seemed like a good chance to run again our review of the ground-breaking collection,…
Stanley, Peter: Time to tell the truth at the Australian War Memorial
Peter Stanley ‘Time to tell the truth at the Australian War Memorial‘, Canberra Times, 30 July 2022 (pdf from our subscription) Op ed from Research Professor at UNSW Canberra, long-time Principal Historian at the Memorial, and Heritage Guardian. The article…
From the Honest History vault: The collected works of Australian War Memorial Director, Matt Anderson PSM: Will they become part of the pushback?
Australian War Memorial Director, Matt Anderson, was featured in yesterday’s Canberra Times, talking about himself, why the Memorial needs to be expanded by 2.5 hectares (more space than the MCG), and how it deals (or doesn’t) with the Frontier Wars.…
An agenda for Albanese (4): Time to rule a line (or cut back) on this unnecessary and obscene War Memorial project
Friday’s Canberra Times carries a story about the $50 million blowout in the cost of the Australian War Memorial extensions project, for which the then government budgeted $498 million. There were hints in the last two Budget papers that costs…
Stephens, David: An historical agenda for the Albanese Government
David Stephens* ‘An historical agenda for the Albanese Government’, Honest History, 7 June 2022 updated History is not just a matter for historians, museums and school teachers. How we deal with our past shapes the present and future of all…
Stephens, David: Lest We Forget#1: Five years since Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s perceptive remark
David Stephens* ‘Lest We Forget#1: Five years since Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s perceptive remark’, Honest History, 10 April 2022 updated Lest We Forget has come to mean ‘Remember’, or even ‘Remember, or else!’, in relation to the commemoration of men and women…
Government announces Ngurra, Indigenous cultural precinct, for Canberra
The Prime Minister has announced the government has allocated $316.5m to build Ngurra, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in the Parliamentary Triangle, on Ngunnawal country (Canberra). Ngurra, a Western Desert…
Stephens, David: For Remembrance Day: parsing “the Australian War Memorial”
David Stephens* ‘For Remembrance Day: parsing “the Australian War Memorial”’, Honest History, 7 November 2021 updated Update 11 November 2021: Reprinted on Pearls & Irritations as ‘Australian War Memorial expansion is a disgrace beyond words’. *** Recently at Senate Estimates,…
Piggott, Michael: Out of Tune, but still mouldering: the National Archives of Australia
Michael Piggott* ‘Out of Tune, but still mouldering: the National Archives of Australia’, Honest History, 20 September 2021 This article follows Michael Piggott’s earlier piece, ‘Mouldering away: how long a journey for our National Archives?’, which coincided with a campaign…
Indigenous involvement in the defence of Australia did not begin in 1914: Professor Peter Stanley address for NAIDOC Week 2014: From the Honest History vault
Professor Peter Stanley from UNSW Canberra gave an address on 10 July 2014 for NAIDOC Week. Professor Stanley was at that time President of the Honest History group. Here is a key paragraph from the speech: [I]t’s because a military…
Stephens, David: Shots across the bows: some Anzac weekend reading and listening
David Stephens* ‘Shots across the bows: some Anzac weekend reading and listening’, Honest History, 23 April 2021 updated Just a very quick jog around the field, unfortunately. Wearing their Heritage Guardians hats, the Honest History elves have been busy finalising…
Stephens, David: Narrow focus but not sharp: Public Works Committee report on $498m War Memorial project
David Stephens* ‘Narrow focus but not sharp: Public Works Committee report on $498m War Memorial project’, Honest History, 15 March 2021 updated The parliamentary Public Works Committee was never going to take a broad view of the $498m, seven year,…
McKay, Judith & Don Watson: False premise, inappropriate process, unacceptable impact: submission to the Australian War Memorial on proposed redevelopment
Judith McKay & Don Watson* ‘False premise, inappropriate process, unacceptable impact: submission to the Australian War Memorial on proposed redevelopment’, Honest History, 4 August 2020 (Note: This article was originally a submission to the Australian War Memorial on its ‘final…
Stephens, David: Afghanistan not underdone at Australian War Memorial (thanks to Boeing): a flaw in argument for extensions
Heritage Guardians campaign diary follows the story from early 2019 of the campaign against the Memorial project *** David Stephens* ‘Afghanistan not underdone at Australian War Memorial (thanks to Boeing): a flaw in argument for extensions’, Honest History, 4 May…
Stephens, David: Architects and doctors come down hard on War Memorial heritage arguments
David Stephens* ‘Architects and doctors come down hard on War Memorial heritage arguments’, Honest History, 18 December 2019 updated Spinners know how to make the best of a bad story. Australian War Memorial spokespersons, in spruiking the case for the…
Fewtrell, Terry: War Memorial needs a new Act, not a new building
Terry Fewtrell ‘War Memorial needs a new Act, not a new building’, Canberra Times, 5 December 2019 For an institution with the title “Australian War Memorial”, it is incomprehensible, and ultimately indefensible, for it not to recognise and commemorate the…
Macklin, Robert: Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on Cape York in 1858
Robert Macklin Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on Cape York in 1858, Hachette, Sydney, 2019 In 1858, fourteen-year-old French cabin boy Narcisse Pelletier was aboard the trader Saint-Paul when it was wrecked off…
Flora, Steve: Robert Macklin’s Castaway is an interesting and informative read in a modest-sized, though wide-ranging, book
Steve Flora* ‘Robert Macklin’s Castaway is an interesting and informative read in a modest-sized, though wide-ranging, book’, Honest History, 10 September 2019 Steve Flora reviews Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on…
Hill, Lisa: Our Mob Served: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories of War and Defending Australia, edited by Allison Cadzow and Mary Anne Jebb
