SMOOTHED OVER HISTORIES

 With a day of remembrance just behind us it is perhaps time to really think about the histories that define us and the ways that they do. Australians remembering war increasingly comes with a set of contested and contestable ideas.

The ways we remember on some days, and the things we remember, come loaded with myths and comfortable imaginings. Our WARmyths we tell ourselves define us but we need to be more careful in our remembering if we want to be comfortable in our skins.

"Tasmania’s Black War (1824-31) was the most intense frontier conflict in Australia’s history. It was a clash between the most culturally and technologically dissimilar humans to have ever come into contact. At stake was nothing less than control of the country, and the survival of a people." 
Nicholas Clements  Link

"Yet a decade ago, Australian historians were locked in a furious debate, known as the history wars, about whether the Black War was actually a war at all. The antagonists included Henry Reynolds and me, who argued that the colonists had conducted a long and bloody guerrilla war with the Tasmanian Aborigines for possession of Tasmania." 

Lyndall Ryan   Link

QVMAG Collection Launceston

Would it be a big mistake to imagine this board as a 'proclamation of war'?

Would it be a big mistake to imagine this cup as a 'war trophy'?

Would it be a big mistake to imagine this island as 'war plunder'?

CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE