Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Mark McKenna, Quarterly Essay/Black Inc., $22.99.
It’s a strong case to argue: acknowledging the past will not weigh us down, but it will liberate us.
As one of Australia’s leading historians, McKenna says: “Our government dismisses the Uluru Statement from the Heart, refusing to embrace a truth-telling commission … [Yet] on Australia day this year tens of thousands cried ‘change the date,’ as they marched in cities and towns around the country … more than any other history the history of the frontier continues to unsettle and trouble us – we rake over the embers, endlessly searching for redemption”.
Referred to as ‘an urgent essay about a nation’s moment of truth’, McKenna argues that telling the truth about the past is imperative. It will be liberating and healing.
“The time for pitting white against black, shame against pride, and one people’s history against another’s, has had its day.”
‘Australia is on the edge of meaningful change, but only if its citizens and politicians can come to new terms with the past. Indigenous recognition and a new push for a republic await action.’
Quarterly Essay #69 is a motivating compilation in which McKenna considers the frontier, the Anzac legacy and deep time factor. He drags some fascinating new scholarship into the light, and pushes the debate about history beyond the familiar polarities.
This powerful essay places history at the core of the current unrest about our national identity. From Captain Cook to the frontier wars, from Australia Day to the Uluru Statement, we are seeing fresh debates, recognitions and of course, backlash.
Presenting some fascinating new thinking and research, McKenna seeks a way beyond the history of wars as discussions about the past have never been more fruitless.
