The history of soldier settlement after the Great War has been greatly enhanced by this comprehensive, lovingly researched, 238xA4 page history of what happened in the Boyne Valley, west of Gladstone, Queensland. The book’s authors are John Shield and Kathleen…
Book note: A Happy Corner: The Story of the Ubobo Soldiers’ Settlement in the Boyne Valley
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath, People like us, The land we live in, The sweat of our brows
Stephens, David: Did Four Corners offer a new direction for a War Memorial that has lost its way?
David Stephens* ‘Did Four Corners offer a new direction for a War Memorial that has lost its way?’ Honest History, 18 March 2025 The war memorial to me is one of Australia’s most important places. It is sacred, but it’s…
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…
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…
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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,…
Book note: The Big Book of Australian Yarns by Jim Haynes
Published just this week, this is a fat, well-produced, mostly well-written tome by a prolific author in the field, who has previously (34 books) written about convicts, rascals, furphies, war stories, drinking, rorts, racing, Gallipoli, trucking, and limericks. This new…
Piggott, Michael: White lies, archival truths and R.J.L. Hawke
Michael Piggott ‘White lies, archival truths and R.J.L. Hawke‘, Inside Story, 17 October 2024 This article contains archivist Piggott’s close analysis of the evidence relating to Hawke’s swim – or not-swim – in a pond at the Australian National University…
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…
Parliamentary Inquiry into Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024
The Australian Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (JSCATSIA) is conducting an Inquiry into the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024. Submissions are due by 6 September. The Bill is intended to establish a Commission…
From the Honest History vault: Russians came to Australia in peace
At a time when relations with Russia are bouncing along the bottom, it is worth reposting this 2021 review by Derek Abbott of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book, White Russians, Red Peril: a Cold War History of Migration to Australia. Immigration into…
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…
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Defending Country website launches to keep the War Memorial honest about Frontier Wars
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…
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…
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: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (a review)
We first posted this in 2018 and have re-run it a couple of times since. Again, it seems apposite in the week before the Voice vote, when whitefeller attitudes to blackfellers (and vice versa) seem to be front and centre.…
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…
Griffiths, Tom: Odyssey down under
Tom Griffiths ‘Odyssey down under‘, Inside Story, 8 September 2023 In the beginning, on a vast tract of continental crust in the southern hemisphere of planet Earth, the Dreaming brought forth the landscape, rendering it alive and full of meaning.…
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Book note: Time to Listen: an Indigenous Voice to Parliament by Melissa Castan and Lynette Russell
This thin (96 pp) but very useful book is notable for three things: ease of reading; reminding us that WEH Stanner’s famous ‘great Australian silence’ was not just accidental but deliberate; more importantly, stressing that the point of having a…
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…
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…
Broinowski, Alison: Can we handle the truth? Henry Reynolds’ major 2021 work is crucial reference in this year of the Voice
Alison Broinowski* ‘Can we handle the truth? Henry Reynolds’ major 2021 work is crucial reference in this year of the Voice’, Honest History, 24 August 2023 Alison Broinowski reviews Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, by Henry Reynolds Originally…
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…
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…
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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.…
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:…
Emerita Professor Diane Bell wins Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
Congratulations to eminent anthropologist and author, Diane Bell, who has been awarded the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship at Adelaide Writers Week. Details below. Professor Bell has written a number of times for Honest History (use our Search engine). 9 March…
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,…
National Cultural Policy documents: strong emphasis on First Nations
PM’s speech. Statement from PM and Minister Burke. The full policy. Commentary (and others linked from there). I would ask the arts community to join with me in urging us to take forward those steps together later this year by…
From the Honest History vault: The Holocaust exhibition at the Australian War Memorial
Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day. Not many Australians know that the Australian War Memorial has had since 2016 a permanent exhibition* commemorating the Holocaust, with particular emphasis on that horrific event’s Australian survivors. It was to the great credit of…
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…
Lockhart, Greg: Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation
Greg Lockhart* ‘Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation’, Honest History, 20 December 2022 Greg Lockhart is a leading historian of Australia’s Vietnam War (Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam; The Minefield: an…
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Lockhart, Greg: Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 1 – Neo-Colonial Race Strategy
Greg Lockhart* ‘Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 1 – Neo-Colonial Race Strategy’, Honest History, 14 December 2022 updated Greg Lockhart is a leading historian of Australia’s Vietnam War (Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam;…
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Piggott, Michael: Waiting for a cultural policy for Christmas
Michael Piggott* ‘Waiting for a cultural policy for Christmas’, Honest History, 12 December 2022 updated When Anthony Albanese announced his ministry at the end of May, Tony Burke became Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and separately, Minister for the…
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…
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…
The death of Queen Victoria: compare and contrast
We found this below from a quick shuffle through the National Library’s excellent Trove resource. There is masses more, but this will do, both on that death and for any interesting comparisons that may be drawn with this week’s event.…
Beaumont, Joan: Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced
Joan Beaumont Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022; electronic version available How a nation still in grief from the Great War…
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Wright, Claire EF: Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows
Claire EF Wright* ‘Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows’, Honest History, 5 September 2022 Claire EF Wright reviews Joan Beaumont’s Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War…
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Stephens, David: What’s the Idea? Still searching for the soul of the nation
David Stephens* ‘What’s the Idea? Still searching for the soul of the nation’, Honest History, 23 August 2022 I don’t propose to do a review of Julianne Schultz’s, The Idea of Australia: A Search for the Soul of a Nation,…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Daley, Paul: Jesustown: A Novel
Paul Daley Jesustown: A Novel, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022 From award-winning journalist Paul Daley comes a gripping multi-generational saga about Australian frontier violence and cultural theft that will capture the national imagination … Morally bereft popular historian Patrick Renmark…
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Stephens, David: Paul Daley’s novel Jesustown is as complex and troubling as our Australian history
David Stephens* ‘Paul Daley’s novel Jesustown is as complex and troubling as our Australian history’, Honest History, 3 July 2022 David Stephens reviews Jesustown: A Novel, by Paul Daley Important novels are grounded in an appreciation of human nature and…
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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…
Broinowski, Alison: Review: The daughters of John Burton are determined to correct the public record of their parents
Alison Broinowski ‘Review: The daughters of John Burton are determined to correct the public record of their parents‘, Canberra Times, 11 June 2022 (pdf from our subscription) updated Review of Persons of Interest: An Intimate Account of Cecily and John…
Eureka Street Plus gets under way with Father Frank Brennan on the Uluru Statement
Eureka Street has been around for a long time as a thoughtful, judicious commentator on affairs, with a special interest in religious matters. (It is a publication of Jesuit Communications Australia.) Eureka Street Plus proposes to deliver bi-monthly essays, roundtables,…
Finnane, Mark: A Museum of Australian Policing: That’s a good idea, but what stories will it tell?
Mark Finnane* ‘A Museum of Australian Policing: That’s a good idea, but what stories will it tell?’, Honest History, 9 April 2022 In one of the flurry of pre-Budget news drops, the Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, announced recently that…
Knapman, Gareth: The Batman Treaty’s feudal obligation to the Kulin and the unpaid debt of $68 million a year
Gareth Knapman* ‘The Batman Treaty’s feudal obligation to the Kulin and the unpaid debt of $68 million a year’, Honest History, 10 February 2022 [Dr Knapman is writing a book which addresses the question, how did British colonial figures understand…
O’Connell, Deirdre: Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia’s Jazz Age
Deirdre O’Connell Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia’s Jazz Age, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2021 The 1920s were a time of wonder and flux, when Australians sensed a world growing smaller, turning faster-and, for some, skittering off balance. American…
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Myrtle, John: Tough gig: American jazz culture comes to 1928 White Australia
John Myrtle* ‘Tough gig: American jazz culture comes to 1928 White Australia’, Honest History, 3 December 2021 John Myrtle reviews Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia’s Jazz Age by Deirdre O’Connell Jazz, distinctively American musical style. The historical significance…
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Sulllivan, Christopher Daniel: The case for an Australian folk music tradition
Christopher Daniel Sullivan The case for an Australian folk music tradition, PhD thesis, Southern Cross University, 2020 (available on open access, including music files) Using new and more comprehensive sources this thesis re-interprets the evidence for an Australian folk music…
Professor Megan Davis gives Dymphna Clark Memorial Lecture on Uluru Statement from the Heart
Manning Clark House, Canberra, presents: Annual Dymphna Clark Lecture with Professor Megan Davis, ‘The promise of the Uluru Statement from the Heart: the past, the present and the future of First Nations Australia’. Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 6:00 PM –…
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Menadue, John: Our democracy is decaying from within
John Menadue ‘Our democracy is decaying from within‘, Pearls & Irritations, 16 September 2021 Former senior public servant and businessman calls for a summit of community leaders to help chart democratic renewal. With the loss of trust in our political…
Simons, Margaret: What responsibilities do journalists have on social media?
Margaret Simons ‘What responsibilities do journalists have on social media?‘ ABC Religion and Ethics, 30 August 2021 Thoughtful piece from a senior journalist and academic. Takes a balanced view of the pros and cons of journalists working on social media…
Knapman, Gareth: Bain Attwood on the not so terra nullius: a review article
Gareth Knapman* ‘Bain Attwood on the not so terra nullius’: a review article’, Honest History, 31 August 2021 In 2020, Bain Attwood published Empire and the Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People. Attwood presents a compelling argument…
From the Honest History vault: review of Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia: racist society or casual racism or both?
Footballers Taylor Walker (with his slur against Robbie Young), Eddie Betts and Nic Naitanui have brought to the fore the issue of racism in sport. Have they shown us yet again that Australia is a ‘racist society’, systemically, inherently, inevitably,…
‘Heal Country’ theme of NAIDOC Week 2021 – and getting at the truth of Murdering Point
Euahlayi man and ANU PhD candidate Bhiamie Williamson rounds off NAIDOC Week with a reflection in The Conversation on this year’s NAIDOC theme, Heal Country: Heal Country forces us to see these events [Juukan Gorge, mine pollution in Northern Territory]…
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From the Honest History vault for NAIDOC Week: A 2018 conversation on ABC RN
During NAIDOC Week 2018, ABC presenter Hamish Macdonald talked to four Indigenous Australians on Indigenous Australian successes and inspirations today. Featured were Mikaela Jade (story-telling technology entrepreneur), Evelyn Araluen (poet and Indigenous literature researcher), Kris Rallah-Baker (opthalmologist), and Ben Abbatangelo (education mentor). The tape ends with…
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From the Honest History vault for NAIDOC Week: Tjanara Goreng Goreng’s review of Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming
‘From the Honest History vault for NAIDOC Week: Tjanara Goreng Goreng’s review of Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming‘, Honest History, 7 July 2021 Here’s a paragraph from the review: The book finishes with a reflection of what it means for…
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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…
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Fitzpatrick, Sheila: White Russians, Red Peril: a Cold War History of Migration to Australia
Sheila Fitzpatrick White Russians, Red Peril: a Cold War History of Migration to Australia, La Trobe University Press, Melbourne, 2021; electronic version available Making use of newly discovered Russian-language archives and drawing on a lifetime’s study of Soviet history and…
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…
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…
Stephens, David: Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun: a children’s book focusses sharply on 26 January
David Stephens* ‘Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun: a children’s book focusses sharply on 26 January’, Honest History, 31 January 2021 Much of the debate about Australia Day/Invasion Day 26 January has been between grown-ups. This book, Day…
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McQuire, Amy: If your child asks why Australia is celebrating a day of invasion, what will you tell them?
