Professor Henry Reynolds, one of Defending Country's Patrons, recently wrote in Pearls and Irritations about how the foundation stones of reconciliation and truth-telling have been postponed again with the King's visit to his subjects in Australia.
'The failure of last year’s referendum still troubles the country', Reynolds wrote. 'The focus on the Voice to Parliament took attention away from the far more consequential question of truth telling, while paradoxically displaying how much it is still needed.'
'First Nations [in Australia] have always lived with a tradition of loss, violence and discrimination passed on by word of mouth within families and communities. How could it be otherwise? They are the victims of profound human rights violation comparable in many ways to the legacy of slavery ...'
Reynolds' article summarised the history of black-white relations in Australia since 1788 and returned to what the King failed to say while passing through his Wide Brown Land:
In one of his speeches, King Charles expressed an interest in our process of reconciliation. That was all very well but it is obvious that it must include serious input from Britain and specifically from the Crown. Up until now there has never been an apology or expression of regret, let alone any talk about reparations in return from the great wealth extracted from the purloined land of the First Nations.
It would have been a welcome gesture if, while in the War Memorial, he had made reference to the thousands of warriors who died in what have now come to be called the Australian Wars fighting to preserve their homelands, their way of life and even their existence as a people.
We can safely assume that the Albanese government failed to make any suggestion about the desirability, even the need, for an apology as a condition for our invitation. This would have placed Australia in line with so many of the one-time British colonies in the Global South which play roles in the radical re-evaluation of Imperial history.
Deference is what was expected and deference was dutifully delivered.
But it means that First Nations views of the past and the historical narratives favoured by main stream Australia are still far apart, as the failure of the referendum showed.
Emphasis added.
Picture credit: The Prince of Wales visited Australia in 1920 on the battle cruiser HMS Renown. The Australian artist Arthur Streeton painted the warship and the excited spectators in Sydney Harbour (AWM). Deference then, deference now, as Reynolds wrote.
The Prince came on behalf of his father King George V, to thank the Australian people for the sacrifices and contributions made during the First World War. We haven't checked, but we'd bet currency bearing a royal head that every visiting member of the Royal family since 1920 has said something similar, mostly at the Australian War Memorial, about Australian 'service and sacrifice'. The other side of deference is military involvement overseas alongside our great and powerful friends - from Amiens to Afghanistan to AUKUS. That involvement goes almost without saying; it is only the involvement at home against First Nations people that many of us find difficult to confront. David Stephens
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