Values matter
Brendan Nelson puts forward a practical proposal for bringing together two conflicting narratives of Australian settlement and ending the controversy over Australia Day.
The following is an edited extract of the 9th John Howard Lecture delivered by the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson AO in Sydney.
The Australian War Memorial honours those who underwrite our freedoms.
The most sacred place within the Memorial is the Hall of Memory. Beneath its Byzantine inspired dome lies the Unknown Australian Soldier. We don’t know who he is. He is definitely not a General or an Admiral. He is certainly of the lower ranks – a private, corporal, sapper, sergeant or junior officer. He could be an Aboriginal Australian. We will never know.
We are Australians. We revere the idealism and heroism of the everyday Australian upon whose shoulders ultimately rests the defence of all we hold dear.
A confluence of three issues.
The long overdue repatriation of Aboriginal remains to Australia from mainly British museums and what to do with them.
Calls for the recognition of violence perpetrated against Aboriginal people in dispossession and the colonisation of Australia.
A growing controversy around Australia Day being 26 January.
Aboriginal people recognised they needed a presence here. Almost 50 years ago in 1972 the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the grounds in front of the first parliament. It seeks to visibly focus the nation’s leadership on injustices endured by Indigenous Australians.
It is now time for Indigenous presence here to be formalised in a way that advances understanding of and respect for, the first Australians.
Decades of hard work seeking to repatriate the remains of Aboriginal people from mainly British institutions, has finally come to fruition. Taken as trophies or objects of scientific and cultural curiosity, Aboriginal remains stored in the vaults of mainly British museums are slowly being returned.
Where the origin of those remains is known, they are returned to their traditional lands. But in many cases ancestral origin is unknown. Remains already returned are stored in multiple places void of the dignity they deserve.
They are owed better than this.
The area just up from Lake Burley Griffin is known as Reconciliation Place. It lacks a presence commanding the respect its purpose deserves, obscured in the vista from both Parliament House and the War Memorial. It could be redeveloped as a dignified precinct, honouring Aboriginal custodianship, culture and history.
At its centre would be an Ossuary of major proportions. Into it would be solemnly interred the remains of Aboriginal people repatriated to Australia, centuries after they were taken.
The symbolism would be powerful.
At one end of Anzac Parade is the Unknown Australian Soldier.
At the other end before our parliament would effectively be the Tomb of the Unknown Custodians, a Resting Place. That is a matter for Indigenous people. Whatever the name, it must be on the centre axis with visible presence.
The precinct around the Tomb would be inlaid with granite, marble and stonework from regions right across Australia. It would tell the story of Aboriginal life, history and culture. It could list the tribes, nations and languages and feature curation in some common Indigenous languages. All of it would need English curation.
It would tell the story of Aboriginal presence from its known origins, history, culture and customs.
It would mark European arrival, what occurred with contact and what followed. It would tell dispassionately of the devastating impact of European colonisation on the first peoples and key milestones in this journey. From the beneficent, awkward relationship to dispossession and violence perpetrated. It might also present Indigenous war service for Australia. Significant Indigenous Australians might be profiled. The 1967 referendum, the 1992 Mabo High Court decision, 2008 Apology and other major milestones could be documented in our journey of Aboriginal Reconciliation.
The Ossuary, or Tomb would periodically see the ceremonial interment of repatriated remains. It would have a presence above the ground and visibility in the vista.
The entire area should have a spiritual ambience of reflection and sanctity, being the destination for pilgrims in search of knowing more of Aboriginal history and paying respect to it. A visitor welcome and interpretive centre could be established from which groups could be taken to the Tomb and precinct.
It would not impinge upon the Tent Embassy in any way, being distant from it, close to or emerging from the lake’s edge.
The construction of an Ossuary, Tomb or Resting Place in such a Memorial precinct would complete the ‘picture’ in our nation’s capital. From the Australian War Memorial or the Parliament, we would look upon and be reminded of the first peoples, their culture, sacrifices and contributions to the nation.
It would also provide a practical yet spiritual solution to the destination for repatriated remains. Having such a place would help leverage negotiations with British Institutions reluctant to return Aboriginal remains.
In the journey of Reconciliation, this would be a major step, likely to be supported by the overwhelming majority of Australians. Whatever the debate of constitutional recognition, we are a fair-minded practical ‘mob’. Our reluctance to change the constitution is exceeded only by our reluctance to read it. This proposal is one I believe most Australians would ‘get’.
When completed, the Commissioning event would likely be one of the most significant practical and symbolic acts of reconciliation this nation has seen.
If such a significant site were to be so developed and curated, it would also provide a national focal point and basis for a new structure for Australia Day.
That day, 26 January 1788 remains the most significant day in the most important year of this nation’s history.
On that day, Admiral Arthur Phillip sailed 11 small ships carrying 1450 people into Sydney Harbour, half of them convicts. It was the event that would mark the disruptive devastation of millennia of rich Aboriginal history, custodianship and culture. But from that event on that day and all that followed, the origins of the Australia we now are and the people we have become.
Australia Day on 26 January compels us to reflect on the impact those events had on the first Australians. But it needs structure beyond citizenship ceremonies, barbeques, sport, fireworks and parties.
A major national event could be conducted at the ‘Tomb’ early on 26 January.
It would reflect upon millennia of rich Indigenous history on the threshold of the arrival of the First Fleet. It would mark the last hours of undisturbed Aboriginal isolation on the cusp of upheaval beyond our modern comprehension. The ceremony would evoke a commemorative event that celebrates all this continent was, those who cared for it to sustain life and a unique culture.
It would also reflect on Indigenous endurance in the face of existential adversities.
It should be a major, nationally televised event attended by the nation’s leaders, Indigenous and non-indigenous. Its centre piece could be the ceremonial interment of remains repatriated over the preceding year.
Those events would precede a day of common celebration of who we now are; the people we have become and restate our aspirations for a common future. A celebration of Australia and Australians, Indigenous, non-Indigenous and immigrants.
The Indigenous precinct and such restructuring of Australia Day would do a great deal for the cohesion of our country around our national day.
This is an edited extract of the 9th John Howard Lecture delivered by the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson AO on 16 December in Sydney.