Amy McQuire ‘If your child asks why Australia is celebrating a day of invasion, what will you tell them?‘, Guardian Australia, 26 January 2021 First Nations children are silenced even though the most brutal acts of colonisation were perpetrated and…
Piggott, Michael: An out-of-shape homage to Ned Kelly’s murdered victims at Stringybark Creek
Michael Piggott* ‘An out-of-shape homage to Ned Kelly’s murdered victims at Stringybark Creek’, Honest History, 25 January 2021 Michael Piggott reviews Doug Morrissey’s Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders With this book, Doug Morrissey and Connor Court Publishing end…
Morrissey, Doug: Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders
Doug Morrissey Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders, Connor Court Publishing, Brisbane, 2020 Doug Morrissey presents the definitive account of the Stringybark Creek Police Murders. The ambush murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek in October 1878 was Ned…
Kenny, Mark: Why looking back is the only way forward: COVID-19, the Federation, and the chance of genuine reconciliation
Mark Kenny ‘Why looking back is the only way forward: COVID-19, the Federation, and the chance of genuine reconciliation: 2020 Henry Parkes Oration‘, Parkes Foundation, 19 October 2020 Makes the case for an Indigenous museum; contrasts it with spending on…
Inglis, Ken, Bill Gammage, Seumas Spark & Jay Winter, with Carol Bunyan, Dunera Lives: Profiles
Ken Inglis, Bill Gammage, Seumas Spark & Jay Winter, with Carol Bunyan Dunera Lives: Profiles, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2020 The story of the “Dunera Boys” is an intrinsic part of the history of Australia in the Second World War…
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Holt, Stephen: Another Philipp (sic) encounters Australia: one of many stories in a rich second Dunera volume
Stephen Holt* ‘Another Philipp (sic) encounters Australia: one of many stories in a rich second Dunera volume’, Honest History, 30 September 2020 Stephen Holt reviews Dunera Lives: Profiles, by Ken Inglis, Bill Gammage, Seumas Spark and Jay Winter with Carol…
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Bongiorno, Frank: An obedient nation of larrikins: why Victorians are not revolting
Frank Bongiorno ‘An obedient nation of larrikins: why Victorians are not revolting‘, The Conversation, 10 September 2020 Update 21 September 2020: Dave Milner in The Shot newsletter on the low-key Melburnian cope. Speculates about what (mostly supportive) Victorian attitudes to…
Cashen, Phil: The White Australia Policy: always in the background
Phil Cashen ‘The White Australia Policy: always in the background‘, Shire at War, 28 July 2020 From down Alberton, Gippsland, Victoria way comes this detailed post from blogger-historian, Phil Cashen. It looks at the treatment of the White Australia Policy…
Stephens, David: From the Honest History vault: Three reviews of books on the black history of the wide brown land
David Stephens* From the Honest History vault: Three reviews of books on the black history of the wide brown land, Honest History, 28 June 2020 Black Lives Matter. Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody at grossly disproportionate rates. Honest History…
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…
Anthony, Thalia & Stephen Gray: Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate
Thalia Anthony & Stephen Gray ‘Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate‘, The Conversation, 11 June 2020 Comprehensive catalogue of slavery in Australia, with slavery being defined as by the United Nations. Article 1…
Liddle, Celeste: Seeing the con in reconciliation
Celeste Liddle ‘Seeing the con in reconciliation‘, Eureka Street, 28 May 2020 Arrernte feminist writer on the annual disappointment of Reconciliation Week, which began on 27 May. Comments section is strong also. We don’t have ‘land rights’ [says Liddle], just…
Fraser, Nancy, Susan Neiman, Thomas Piketty, and 3000 scholars from 600 universities around the world: Humans are not resources. Coronavirus shows why we must democratise work
Nancy Fraser, Susan Neiman, Thomas Piketty, and 3000 scholars from 600 universities around the world ‘Humans are not resources. Coronavirus shows why we must democratise work‘, Guardian, 16 May 2020 For a while (2014-17), Honest History ran ‘Inequality’ as a…
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Scrimgeour, Anne: On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946–1949
Anne Scrimgeour On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946–1949, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2020 The book is reviewed for Honest History by Rolf Gerritsen. Other reviews: Kathy Gollan in Newtown Review of Books; Jan Richardson in…
Gerritsen, Rolf: A tour de force investigation of Indigenous and labour history
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘A tour de force investigation of Indigenous and labour history’, Honest History, 12 May 2020 Rolf Gerritsen reviews On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946-1949, by Anne Scrimgeour This history is the product of…
Cook 250 years on: Paul Daley and others mark a necessarily low key anniversary
Update 4 May 2020: Henry Reynolds in Pearls and Irritations on Dutch voyages prior to Cook. Update 3 May 2020: Lynette Russell of Monash University on pre-Cook contacts. Update 1 May 2020: Nicholas Thomas in Inside Story. Update 30 April…
Megarrity, Lyndon: The recovery: technology and society
Lyndon Megarrity ‘The recovery: technology and society‘, Australian Policy and History, 9 April 2020 During the CV-19 pandemic, the use of Information Technology has enabled millions to work from home and gain some relief from social isolation while avoiding potential…
From the Honest History vault: Humphrey McQueen and others on the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919
Home page credit: (pic: City of Sydney Archive/Ballarat Courier) 2 July 2020 updated: A 1998 article by Anthea Hyslop (‘Insidious immigrant: Spanish influenza and border quarantine in Australia, 1919′, made available by kind permission of the Australian and New Zealand…
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Smith, Zoe: ‘The Great Australian Silence’: Sexual violence in Australian history
Zoe Smith ‘“The Great Australian Silence”: Sexual violence in Australian history‘, History Matters (University of Sheffield), 5 February 2020 From the first establishment of European settlements in Australia, forced sexual relations perpetrated by white settlers have remained relatively unspoken about…
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…
Inequality – and innovation – should be front and centre in today’s Australia: new book from Andrew Leigh MP and Joshua Gans
‘The fundamental issue’, according to Nicholas Stuart in the Canberra Times, ‘is that the economic and social problems Labor was formed to combat back in 1891 are no longer relevant’. This is, of course, nonsense if we are talking about…
Pascoe, Bruce: Salt: Selected Stories and Essays
Bruce Pascoe Salt: Selected Stories and Essays, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2019 A collection of stories and essays by the award-winning author of Dark Emu, showcasing his shimmering genius across a lifetime of work. This volume of Bruce Pascoe’s best and most…
Bell, Diane: Read and savour the salt of Bruce Pascoe’s stories and essays of our land
Diane Bell* ‘Read and savour the salt of Bruce Pascoe’s stories and essays of our land’, Honest History, 1 November 2019 Diane Bell reviews Bruce Pascoe’s Salt: Selected Stories and Essays Bruce Pascoe’s dedication of Salt, ‘For the three rivers…
Hilferty, Fiona, Ellie Lawrence-Wood, Ilan Katz, & Miranda Van Hooff: 5,800 defence veterans homeless in Australia, that’s more than we thought
Fiona Hilferty, Ellie Lawrence-Wood, Ilan Katz & Miranda Van Hooff ‘5,800 defence veterans homeless in Australia, that’s more than we thought‘, The Conversation, 30 September 2019 Our research puts a new number on the problem. We still do not know…
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…
O’Connor, Margaret: “The Mountains of Mourne”: such a sweet, charming song
Margaret O’Connor* ‘“The Mountains of Mourne”: such a sweet, charming song’, Honest History, 9 September 2019 ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ is such a sweet, charming song. Just consider the lyrics, in the form of a letter from a naïve Irish…
Quiggin, John: Forget the generation gap – the gulf between rich and poor tells the real story of our times
John Quiggin ‘Forget the generation gap – the gulf between rich and poor tells the real story of our times‘, Guardian Australia, 26 August 2019 Commentary on a Grattan Institute study of the generation gap and ensuring a ‘fair go’…
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…
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,…
Arthure, Susan, Fidelma Breen, Stephanie James & Dymphna Lonergan, ed. Irish South Australia: New Histories and Insights
Susan Arthure, Fidelma Breen, Stephanie James & Dymphna Lonergan, ed. Irish South Australia: New Histories and Insights, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2019 Irish South Australia charts Irish settlement from as far north as Pekina, to the state’s south-east and Mount Gambier. It…
Morrissey, Doug: Something new and original on the Irish in South Australia
Doug Morrissey* ‘Something new and original on the Irish in South Australia’, Honest History, 27 June 2019 Doug Morrissey reviews Irish South Australia: New Histories and Insights, edited by Susan Arthure, Fidelma Breen, Stephanie James, and Dymphna Lonergan This is…
Featherstone, Nigel: Bodies of Men
Nigel Featherstone Bodies of Men, Hachette Australia, Sydney, 2019; electronic version available A beautifully evocative tale of two men whose lives are brought together in tragedy – for lovers of books by Kevin Powers and Sebastian Barry. There is nothing…
Riseman, Noah: This novel is a worthy read on same-sex relations in the forces during the Second World War
Noah Riseman* ‘This novel is a worthy read on same-sex relations in the forces during the Second World War’, Honest History, 19 June 2019 Noah Riseman reviews Bodies of Men, by Nigel Featherstone Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI)…
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…
Smith, Tony: Review note: Don Brian: The Convict Voice: Songs of Transportation to Norfolk Island and NSW
Tony Smith ‘Review note: Don Brian: The Convict Voice: Songs of Transportation to Norfolk Island and NSW’, Honest History, 13 May 2019 updated © 2019 Tony Smith Transportation to the eastern states ceased around 1850 but continued later in Western…
Janson, Julie: The Light Horse Ghost
Julie Janson The Light House Ghost, Nibago, Avalon, NSW, 2018; electronic version available From the World War 1 Middle Eastern Theatre of War, the Desert Campaign and the Light Horse military victory, to a quiet family life in a gold…
Broinowski, Alison: A novel about war on the home front and in the Middle East
Alison Broinowski* ‘A novel about war on the home front and in the Middle East’, Honest History, 12 May 2019 Alison Broinowski reviews Julie Janson’s The Light Horse Ghost Julie Janson knows about the other Australia. Descended from the Darug…
Cooper, Jan: Searching for my father: a war story
Jan Cooper* ‘Searching for my father: a war story’, Honest History, 8 April 2019 Recently I went in search of information about my father, Doug Cooper. Like others born in 1940 or thereabouts, I suspected that I was not alone…
Appin Massacre memorial service to be held on 14 April
A post in Catholica by Keiran Tapsell reminds us that on 14 April there will be a memorial service for the Appin Massacre of 1816. The post links to some information put out by Campbelltown Council about the service. The…
Menzies, Pam: Port Kembla: A Memoir
Pam Menzies Port Kembla: A Memoir, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2019 Port Kembla: A Memoir is the story of a steel town and its movers and shakers like the entrepreneurial Hoskins and Ted Roach, the wharfies’ leader, who were part of…
Cahill, Rowan: A local history that captures the diversity of Australia
Rowan Cahill* ‘A local history that captures the diversity of Australia’, Honest History, 1 April 2019 Rowan Cahill reviews Port Kembla: A Memoir, by Pam Menzies Visiting American-British travel writer Bill Bryson, after browsing Australian second-hand bookshops and seeing the vast…
McQueen, Humphrey: Born free: wage-slaves and chattel-slaves
Humphrey McQueen ‘Born free: wage-slaves and chattel slaves‘, Honest History, 31 March 2019 To adapt Marx’s linking of cotton and slavery with capitalism to the civilising enterprise of the South Australian Company: “Without chattel slaves, the Angases have no mahogany…
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…
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…
Kampmark, Binoy: NZ shooter: the myth of Australian values
Binoy Kampmark ‘NZ shooter: the myth of Australian values‘, Eureka Street, 19 March 2019 The painful truth is that Anning and Tarrant are representative of an aspect of Australian national identity. For decades, they were entirely representative. Their increasing loss of relevance,…
Daley, Paul: ‘A big jump’: people might have lived in Australia twice as long as we thought
Paul Daley ‘“A big jump”: people might have lived in Australia twice as long as we thought‘, Guardian Australia, 11 March 2019 Extensive archaeological research in southern Victoria has again raised the prospect that people have lived in Australia for…
Arrow, Michelle: The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia
Michelle Arrow The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia, NewSouth, Sydney, 2019; electronic version available In 1970 homosexuality was illegal, God Save the Queen was our national anthem and women pretended to be married to access the…
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…
Fraser, Peg: Black Saturday: Not the End of the Story
Peg Fraser Black Saturday: Not the End of the Story, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 The Victorian bushfires of February 2009 captured the attention of all Australians and made headlines around the world. One hundred and seventy-three people lost their…
Stanley, Peter: Black Saturday: a satisfying story about a profoundly important event
Peter Stanley* ‘Black Saturday: a satisfying story about a profoundly important event’, Honest History, 28 February 2019 Peter Stanley reviews Peg Fraser’s Black Saturday: Not the End of the Story While reading Dr Peg Fraser’s insightful and illuminating Black Saturday…
Crowe, Shaun: Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia
Shaun Crowe Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia, MUP Academic, Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Over the past three decades, progressive politics in Australia has undergone a gradual but unmistakable transformation. Where the Australian Labor Party once enjoyed…
Warhurst, John: Whitlam’s Children is lively, well-written and well-researched
John Warhurst* ‘Whitlam’s Children is lively, well-written and well-researched’, Honest History, 20 February 2019 Shaun Crowe’s Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia is reviewed by John Warhurst When Gough Whitlam died in October 2014 his memory was claimed…
Soutphommasane, Tim: Why being an Australian citizen doesn’t mean others will believe you truly belong
Tim Soutphommasane ‘Why being an Australian citizen doesn’t mean others will believe you truly belong‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 2019 The ideal of White Australia was seminal and for all the success of Australian multiculturalism, we remain conditioned by…
Shield, John: The Cardboard Crown: Martin Boyd’s novel about an Australian family caught between two worlds
John Shield* ‘The Cardboard Crown: Martin Boyd’s novel about an Australian family caught between two worlds’, Honest History, 1 February 2019 This is the third of John Shield’s articles exploring the Text Classics list. The first looked at Don Charlwood’s All the Green Year…
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George, Denise: Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights
Denise George Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2018 Suffragist and social justice advocate Mary Lee was determined to leave the world a better place than she…
Burton, Pamela: Mary Lee: a turbulent anarchist in late 19th century Adelaide
Pamela Burton* ‘Mary Lee: a turbulent anarchist in late 19th century Adelaide’, Honest History, 27 January 2019 Pamela Burton reviews Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights, by Denise George This…
Humphrey McQueen and Celeste Liddle – and lots of others – on Australia Day
Here is a link to a piece by Humphrey McQueen just published in Overland (though a version of it appeared two years ago on the Honest History site). McQueen takes a fresh approach to the long-running issues surrounding Australia Day.…
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…
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Lilley, Ian & Celmara Pocock: Australia’s problem with Aboriginal World Heritage
Ian Lilley & Celmara Pocock ‘Australia’s problem with Aboriginal World Heritage‘, The Conversation, 13 December 2018 Of 19 World Heritage sites across the country, including such wonders as the Great Barrier Reef and the Sydney Opera House, only two, Kakadu…
Stephens, David: Paul Daley’s On Patriotism: an appreciation from a fellow-traveller
David Stephens* ‘Paul Daley’s On Patriotism: an appreciation from a fellow-traveller’, Honest History, 16 December 2018 updated This is not really a book review, though a book has set it off. The book is Paul Daley’s On Patriotism, actually an…
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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…
Jeyaratnam, Emil: Twelve charts on race and racism in Australia
Emil Jeyaratnam ‘Twelve charts on race and racism in Australia‘, The Conversation, 28 November 2018 Graphs on ancestry, country of birth, overseas-born residents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, migration patterns, attitude to diversity, attitude to non-discriminatory migration policies, attitudes…
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Byrne, Frank with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford: Living in Hope
Frank Byrne with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford Living in Hope, Ptilotus Press, Alice Springs, 2017 A memoir of boyhood by a man who was removed as a child – from country, from culture and language, from family, from his…
Stephens, David: Out of the great Australian silence: Frank Byrne’s Stolen Generations story
David Stephens* ‘Out of the great Australian silence: Frank Byrne’s Stolen Generations story’, Honest History, 22 November 2018 David Stephens reviews Living in Hope, by Frank Byrne with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford. The book is the winner of the Small…
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]…
Lydon, Jane & Lyndall Ryan, ed.: Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre
Jane Lydon & Lyndall Ryan, ed. Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018; electronic version available The 1838 Myall Creek Massacre is remembered for the brutality of the crime committed by white settlers against innocent Aboriginal men, women and…
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…
Morrissey, Doug: Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves
Doug Morrissey Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves, Connor Court Publishing, Brisbane, 2018 Doug Morrissey’s acclaimed book Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life (2015) was short listed for the prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History in 2016. This, his second…
Piggott, Michael: Flourishing myths and the weight of evidence: Ned Kelly again
Michael Piggott* ‘Flourishing myths and the weight of evidence: Ned Kelly again’, Honest History, 12 October 2018 Doug Morrissey’s Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves is reviewed by Michael Piggott Doug Morrissey’s new book has several preliminaries. As well…
Bell, Diane: Clare Wright’s You Daughters of Freedom is a Big Book about Big Ideas
Diane Bell* ‘Clare Wright’s You Daughters of Freedom is a Big Book about Big Ideas’, Honest History, 7 October 2018 Diane Bell reviews You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book…
Wright, Clare: You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book Two
Clare Wright You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book Two, Text, Melbourne, 2018 For the ten years from 1902, when Australia’s suffrage campaigners won the vote for white women, the…
Daley, Paul: Colonial Australia’s foundation is stained with the profits of British slavery
Paul Daley ‘Colonial Australia’s foundation is stained with the profits of British slavery‘, Guardian Australia, 21 September 2018 Riffs off recently published book, Island Off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy, by Clinton Fernandes. Fernandes…
