'If we are to take seriously the need for telling the truth about our history, we must start at first principles.
'What if the sovereignty of the First Nations was recognised by European international law in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What if the audacious British annexation of a whole continent was not seen as acceptable at the time and the colonial office in Britain understood that 'peaceful settlement' was a fiction? If the 1901 parliament did not have control of the whole continent, particularly the North, by what right could the new nation claim it?
'The historical record shows that the argument of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is stronger than many people imagine and the centuries-long legal position about British claims to the land far less imposing than it appears.
'In Truth-Telling, influential historian Henry Reynolds pulls the rug from legal and historical assumptions, with his usual sharp eye and rigour, in a book that's about the present as much as the past. His work shows exactly why our national war memorial must acknowledge the frontier wars, why we must change the date of our national day, and why treaties are important. Most of all, it makes urgently clear that the Uluru Statement is no rhetorical flourish but carries the weight of history and law and gives us a map for the future.' (Publication summary)
'In his latest publication, Henry Reynolds surveys international laws that challenge the audacious claim the British made on the Australian continent in the eighteenth century. In his trademark enigmatic style, Reynolds draws our attention to two significant sections of Uluru Statement from the Heart authored at the National Constitutional Convention held at Uluru in 2017, which calls for a Makarrata (Yolgnu – coming together after a struggle). The first declares that First Nations peoples never ‘ceded or extinguished’ sovereignty over their land and secondly this sovereignty ‘coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown’ (viii–ix). The book’s timely arrival amidst increasing demands for truth-telling about Australia’s colonial past strikes a decisive blow to long-held assumptions about the basis on which European sovereignty was established.' (Introduction)
'Every year Grattan Institute compiles a list of essential reads for the PM. Here’s what it has recommended this time.'
'These two books both have the Uluru Statement in their title and share the same publisher. In one sense, they are a mirror image of each other. Everything You Need to Know about the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a clearly written and accessible text explaining constitutional law that also narrates, addresses, and advocates history, while Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, also clear and accessible, is a work of history that is concerned with the law. They also complement each other. Megan Davis and George Williams explain how truth-telling came to be part of the Uluru Statement, while Henry Reynolds outlines what he sees as the historical truths that must be told and indicates where he thinks truth-telling processes might lead. Yet the content of the two books is very different. If we consider the Uluru Statement slogan ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth’, then Everything You Need to Know is primarily about Voice, while Truth-Telling is about Treaty and Truth. For historians, Everything You Need to Know is a must-read. While many historians will find that Truth-Telling covers some very familiar ground, its last few chapters send out an important challenge to the way we remember and commemorate some key figures in Australian political history. Reynolds suggests we ask some tough new questions, for example: should Griffith University change its name?' (Introduction)
'Launching Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark’s The History Wars (2003), Paul Keating described history as ‘our most useful tool and guide’, claiming that ‘knowing our past helps us to divine our future’. Disputes about the scale of frontier violence during Britain’s colonisation of Australia have always been about Australia’s present and future as much as our past. Whether we view colonisation as a process of genocide and expropriation or as largely peaceful has significant symbolic and practical stakes, affecting its commemoration and the necessity of compensation or land rights.' (Introduction)
'These two books both have the Uluru Statement in their title and share the same publisher. In one sense, they are a mirror image of each other. Everything You Need to Know about the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a clearly written and accessible text explaining constitutional law that also narrates, addresses, and advocates history, while Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, also clear and accessible, is a work of history that is concerned with the law. They also complement each other. Megan Davis and George Williams explain how truth-telling came to be part of the Uluru Statement, while Henry Reynolds outlines what he sees as the historical truths that must be told and indicates where he thinks truth-telling processes might lead. Yet the content of the two books is very different. If we consider the Uluru Statement slogan ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth’, then Everything You Need to Know is primarily about Voice, while Truth-Telling is about Treaty and Truth. For historians, Everything You Need to Know is a must-read. While many historians will find that Truth-Telling covers some very familiar ground, its last few chapters send out an important challenge to the way we remember and commemorate some key figures in Australian political history. Reynolds suggests we ask some tough new questions, for example: should Griffith University change its name?' (Introduction)
'In his latest publication, Henry Reynolds surveys international laws that challenge the audacious claim the British made on the Australian continent in the eighteenth century. In his trademark enigmatic style, Reynolds draws our attention to two significant sections of Uluru Statement from the Heart authored at the National Constitutional Convention held at Uluru in 2017, which calls for a Makarrata (Yolgnu – coming together after a struggle). The first declares that First Nations peoples never ‘ceded or extinguished’ sovereignty over their land and secondly this sovereignty ‘coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown’ (viii–ix). The book’s timely arrival amidst increasing demands for truth-telling about Australia’s colonial past strikes a decisive blow to long-held assumptions about the basis on which European sovereignty was established.' (Introduction)
'Every year Grattan Institute compiles a list of essential reads for the PM. Here’s what it has recommended this time.'