Lisa Hill ‘Our Mob Served: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories of War and Defending Australia, edited by Allison Cadzow and Mary Anne Jebb’, ANZ LitLovers, 9 July 2019 ‘I expect’, says Lisa Hill in the course of this post,…
Abbott, Derek: A personal memoir from a safe pair of hands: Steve Gower on the Australian War Memorial
Derek Abbott* ‘A personal memoir from a safe pair of hands: Steve Gower on the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 2 July 2019 Derek Abbott reviews The Australian War Memorial: A Century on from the Vision, by Steve Gower Steve…
Stephens, David: Paul Daley and Don Watson address the place of place in the Australian story – as well as death and the Australian character
David Stephens* ‘Paul Daley and Don Watson address the place of place in the Australian story – as well as death and the Australian character’, Honest History, 7 June 2019 Sunday papers contain long reads and thoughtful essays, some of…
Stephens, David: Lest We Forget Yassmin Abdel-Magied: a two-year retrospective
David Stephens* ‘Lest We Forget Yassmin Abdel-Magied: a two-year retrospective’, Honest History, 24 April 2019 updated Update 7 May 2019: ABC presenter Sami Shah on being Yassmin-ed. Update 26 April 2019: also on Independent Australia website. *** Two years ago,…
Stephens, David: Thoughts of the people against the War Memorial’s grandiose extensions project
David Stephens* ‘Thoughts of the people against the War Memorial’s grandiose extensions project’, Honest History, 8 April 2019 On 23 March, the Canberra Times carried a story about an open letter from 83 distinguished Australians opposing the plan to spend…
Stephens, David: For Our Country: Australian War Memorial sidles a little closer to a balanced view of Indigenous warriors
David Stephens* ‘For Our Country: Australian War Memorial sidles a little closer to a balanced view of Indigenous warriors’, Honest History, 31 March 2019 updated Update 23 April 2019: Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus examines the meaning of the artwork and…
Heritage Guardians: a campaign against the (now) $548m extensions to the Australian War Memorial
Heritage Guardians This campaign has been wrangled by Heritage Guardians, a small committee. The members of the committee were: the late Brendon Kelson, former Director, Australian War Memorial Dr Charlotte Palmer, committee member, Medical Association for Prevention of War (ACT…
Ashenden, Dean: Saving the War Memorial from itself
Dean Ashenden ‘Saving the War Memorial from itself‘, Inside Story, 15 January 2019 updated Long article canvassing many aspects of the War Memorial’s current direction, from its refusal to recognise the Frontier Wars, to the composition of its Council, and…
Richardson, Andrew: Jeff Grey’s character, personality and contribution are captured in this book
Andrew Richardson* ‘Jeff Grey’s character, personality and contribution are captured in this book’, Honest History, 27 November 2018 Andrew Richardson reviews Jeff Grey: A Life in History, edited by Peter Stanley Like most (if not all) military historians based in…
Lists out for Most Underrated Book Award, Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, Nikon-Walkley Awards for Excellence in Photojournalism, Walkley Documentary Award
This week was ‘lists week’ in the media. This is an area of particular interest to Honest History because, more than ever, journalism and small-run publications are presenting the first draft of history. First, the Small Press Network announced the…
Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: A powerful remembrance of the Myall Creek massacre and of all that is reprehensible about the colonisation of Australia
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘A powerful remembrance of the Myall Creek massacre and of all that is reprehensible about the colonisation of Australia’, Honest History, 16 October 2018 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, edited by Jane Lydon…
Whish-Wilson, Senator Peter: Ten questions for Brendan Nelson, speaking on Friday at the Tamar Valley Peace Festival
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson* ‘Ten questions for Brendan Nelson, speaking on Friday at the Tamar Valley Peace Festival’, Honest History, 1 August 2018 updated This article is posted as a contribution to public debate. These issues are also canvassed elsewhere on…
Burton, Pamela: A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice
Pamela Burton* ‘This white hot flame burned bright’, Honest History, 19 May 2018 Pamela Burton reviews A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice by Sue Taffe This well-researched biography of Mary Montgomerie Bennett…
Daley, Paul: The National Picture: overwhelming reminder of wilful gaps in Australia’s history
Paul Daley ‘The National Picture: overwhelming reminder of wilful gaps in Australia’s history‘, Guardian Australia, 14 May 2018 Review of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ‘The National Picture: the art of Tasmania’s Black War’. The…
Piggott, Michael: Time for something from the heart, from and for all of us: Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69
Michael Piggott* ‘Time for something from the heart, from and for all of us: Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 Michael Piggott reviews Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future Sixteen…
Centenary Watch April-May 2018
Update 11 May 2018: Budget summary, including Anzac centenary winds down, War Memorial digitisation gets thumbs up A brief round-up, also including a look at Captain Cook in memoriam, plus non-MSM takes on the Budget. With some relevant cross-references. Update…
Highlights and Archives
Here you will find links to our series of Honest History Highlights 2018. There are also links to parts of our website which we no longer update but which still contain lots of useful material. As well as the ‘highlights’…
First Peoples May-August 2017
Paul Daley recalls the saga of the return to Australia of Yagan’s head, 20 years ago (31 August 2017) In Guardian Australia. Body parts belonging to thousands of Indigenous Australians still languish in Australian and overseas (mainly British and European)…
What Honest History reviewed in 2017: might be some Christmas reading here
