The Australian War Memorial oscillates between seeming to be ready to admit that Australia’s Frontier Wars ought to be commemorated in the AWM and then leaping back in fright at the thought of backlash from the RSL and others.
Among the hopeful signs is the Memorial Chair, Kim Beazley’s, intimations that something should be done. The latest annual November 11 Didgeridoo playing may be another tiny clue.
This year the AWM said about Playing of the Didgeridoo that “the didgeridoo – known by the Yolngu of north-east Arnhem Land as the yidaki – is not traditionally played in Ngunnawal country. It will be played here today with the permission of the traditional custodians to pay respect to those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have taken part in the defence of Australia, part of a long and ongoing tradition of defending Country.”
The last words – part of a long and ongoing tradition of defending Country can be construed in a number of ways. The AWM has talked about recognising Frontier warriors who subsequently served in the uniform without mentioning that they had been allowed to join the military but, after their service was completed not the RSL let alone go to the local pub to drink with former comrades and reminiscence about their war.
Yet the AWM continues to ignore that Australia’s very first war, The Frontier Wars, are not only our longest war but also one of the most deadly.
It lasted more than a century from 1788 to 1934 and some evidence indicates the Frontier Wars continued until at least the 1940s – longer than Europe’s One Hundred Year War in the 14th and 15th centuries; longer than Europe’s deadly Thirty Years War in the 17th Century.
About 60,000 Australian soldiers were killed in World War I and 30,000 in World War II.
No-one will ever know just how many Black and White people were killed in our wars. The most conservative estimate of the deaths of Indigenous people, settlers and soldiers is 23,000. Other estimates of White and Black deaths are as high as 122,000.
Yet there is no Roll of Honour for these fallen at the Australian War Memorial and scant recognition that our first and most deadly wars even existed.
It’s time they were.
Meanwhile the AWM is classic bureaucratic case study where the institution spends more time parsing various positions than actually doing their job.
PS Trump and Musk
The last blog speculated on how long the Trump-Musk bromance would run arguing that there is room for only one Sun in the Trump universe.
The question is also being asked in the US media and a friend sent a recent NYT article which has put the question into the mainstream under the headline Trump and Musk: The Bromance That Cannot Last.
It is well worth reading https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/opinion/elon-musk-trump-election.html
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