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Megarrity, Lyndon: Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia
Lyndon Megarrity Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Northern Dreams brings to life the passionate arguments about Northern Australia’s national significance and analyses the political debates that have periodically drawn the public’s…
Gerritsen, Rolf: An essential and well-timed volume on the development of northern Australia
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘An essential and well-timed volume on the development of northern Australia’, Honest History, 3 September 2018 Rolf Gerritsen reviews Lyndon Megarrity’s Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia We are nearing the institutional fag end of…
Flanagan, Richard: The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too
Richard Flanagan ‘The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too‘, Guardian Australia, 5 August 2018 Speech at Garma festival, NT, by distinguished author. (Over 500 comments at time of this…
Clark, Anna: Friday essay: the “great Australian silence” 50 years on
Anna Clark ‘Friday essay: the “great Australian silence” 50 years on‘, The Conversation, 3 August 2018 updated Marks the 50th anniversary of the famous Boyer lectures by anthropologist WEH Stanner, which drew attention to Australian reluctance to confront our Indigenous…
Morris, Shireen: The Uluru Statement from the Heart: why I have hope
Shireen Morris ‘The Uluru Statement from the Heart: why I have hope‘, Legal Affairs (University of Melbourne), 19 July 2018 The Uluru Statement created a massive political opportunity that is not going away. The opportunity remains alive and growing –…
Harman, Kristyn: Explainer: how Tasmania’s Aboriginal people reclaimed a language, palawa kani
Kristyn Harman ‘Explainer: how Tasmania’s Aboriginal people reclaimed a language, palawa kani‘, The Conversation, 19 July 2018 Tasmanian Aboriginal people continue to live on the Bass Strait Islands, in rural and urban Tasmania and elsewhere. Their culture, although severely disrupted…
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Stephens, David: Dunera Lives is a tribute to resilience and a testament of worthy contributions to Australia
David Stephens[*] ‘Dunera Lives is a tribute to resilience and a testament of worthy contributions to Australia’, Honest History, 12 July 2018 updated David Stephens reviews Dunera Lives: A Visual History, by Ken Inglis, Seumas Spark and Jay Winter, with…
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Dunera Lives is well and truly launched: speeches by Frank Bongiorno in Canberra and Raimond Gaita in Melbourne
Dunera Lives: A Visual History was launched in Canberra on 4 July by Frank Bongiorno and in Melbourne on 8 and 9 July by Raimond Gaita. Frank Bongiorno’s speech and Raimond Gaita’s speech, both by courtesy of the authors. David…
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Inglis, Ken, Jay Winter & Seumas Spark, with Carol Bunyan: Dunera Lives: A Visual History
Ken Inglis, Jay Winter & Seumas Spark, with Carol Bunyan Dunera Lives: A Visual History, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 In July 1940, around 2000 refugees, most of whom were Jewish and from Germany or Austria, were sent from Britain…
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Morrissey, Douglas: Stringybark Creek and Glenrowan still resonate but can we ever hit the right note? Ned Kelly movies considered
Douglas Morrissey* ‘Stringybark Creek and Glenrowan still resonate but can we ever hit the right note? Ned Kelly movies considered’, Honest History, 9 July 2018 Recently, there has been an abundance of enthusiastic moviemakers wanting to make films about Ned…
Whiteford, Peter: Good times, bad times
Peter Whiteford ‘Good times, bad times‘, Inside Story, 5 July 2018 Looks at recent evidence of growing inequality in Australia, mostly driven by gains among the highest earners. There is little doubt that inequality is worse now than it was…
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 –…
Buchan, Bruce: Cooking the books
Bruce Buchan ‘Cooking the books’, Inside Story, 14 June 2018 Looks at a British Library exhibition on Cook and contrasts it with recent Australian announcements about celebrating the 250th anniversary of Cook’s 1770 voyage. Buchan draws this conclusion. Not long…
Schultz, Julianne & Sandra Phillips, ed.: Griffith Review 60: First Things First
Julianne Schultz & Sandra Phillips, ed. Griffith Review 60: First Things First, April 2018 After more than two hundred years of largely unresolved disputes, Australia needs to hear the voices of Australia’s First Nations – and act on them. First…
Lake, Meredith: The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History
Meredith Lake The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018 In this surprising and revelatory history of the Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake gets under the skin of a text that’s been read, wrestled with, preached and tattooed,…
McKenna, Mark: First Things First and finding a way through
Mark McKenna* ‘First Things First and finding a way through’, Honest History, 12 June 2018 Mark McKenna reviews Griffith Review 60: First Things First As editor Julianne Schultz explains in her introduction, ‘First Things First’ – a title suggested by…
Hynd, Douglas: The global, cultural and theological Bible: uncovering a history
Douglas Hynd* ‘The global, cultural and theological Bible: uncovering a history’, Honest History, 12 June 2018 Douglas Hynd reviews The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History by Meredith Lake You might think a history of the Bible in Australian culture…
Piggin, Stuart & Robert D. Linder: The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740–1914
Stuart Piggin & Robert D. Linder The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740–1914, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 The official religion brought to Australia with the First Fleet was Evangelical Christianity, the “vital religion” then shaping…
Hynd, Douglas: Evangelical Christians weaved a sturdy thread in our history
Douglas Hynd* ‘Evangelical Christians weaved a sturdy thread in our history’, Honest History, 4 June 2018 Douglas Hynd reviews The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740-1914 by Stuart Piggin and Robert D. Linder The authors of…
Lambert, Michael: Review of Fair Share by Stephen Bell and Michael Keating: Part I; Part II
Michael Lambert ‘Review of Fair Share by Stephen Bell and Michael Keating; Part I; Part II‘, Pearls and Irritations, 28-29 May 2018 The coverage of topics [in the Bell-Keating book] is extensive. While its overall theme is exploring the mitigation…
Burden, Gemmia: The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum
Gemmia Burden ‘The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum‘, The Conversation, 28 May 2018 Detailed examination of the links between frontier violence and museum collecting. While there is no evidence of the museum being directly involved…
Tseen Khoo: What Anzac Day meant for Asian Australians
Tseen Khoo ‘What Anzac Day meant for Asian Australians‘, Eureka Street, 7 May 2018 Anzac Day ‘can signal and embrace former war-time foes [notably Turks] as contemporary allies’ but it can also be a day ‘that mobilises the easily ignited…
Taffe, Sue: A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice
Sue Taffe A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Mary Montgomerie Bennett (1881–1961) is an important but under-recognised figure in Australian history. A member of a successful squatting…
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…
Whitaker, Robyn J.: How the Bible helped shape Australian culture
Robyn J. Whitaker ‘How the Bible helped shape Australian culture‘, The Conversation, 15 May 2018 Discusses Meredith Lake’s new book, The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History. Time and time again, Lake traces the multiplicity of biblical interpretations and applications to…
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…
Morrissey, Doug: The Irishness of Ned Kelly: romance and reality
Doug Morrissey* ‘The Irishness of Ned Kelly: romance and reality’, Honest History, 23 April 2018 Fenian martyr or common criminal? Ned Kelly is a celebrity in both the Australian and Irish republican canons of heroes. In Ireland, he is honoured…
Heiss, Anita, ed.: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
Anita Heiss, ed. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018 What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to…
Stephens, David: This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age
David Stephens ‘This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age’, Honest History, 20 April 2018 David Stephens reviews Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss It makes a…
Winton, Tim: About the boys: Tim Winton on how toxic masculinity is shackling men to misogyny [with some related stuff]
Tim Winton ‘About the boys: Tim Winton on how toxic masculinity is shackling men to misogyny‘ [with some related stuff], Guardian Australia, 9 April 2018 updated An extract from the novelist’s speech about his new book The Shepherd’s Hut. (The…
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…
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Griffiths, Billy: Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia
Billy Griffiths Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Soon after Billy Griffiths joins his first archaeological dig as camp manager and cook, he is hooked. Equipped with a historian’s inquiring mind, he embarks…
Highlights reel: historian Mark McKenna writes in 1997 on ‘black armband history’
‘Highlights reel: historian Mark McKenna writes in 1997 on “black armband history” ‘, Honest History, 10 April 2018 Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future (2018) considers related issues. HH *** Historiography, like history itself,…
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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…
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Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: This book about Australian archaelogy and archaelogists is a gift to all of us
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘This book about Australian archaelogy and archaelogists is a gift to all of us’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, by Billy Griffiths This book reaches into the…
Daley, Paul: Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?
Paul Daley ‘Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?‘ Guardian Australia, 4 April 2018 There is an awakening among constitutional progressives that perhaps the Australian republic ought not be so divorced from the cry out of Uluru last…
Gainsborough, Vance: Review note: Meanjin Autumn 2018: ‘the moral consequences of the things we do’
Vance Gainsborough* ‘Review note: Meanjin Autumn 2018: “the moral consequences of the things we do”‘, Honest History, 5 April 2018 Like all issues of this venerable but feisty publication, Meanjin Autumn 2018 has a lot of meaty content, so this…
Mills, Stephen: Dick Casey’s Forgotten People
Stephen Mills ‘Dick Casey’s Forgotten People‘, Inside Story, 25 February 2018 updated We missed this piece when it first came round but it is worth drawing attention to for its careful study of a notable piece of election year propaganda,…
Shield, John: Between Sky and Sea: Herz Bergner’s Australian Yiddish novel about the Holocaust and the search for the Promised Land
John Shield[1] ‘Between Sky and Sea: Herz Bergner’s Australian Yiddish novel about the Holocaust and the search for the Promised Land’, Honest History, 30 March 2018 This is the second of John Shield’s articles exploring the Text Classics list. The…
Bowern, Claire: The origins of Pama-Nyungan, Australia’s largest family of Aboriginal languages
Claire Bowern ‘The origins of Pama-Nyungan, Australia’s largest family of Aboriginal languages‘, The Conversation, 13 March 2018 The approximately 400 languages of Aboriginal Australia can be grouped into 27 different families. To put that diversity in context, Europe has just four…
Robison, Richard: Why the Coalition, conservatives and big business are terrified by Emma Alberici
Richard Robison ‘Why the Coalition, conservatives and big business are terrified by Emma Alberici‘, Independent Australia, 2 March 2018 update A further contribution to the debate on ABC economics correspondent Emma Alberici’s analysis of Australia’s corporate tax system. (Our post…
Taflaga, Marija: The end of the era of mass politics?
Marija Taflaga ‘The end of the era of mass politics?‘, Inside Story, 26 February 2018 Historical look at the trajectory of the major parties in Australia. Healthy or not, our parties are here to stay. The combination of the preferential…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (34): Shire at War blog looks at alcohol, temperance and attitudes to the war
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (34): Shire at War blog looks at alcohol, temperance and attitudes to the war’, Honest History, 21 February 2018 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Phil Cashen’s assiduous research for his Shire at War blog has…
Stephens, David: How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?
David Stephens ‘How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?’ Honest History, 18 February 2018 updated The ABC’s chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, this week put out some articles on the tax…
Brock, Peggy & Tom Gara, ed.: Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia
Peggy Brock & Tom Gara, ed. Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 The colonial process in South Australia began decades before formal annexation with unregulated interactions between coastal Aboriginal people and European…
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Gerritsen, Rolf: A seminal contribution to South Australian and Australian history
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘A seminal contribution to South Australian and Australian history’, Honest History, 16 February 2018 Rolf Gerritsen reviews Peggy Brock and Tom Gara, ed., Colonialism and its Aftermath: A History of Aboriginal South Australia Aboriginal history has gone through…
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Latimore, Jack: The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame
Jack Latimore ‘The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame‘, Guardian Australia, 13 February 2018 The difficulty and reluctance in recognising the way this intergenerational trauma impacts upon the lives of First Nations people says a…
Attwood, Bain: The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, The Settlers and the Protectors
Bain Attwood The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers and the Protectors, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 A local history of the Djadja Wurrung people of Central Victoria, looking at the relationship between the people of this Aboriginal nation,…
Wilkie, Ben: Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country
Ben Wilkie* ‘Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country’, Honest History, 30 January 2018 Ben Wilkie reviews Bain Attwood’s The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers, and the Protectors. Bain Attwood’s most recent book appears, at…
Repost of Humphrey McQueen 2017 on Australia Day – plus other material on this perennial but important set of issues
Update 8 February 2018: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia on what the confected fuss about flying the Indigenous flag on a large Sydney coathanger says about Australia 2018: It is regrettable that anything approaching public argument over such a fundamental…
The World Inequality Report 2018: latest word on an Honest History ‘special subject’
For the last three years, Honest History has tracked media (mainstream and not) articles and research-based reports on inequality, its multiple causes and manifestations. The Honest History Book also focused sharply on inequality, given what seemed to us to be…
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Bongiorno, Frank: A nursery of unconventional ideas – sex radicalism in Australia
Frank Bongiorno ‘A nursery of unconventional ideas – sex radicalism in Australia‘, The Conversation, 11 December 2017 Honest History’s president and ANU professor, Frank Bongiorno, presents a historical smorgasbord of sex pioneers from William Chidley to Benjamin Law, via Germaine…
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Stephens, David: Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal
David Stephens ‘Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal’, Honest History, 11 December 2017 This book contains about 85 little chunks of history (two to four pages each, mostly), bound into ten bundles, with seven to eleven chunks per…
Bolton, Geoffrey: The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view
Geoffrey Bolton ‘The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view‘, Labour History Canberra, 16 November 2017 Max Gluckman (makinganthropologypublic) John Myrtle, Honest History volunteer, author of our Online Gems, retired librarian and facilitator of this article’s republication explains its provenance: In…
Black Inc.: The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane
Black Inc. The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2017 A little book about truth, in a world defined by insidious lies. The Wisdom of Oz presents the finest pearls of wisdom from…
Laugesen, Amanda: Truths about the Australian character: aphorisms we have known and invented
‘Truths about the Australian character: aphorisms we have known and invented’, Honest History, 27 November 2017 Amanda Laugesen* reviews The Wisdom of Oz: Australian Aphorisms from the Profound to the Profane ‘Such is life.’ ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy.’ ‘This is…
Davison, Graeme: Do we belong here? Reflections on family, locality and community
Graeme Davison ‘Do we belong here? Reflections on family, locality and community (Address to the Victorian Community History Awards, 16 October 2017)‘, RHSV News, November 2017, pp. 4-5 This speech was delivered in Melbourne. It asks some important questions: Do…
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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…
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Jones, Rebecca: Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia
Rebecca Jones Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 Living with drought is one of the biggest issues of our times. Climate change scenarios suggest that in the next fifty years global warming will increase…
Brodie, Nick: The Vandemonian War
Nick Brodie The Vandemonian War, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2017; available electronically The Vandemonian War had many sides and shades, but it was fundamentally a war between the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and the Aboriginal people who lived…
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…
Gallagher, Emily: ‘Bang, bang, bang!’: the shock of a boy playing with a gun on a suburban street
Emily Gallagher ‘“Bang, bang, bang!”: the shock of a boy playing with a gun on a suburban street‘, The Conversation, 25 October 2017 A perceptive brief survey of the changing patterns of children’s urban play in Australia. Over the last…
Australia Explained: a website by an ex-European for migrants who find themselves in the Wide Brown Land
We’ve caught up with Australia Explained, a website wrangled by Dr Ingeborg van Teeseling, who came here in 2006 from the Netherlands. The site has sections on history, Aussie mavericks, books, films, people, resources and opinions, as well as Ingeborg’s…
The Dunera Boys 77 years on: Dunera News No. 101
Thanks to our contacts in the Dunera community (still going strong after 77 years) for passing us their latest newsletter, dated October 2017. This edition includes a re-enactment, reunions and some interesting personal stories. For readers who don’t know, the…
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Morrissey, Doug: The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly‘, Honest History, 15 October 2017 updated Ned Kelly, hero or villain, put-upon Irish victim or psychopathic killer? These questions have been around for almost the whole time since Kelly was executed almost…
The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly’, Honest History, 15 October 2017 Mention Ned Kelly and everybody has an opinion. To many people, Ned is a hero, a champion of the poor man, the quintessential Aussie battler. To others,…
Shield, John: Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence
John Shield* ‘Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence’, Honest History, 9 October 2017 On 17 November, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory will deliver its final report. No doubt…
Gapps, Stephen: Blackbirding: Australia’s slave trade?