Honest History’s reviews are found here, with the latest at the top of the list. You can scroll down and find reviews of a wide range of books, of a generally historical bent, along with the occasional movie or television…
Hynd, Douglas: New Zealand Great War peacemaking history has Trans-Tasman relevance
Douglas Hynd* ‘New Zealand Great War peacemaking history has Trans-Tasman relevance’, Honest History, 5 December 2017 Douglas Hynd reviews Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacemaking in New Zealand, 1814-1945, edited by Geoffrey Troughton Contemporary critiques of Christianity, whether as…
Paradoxical purchase: War Memorial acquires APY ‘defence of Country’ painting Kulatangku angakanyini manta munu Tjukurpa
The Australian War Memorial has unveiled a large painting by artists from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in South Australia. The painting, Kulatangku angakanyini manta munu Tjukurpa (‘Country and Culture will be protected by spears’) hangs in a conspicuous…
Stephens, David: Skirmish in Canberra Times letters column over a War Memorial that ‘has lost its way’
David Stephens ‘Skirmish in Canberra Times letters column over a War Memorial that “has lost its way”‘, Honest History, 18 October 2017 updated Today’s Canberra Times (online and hard copy) included a letter from me which was butchered by the…
Stephens, David: Hidden in plain sight: Aboriginal massacre map should be no surprise
David Stephens ‘Hidden in plain sight: Aboriginal massacre map should be no surprise‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 July 2017 updated Follow-up to Professor Lyndall Ryan’s map, unveiled at the Australian Historical Association conference, of settler massacres of Indigenous Australians. The…
Wahlquist, Calla: Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood
Calla Wahlquist ‘Map of massacres of Indigenous people reveals untold history of Australia, painted in blood‘, Guardian Australia, 5 July 2017 updated Reports a paper by Professor Lyndall Ryan (University of Newcastle) at the Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle.…
Gallagher, Emily: The first war for country, for nation
Emily Gallagher ‘The first war for country, for nation‘, Inside Story, 18 May 2017 A review of the For Country, For Nation exhibition at the Australian War Memorial. Another review, by David Stephens for Honest History, is here and should…
Turnbull, Noel: Anzac Day at Port Melbourne
Noel Turnbull ‘Anzac Day at Port Melbourne‘, Noel Turnbull Blog, 25 April 2017 Noel Turnbull, a Vietnam veteran and former media and communications executive, spoke at the Anzac Day service at Port Melbourne. Most of those young men didn’t enlist…
Centenary Watch May-June 2017
Update 22 May 2017: The Anzac Christmas card Gary Werskey on the project run by Lady Birdwood and the artist AH Fulwood to produce 50 000 Christmas cards for Anzac troops to send home in 1915. Update 20 May 2017:…
Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia
Michael Piggott* ‘Indigenous war service: two exhibitions at the National Archives of Australia’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Showing at the moment in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is an exhibition of work by the renowned World War…
On every Anzac Day: a rapid round-up of reports before rumbling on to the next ridge
Related material: earlier; later. *** Two years ago, media academic Sharon Mascall-Dare wrote about how journalists every year slip into a standard Anzac Day reporting mode. Look for an old Digger, some attractive young kiddies waving flags, and someone crying,…
The full set: seven pieces of non-mainstream, non-marked up, non-profit commentary for Anzac Day
Related material: later; later still. *** Updated with a few more on Anzac Day itself This Anzac season, as in a number of previous years, Australian children – and possibly some adults, too – can pick up some Anzac mementoes…
Stephens, David: Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens ‘Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial‘, Honest History, 21 March 2017 updated This is a combined review of For Country, for Nation, about Indigenous service in defence of Australia, and A Home on a…
Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial
David Stephens ‘Allusions in Beanland: two exhibitions at the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 In September 2016, the War Memorial opened For Country, for Nation, an exhibition about Indigenous service in Australian defence forces from the Boer…
Australian War Memorial frames its own view of Indigenous Australians’ fighting past
Why did the Australian War Memorial spend $366 000 on a painting depicting a massacre of Indigenous Australians by white settlers (when it refuses to commemorate the Frontier Wars)? The Australian War Memorial has acquired and unveiled the 1985 painting…
Advance praise for The Honest History Book (to be published by NewSouth in April 2017)
‘This is collective history at its finest.’ (Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders University) What people are saying about The Honest History Book ‘[A] series of compelling, highly readable essays by some of Australia’s most distinguished historians.’ (Michelle Arrow, Macquarie University) ‘[A] primer…
Stanley, Peter: Review of The Holocaust: Witnesses and Survivors at the Australian War Memorial
Peter Stanley* ‘Review of The Holocaust: Witnesses and Survivors at the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 updated Update 26 February 2020: expanded exhibition opened by the Treasurer. Update 29 April 2019: speech by War Memorial Director Nelson…
Two years of commentary on the Australian War Memorial: from the Honest History archives
Rationale Critiquing the Anzac-centred received view of Australian history necessarily involves forensic examination of the work of our premier commemorative institution, the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial – rather surprisingly, in view of its interest in warlike matters – has…
Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: Honest History series
‘Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: an Honest History series’, Honest History, 15 August 2016 updated UPDATE 11.45 am FRIDAY: Still difficulties with access. UPDATE 6.00 AM THURSDAY: Restricted access to be allowed. STOP PRESS: Cancellation of…
Pascoe, Bruce: Dark Emu: Black Seeds, Agriculture or Accident?
