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From the archive

Compounding a long history of betrayal

Tom Griffiths

4 November 2017

Malcolm Turnbull is the latest leader to rebuff carefully developed Indigenous proposals

Right:

This delegation of Coranderrk men walked to Parliament House in Melbourne in 1886 to farewell former chief secretary Graham Berry. “We have come to see you because you have done a great deal of work for the Aborigines,” they declared in a written address, presenting him with this photo and other gifts. The bearded William Barak is seated in the centre at the back. State Library of Victoria

This delegation of Coranderrk men walked to Parliament House in Melbourne in 1886 to farewell former chief secretary Graham Berry. “We have come to see you because you have done a great deal of work for the Aborigines,” they declared in a written address, presenting him with this photo and other gifts. The bearded William Barak is seated in the centre at the back. State Library of Victoria

The full text of this article can now be found here

The most significant thing that happened in federal politics last week was not the High Court’s decision on the citizenship seven, nor the political raid on the union offices, nor the revelations about the NBN. It was the government’s rejection of the Uluru Statement. Even our best media commentators missed its import: it failed to make the lead item on any nightly news, ABC Insiders gave it two minutes at the bottom of the hour and Jon Faine, normally astute on legal matters, misunderstood the recommendations of the Referendum Council until corrected by listeners…

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Tom Griffiths is the W.K. Hancock Professor of History at the Australian National University.

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Cheaper by far: the Maguire family in Liverpool in 1898. Aggie is second from the right in the front row, holding baby Nesta. Courtesy of Brenda Niall

Cheaper by far: the Maguire family in Liverpool in 1898. Aggie is second from the right in the front row, holding baby Nesta. Courtesy of Brenda Niall