Stephen Gapps ‘Blackbirding: Australia’s slave trade?‘ Australian National Maritime Museum blog, 25 August 2017 updated Update 30 October 2017: (Waskam) Emelda Davis, president of Australian South Sea Islanders, writes in The Conversation: “Blackbirding” comes from the African slave trade and…
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Higgins, Claire: Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy
Claire Higgins Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017 Claire Higgins’ [book] is driven by the question of how we moved from a humanitarian approach to policies of mandatory detention − including on remote islands…
Clarke, Patricia: Jennie Scott Griffiths: a Texas-born red ragger
Patricia Clarke ‘Jennie Scott Griffiths: a Texas-born red ragger‘, NLA Unbound: the National Library of Australia Magazine, June 2017 A biographical article on this feminist and anti-conscription campaigner during Australia’s Great War. She was an indefatigable worker in radical causes…
Corn, Aaron: Friday essay: Dr Joe Gumbula, the ancestral chorus, and how we value Indigenous knowledges
Aaron Corn ‘Friday essay: Dr Joe Gumbula, the ancestral chorus, and how we value Indigenous knowledges‘, The Conversation, 29 September 2017 An edited version of the Dr Joe Gumbula Memorial Lecture presented at the 16th Symposium on Indigenous Music and…
Daley, Paul: The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence
Paul Daley ‘The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence‘, Guardian Australia, 25 September 2017 updated Story of an Anzac soldier’s skull exhibited in an American medical museum’s online exhibition. The soldier was shot near…
Songlines need to be marked and followed: new at the National Museum of Australia
Just opened at the National Museum and running till February is Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters. Songlines – roughly, wisdom-bearing Dreaming paths – may be mysterious to many settler (non-Indigenous) Australians but this exhibition should at least begin to set…
Stephens, David: Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on
David Stephens ‘Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on’, Honest History, 19 September 2017 Carmen Lawrence is a professorial fellow in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western…
Lloyd, Christopher: The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism
Christopher Lloyd* ‘The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism’, Honest History, 20 September 2017 updated This article is a response to Frank Bongiorno’s piece in The Conversation, ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, in…
Bongiorno, Frank: On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure
Frank Bongiorno ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, The Conversation, 18 September 2017 In the context of the forthcoming postal survey, the author looks at aspects of the history of sexuality in Australia. He…
Whiteford, Peter: Income inequality ticks down as the rich see their incomes fall: ABS
Peter Whiteford ‘Income inequality ticks down as the rich see their incomes fall: ABS‘, Guardian Australia, 13 September 2017 Summarises the latest survey of Household Income and Wealth from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The richest 20% of the population…
Tatz, Colin: Australians may well love their sport, but why don’t we delight in success elsewhere?
Colin Tatz ‘Australians may well love their sport, but why don’t we delight in success elsewhere?‘ The Conversation, 6 September 2017 The Australian nation and nationalism, we often proclaim, began at Gallipoli. This is a nonsense, as that sets aside the…
Ariotti, Kate & James E. Bennett, ed.: Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts
Kate Ariotti & James E. Bennett, ed. Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts, Palgrave-Springer, New York & Heidelberg, 2017; e-book available by chapters This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies by…
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A war fought and felt around the world (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.)
‘A war fought and felt around the world’ (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.), Honest History, 4 September 2017 Martin Crotty* reviews Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts edited by Kate Ariotti and James E. Bennett…
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McQuire, Amy: Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together
Amy McQuire ‘Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together‘, Buzzfeed, 19 August 2017 Honest History doesn’t claim this is the only – or a representative – piece on the latest outbreak of…
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James, Jonathan D.: As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so
Jonathan D. James ‘As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so‘, The Conversation, 21 August 2017 An interesting examination as the marriage equality issue bubbles. Even though the 2016 Census revealed that more than 30% of the Australian population identify…
Aboriginal History now has 40 years of articles easily searchable three ways
Aboriginal History is published annually by the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra. The journal now offers an index of all of its articles, 450 of them 1977-2016, in Word, Excel or…
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Abjorensen, Norman: Australia’s great political shift
Norman Abjorensen ‘Australia’s great political shift‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2017 On the eve of Liberal and Coalition party meetings on an issue – marriage equality – which has, for some people at least, a religious element, this piece is…
Inequality is a much more complex issue than kneejerk political responses suggest: a dozen links
Honest History has had a special interest in inequality for more than three years. Under our homepage Inequality thumbnail we have collected a mass of links to resources – reports, comments, even some policy proposals from government – which track…
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Graham, Chris: How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others
Chris Graham ‘How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others‘, New Matilda, 23 July 2017 updated Riffs from the recent conviction and sentencing (to a relatively short time in gaol) of a West Australian man for running down and killing…
Australian racism and how we see each other: poems by Steven Oliver and a film by Warwick Thornton
We have never come across this poet and comic, Steven Oliver, before – which says more about our lack of awareness than about his talent and perspicacity – but New Matilda ran two videos of his poetry this week and…
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Harris, Rhondda, ed.: Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol
Rhondda Harris, ed. Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 South Australia was meant to be the perfect colony: free settlers, no crime, and no mental illness. But good…
Puri, Anisa & Alistair Thomson, ed.: Australian Lives: an Intimate History
Anisa Puri & Alistair Thomson, ed. Australian Lives: an Intimate History, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017; e-book available Australian Lives: An Intimate History illuminates Australian life across the 20th and into the 21st century: how Australian people have been shaped by…
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Flynn, Rosetta: Politics (from The Woman Voter, May 1917): Honest History document
Rosetta Flynn* ‘Politics‘, The Woman Voter, 11 May 1917 (Honest History document) ‘Father, what’s politics?’ the inquiring son demanded. ‘Um – well – er – er – it’s like this, my son. There are two boys, one’s name is Liberal…
A gaol story from the city of churches (review of Ashton/Harris)
‘A gaol story from the city of churches’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 John Shield* reviews Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of Adelaide Gaol, edited by Rhondda Harris We Australians love a good gaol story.…
The generations of us: Australian Lives (review of Puri and Thomson, ed.)
‘The generations of us: Australian Lives’ (review of Puri and Thomson, ed.), Honest History, 25 July 2017 Michael Piggott* reviews Australian Lives: an Intimate History, edited by Anisa Puri and Alistair Thomson The imperative to secure research grants is one…
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Clarkson, Chris, Ben Marwick, et al: Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years
Chris Clarkson, Ben Marwick, Lynley Wallis, Richard Fullagar & Zenobia Jacobs ‘Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years‘, The Conversation, 20 July 2017 updated A report of work in the Kakadu area…
Art and design: 1930s Australia: the art deco designs ushering in a brave new world – in pictures
Art and design ‘1930s Australia: the art deco designs ushering in a brave new world – in pictures‘, Guardian Australia, 14 July 2017 We normally try to find an author for our posts. No luck this time, but we’ll still…
Bongiorno, Frank: Donald Horne’s ‘lucky country’ and the decline of the public intellectual
Frank Bongiorno ‘Donald Horne’s “lucky country” and the decline of the public intellectual‘, The Conversation, 11 July 2017 updated Honest History’s president reviews Donald Horne: Selected Writings, edited by Nick Horne. Horne’s message [in his most famous book, The Lucky…
Australian diversity and what we think about each other – and do to each other
We’ve heard a lot recently about ‘Australian values’ and what the government expects of new arrivals in relation to them. (The term ‘Australian values’ seems to be relatively recent in our history though it has popped up previously.) There is…
Reynolds, Henry: Memories and massacres
Henry Reynolds ‘Memories and massacres‘, Pearls and Irritations, 10 July 2017 For over 30 years, Henry Reynolds has been writing about massacres of Indigenous Australians. The culmination of his research was the well-received book Forgotten War in 2013. This brief…
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…
The Conversation on cancer, comrades and cyber warfare: helping Dear Reader to keep up
Honest History has often sung the praises of The Conversation because it provides readable, evidence-based material from people who know their stuff. We suspect that many of our readers also read The Conversation. But we still think it is worth…
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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.…
Allen, Liz: Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?
Liz Allen ‘Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?’, The Conversation, 3 July 2017 updated Despite recommendations from inquiries over a number of years, Australia lacks a population policy. Includes key graphs covering decades and concludes as follows: A…
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Gillard, Julia: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth
Julia Gillard ‘John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth‘, Beyond Blue, 28 June 2017 Former prime minister, now chairperson of a mental health organisation, Beyond Blue, speaking about another former prime minister who had mental health issues. Curtin’s determination…
Hayes, Sarah: Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today
Sarah Hayes ‘Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today‘, The Conversation, 29 June 2017 Archaeological excavations across Melbourne have uncovered masses of rubbish dating back to the Gold Rush era of the 1850s and 1860s. Artefacts recovered…
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Census results: 45.5 per cent of us had one or both parents born overseas – but does the Anglo-Celtic narrative still dominate?
The Conversation has a comprehensive coverage of the results of the 2016 Census (six articles from this week, plus earlier material), released yesterday. The Census website goes into further detail. There is also a video on the Guardian Australia site…
Eligon, John: Australia through American eyes (New York Times and ABC Foreign Correspondent)
John Eligon ‘Australia through American eyes‘, New York Times, 26 June 2017 Journalist Eligon, who writes about race for the Times, visits the Kimberley, Murray Island, Inala (Brisbane) and other parts of Australia, talking to Indigenous Australians. The article complements…
Stephens, David: “Australian values” and security: have we been here before?
David Stephens ‘”Australian values” and security: have we been here before?’ Honest History, 26 June 2017 updated Note: related material on section 44 of the Constitution. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail to pass the Senate.…
Daley, Paul: The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past
Paul Daley ‘The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past‘, Guardian Australia, 19 June 2017 Riffs off Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: Policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882-1905, by Chris Owen, the cover…
Winter, Geoffrey: AFL Aficionados!! Not many people know this
Geoffrey Winter* ‘AFL Aficionados!! Not many people know this’, Honest History, 15 June 2017 Jock McHale (Wikipedia) In 120 years of VFL-AFL premiership competition (1897-2016), 25 coaches have led their clubs to just one premiership each. Another 25 coaches have…
Russell, Sophie & Eileen Baldry: Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population
Sophie Russell & Eileen Baldry ‘Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population‘, The Conversation, 14 June 2017 Ten years of ABS statistics on remand versus sentenced prisoner numbers (remand numbers going up more), Indigenous imprisonment rates (going up), women in…
Patience, Allan: It’s time for new politics
Allan Patience ‘It’s time for new politics‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 June 2017 Looks at the recent success of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and detects the fall of old politics and the rise of new. Only by implication are…
Moore, Robyn: History textbooks still imply that Australians are white
Robyn Moore ‘History textbooks still imply that Australians are white‘, The Conversation, 12 June 2017 Looks at textbooks from the 1950s on and concludes: Australian history textbooks have made considerable progress towards presenting more inclusive and balanced narratives. However, this…
Schultz, Julianne & Jerath Head, ed.: Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back
Julianne Schultz & Jerath Head, ed. Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back, April 2017 Millennials, those born in the final decades of the twentieth century, have had bad press for a long time. Now they are fighting back as they…
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Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56
‘Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 Emily Gallagher* reviews Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back There is no such thing as a normative childhood. Generations of children might share in a collection of culturally specific circumstances,…
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Leadbeater, Kate: Teaching Indigenous archaeology: when the evidence is just next door
Kate Leadbeater* ‘Teaching Indigenous archaeology: when the evidence is just next door’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 When I took on the Stage 1 Ancient Studies class my thoughts instantly went to the Roman Empire, Egypt, Greece, and all those…
Taylor, Elizabeth & Andrew Butt: Three charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken
Elizabeth Taylor & Andrew Butt ‘Three charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken‘, The Conversation, 9 June 2017 Just what it says on the tin. ‘Australians were once world champion beef-eaters but now you’re much…
Breen, Sally: Friday essay: the 90s – why you had to be there
Sally Breen ‘Friday essay: the 90s – why you had to be there‘, The Conversation, 9 June 2017 Review of – and thoughts provoked by – a new exhibition, Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990s, at the National…
Australian Bureau of Statistics: GDP growth moderates as dwelling investment and exports detract from growth
Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘GDP growth moderates as dwelling investment and exports detract from growth‘ (Media release, 7 June 2017) Growth actually slowed in the March quarter (0.3 per cent) and the ABS presser was ‘just the facts’ but those…
Wright, Clare: How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote
Clare Wright ‘How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 Article to mark the 120th anniversary of the Australasian Federal Convention in Adelaide (Queensland absent). Among the outcomes of the Convention was votes…
Boucher, Leigh: Only Heaven Knows brings 1940s queer Sydney roaring back to life
Leigh Boucher ‘Only Heaven Knows brings 1940s queer Sydney roaring back to life‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 A revived musical gives an insight into a Kings Cross lifestyle that flourished during the war years, then faded for a while. The…
Myrtle, John: Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology
John Myrtle* ‘Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology‘, Age, 6 June 2017 (an earlier, edited version appeared in the Canberra Times) ‘David Biles was a pioneer of criminology in Australia. Over many years he contributed to the development of…
Mendelssohn, Joanna: Defying Empire: the legacy of 1967
Joanna Mendelssohn ‘Defying Empire: the legacy of 1967‘, The Conversation, 26 May 2017 Review of National Gallery of Australia exhibition on till 10 September. ‘Curator Tina Baum has woven a narrative and an argument around the legacy of that remarkable…
Lee, Nicole: Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits
Nicole Lee ‘Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits‘, The Conversation, 1 June 2017 updated Australians are using less alcohol, tobacco and other drugs than they did a decade ago, according to the Australian Institute of Health and…
Head, Mike: Australia’s billionaires celebrate a “wealth boom”
Mike Head ‘Australia’s billionaires celebrate a “wealth boom”‘, World Socialist Web Site, 29 May 2017 Useful analysis of this year’s Australian Financial Review (AFR) Rich 200 List. The article nicely captures the breathless style of John Stensholt’s original piece (which…
Putting Reconciliation Week in context: Lest We Forget Queensland Genocide
Reconciliation Week runs annually from 27 May, the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, to 3 June, the anniversary of the Mabo decision in 1992. The theme for this year is ‘Let’s take the next steps’, which is appropriate, given the…
Patience, Allan: Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed
Allan Patience ‘Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed‘, The Conversation, 24 May 2017 Post-Brexit, some in Britain are turning to a resurrected Commonwealth as the basis of an alternative to Europe.…
Baker, Phillip: Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda
Phillip Baker ‘Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda‘, The Conversation, 26 May 2017 Tackling obesity should be a political priority but it is a tough challenge: many causes, no quick fix, lack of regulatory…
Yu, Ouyang: Billy Sing
Ouyang Yu Billy Sing, Transit Lounge, Melbourne, 2017 William “Billy” Sing was born in 1886 to an English mother and Chinese father. He and his two sisters were brought up in Clermont and Proserpine, in rural Queensland. He was one of…
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A gun that shoots right through history (review of Ouyang Yu on Billy Sing)
‘A gun that shoots right through history’, Honest History, 27 May 2017 Christina Spittel[*] reviews Ouyang Yu’s novel, Billy Sing Is there anything new to be said about Chinese-Australian sniper Billy Sing, who killed so many Turks at Gallipoli that…
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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…
Atkinson-Phillips, Alison: Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years
Alison Atkinson-Phillips* ‘Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years on’, Honest History, 26 May 2017 Twenty years ago, on ‘Reconciliation Sunday’, 1 June 1997, some 2000 people gathered on a vacant lot in the Adelaide hills to…
Daley, Paul: Five factors that will shape the outcome for ‘recognise’ at Uluru
Paul Daley ‘Five factors that will shape the outcome for “recognise” at Uluru‘, Guardian Australia, 24 May 2017 updated Surveys the state of play as the Uluru conference gets under way. The ‘five factors’: the lack of interest of many…
Better not forget The Forgotten People: 75 years since RG Menzies’ direction-setting speech
There is to be a big dinner at Parliament House tonight to mark the 75th anniversary of a broadcast delivered on radio station 2GB, 3AW and others by a former prime minister, but then humble backbencher, the Right Honourable Robert…
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…
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Appleby, Gabrielle & Sean Brennan: The long road to recognition
Gabrielle Appleby & Sean Brennan ‘The long road to recognition‘, Inside Story, 19 May 2017 updated Updated 24 May 2017: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia: Given the disparate experiences [says Daley] of delegates and their divergent views (on recognition versus…
Stephens, David: Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values
David Stephens ‘Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values’, Honest History, 18 May 2017 updated Update 30 May 2017: Defence Minister Payne announces 30 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan, in a training capacity. Comments.…
Bongiorno, Frank: Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017
Frank Bongiorno ‘Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017‘, Honest History, 15 May 2017 This lecture canvasses some of the themes and subject matter in the author’s prize-winning…
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Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017
Frank Bongiorno* ‘Is Australian history still possible? Australia and the global Eighties: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Australian National University, 10 May 2017’, Honest History, 15 May 2017 It is a mark of the limiting character of a purely national perspective that…
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Haslam, Nick: Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s
Nick Haslam ‘Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2017 An article about Australian psychology over the decades, reviewing 141 studies of Australian self-esteem between 1978…
Lever, Susan: Reaping what was sown
Susan Lever ‘Reaping what was sown‘, Inside Story, 4 May 2017 A review of the book Like Nothing on this Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt by Tony Hughes-d’Aeth. The book examines the clearing of land in Western Australia…
Piggott, Michael: 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 A review of two exhibitions, Indigenous Australians at War from the Boer War to the Present (touring from the Shrine of Remembrance,…
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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…
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Wallace, Donald M.: The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane
Donald Mackenzie Wallace ‘The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Members of the Royal Family have visited Australia regularly since Prince Alfred was here in 1867. (He was shot…
Angry Anzac Day 2017: three pieces from Guardian Australia: get those responses rolling in
Update 1 October 2017: Autobiographical piece from Yassmin Abdel-Magied covers the Anzac fuss. Update 18 August 2017: Yassmin Abdel-Magied talks about being Australia’s most publicly hated Muslim. Update 7 August 2017: Yassmin Abdel-Magied wonders where the free speech defenders were…
McKenna, Mark: Friday essay: King, Queen and country – will Anzac thwart republicanism?