Bruce Pascoe Dark Emu: Black Seeds, Agriculture or Accident? Magabala Books, Broome WA, 2014 (and later editions) Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the “hunter-gatherer” tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have…
Snyder, Timothy: Poland vs history (Australian comparisons not far beneath)
Timothy Snyder ‘Poland vs history‘, New York Review of Books, 3 May 2016 updated In its exhibitions, the Museum of the Second World War [in Gdańsk, Poland] promised to tell the story of the 1930s and 1940s in an entirely…
Anzac Day miscellany 2016
Update 30 August 2016: Mick Cook (The Dead Prussian Podcast) talked to Sharon Mascall-Dare about Indigenous and non-Anglo Celtic Anzacs. Thirty minutes but no transcript. Update 27 May 2016: we found this one much later, paragraphs lurking at the beginning…
Invasion, massacre and the Queen’s uniform: Honest History miscellany
‘Invasion, massacre and the Queen’s uniform: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 4 April 2016 updated This little collection pulls together a few threads relating to the following: the event of 1788 and afterwards that some of us call ‘white settlement’…
First Peoples October-December 2015
First graduates of Wiradjuri language course at Charles Sturt University (23 December 2015) Seventeen students this week became the first graduates of a Wiradjuri language course at CSU Wagga. Revitalisation of Wiradjuri language and culture is expected to follow. (Links…
New Minister gets (smaller) commemoration bandwagon rolling
The latest Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Dan Tehan MP, was on his feet today in the Parliament taking note of the 25th anniversary of the end of the Gulf War in 1991 and setting…
‘The Australian War Memorial is happy to let your opinion stand as it is’: AWM response to recent Honest History posts
David Stephens ‘“The Australian War Memorial is happy to let your opinion stand as it is”: the Memorial’s response to recent posts on the Honest History website’, Honest History, 22 February 2016 Honest History readers will recall our articles remarking…
Singing country: the importance of the song On every Anzac Day
David Stephens ‘Singing country: the musical legacy of David Morrison, Australian of the Year – and a straw in the wind at the Australian War Memorial?’, Honest History, 2 February 2016 Before David Morrison became Australian of the Year he…
Top recent posts
Here you will find a selection from recent posts on our website; the most recent ones are listed first. All posts here will have first appeared as ‘Latest posts’ on our home page and will move to here as later…
A history man’s view of war (review of Tognolini)
‘A history man’s view of war’, Honest History, 18 November 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews A History Man’s Past & Other People’s Stories: A Shared Memoir. Part One: Other People’s Wars and Brothers, Part One: Gallipoli 1915, both by John Tognolini.…
Hassan, Toni: what’s the War Memorial good for?
Hassan, Toni ‘The War Memorial: what’s it good for?‘ Age, 6 November 2015 Also in other Fairfax papers, this piece takes up themes common in Honest History: the Australian War Memorial shies away from recognising the Frontier Wars, it plays…
First Peoples January-March 2015
Update 26 March 2015: is the Memorial now telling five-eighths of the story? Paul Daley writes at length in Guardian Australia (and in Meanjin in longer form) about Douglas Grant, an Indigenous serviceman in World War I, and asks questions about Anzac centenary commemoration and the…
First Peoples April-June 2015
Update 30 June 2015: Factchecking whether there were people in Australia prior to Aboriginal people Iain Davidson, refereed by Michael Westaway, refutes the suggestion of Senator Leyonhjelm. ‘The overwhelming weight of evidence’, says Davidson, ‘supports the idea that Aboriginal people were the…
First Peoples July-September 2015
Update 22 September 2015: Stan Grant farewells Adam Goodes Indigenous journalist Stan Grant writes that the numbers for Indigenous life expectancy, incarceration, stolen children more accurately reflect the story of Adam Goodes than do the numbers for his success as a sportsman.…
Centenary Watch archive
This page archives our Centenary Watch material and also links to the post containing current material. September-November 2018 Centenary Watch out; Minister Chester stays in place; Director Nelson makes some speeches; buy a piece of the famous MV Krait; Anzac Bears…
First Peoples
This page allows us to maintain a continually updating view of Australia’s First Peoples, including stories about their treatment in the past and about their aspirations and demands today. We are particularly interested in how Australians deal with the Frontier…
Honest History
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…
Humphrey McQueen’s archive: an offer from Honest History
Alert readers will have noticed (and many will have read) our offerings over the last few months from the archives of noted Australian historian, Humphrey McQueen. Some time ago, Humphrey made available to us much of his out-of-copyright material, some…
Centenary Watch updates June 2015
[Links checked 13 November 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
Home page features – once and future
Assiduous followers of Honest History will know that we have links on our home page to sections of the site that we try to update reasonably regularly. Apart from the venerable ‘Centenary Watch‘, which we know is a favourite read…
Their centenary country: Honest History First Peoples miscellany
‘Their centenary country: Honest History First Peoples miscellany’, Honest History, 20 May 2015 and updated (Note: this article contains references to Indigenous people who have died.) Updates: More from Frank Brennan. A further article from Nolan Hunter on recognition. Roslyn…
Daley, Paul: Australian War Memorial’s rise and rise
Daley, Paul ‘Australian War Memorial: the remarkable rise and rise of the nation’s secular shrine‘, Guardian Australia, 19 May 2015 Lengthy extracts of interview with Director Brendan Nelson. He touches on the AWM’s tourism pulling power (one ahead of the…
