Seminar on reinterpreting history
By Linda Kaucher
SYDNEY — A seminar titled "The View from the Other Side of the Hill: Reinterpreting History in the Context of Reconciliation" was held at the NSW State Library on May 24, organised by Australians for Reconciliation in conjunction with the Royal Australian Historical Society.
The NSW minister for Aboriginal affairs, Andrew Refshauge, didn't hang around for questions after a speech that touted his government's performance on Aboriginal issues.
In fact, the Carr Labor government is supporting John Howard's reactionary 10-point plan on native title and has refused to protect from the bulldozers the important Day of Mourning site in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, where the first national civil rights meeting was held in 1938.
Historian Henry Reynolds told the large audience that earlier governments, even conservative ones, had recognised the rights of Aboriginal people to share land. These rights, he said, had been created when it was recognised that, as large-scale land grabs proceeded, Aboriginal people could be exterminated.
Once the land was squatted on, Reynolds said, it was only Aboriginal cheap labour and land skills that made the cattle industry viable. "The pastoral industry has a debt to Aboriginal people, as the beneficiary of unpaid labour, on land that was taken by force", he said.
Reynolds went on to describe how Aboriginal people were written out of history from the 1890s until the 1960s, along with any reference to shared rights to land. "Now, against this backdrop, Mabo and Wik are hard for many people to come to terms with", he said.
The seminar was also addressed by Aboriginal lawyer Tony McAvoy, who described reconciliation as necessary therapy.
The Day of Mourning site, and the need it epitomises for a recognition of Aboriginal history, were raised several times in discussion. It was pointed out that by acquiring the site, which would require only a tiny fraction of the Olympics budget, the only Labor government in the country could differentiate itself from the other political parties.