Mark McKenna ‘Friday essay: King, Queen and country – will Anzac thwart republicanism?‘ The Conversation, 21 April 2017 updated Update 31 July 2017: Benjamin T. Jones in Guardian Australia wonders what is holding Prime Minister Turnbull back from a referendum…
Jericho, Greg: Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality
Greg Jericho ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality‘, Guardian Australia, 18 April 2017 Looks at taxation statistics to ‘highlight that middle Australia earns much less than the government would have you believe and that women…
Welcome to what? A note on immigration, multiculturalism and ‘Australian values’
Update 19 March 2018: proposal by Minister Dutton to bring white South African farmers to Australia is linked by Jon Piccini in The Conversation to a historic Australian whiteness trope. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail…
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Goodall, Jane: Waking up a quiet country, five nights a week
Jane Goodall ‘Waking up a quiet country, five nights a week‘, Inside Story, 13 April 2017 Is it really 50 years since This Day Tonight started? The late Bill Peach, TDT’s first compere, had a good grasp on the significance…
Biddle, Nicholas: First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is
Nicholas Biddle ‘First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is‘, The Conversation, 11 April 2017 For the statistical agency of a supposedly diverse country to bother presenting a picture of ‘a typical Australian’…
Five points for John Clarke, also known as Fred Dagg, Trans-Tasman observer: incisive but no prick
The death of John Clarke, comedian and satirist, has brought forth some nice pieces of an obituarial bent. The present writer recalls snuffling with glee over Fred Dagg books and, a little later, chuckling at Farnarkling (a much more plausible…
The Constitution, White Australia and population shifts: recently on The Conversation
The online journal The Conversation continues to traverse a wide range of subject matter. Recently, we noted: Ryan Goss on how our Constitution came to be written and what we should do with it next; Benjamin T. Jones on the…
Babkenian, Vicken & Judith Crispin: Australia’s Armenian Story
Vicken Babkenian & Judith Crispin ‘Australia’s Armenian Story‘, Inside Story, 6 April 2017 This is a long extract from chapter 3 of The Honest History Book, published by NewSouth. It deals with the Armenian Genocide, which commenced 24 April 1915…
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Daley, Paul: Narcha’s remains have been repatriated. But colonialism’s malevolence lingers
Paul Daley ‘Narcha’s remains have been repatriated. But colonialism’s malevolence lingers‘, Guardian Australia, 3 April 2017 Douglas Grant is perhaps Australia’s best known Indigenous Anzac. The remains of one of Grant’s close relatives – Ngadjon elder Narcha, also known as…
Wilkie, Douglas: Duchene/Hargraves
Douglas Wilkie Duchene/Hargraves, Historia Incognita, Melbourne, 2016 This self-published book has the long sub-title or explanatory tag of ‘Alexandre Julien Duchene, Edward Hammond Hargraves and the discovery of gold in Australia, three or four days from Sydney’. This book looks…
Discovering the discovery of gold (review of Wilkie)
‘Discovering the discovery of gold’ (review of Wilkie), Honest History, 3 April 2017 Derek Abbott* reviews Duchene/Hargraves by Douglas Wilkie Generations of Australian school children are familiar from their history text books with the story of the discovery of gold…
Six snippets of The Conversation (six years old this week) have echoes in The Honest History Book (now available)
Honest History was pleased to send happy sixth birthday wishes to The Conversation; it has been a valuable resource for our website. There are other connections also: some articles in The Conversation this week explore themes which are also evident…
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Saving young Indigenous lives: crowd-funding a suicide prevention app called ‘Kurdiji’
Update 24 April 2017: Judith Crispin writes in Pearls and Irritations. Judith Crispin, author, poet, musician and activist, has told us about ‘Kurdiji’, a community-led project initiated by Wanta Jampijinpa in Lajamanu and based on traditional Indigenous ideas around resilience…
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Brotherhood of St Laurence: Generation stalled: young, underemployed and living in poverty in Australia
Brotherhood of St Laurence Generation stalled: young, underemployed and living in poverty in Australia, Melbourne, 2017 In total [says the report] more than 650,000 young people were unemployed or underemployed – defined as having some work but wanting more hours…
Five easy pieces for weekend reading as the leaves start to fall
We at Honest History have been flat out promoting The Honest History Book but we found time to notice these: two articles (part 2) by HH distinguished supporter Richard Butler on the risks of Trump for Australia (Pearls and Irritations);…
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Multiculturalism statement stresses diversity, ‘fair go’ and equality but reality is different
Update 21 March 2017: Andrew Jakubowicz in The Conversation comments on the statement. Neroli Colvin and John Tons in New Matilda. The Prime Minister and two of his ministers have released the government’s multiculturalism statement Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful.…
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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…
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Taylor, Rebe: Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity
Rebe Taylor Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2017 In 1908 English gentleman, Ernest Westlake, packed a tent, a bicycle and forty tins of food and sailed to Tasmania. On mountains, beaches…
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…
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Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope
‘Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Marian Quartly* reviews Griffith Review 55: State of Hope Any collection of essays focussing on a single state of Australia will…
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Schultz, Julianne & Patrick Allington, ed.: State of Hope: Griffith Review 55
Julianne Schultz & Patrick Allington, ed. State of Hope: Griffith Review 55, January 2017 As the industrial model that shaped twentieth-century South Australia is replaced by an uncertain future, now more than ever the state needs to draw on the…
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Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake (review of Taylor)
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake’ (review of Taylor), Honest History, 21 March 2017 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity by Rebe Taylor We First Nations people…
Latham, Mark: Insiders and outsiders (2002 Menzies Lecture, London): Highlights reel
Mark Latham ‘Insiders and outsiders (The 2002 Menzies Lecture, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London, 17 September 2002): Highlights reel’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 updated This is a 4000 word article, originally presented as a speech and…
The National Film and Sound Archive has a Sydney Harbour Bridge online exhibition as the Coathanger turns 85
The NFSA has a small but slick exhibition to mark the 85th anniversary of the opening of the bridge on 19 March. The segments are People’s Bridge, Connecting Sydney, Building the Bridge, Star of the Screen, and Trivia. Like Sydney…
Leigh, Andrew: Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017
Andrew Leigh ‘Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017‘, Andrew Leigh MP Blog, 10 March 2017 updated Over the past generation [says Leigh], Australia has seen an increase…
Cooper, Alan, Ray Tobler & Wolfgang Haak: DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country
Alan Cooper, Ray Tobler & Wolfgang Haak ‘DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country‘, Guardian Australia, 9 March 2017 Summarises research reported in Nature (behind expensive paywall) that used historic hair samples collected from Aboriginal people…
True Blue but by no means politically correct – or just a different form of correctness?
Update 10 August 2017: John Roskam of the Institute of Public Affairs talks to Genevieve Jacobs of the ABC. Update 3 May 2017: Tony Abbott talks in Perth: search for ‘Western civilisation’. Update 14 April 2017: We didn’t want to…
Godden, Judith: Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983
Judith Godden Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was the largest women’s hospital in NSW. Located in the heart of Surry Hills, it was a referral hospital for women throughout…
Myrtle, John: Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney (review of Godden)
John Myrtle* ‘Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney’ (review of Godden), Honest History, 8 March 2017 John Myrtle reviews Judith Godden’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was deeply immersed in the…
Magarey, Susan: Catherine Helen Spence: ‘The most distinguished woman they had had in Australia’
Susan Magarey ‘Catherine Helen Spence: ‘”The most distinguished woman they had had in Australia”‘, Vida! Australian Women’s History Network, 1 March 2017 Spence (1825-1910) was ‘[a] charismatic public speaker at a time when women were supposed to speak only at…
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…
Manne, Robert: It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy
Robert Manne ‘It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy‘, The Monthly, 28 February 2017 Described as ‘an open letter to the supporters and opponents of the Nauru and Manus Island asylum seekers’, this long article canvasses the history of asylum-seeker policy…
Hassan, Riaz: Australians aren’t as Islamophobic as we’re led to believe
Riaz Hassan ‘Australians aren’t as Islamophobic as we’re led to believe‘, The Conversation, 27 February 2017 There were two hundred or so comments on this piece which analyses a recent survey on the extent of Islamophobia in Australia. There were…
Hamilton, Rebecca: Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity
Rebecca Hamilton ‘Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity‘, Foreign Policy, 23 February 2017 The author, an Australian lawyer working in Washington, writes that a brief has been lodged with the International Criminal Court, which gives ‘every indication that…
Marlow, Karina & Luke Pearson: 8 war heroes you didn’t learn about in school
Karina Marlow & Luke Pearson ‘8 war heroes you didn’t learn about in school‘, SBS, 21 February 2017 This NITV repost from 22 April 2016 presents, without editorial comment, brief biographies of Pemulwuy, Musquito, Windradyne, Yagan, Jandamarra, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner,…
Michaels, Wendy: NSW Parliamentary Trailblazers: A Fit Place for Women?