Reconciliation, please, but don’t mention the war
David Reid* ‘Reconciliation, please, but don’t mention the war’, Honest History, 6 May 2015 I pen this as a descendant of a Scottish surgeon who came by ship to Terra Australis 195 years ago. His son, who arrived with him…
Honest History miscellany: more angles on Anzac 100
Update 1 May 2015: Last posts? On the Mcintyre case, Gillian Triggs in Fairfax noted the limited mileage in free speech arguments, given Australia’s current legal arrangements. Anticipating some of Mcintyre’s remarks, Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson had his thoughtful…
Small but powerful: two Canberra Great War exhibitions
‘Small but powerful: two Canberra Great War exhibitions’, Honest History, 13 April 2015 David Stephens reviews All That Fall at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and When Hall Answered the Call at the Hall School Museum, Hall, A.C.T. You only…
Australia comes in little cheerful chunks
‘Australia comes in little cheerful chunks’, Honest History, 11 March 2015 David Stephens reviews Australia: the Story of Us (Channel 7), episodes 1-4 Australia: the Story of Us (ASU hereafter) is a franchise owned by an American firm called Nutopia.…
Review note: ‘These are our stories’ – Defining Moments at NMA
‘Review note: “These are our stories” – Defining Moments at the National Museum of Australia’, Honest History, 3 March 2015 Cultural institutions tell stories. At the entrance to the National Museum of Australia, on its promontory on Canberra’s Lake Burley…
Daley, Paul: Fight for Indigenous relics
Daley, Paul ‘”It taunts us spiritually”: the fight for Indigenous relics spirited off to the UK‘, Guardian Australia, 14 February 2015 Updates the battle by Indigenous Australians to return to Australia relics taken to England by collectors in the nineteenth…
E-newsletter no.22, 3 February 2015
ISSN: 2202-5561 © New on the site (honesthistory.net.au) Anzac’s unauthorised biographer talks at ADFA Summer School: Carolyn Holbrook Cowardice: A Brief History: Chris Walsh’s book reviewed by Diane Bell Indigenous tactics in the Frontier Wars: Ray Kerkhove explains A family viewpoint on Anzackery: former soldier David…
Humphrey McQueen’s archives come to Honest History
Distinguished Australian historian and activist, Humphrey McQueen, has generously donated to Honest History a collection of his articles and book chapters on a wide range of subjects. We thank him for this. In coming months we will be posting much…
Honest History supporter Paul Daley wins Walkley
Honest History distinguished supporter, Paul Daley, has just won a Walkley Award for Coverage of Indigenous Affairs. He won with articles in Guardian Australia on how the Australian War Memorial ignores the Frontier Wars, the trade in body parts of…
E-Newsletter No. 18, 2 September 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Not just a newsletter, also a website; these are new Loyalty long ago and honesty today: Pamela Burton on claims that Dr John Burton was a spy Pioneering writing on the Frontier Wars: Humphrey McQueen (1973, 1977 and 1981) Blokes…
Atkins, Jon: Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign
Atkins, Jon ‘Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign: its genesis and objectives’, Honest History, 1 September 2014 This article describes one example of community activity which is questioning the received, official view of Anzac, as set out in, for example, the Australian…
Honest History list: seven nation-shaping events before Gallipoli
Some Australians say the Australian nation was ‘born’ at Gallipoli. Others hedge their bets by suggesting our nationhood was ‘affirmed’ there or that we ‘came of age’. The most extreme views imply that an effusion of blood is necessary before…
Australian Historical Association Conference 2014
The conference was held in Brisbane 7-11 July 2014. Abstracts of the papers presented are available as a pdf AHA_Conference Abstract Book. Bloggers Shauna Hicks and Yvonne Perkins have posted comments as has Marion Diamond, with some comments on the…
Stanley, Peter: NAIDOC Week 2014 ADFA address
Stanley, Peter ‘NAIDOC Week 2014 address at Australian Defence Force Academy, 10 July 2014, Honest History, 10 July 2014 Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues. I’m honoured to have been asked to speak today and, in doing so, I acknowledge the traditional…
E-newsletter no 16, 7 July 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 Not only a newsletter but also a website … with these new items The Simpson Prize: civics education or proper history for Years 9 and 10? NAIDOC Week and Indigenous warriors: copping out or playing it carefully? Anzac and…
Commemorating our warriors – all of them
NAIDOC Week sees two important articles about the need to comprehensively commemorate all who have shed blood for their country. Paul Daley writes in the Guardian Australia that it is ‘inconsistent to celebrate Indigenous Australians’ service in Imperial armies while…
McQueen, Humphrey: Anzac: a class struggle
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Anzac: a class struggle’, Honest History, 3 July 2014 ‘History wars’ are about how to control the future. They are not disputes over the past. Stories about the past are pressed into service to buttress the needs of…
Centenary Watch: March 2014
Update 19 March 2014: Minister on veterans’ mental health and centenary spend [Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may…
Review note: Battle of Indigenous warriors
‘Review note: the Battle of the Indigenous warriors’, Honest History, 24 May 2014 and updated A notable element of the Anzac centenary is the attention being paid to the stories of Indigenous soldiers wearing the King’s uniform in the two…
Cahill, Rowan: Enemy within
Cahill, Rowan ‘The enemy within‘, Overland, 24 April 2014 Short article on how Australia’s defence forces have been deployed domestically throughout our history, in the Frontier Wars, the Rum Corps era in early New South Wales, during strikes from the…
Stanley, Peter: Anzac and our first war
