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Defining Moments in Australian history: events at National Museum

Honest History has been a fan of the Defining Moments project at the National Museum of Australia. We are pleased to see a program of events around Defining Moments is getting under way in Canberra next week, 24 September, with this first bout featuring George Megalogenis, Michelle Arrow, Jackie Huggins and Gideon Haigh. ABC’s Big Ideas will be there. More to come later in the year.

Twelve months ago, Honest History compared the initial list of Defining Moments with our own ‘strands of Australian history’. Earlier this year, we came back to the subject. Paul Daley of the Guardian Australia has also written about the subject.

Inevitably, in this time of military commemoration, we have contrasted the eclectic approach of the National Museum with the slogan of the Australian War Memorial (‘Every nation has its story; this is our story’) though we note that the current Reality in flames exhibition at the Memorial takes a broader view. As we said in March this year: ‘One of Honest History’s motivations has been to use the Anzac centenary to look more broadly at Australian history. Defining Moments does that and it should be praised accordingly.

David Stephens

16 September 2015