Wendy Michaels ‘NSW parliamentary trailblazers: a fit place for women?‘ Vida! Australian Women’s History Network, 9 February 2017 Mentions women in the NSW Parliament over the last century and links to an exhibition in the NSW Parliament. The review is…
Tedeschi, Mark: Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation
Mark Tedeschi Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation, Simon & Schuster, Sydney 2016 In 1838, eleven convicts and former convicts were put on trial for the brutal murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at…
O’Callaghan, Judith, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds: Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History
Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2016 The history of one of Australia’s most iconic urban precincts, from bustling colonial thoroughfare to imposing address for global…
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Crocket, Grahame: Centre of Sydney Town (review of O’Callaghan, Hogben & Freestone, eds)
Grahame Crocket* ‘Centre of Sydney Town’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 Grahame Crocket reviews Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, edited by Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben and Robert Freestone Why Sydney’s Martin Place has not been the subject…
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Hess, Rob: Growth of women’s football has been a 100-year revolution – it didn’t happen overnight
Rob Hess ‘Growth of women’s football has been a 100-year revolution – it didn’t happen overnight‘, The Conversation, 3 February 2017 Marks the commencement of the Australian Football League Women’s competition. Hess is co-author with Brunette Lenkić of Play On!…
Bongiorno, Frank: This storied land
Frank Bongiorno ‘This storied land‘, The Monthly, February 2017 An essay riffing off Mark McKenna’s book, From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories, which tells four stories of encounters between Indigenous and settler Australians. Bongiorno divides histories of Australia into pre-…
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Mackay, Hugh: The state of the nation starts in your street
Hugh Mackay ‘The state of the nation starts in your street‘, The Conversation, 2 February 2017 The Gandhi Oration at the University of New South Wales, 30 January. Mackay ranges widely from politics to personal happiness, the ‘fair go’ to…
Tan, Monica: I’m dizzily in love with Australia. Patriotism shouldn’t be reserved for the right
Monica Tan ‘I’m dizzily in love with Australia. Patriotism shouldn’t be reserved for the right‘, Guardian Australia, 1 February 2017 Reflection following a trip around Australia. Attracted more than 500 comments pro and con. Patriotism has become a touchy subject…
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Babkenian, Vicken: Gladys Berejiklian, the Great War, Gallipoli and the Armenian Genocide
Vicken Babkenian ‘Gladys Berejiklian, the Great War, Gallipoli and the Armenian Genocide‘, Independent Australia, 30 January 2017 Marks the election of Australia’s first premier of Armenian ethnicity. Ms Berejiklian’s grandparents were among those liberated by Allied forces in 1918, surviving…
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McQueen, Humphrey: 26 January – or thereabouts
Humphrey McQueen ‘26 January – or thereabouts‘, Overland 233, Summer 2018 An earlier version of this piece was posted on the Honest History site on 23 January 2017, by courtesy of the author. Below are some of our introductory remarks…
Croke, Jacky: Old floods show Brisbane’s next big wet might be closer than we think
Jacky Croke ‘Old floods show Brisbane’s next big wet might be closer than we think‘, The Conversation, 10 January 2017 Historical view of flooding in the Brisbane area. It links to more detailed material done under an Australian Research Council…
Economist Ian McAuley on Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country: new series on Pearls and Irritations blog
The Pearls and Irritations blog is always worth following for thoughtful explications of current issues, ones which the mainstream media mostly no longer has the resources or patience to run. Today, P&I publishes nine articles (introduction plus eight) by economist…
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Barker, Renae: Australians have an increasingly complex, yet relatively peaceful, relationship with religion
Renae Barker ‘Australians have an increasingly complex, yet relatively peaceful, relationship with religion‘, The Conversation, 21 December 2016 A good subject for a time of year in Australia when those who were nominally Christian in their youth (or perhaps a…
Willis, Ian: Local history: a view from the bottom
Ian Willis ‘Local history: a view from the bottom‘, History Workshop, 5 December 2016 Camden, NSW, historian writes about the practice of local history. Scholars occasionally need to take a look downwards from the heights of the academy to see…
Cashen, Phil: The war against drink
Phil Cashen ‘The war against drink‘, Shire at War, 9 December 2016 Another post from the excellent Shire at War blog from down Alberton way in Gippsland. This one is about local efforts to defeat the demon drink during the…
Culture Victoria: Out of the Closets, Into the Streets
Culture Victoria Out of the Closets, Into the Streets This project documents the very beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement in Melbourne. Through the manifestos, photographs, flyers and recollections of those who were part of the movement, this digital story…
Spark, Seumas: Ken Inglis and the Dunera: a seventy-year history
Seumas Spark ‘Ken Inglis and the Dunera: a seventy-year history‘, Inside Story, 12 December 2016 Discusses the work of Inglis and the American historian, Jay Winter, on the Dunera boys, mostly Jewish internees from Britain, who made such a contribution…
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Daley, John & Brendan Coates: Why every generation feels entitled
John Daley & Brendan Coates ‘Why every generation feels entitled‘, The Conversation, 15 December 2016 Refers to the Grattan Institute’s report Age of Entitlement, on age-based tax breaks, which concluded ‘senior Australians get tax breaks unavailable to younger Australians worth…
Gainsborough, Vance: The animals and advertisements of Canberra: review of two new exhibitions
Vance Gainsborough* ‘The animals and advertisements of Canberra: review of two new exhibitions’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 The Popular Pet Show, National Portrait Gallery This exhibition has around 160 works by 15 artists, is open until March, and adults…
Pung, Alice: Living with racism in Australia
Alice Pung ‘Living with racism in Australia‘, New York Times, 7 December 2016 Summarises her life since birth in Melbourne in 1981. Australia’s fling with multiculturalism was temporary. In less than 15 years [after 1981], politicians began advocating assimilation for…
Daley, Paul: The Armenians and the Warlpiri: two genocides that sparked a pilgrimage to the outback
Paul Daley ‘The Armenians and the Warlpiri: two genocides that sparked a pilgrimage to the outback‘, Guardian Australia, 8 December 2016 Describes the journey of two Armenian priests into Warlpiri country. The visit was organised by Judith Crispin, who has…
National Film and Sound Archive: Melbourne Time Capsule: Marvellous Melbourne: Swanston and Collins Streets
National Film and Sound Archive ‘Melbourne Time Capsule: Marvellous Melbourne: Swanston and Collins Streets‘, NFSA website A marvellous two minute point-of-view film from a tram trundling through Melbourne in 1910 (date picked exactly by our HH guru before he saw…
Snell, Ted: Long before Europeans, traders came here from the north and art tells the story
Snell, Ted ‘Long before Europeans, traders came here from the north and art tells the story‘, The Conversation, 24 November 2016 Indigenous oral tradition and bark and rock paintings have recorded the early visits of Macassan trepangers to northern Australia.…
Markus, Andrew: Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities, survey finds
Markus, Andrew ‘Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities, survey finds‘, The Conversation, 22 November 2016 Links to detailed report of the latest survey. In 2016 just 34% of respondents considered that the immigration…
Sewell, Stephen: Friday essay: the arts and our still-born national identity
Sewell, Stephen ‘Friday essay: the arts and our still-born national identity‘, The Conversation, 18 November 2016 Wide-ranging essay from NIDA academic and commentator. Compares cuts to arts funding with spend on Anzac commemoration. But at the same time government spends heavily…
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Hamilton, Clive: What do we want? Charting the rise and fall of protest in Australia
Hamilton, Clive ‘What do we want? Charting the rise and fall of protest in Australia‘, The Conversation, 17 November 2016 updated Discusses the author’s new book, What Do We Want? The Story of Protest in Australia, just published. Traces the…
Haigh, Gideon: Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?
Haigh, Gideon ‘Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?‘ Guardian Australia, 11 November 2016 Long article under the heading ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, with links to other relevant material. Haigh looks at ‘the potential of ideas such…
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‘The Call to the People of Australia’, Remembrance Day, 1951: highlights reel
‘” The Call to the People of Australia”, Remembrance Day, 1951: highlights reel’, Honest History, 11 November 2016 This Remembrance Day is the 65th anniversary of one of the stranger documents of early post-war Australia. Titled ‘The Call to the…
Donalds are Trumps: going deeper after the breast-beating
There is so much being said on the US election result that we are not going to add to it (yet). Except to say three things: roughly half of eligible Americans did not vote; roughly a quarter of eligible Americans…
Myrtle, John: Review note: Great Australian Journeys by Graham Seal
Myrtle, John* ‘Review note: Great Australian Journeys by Graham Seal’, Honest History, 8 November 2016 Graham Seal, Professor of Folklore at Curtin University, is a well-published author of popular works on Australian history. His latest book is Great Australian Journeys:…
Lesh, James: Preserving cities: how ‘trendies’ shaped Australia’s urban heritage
Lesh, James ‘Preserving cities: how “trendies” shaped Australia’s urban heritage‘, The Conversation, 4 November 2016 updated Looks at the heritage history of the inner suburbs of Australian cities since the 1960s. Until the mid-to-late 20th century, the Australian inner suburbs…
Manne, Robert: How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers
Manne, Robert ‘How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers‘, The Conversation, 26 October 2016 updated ‘If you had been told 30 years ago that Australia would create the least asylum seeker friendly institutional arrangements in the world,…
Brophy, Kevin: Friday essay: Judith Wright in a new light
Brophy, Kevin ‘Friday essay: Judith Wright in a new light‘, The Conversation, 28 October 2016 Everyone loves Judith Wright [Brophy begins]. Her poetry was consistently brilliant and stunningly lyrical. She opened Australian eyes in the 1940s to the possibilities of…
Monthly, The: Moran Prize finalists: finalists for the 2016 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Monthly, The ‘Moran Prize finalists: finalists for the 2016 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize‘, The Monthly, 24 October 2016 Something restful for the weekend, and not behind The Monthly‘s fierce pay-wall. (It has some good stuff, though.) There are about 30…
Nash, Joshua: Buggered if I know where I am: the stories behind Australia’s weird and wonderful place names
Nash, Joshua ‘Buggered if I know where I am: the stories behind Australia’s weird and wonderful place names‘, The Conversation, 24 October 2016 Just what it says, in case you always wanted to know about Chinamans Knob, Governors Knob, Iron…
O’Malley, Vincent: What a nation chooses to remember and forget: the war for New Zealand’s history
O’Malley, Vincent ‘What a nation chooses to remember and forget: the war for New Zealand’s history‘, Guardian Australia, 18 October 2016 Interesting article for itself and for comparisons with Australia. The author’s book, The Great War for New Zealand Waikato…
Aileen Palmer and Maralinga: Honest History highlights reel
‘Aileen Palmer and Maralinga: Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 18 October 2016 updated This material has been made available by Sylvia Martin, author of Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen Palmer, published earlier this year by…
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Rose, James: From Tampa to now: how reporting on asylum seekers has been a triumph of spin over substance
Rose, James ‘From Tampa to now: how reporting on asylum seekers has been a triumph of spin over substance‘, The Conversation, 14 October 2016 Considers three media management tactics deployed in 2001 and refined since: closing down news channels; depriving…
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Sherrell, Henry & Peter Mares: How many migrants come to Australia each year?
Sherrell, Henry & Peter Mares ‘How many migrants come to Australia each year?‘ Inside Story, 14 October 2016 Analyses questions of definition around our migrant intake, particularly over the difference between permanent and temporary migrants. There are other complications as…
Daley, Paul: Why Australia Day and Anzac Day helped create a national ‘cult of forgetfulness’
Daley, Paul ‘Why Australia Day and Anzac Day helped create a national “cult of forgetfulness”‘, Guardian Australia, 16 October 2016 updated Update 21 August 2017: Tony Smith on Pearls and Irritations muses about the proposal by Yarra Council in Melbourne…
Gillard, Julia: Julia Gillard speaks in London in memory of Jo Cox MP
Gillard, Julia ‘Julia Gillard speaks in London in memory of Jo Cox MP‘, Julia Gillard, 11 October 2016 (updated) As well as being a tribute to the assassinated British Labour MP this is a wide-ranging speech on women in politics.…
Broinowski, Alison: Review note: Homeground in Sydney
Alison Broinowski ‘Review note: Homeground in Sydney’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Marking the 60th anniversary of the Maralinga nuclear tests, Sydney displayed several First Nations events over the weekend of 8-9 October. In the forecourt of the Opera House…
Tynan, Elizabeth: Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
Elizabeth Tynan Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story, NewSouth, Sydney, 2016 How could a democracy such as Australia host another country’s nuclear program in the midst of the Cold War? In this meticulously researched and shocking work, journalist and academic Elizabeth…
Thomas, Nelly: Understanding Pauline
Thomas, Nelly ‘Understanding Pauline‘, New Matilda, 9 October 2016 ‘I come from Hanson country’, says the author, ‘working class, socially conservative, racist, homophobic, xenophobic Australia’. The article looks at Hansonism in class terms. The first thing to know about Hanson…
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McQueen, Humphrey: ‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’
McQueen, Humphrey ‘“A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity”: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Humphrey McQueen wrote this article in 2002 on the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1952 of Robin Boyd’s…
Atomic Thunder: 60 years on from Maralinga (review of Tynan)
‘Atomic Thunder: 60 years on from Maralinga’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Richard Broinowski* reviews Elizabeth Tynan’s Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story. David Pope’s cartoon of the 60th anniversary of Maralinga (Fairfax, 3 October 2016) shows Prime Minister Robert Menzies…
Honest History highlights reel: Nick Dyrenfurth’s Mateship: A Very Australian History
‘Honest History highlights reel: Nick Dyrenfurth’s Mateship: A Very Australian History’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 updated Update 22 October 2021: A survey on mateship throws up some interesting results. *** Nick Dyrenfurth’s book Mateship: A Very Australian History, was…
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‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd
Humphrey McQueen ‘“A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity”: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 ‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’ was how architect and cultural critic Robin Boyd summed up our domestic…
Roberts, Rhoda: There is no Aboriginal disadvantage. Our culture is our advantage, and all Australians can share it
Roberts, Rhoda ‘There is no Aboriginal disadvantage. Our culture is our advantage, and all Australians can share it‘, Guardian Australia, 7 October 2016 Article written to accompany Homeground cultural festival in Sydney. We have over 700 languages and dialects and…
Lyons, Tim: The Labour Movement: my part in its downfall
Lyons, Tim ‘The Labour Movement: my part in its downfall‘, Meanjin, Spring 2016 (vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 85-92 in hard copy) Works backwards from the demise of the resources super profits tax in 2010 to make some important points…
Irvine, Jessica: This is what would happen if Australia halted immigration
Jessica Irvine ‘This is what would happen if Australia halted immigration‘, Age, 2 October 2016 Considers effects in terms of faltering economic growth, aging work-force, Budget blow-out, still crowded roads, still expensive housing, education and tourism impacts and difficulties in…
Haigh, Gideon: Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket
Haigh, Gideon Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket, Penguin Random House, Sydney, 2016 If Trumper is a legend, George Beldam’s ‘Jumping Out’ has become an icon. But that image has almost paradoxically obscured the story…