Stanley, Peter ‘On Anzac Day, we remember the Great War but forget our first war‘, The Conversation, 25 April 2014 On Anzac Day, Australia remembers its war dead, with one tragic exception. Australia is apparently disinclined to acknowledge the fact or…
Review note: Anzac miscellany 2014
‘Review note: Anzac miscellany 2014’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 Anzac Day and the period surrounding it always produces reflective pieces, as well as colour supplements and, increasingly, promotional links to football games. In 2014, 99 years on, the number…
Stephens, David: Parochial commemoration
Stephens, David ‘Parochial commemoration of war‘, Pearls and Irritations [John Menadue’s blog], 23 April 2014 Guest blog arguing that the Australian War Memorial narrowly defines its own legislation with the result that the Memorial ‘is missing many opportunities to expand…
E-newsletter no.13, 30 April 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 New on the site Alternative Anzac: Remembering and Healing in Lismore models a peaceful world Alison Broinowski on some exotic characters with Australian connections New members join the Honest History committee Paddy Gourley on a defence spending…
Daley, Paul: Indigenous remains
Daley, Paul ‘Restless indigenous remains‘, Meanjin, 73, 1, March 2014 The author explores the storage facilities of the National Museum of Australia and writes about the implications for the way we treat the dead from our wars, overseas and at…
Honest History-Manning Clark House lecture series 2014: Archived
Honest History is collaborating with Manning Clark House, Canberra, to hold a series of eight lectures on the honest history theme. The lectures are on Monday evenings at 5.30 pm for 6.00 pm (cost and details below). The first lecture…
Green, Michael: Once were warriors
Green, Michael ‘Once were warriors‘, The Age, 5 February 2014 Looks at moves in Melbourne to commemorate two Indigenous warriors, hung in 1842 for killing two white men. The City Council has agreed to a memorial but needs to decide…
E-Newsletter No. 10, 24 February 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 Donate to Honest History: a force for good; Pay Pal now available Write for Honest History: contact us to ask how New on the website Michael Piggott reviews the Anzac Voices exhibition at the Australian War…
Cahill, Rowan: Khaki future?
Cahill, Rowan ‘A khaki future?‘ Overland, 1 October 2013 Brief history of Australia’s ‘martial and warlike’ history from 1788, noting military rule by the New South Wales Corps in the first days of settlement, through preparations for World War I,…
Piggott, Michael: Battle for Australia
Piggott, Michael ‘The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s “Forgotten War”’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 Michael Piggott reviews the most recent of Henry Reynolds’s series of books on the ‘frontier wars’ between Indigenous Australians and white settlers. The…
Stockings, Craig & John Connor, ed.: Before the Anzac dawn
Stockings, Craig & John Connor, ed. Before the Anzac Dawn: A Military History of Australia before 1915, NewSouth, Sydney, 2013 This book provides a comprehensive and compelling account of Australian military history before any soldier set foot on Gallipoli. It…
Ziino, Bart: Round trip
Ziino, Bart ‘A kind of round trip: Australian soldiers and the tourist analogy 1914-1918’, War & Society, 25, 2, October 2006, pp. 39-52 Examines the argument that going to war was like being a tourist. Has extensive notes and references…
Piggott, Michael: The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s ‘Forgotten War’
Michael Piggott* ‘The Battle for Australia: Henry Reynolds’s “Forgotten War”‘, Honest History Newsletter No. 5, September 2013 There is so much about Henry Reynolds’s latest book (Forgotten War, NewSouth Publishing, 2013) to admire, to think about and to endorse. What…
Stephens, David: War Memorial art has always been eclectic – and some of it has been incisive
David Stephens* ‘War Memorial art has always been eclectic – and some of it has been incisive’, Honest History, 23 January 2025 The Australian War Memorial has built up an eclectic art collection over many years. There is George Lambert’s…
War Memorial needs to talk peace says Medical Association for Prevention of War
Medical Association for Prevention of War Australia (MAPW) has published a new report which includes a set of principles to improve the Australian War Memorial’s programming for children. The report is Time to Talk Peace: the Australian War Memorial and Children. See…
Published 1 November: Professor Peter Stanley’s Beyond the Broken Years: Australian Military History in 1000 Books
Details are here. Peter Stanley was the inaugural President of Honest History when it was an incorporated association. He is now President of Defending Country Memorial Project Inc., campaigning for the Australian War Memorial to properly recognise and commemorate the…
War Memorial’s latest Corporate and Strategic Plans contain some puzzles
Our sister site, Defending Country, has looked closely at the War Memorial’s most recent Corporate and Strategic Plans – so you don’t have to. Part 1: Word Play; Part 2: Don’t Mention the War. Part 1: Here is Corporate Plan 24-28…
Minister Keogh provides details on how to lodge Expression of Interest in War Memorial Council
Minister Keogh has provided details of how to lodge an Expression of Interest in becoming a member of the governing Council of the Australian War Memorial. Application material is rather buried on the standard Department of Veterans’ Affairs website. Scroll down…
Government announces more money for National Library’s Trove service – but more needed for NLA and other national cultural institutions
Finance Minister Gallagher has announced $33m of extra funding for the National Library’s highly valued and much used Trove service. Further pre-Budget announcements are expected affecting the cultural institutions. For earlier stories covering the range of needs of national cultural…
Stephens, David: Why on Earth did Labor reappoint Tony Abbott to the Council of the Australian War Memorial?
