17 Frequently Asked Questions on the Australian (Frontier) Wars - and 17 Answers

As the Defending Country website has developed over the last 12 months we have added to our collection of Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers). Some new FAQS have been in response to issues arising in the work being done in various places on the Australian (Frontier) Wars.

The Answers to the 17 FAQs can be reached here.

We are always open to comment on items on the Defending Country website, including those below. Contact info@defendingcountry.au .

1. What were the Australian Frontier Wars?
2. Why should the Australian Frontier Wars be properly recognised and commemorated at the Australian War Memorial?
3. What is meant by properly recognising and commemorating the Frontier Wars at the Memorial?
4. What mechanisms would ensure the Frontier Wars are properly recognised and commemorated at the Memorial?
5. Will having a Frontier Wars Gallery at the Memorial be sufficient to properly recognise and commemorate the Frontier Wars?
6. Will the redeveloped Memorial have enough space to properly recognise and commemorate the Frontier Wars?
7. Why should we move now to ensure that the Frontier Wars are properly recognised and commemorated at the Memorial?
8. Why should the Frontier Wars be properly recognised and commemorated at the Memorial rather than in some other institution?
9. What do First Nations people think about having the Frontier Wars properly recognised and commemorated at the Memorial?
10. What do non-Indigenous Australians think about having the Frontier Wars properly recognised and commemorated at the Memorial?
11. How will proper recognition and commemoration of the Frontier Wars at the Memorial affect Anzac Day and other commemorative days?
12. How is this not just trying to rewrite history?
13. How is it possible to change what the War Memorial stands for?
14. How can you call frontier violence ‘war’ when it wasn’t declared and wasn’t fought by armies wearing uniforms?
15. How can Defending Country help unite Australia?
16. Why is comprehensive coverage of the Frontier Wars preferable to a stress on individuals and individual battle grounds?
17. Are the Frontier Wars blackfellers’ business, whitefellers’ business, or both?

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Picture credit: Promotional poster for The Australian Wars, 2022, dir. Rachel Perkins (used with permission SBS). It seems clear that changing attitudes at the War Memorial were influenced by the Memorial Council’s viewing of this documentary in 2022.