Federated Australia’s first champion (review of Haigh on Trumper)
‘Federated Australia’s first champion’ (review of Haigh on Trumper), Honest History, 25 September 2016 Derek Abbott* reviews Gideon Haigh’s book, Stroke of Genius: Victor Trumper and the Shot that Changed Cricket (2016) Muhammad Ali, young, brash and confident, mouth agape…
Behrendt, Larissa: Indigenous Australians know we’re the oldest living culture – it’s in our Dreamtime
Behrendt, Larissa ‘Indigenous Australians know we’re the oldest living culture – it’s in our Dreamtime‘, Guardian Australia, 22 September 2016 Responds to recent material on DNA-based research on Indigenous culture. More. ‘Scientific research often reaffirms what is in an oral…
Essential poll on banning Muslim immigration and listening to Pauline Hanson
The Essential Report poll on attitudes to Muslim migration is here, along with responses to questions about Pauline Hanson. One thousand people were polled. The poll was run in August and re-run in case it was a ‘rogue’. Key responses…
Koopman, Catharina: Campo 78 – the WWII Aussie camp in Abruzzo
Catharina Koopman* ‘Campo 78 – the WWII Aussie camp in Abruzzo‘, Dante Alighieri Society, Canberra, 29 June 2016 updated A review of the bilingual book, Campo 78: The Aussie Camp, by Gabriella Di Mattia (Accademia degli Agghiacciati, Sulmona, Italy, 2015).…
Habibis, Daphne, Maggie Walter & Penny Taylor: To move forward on reconciliation, Australia must recognise it has a race relations problem
Daphne Habibis, Maggie Walter & Penny Taylor ‘To move forward on reconciliation, Australia must recognise it has a race relations problem‘, The Conversation, 20 September 2016 updated Our research in Darwin [survey of 474] shows most Indigenous people feel judged,…
Gorman, Alyx & Rick Kuhn: If Australia had its current refugee policy in 1939, we wouldn’t be alive today
Alyx Gorman & Rick Kuhn ‘If Australia had its current refugee policy in 1939, we wouldn’t be alive today‘, Guardian Australia, 19 September 2016 Compares Australia’s treatment of 1930s refugees from Nazism with today’s treatment of detainees on Manus and…
Port of Melbourne pictures just the tip of the photographic iceberg
Photo credit for home page, 23 September. The port of Melbourne has been leased for a lot of money. This provoked the Melbourne Age to run a set of photographs of the port, dating back well into the 19th century.…
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Stephens, David: Review note: Howard on Menzies rolls out on the ABC
David Stephens ‘Review note: Howard on Menzies rolls out on the ABC’, Honest History, 18 September 2016 updated So much is available about this two-part ABC doco that we won’t attempt more than some random thoughts which we’ll update after…
Now this is a Maiden Speech: Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (ALP, Northern Territory)
Senator McCarthy’s speech brings together the stories of Indigenous Australia – the Senator is Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Mara and Kudanji – and settler Australia – her McCarthy ancestors came from Ireland in 1842. A great read and a great listen (30…
Broinowski, Alison: Review note: What was all that about? Abe Forsythe’s Down Under
Broinowski, Alison ‘Review note: What was all that about? Abe Forsythe’s Down Under’, Honest History, 12 September 2016 A longer version of this article, taking up more general issues to do with Afghanistan, is here on Pearls and Irritations. A…
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Life and work in the city and suburbs adds up to lots of Australian stories: Honest History miscellany
The Australian story has always had a gumleaves and distance tone to it even though most of us for most of our history have lived in cities. Yet our cities have grown so big and spread so far – as…
Clark, Anna: On listening to new national storytellers
Clark, Anna ‘Friday essay: on listening to new national storytellers’, The Conversation, 2 September 2016 The author reminds us that ‘each piece of history has a message and context that depends on who wrote it and when. As the US…
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Moore, Bruce: Anzackery and other Australianisms: Australian National Dictionary second edition
Bruce Moore ‘Anzackery and other Australianisms: Australian National Dictionary second edition’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 The first edition of this dictionary came out in 1988 in one volume. Now there is a two volume second edition. Chief Editor Bruce…
McQueen, Humphrey: Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960′, Honest History, 30 August 2016 When Humphrey McQueen first wrote this article in 2000 he had this to say: ‘Forty years ago this week, Time presented a…
Anzackery and other Australianisms: Australian National Dictionary second edition
Bruce Moore ‘Anzackery and other Australianisms: Australian National Dictionary second edition’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 The new edition of the Australian National Dictionary has been published. The first edition, published in 1988, was a one-volume work of 814 pages.…
Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960
Humphrey McQueen ‘Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 Note: this article includes a photograph of an Indigenous Australian who has died Time magazine ‘Indignation’ and ‘hilarity’ jostled each other through…
Many facets of inequality revealed in online sources: Honest History miscellany
A current article in Guardian Weekly wonders if the abundance of online sources is killing memory. We don’t need to remember anything because we can look it up. Maybe. The upside is the ease of finding information online – information…
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Markus, Andrew: Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion Survey 2016
Andrew Markus ‘Migrants from Africa bear brunt of discrimination but remain positive, survey finds‘, The Conversation, 24 August 2016 updated Update 29 November 2017: the findings of the 2017 survey. Comment in Guardian Australia by David Marr. Summarises the findings…
Smith, Evan: ‘Between the bomb and the ballot box’: the history of the far-right in Australia
Smith, Evan ‘“Between the bomb and the ballot box”: the history of the far-right in Australia‘, Guardian Australia, 16 August 2016 updated The return of One Nation (on steroids) provokes this useful run-down of Australian fringe groups over the last…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (8): Jennie Scott Griffiths: ‘She Fought Where She Stood’
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Victoria Haskins writes in her Anzac Her Story blog about Jennie Scott Griffiths, born in Texas in 1875, mother of ten children, newspaper editor, and anti-war campaigner in World War I Australia and just after…
Gaita, Raimond: Reflections on the idea of a common humanity
Gaita, Raimond ‘Friday essay: reflections on the idea of a common humanity‘, The Conversation, 12 August 2016 Gaita argues that ‘to recognise the humanity of others we must rise to the humanity in ourselves, but to do that we must…
Online Gem No. 11: The Airlines of Australia Stinson plane crash, 1937
Online Gem No. 11: The Airlines of Australia Stinson plane crash, 1937, Honest History, 12 August 2016 updated On 19 February 1937, an Airlines of Australia Stinson aircraft carrying five passengers and two pilots disappeared during a scheduled trip from…
Farrell, Paul, Nick Evershed & Helen Davidson: The Nauru files: 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention
Farrell, Paul, Nick Evershed & Helen Davidson ‘The Nauru files: 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention‘, Guardian Australia, 10 August 2016 updated Leaked files reveal assaults, sexual assault and self-harm. The devastating trauma…
Schultz, Julianne, ed.: Our sporting life: Griffith Review 53
Schultz, Julianne, ed. ‘Our sporting life’, Griffith Review, 53, August 2016, available online to subscribers Collection of essays on something which, we are told, ‘lies at the heart of what it means to be Australian’. At a time when sport…
Many codes, many circuses, much money: Griffith Review 53: Our sporting life
‘Many codes, many circuses, much money: Griffith Review 53: “Our sporting life”’, Honest History, 9 August 2016 A review by Derek Abbott* of the latest Griffith Review, published 1 August 2016. Griffith Review always presents a collection of writings that…
Sheil, Christopher & Frank Stilwell: Land of the ‘fair go’ no more: wealth in Australia is becoming more unequal
Sheil, Christopher & Frank Stilwell ‘Land of the “fair go” no more: wealth in Australia is becoming more unequal‘, The Conversation, 9 August 2016 Yet another piece to add to our collection under the thumbnail, ‘Inequality’. Reports and analyses continue…
Williams, George: Australia needs a treaty and constitutional recognition for Indigenous people
Williams, George ‘Australia needs a treaty and constitutional recognition for Indigenous people’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2016 Indigenous journalist, Stan Grant, claims in the video with this piece that Australia is the only Commonwealth country that lacks a treaty…
McQuire, Amy: 200 years of trauma through a CCTV lens (Don Dale and after)
McQuire, Amy ‘200 years of trauma through a CCTV lens‘, New Matilda, 3 August 2016 The best piece that we have seen on this issue. Darumbul journalist, Amy McQuire, looks behind the Royal Commission kneejerk reaction. Aboriginal affairs moves at…
Rizzetti, Janine: Graeme Davison on visions of the future
Rizzetti, Janine ‘Graeme Davison on visions of the future‘, The Resident Judge of Port Phillip, 31 July 2016 Nice piece from this excellent blog. It riffs off an exhibition in Melbourne (about to close) and an article by Graeme Davison…
AHRC Working Group: Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership
Australian Human Rights Commission Working Group Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership, The Commission, Sydney, 2016 The Working Group was chaired by Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner, and included Greg Whitwell, Rae Cooper, Ainslie Van…
Ashenden, Dean: The educational consequences of the peace (education policy over a century)
Ashenden, Dean ‘The educational consequences of the peace‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2016 Long article on the history of education policy from the nineteenth century, through the Labor Split of 1955, the Goulburn schools boycott in 1962 to the Karmel…
Broinowski, Anna (dir).: Pauline Hanson: Please explain!
Broinowski, Anna (dir.) ‘Pauline Hanson: Please explain!‘ SBS, 1 August 2016 Full video and supporting material of the documentary shown on SBS on 31 July. Another link. The documentary moves back and forth between 1996 and more recently, interviewing many…
Lydon, Jane: Worth a thousand words – how photos shape attitudes to refugees
Lydon, Jane ‘Friday essay: worth a thousand words – how photos shape attitudes to refugees‘, The Conversation, 29 July 2016 Looks at the politicisation of migration over the last two decades and how ‘[p]hotography has mapped a distinctively Australian version…
Sparrow, Jeff: The greyhound ban and the working man: what exactly does “working class culture” mean?
Sparrow, Jeff ‘The greyhound ban and the working man: what exactly does “working class culture” mean?‘ Guardian Australia, 21 July 2016 Explores the idea that the proposed ban on greyhound racing in New South Wales will particularly affect something called…
Graham, Chris: NT juvenile prison abuse: the most shocking part is that anyone is actually shocked
Graham, Chris Update 4 August 2016: Calla Wahlquist in Guardian Australia on Indigenous incarceration rates. Thalia Anthony in The Conversation on the same subject. Update 1-3 August 2016: Take 2: Commissioner No. 1 steps down and Commissioners Nos 2 and…
Know any bushrangers whose stories should be told but haven’t been?
Meg Foster is currently a PhD Candidate in history at the University of New South Wales. She is working on a project called ‘The “other” bushrangers’, investigating the impact of bushrangers (those of them who were not white men) on…
Earls, Nick: Australia once banned Catholics from mass and vilified the Irish
Earls, Nick ‘Australia once banned Catholics from mass and vilified the Irish. Haven’t we learned anything?‘ Guardian Australia, 22 July 2016 Reminiscences about the historical treatment of Irish in Australia – and other immigrants – and draws some parallels with…
HILDA tells an Australian story about wealth and poverty – and there is an international angle as well
HILDA stands for the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey and it has been run by the Melbourne Institute since 2001. It is one of many surveys and studies reporting on inequality in Australia. Honest History has been…
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McGrath, Ann: Secrets of nation
McGrath, Ann ‘Secrets of nation‘, Inside Story, 15 July 2016 By the 1960s, when I was growing up there, Queensland had become skilled at burying the Aboriginal past, and Queenslanders spoke about its traces in hushed tones. As a child,…
From the Honest History archives: Doug Hynd from January 2015 on aspects of the Martin Place siege of 2014
Doug Hynd has lectured in Christian ethics at Charles Sturt University and is now in the final stages of a PhD at the Australian Catholic University. In this short piece written just after the Martin Place (Lindt) siege, he considers…
Viner, Katharine: How technology disrupted the truth
Katharine Viner ‘How technology disrupted the truth‘, The Guardian, 12 July 2016 updated More than 1500 comments on this article by Guardian editor-in-chief about how ‘[s]ocial media has swallowed the news – threatening the funding of public-interest reporting and ushering…
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Halford, James: Reading three great southern lands: from the outback to the pampa and the karoo
Halford, James ‘Reading three great southern lands: from the outback to the pampa and the karoo‘, The Conversation, 11 July 2016 The common threads of the literature of Argentina, Australia and South Africa as presented in the work of a…
Fielding, Victoria: The big election story the media missed
Fielding, Victoria ‘The big election story the media missed‘, New Matilda, 7 July 2016 PhD student writes on the lack of attention during the election campaign to growing inequality. (The Honest History website has collected extensive resources on inequality.) She…
Sarra, Chris: We Indigenous people are stronger than we believe, and smarter than we know
Sarra, Chris ‘We Indigenous people are stronger than we believe, and smarter than we know‘, Guardian Australia, 10 July 2016 Address after Dr Sarra received NAIDOC 2016 Person of the Year award. In the course of it, he supports negotiation…
Acquroff, Nick: Westography: images of a vanished suburbia
Acquroff, Nick ‘Westography: images of a vanished suburbia‘, Broadsheet, 5 July 2016 This is a story about a book of photographs, Westography, by Warren Kirk. The pictures are taken around the inner western suburbs of Melbourne. There are a dozen…
Daley, Paul: Indigenous songlines: a beautiful way to think about the confluence of story and time
Daley, Paul ‘Indigenous songlines: a beautiful way to think about the confluence of story and time‘, Guardian Australia, 4 July 2016 For NAIDOC Week (3-10 July), a sensitive introduction (by a whitefeller) to songlines, a central part of Indigenous Australian…
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McQuire, Amy: More Aboriginal MPs shouldn’t let the major parties off the hook
McQuire, Amy ‘More Aboriginal MPs shouldn’t let the major parties off the hook‘, New Matilda, 5 July 2016 Darumbul journalist, Amy McQuire, notes the election of Wiradjuri woman, Linda Burney, ALP, as the first Indigenous woman in the House of…
Coombs, Anne: It seems like a good time to ask: what are governments for?
Coombs, Anne ‘It seems like a good time to ask: what are governments for?‘ Guardian, 24 June 2016 This piece was re-run in the latest Guardian Weekly (1-7 July) where it earned the additional headline: ‘We give them power to…
Tavan, Gwenda: Beginning of the end of White Australia
Tavan, Gwenda ‘The beginning of the end of the White Australia policy‘, Inside Story, 1 July 2016 Detailed administrative history of the steps taken by the Coalition Government. They did not take matters all the way, however. It was clear…
Important First Australians material on election eve
Honest History tries to keep up with links, both brief and wordy, relevant to First Australians, with particular reference to dispossession, invasion and policy backtracks, cover-ups and Closing the Gap. (Perhaps the last could be dubbed ‘Polyfilla Policy’.) We put…
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Davey, Melissa: Australia’s gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides
Davey, Melissa ‘Australia’s gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides, study finds‘, Guardian Australia, 23 June 2016 Over 500 comments on this piece which reports a longitudinal (20 year) study by Sydney and Macquarie University researchers. The original article…
Land rights, Treaty, not hearing and family violence: First Australians miscellany
Five mid-week items: NITV has an explainer on Treaty: What is it? What do other countries have? What kind could we have? Sovereignty; Treaty and recognition; Where to from here? Timeline. Guardian Australia has a rundown on the successful culmination…
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Midwinter (almost) Miscellany from Honest History (info-brokers to the gentry)
Illness has cut a swathe through the Honest History engine-room this week so the remaining HH elves have been forced to bundle some useful links together below. The bundling exercise also warmed us up in an unusually cold Canberra early…
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Two invasions in Australian history: can we now stop using euphemisms about 25 April 1915?