David Stephens* ‘Why on Earth did Labor reappoint Tony Abbott to the Council of the Australian War Memorial?’ Honest History, 27 September 2022 updated Update 19 October 2022: Could the answer to the above question lie in the suggestion that…
Stephens, David: Lest We Forget#3: Five years since The Honest History Book put Anzac in its proper place in Australian history
David Stephens* ‘Lest We Forget#3: Five years since The Honest History Book put Anzac in its proper place in Australian history’, Honest History, 18 April 2022 Five years ago this month, NewSouth Books published The Honest History Book, edited by…
Abbott, Derek: A rewarding and timely book on Russians who came to Australia
Derek Abbott* ‘A rewarding and timely book on Russians who came to Australia’, Honest History, 17 June 2021 Derek Abbott reviews Sheila Fitzpatrick’s White Russians, Red Peril: a Cold War History of Migration to Australia Immigration into Australia seems always…
Palmer, Charlotte (with David Stephens): Evidence-based interventions for PTSD related to military service: what is the role of the Australian War Memorial?
Charlotte Palmer* (with David Stephens**) ‘Evidence-based interventions for PTSD related to military service: what is the role of the Australian War Memorial?’ Honest History, 16 February 2020 This article adds to the material collected in the Heritage Guardians diary of…
Daley, Paul: We demean our history when we turn the Australian War Memorial into Disneyland
Paul Daley ‘We demean our history when we turn the Australian War Memorial into Disneyland‘, Guardian Australia, 5 September 2019 Uses letter from former Memorial Director Brendon Kelson to Minister Chester to make some trenchant points about the proposed extensions…
Stephens, David: That diversity trumpet sounding louder: Australian Foreign Affairs, Meanjin, and the Australian Dictionary of Biography
David Stephens* ‘That diversity trumpet sounding louder: Australian Foreign Affairs, Meanjin, and the Australian Dictionary of Biography’, Honest History, 28 March 2019 updated Update 12 April 2019: Henry Reynolds in this edition of Meanjin: now open access The announcement of a…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 50, 10 April 2018
ISSN: 2202-5561 New at honesthistory.net.au Brendan Nelson’s bunker and with cap in hand: contrasts in funding our national cultural institutions Lest We Forget again: Anzac Day is an opportunity to confront our violent frontier past and its shadow today, writes…
McKenna, Mark: Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future
Mark McKenna Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Australia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if its citizens and politicians can come to new terms with…
Shield, John: A Vandemonian war story passionately told
John Shield* ‘A Vandemonian war story passionately told’, Honest History, 29 October 2017 John Shield reviews The Vandemonian War by Nick Brodie If you were slightly unsure about this book and its subject matter before, Nick Brodie does everybody a…
The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells (review of McKay & Swift)
‘The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 David Stephens* reviews The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift The Battle of Vimy…
Bottoms, Timothy: Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia
Timothy Bottoms ‘Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia‘, Honest History, 26 May 2017 The attached pdf is a revised and extended version of the prologue to the author’s 2013 book, Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s Frontier Killing Times. Honest History thanks Timothy…
The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation
Roger D. Markwick* ‘The “sacralisation” of history and state legitimation’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 This is a slightly edited version of a paper presented to a conference, History and Authority: Political Vocabularies of the Modern Age, Humanities Research Centre,…
An anthropologist, an historian and his historians: Diane Bell on Tom Griffiths
‘An anthropologist, an historian and his historians: Diane Bell on Tom Griffiths’, Honest History, 26 October 2016 Diane Bell* reviews Tom Griffiths, The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft Who is your favourite Australian historian? Why? In 14…
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip journeys to AHA Ballarat
Update 8 July 2016: Janine has added some more about the next day of the Conference, covering papers on the Red Cross during World War I, Australian soldiers in the Boer War, museums, and living and dying. Of particular interest…
McLean, Ian: With secrecy and despatch (review of exhibition)
McLean, Ian ‘With secrecy and despatch‘, Artlink, April 2016 This is a review of an exhibition (With Secrecy and Despatch, 9 April-12 June) at the Campbelltown Arts Centre on Australian and Canadian contemporary Indigenous art. It also touches on When…
Centenary Watch updates October-November 2015
[Links checked 15 November 2017 and all were live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 20 November 2015: missing the target in the AWM’s Great…
Watching the neighbours (review of Wesley)
‘Watching the neighbours’ (review of Wesley), Honest History, 13 October 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews Michael Wesley’s Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia’s New Geopolitics Robert Burns enjoined us to see ourselves as others see us; Michael Wesley would also have…
Some non-MSM media takes on Goodes are worth reading
We hope that both The Monthly Today and The Conversation are these days getting more readers than the venerable organs (or the organs owned by the venerable) but, just in case you missed them, here are links to Sean Kelly…
Anzac and Anzackery: Kogarah speech
David Stephens ‘Anzac and Anzackery: speech to Kogarah Historical Society, 14 May 2015′, Honest History, 9 June 2015 I acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and their elders past and present. I…
Investing our legacies
‘Investing our legacies’, Honest History, 16 April 2015 David Stephens reviews Griffith Review 48, ‘Enduring legacies’, edited by Julianne Schultz and Peter Cochrane The title of this excellent collection is, at one level, obvious but, at another, full of possibilities.…
Daley, Paul: Indigenous Diggers and Anzackery
Daley, Paul ‘Indigenous Diggers and the new age of Anzackery‘, Meanjin, 2 April 2015 Contrasts the commemorative festival with the treatment of an atypical Indigenous Digger, caught between cultures. The opening paragraphs are a good summary of the history of…
Gallipoli episodes 4 and 5 reviewed by Peter Stanley
‘Scars breaking out on the Peninsh*’, Honest History, 5 March 2015 Peter Stanley** reviews episodes 4 and 5 of Gallipoli (Channel 9). Reviews of episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episodes 6 and 7. Channel 9’s decision to ‘raise the…
Is this ‘our story’? AWM’s refurbished WWI galleries
‘Is this “our story”? Another look at the Australian War Memorial’s refurbished World War I galleries’, Honest History, 3 March 2015 David Stephens takes a further look at the new galleries. There are launches and launches. The Australian War Memorial…
Anzackery: a personal view
David Reid* ‘Anzackery: a personal view’, Honest History, 3 February 2015 The author came to Honest History’s attention when he wrote on Twitter that Anzackery ‘filled today’s military platoons’. We asked him to write for us at greater length. HH…
Kerkhove, Ray: Aboriginal guerilla tactics Southern Queensland 1843-55
Kerkhove, Ray ‘A different mode of war? Aboriginal “guerilla tactics” in defining the “Black War” of Southern Queensland 1843-1855: a paper presented July 2014 AHA Conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane’, Honest History, 3 February 2015 Frontier violence and Indigenous resistance…
Review note: historiography miscellany
‘Review note: historiography miscellany’, Honest History, 21 January 2015 Herodotus Reaching back more than 2400 years to one of the founders of the discipline seems a good place to start. Herodotus, a Greek born in modern day Turkey, penned his…
NAIDOC Week 2014: Trojan Horse or diversion?
This post replaces an earlier collection of material related to NAIDOC. The original post was unable to be updated for technical reasons, so we have created a new section (with a new title) where we intend to place related material…
Honest History: possible, desirable, necessary?
Peter Stanley ‘Honest History: possible, desirable, necessary? Eldershaw Memorial Lecture to Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Hobart, 12 August 2014’, Honest History, 4 November 2014 Good evening ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, friends, and especially members of Peter Eldershaw’s family. I thank…
Clements, Nicholas: Black War in Tasmania
Clements, Nicholas The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2014 Between 1825 and 1831 close to 200 Britons and 1000 Aborigines died violently in Tasmania’s Black War. It was by far the…
McQueen, Humphrey: Preface to The Black Resistance
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Part II: Preface to The Black Resistance (1977)’, Honest History, 2 September 2014 The publication of the lecture in Part I stimulated a group of students to widen and deepen the sketch in the lecture. This became Fergus…
McQueen, Humphrey: Defending Australia from the Pink Peril
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Part I: Defending Australia from the Pink Peril (1973)’, Honest History, 2 September 2014 From a lecture given in Australian History III, Australian National University, July 1973. It was later printed in Woroni (ANU) 16 July 1973, then…
Jauncey chews on chota hazri in Kolkata (30 January)
Peter Stanley takes over the Jauncey pen from David Stephens. I’m in Kolkata to deliver the keynote address at a conference, ‘Re-newing the military history of colonial India’, held at Jadavpur University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in…
E-newsletter No. 6, October 2013
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Website launch The new Honest History website (www.honesthistory.net.au) will be launched by Paul Daley, journalist and author (Beersheba, Armageddon: Two Men on an Anzac Trail, Collingwood: A Love Story, Canberra) 6.00 pm, Thursday, 7 November 2013…
Recommended links
Let us know if you have suggestions for more links to include. (The links here were last updated on 26 June 2021.) You can also find hundreds of links from our Centenary Watch section and from the items in our…
Reynolds, Henry: Forgotten War
Henry Reynolds Forgotten War, New South, Sydney, 2013 The book (winner of the Victorian Premier’s award for non-fiction) chronicles in relentless detail the frontier war between settlers and Indigenous Australians, which saw upwards of 30 000 Aborigines and at least…
E-newsletter No.5, September 2013
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2013 Website launch The new Honest History website (www.honesthistory.net.au) will be launched by Paul Daley, journalist and author (Beersheba, Armageddon: Two Men on an Anzac Trail, Collingwood: A Love Story,Canberra) 6.00 pm, Thursday, 7 November 2013 Manning…
Stephens, David: Tangled up in red, white and blue
David Stephens* ‘Tangled up in red, white and blue’, Honest History e-Newsletter no. 5, September 2013 War remembrance and days of commemoration bring out extremes of rhetoric, little gems of hyperbole that even the speaker might reconsider had they given…
Stanley, Peter: Gallipoli – 98 years on: Gallipoli Club address
Peter Stanley Gallipoli – 98 years on: Professor Peter Stanley’s speech to Gallipoli Memorial Club symposium, 7 August 2013 (posted to site, 28 October 2013) On 7 August (the anniversary of the August offensive on Gallipoli) the Gallipoli Memorial Club…
David Stephens
Dr David Stephens is Editor of the Honest History website and was Secretary of the Honest History coalition (wound up in February 2019). During the Vietnam War era he was a conscientious objector and a National Service Act defaulter. He…