Both Prime Minister Turnbull and Opposition Leader Shorten have used the word ‘invasion’ to describe what happened in Australia in 1788. (They still differ over reconciling, recognising, and whether or not to have a treaty.) Now that we have bipartisan…
Honest history of massacres in the United States and Australia
Some reports of the Orlando massacre, horrible as it was, described it as the United States worst massacre (and again). It wasn’t, as Native Americans would know. Some reminiscences about the Port Arthur massacre, horrible as it was, described it…
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Brayley, Annabelle: Our Vietnam Nurses
Brayley, Annabelle Our Vietnam Nurses, Penguin, Sydney, 2016 When Australia joined the Vietnam War, civilian and military nurses were there to save lives and comfort the wounded. With spirit and good humour, they worked hard and held strong, even though…
Our Vietnam nurses’ stories should have been told before this (review of Brayley)
‘Our Vietnam nurses’ stories should have been told before this’ (review of Brayley), Honest History, 15 June 2016 Pamela Burton reviews Annabelle Brayley’s Our Vietnam Nurses. It is refreshing to read stories of heroism by those who travel to war…
Review note: The Soldier’s Curse by Meg and Tom Keneally
‘Review note: The Soldier’s Curse: Book One, The Monsarrat Series, by Meg and Tom Keneally’, Honest History, 13 June 2016 Gentle Reader reviews a Keneally family enterprise published by Vintage Random House. Tom Keneally is not only prolific but also…
Honest History Miscellany of the June Long Weekend
Some of our Honest History software fell over late on Thursday last week. Thanks to some sleuthing by our indefatigable Webmaster we got it back on track by late Saturday but it meant there was a buildup of new posts…
Venturini, VG (George): The facets of Australian fascism: the Abbott Government experiment (Parts 1-5)
Venturini, VG (George) ‘The facets of Australian fascism: the Abbott Government experiment (Parts 1-5)‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 2-6 June 2016 First of a planned multi-part series by this veteran commentator. The other parts will link from Part 1. With…
Jennings, Garry: How Australians die: cause #1 – heart diseases and stroke
Jennings, Garry ‘How Australians die: cause #1 – heart diseases and stroke‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2016 First of five articles (they will link from this one) on the leading causes of death in Australia and on how death rates…
Daley, Paul: 25 years of reconciliation and what do we have to show for it?
Daley, Paul ‘25 years of reconciliation and what do we have to show for it?‘ Guardian Australia, 3 June 2016 Written in Reconciliation Week, the article argues indicators are going backwards, gaps are widening and sovereignty is unacknowledged. And, after…
Leigh, Andrew: Markets, monopolies and moguls: the relationship between inequality and competition
Leigh, Andrew ‘Markets, monopolies and moguls: the relationship between inequality and competition: John Freebairn Lecture in Public Policy, University of Melbourne, 19 May 2016‘, Andrew Leigh MP website, 20 May 2016 Like a large tree that overshadows the saplings around…
Jericho, Greg: Myths of the neoliberal economic model
Jericho, Greg ‘It’s time to expose the myths of the neoliberal economic model‘, Guardian Australia, 30 May 2016 Election commentary which takes a broad historical sweep. The writer looks at trend figures for GDP growth going back 20, 30 and…
Wolf, Charlie & Athol Bittley: AFL club songs ranked by ambition and boastfulness
Wolf, Charlie & Athol Bittley ‘AFL club songs ranked by ambition and boastfulness‘, Thermocow, 27 May 2016 Now that we’ve got your attention … This article on a comedy blog is just a bit of fun but go beyond the…
Tan, Monica: Nicholas Allbrook on Australia’s national anthem: ‘It’s ignorant and isolationist’
Tan, Monica ‘Pond’s Nicholas Allbrook on Australia’s national anthem: “It’s ignorant and isolationist”‘, Guardian Australia, 26 May 2016 Views of a 28-year-old rock singer with a range of comments beneath. Nicholas Allbrook, in his latest release ‘replaces the nation-fortifying intentions…
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Salvation Army: Out of Reach: National Economic and Social Impact Survey 2016
Salvation Army Out of Reach: National Economic and Social Impact Survey 2016, Salvation Army Australia (Southern Territory and Eastern Territory), Melbourne and Sydney, 2016 The survey of 1600 Salvation Army clients found: Respondents affected by family violence were most affected…
Dunn, Amanda, Emil Jeyaratnam & Fron Jackson-Webb: How we live now: Australian families at a glance
Dunn, Amanda, Emil Jeyaratnam & Fron Jackson-Webb ‘How we live now: Australian families at a glance‘, The Conversation, 24 May 2016 Collection of graphics introducing a ten-part series on the Australian family. The first article, on how diversity and change…
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Cohen, Roger: Australia’s offshore cruelty (New York Times Op ed)
Cohen, Roger ‘Australia’s offshore cruelty‘, New York Times, 23 May 2016 Cohen is visiting Australia. He writes on international affairs and diplomacy. This article had more than 100 comments by early on 24 May 2016 AEST. The Australian treatment of…
York, Barry: Impossible becomes inevitable: my memory of the struggle against apartheid
York, Barry ‘When the impossible becomes inevitable: my memory of the struggle against apartheid‘, Museum of Australian Democracy Blog, 18 May 2016 Reminiscence of anti-apartheid activist now associated with the apartheid exhibition at MOADOPH, Canberra. Touches on his contacts with…
Bright, Denis: The income divide in Australia: The return of class-based politics?
Bright, Denis ‘The income divide in Australia: the return of class-based politics?‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 19 May 2016 Gets beyond the politics of campaigning to look at some statistics – some of which have been used previously in the…
Online Gem No. 9: Peter Norman: Australia’s greatest male sprinter (17 May 2016)
‘Online Gem No. 9: Peter Norman: Australia’s greatest male sprinter’, Honest History, 17 May 2016 updated Peter Norman (born 1942) was a remarkable Australian athlete. Through his achievement at the Mexico Olympic Games and his response to that achievement he…
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…
ABC RN The Drawing Room: How Greeks Americanised Australia
ABC RN ‘How Greeks Americanised Australia‘, The Drawing Room, 22 March 2016 A tribute (audio, no transcript) to Paragon Cafes throughout the wide brown land. Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski talk to Patricia Karvelas about their extensive work on Greek…
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Curnoe, Darren: Ancient Australia: world’s first nation of innovators
Curnoe, Darren ‘Ancient Australia: world’s first nation of innovators‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2016 Discoveries of Indigenous Australian history discount the idea that pre-European society was ‘primitive’. Instead, ‘the continent’s Indigenous people were truly pioneers in the global (collective) journey…
Muldoon, Paul & Adrian Little: Indigenous reconciliation opens old wounds
Muldoon, Paul & Adrian Little ‘Indigenous reconciliation is hard, it re-opens wounds to heal them‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2016 First of a series, linking from this article, about the issues surrounding reconciliation (or treaty), starting from the assumption that…
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…
Daley, Paul: Australian patriotism: it’s not about war, it’s in our love of the land
Paul Daley ‘Australian patriotism: it’s not about war, it’s in our love of the land‘, Guardian Australia, 7 May 2016 updated Daley rejects violent metaphors for election campaigns and suggests patriotism, always evoked at such times, is more subtle and…
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Review note: Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’
‘Review note: Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’’, Honest History, 2 May 2016 updated This quick look at Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’ is more of an alert than a review. It is difficult to keep up with the…
ABC RN The Drawing Room: History of mental illness in Australia
ABC Radio National ‘A history of mental illness in Australia‘, The Drawing Room, 28 April 2016 Patricia Karvelas talks to Professor Katie Holmes of La Trobe and Professor Mark Finnane of Griffith on aspects of mental illness, including inter-generational impacts…
Clark, Anna: Private Lives, Public History
Clark, Anna Private Lives, Public History, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2016 The past is consumed on a grand scale: popularised by television programs, enjoyed by reading groups, walking groups, historical societies and heritage tours, and supported by unprecedented digital…
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Review note: Vietnam – the war that made us what?
‘Review note: Vietnam – the war that made us what?’ Honest History, 26 April 2016 SBS showed a three-part series on the Vietnam War, Vietnam: The War that Made Australia (now on video), which had an unusually narrow focus and…
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Doyle, Brian: The national sport
Doyle, Brian ‘The national sport‘, The American Scholar, 15 April 2016 An American offers a note on Australian football – and does it in one long, lyrical paragraph. He is from the Pacific North-West so perhaps we should expect this.…
Tavan, Gwenda: Bipartisanship on immigration but racism, suspicion, division
Tavan, Gwenda ‘Ideas for Australia: bipartisanship on immigration does little to counter racism, suspicion and division‘, The Conversation, 20 April 2016 Immigration seems unlikely to be a big issue at the impending election, a matter which the author deprecates. [T]he…
Daley, Paul: Canberra’s vision of the ideal city gets mired in ‘mediocrity’
Paul Daley ‘Story of cities #17: Canberra’s vision of the ideal city gets mired in “mediocrity”‘, Guardian, 7 April 2016 Long article for London Guardian about the history of Canberra. Daley has written a book on the city also. This…
Twenty-five years since Deaths in Custody Royal Commission: Honest History miscellany
‘Twenty-five years since Deaths in Custody Royal Commission: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 15 April 2016 Taking a line through the dozen or so news reports and pieces of commentary below, we do not attempt any summing up other than…
Online gem No. 8: Betty Cuthbert, champion athlete (12 April 2016)
‘Online gem No. 8: Betty Cuthbert, champion athlete (12 April 2016)’, Honest History, 12 April 2016 Update 25 July 2016: one aspect of the 1956 Olympics was the TV coverage, which created its own issues but set the early parameters…
Bain, Kevin: Review of Klaus Neumann’s Across the Seas: Australia’s response to refugees
Bain, Kevin ‘Review: Klaus Neumann’s Across the Seas: Australia’s response to refugees: a history‘, Independent Australia, 19 March 2016 Long, descriptive review of this book, published last year by Penguin, also reviewed in Fairfax, The Australian, Resident Judge blog, Sydney…
Fuller, Robert S.: Ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia’s highway network
Fuller, Robert S. ‘How ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia’s highway network‘, The Conversation, 7 April 2016 Fuller writes about the extensive network of trade routes used by Aboriginal people before 1788 for trading in goods and stories. Aboriginal…
Jabour, Bridie: Boomers and millenials: not intergenerational but class warfare
Jabour, Bridie ‘Boomers and millenials: this is not intergenerational warfare, it’s class warfare‘, Guardian Australia, 6 April 2016 Talk about intergenerational conflict is really about class conflict, based on differential access to capital, particularly housing. Some millenials can rely on…
Colebatch, Tim: Australia’s urban boom: the latest evidence
Colebatch, Tim ‘Australia’s urban boom: the latest evidence‘, Inside Story, 5 April 2016 Sometime over the next three months, Sydney’s population will reach five million. If Melbourne keeps growing at its current pace, by 2020 it too will have five million…
Daley, Paul: Lachlan Macquarie was no humanitarian
Daley, Paul ‘Lachlan Macquarie was no humanitarian: his own words show he was a terrorist‘, Guardian Australia, 5 April 2016 Discusses the strategy employed towards Indigenous Australians by New South Wales Governor (1810-22) Lachlan Macquarie. Macquarie is perhaps the most…
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’…
Review note: Kristen Alexander’s Taking Flight (Lores Bonney)
‘Review note: Taking Flight: Lores Bonney’s Extraordinary Flying Career‘, Honest History, 31 March 2016 It is rare that the word ‘extraordinary’ is justified in the writing of biography. Intrinsic to the craft are stories worth telling, lives less ordinary. In…
Daley, Paul: It’s not “politically correct” to say Australia was invaded, it’s history
Daley, Paul ‘It’s not “politically correct” to say Australia was invaded, it’s history‘, Guardian Australia, 30 March 2016 updated This article comments on the Daily Telegraph‘s comment on a diversity guide at the University of New South Wales, pointing out…
Barnwell, Ashley: The Secret River, silences and our nation’s history
Barnwell, Ashley ‘The Secret River, silences and our nation’s history‘, The Conversation, 28 March 2016 Explores the controversy surrounding the current stage adaptation of Kate Grenville’s novel, The Secret River. This controversy extends that associated with the original book: it…
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Review note: Certain Admissions by Gideon Haigh is a very Melbourne story
‘Review note: Certain Admissions by Gideon Haigh is a very Melbourne story’, Honest History, 24 March 2016 Update 30 August 2016: the book won the Ned Kelly award for 2016. This is a gripping ‘true crime’ story by a prolific…
Wahlquist, Calla: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur
Wahlquist, Calla ‘It took one massacre: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur‘, Guardian Australia, 15 March 2016 Twenty years on from the Port Arthur massacre (35 dead, 23 wounded), the article traces how Prime Minister announced a package…
Liddle, Celeste: Looking past White Australia and white feminism
Liddle, Celeste ‘Looking past White Australia and white feminism‘, New Matilda, 9 March 2016 updated Update 17 March 2016: Liz Conor writes in New Matilda (excerpt from forthcoming book). Includes cringe-making cartoons and advertisements depicting Indigenous women. _______________ Arrernte woman…
Half the world away at home (review of Connor, Stanley & Yule)
‘Half the world away at home’ (review of Connor, Stanley & Yule), Honest History, 15 March 2016 Derek Abbott* reviews The War at Home: The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Volume 4, by John Connor, Peter Stanley…
Grant, Stan: a 10-year-old girl has taken her own life
Grant, Stan ‘A 10-year-old girl has taken her own life. How can we possibly look away?‘, Guardian Australia, 9 March 2016 Discusses the death by suicide of a 10-year-old Indigenous girl in Western Australia, one of 19 Indigenous suicides in…
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Cox, Eva: Feminism has failed and needs a rethink
Cox, Eva ‘Feminism has failed and needs a rethink‘, The Conversation, 8 March 2016 The author says women achieved formal legal equality ‘but moving past that into wider social equity changes seems definitely to have stalled’. Partly due to neo-liberalism,…
Mendelssohn, Joanna: Breaking the silence: Australia must acknowledge a violent past
Mendelssohn, Joanna ‘Breaking the silence: Australia must acknowledge a violent past‘, The Conversation, 7 March 2016 Review of the exhibition, ‘When silence falls‘, at the Art Gallery of NSW till 1 May. From the northern tip of Cape York to…
Marshall, Daniel: Does Australia need a Queer History month?
Marshall, Daniel ‘Does Australia need a Queer History month?‘ The Conversation, 3 March 2016 In the wake of the Safe Schools controversy and just after the NSW Parliament and NSW Police apologise for the treatment of Gay and Lesbian marchers…
Abjorensen, Norman: The meaning of John Howard
Abjorensen, Norman ‘The meaning of John Howard‘, Inside Story, 1 March 2016 updated Written to mark the 20th anniversary of the coming to power of the Howard Government. Abjorensen is the doyen of the rise and fall of prime ministers,…
McQuire, Amy: the viral rise of Stan Grant: why diplomacy won’t be enough
McQuire, Amy ‘The viral rise of Stan Grant: why diplomacy won’t be enough for our people‘, New Matilda, 26 February 2016 The reaction to [Grant’s speech], the thought that maybe Australians are “better than this” … gives strength to many…
Choices for First Australians: Honest History miscellany
This is our fourth miscellany this month on matters affecting First Australians and the relationship with them of settler Australian-based governments. Some of the items repeat familiar themes. One could ask who has most control over why these themes do…
Walter, James: can Turnbull manage the ultra-conservatives?
Walter, James ‘A liberal leading the Liberals: can Turnbull manage the ultra-conservatives?‘ The Conversation, 24 February 2016 Comments on the government decision to inquire into Safe Schools, an education program supporting gender-diverse children. Conservatives have claimed the program leads to…
Linking 40 000 Australian years: Honest History miscellany
Wiradjuri heritage journalist, Stan Grant, launched his book, Talking to My Country, at the National Press Club. Details about the book are here. Guardian Australia carried extracts from the book. We know this history, my people. This is a living…
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