The government could consider a national memorial to the frontier wars according to Senator Pat Dodson.
Speaking to the ABC on Thursday, the senator was asked about SBS/NITV’s series The Australian Wars.
The first episode, directed and presented by Rachel Perkins, aired on Wednesday evening and voiced calls for recognition of the conflicts at the Australian War Memorial.
7:30 Report host Laura Tingle asked the senator if the national institution should be commemorating those killed in frontier violence as “part of the truth-telling process”.
"Well, whether it's a change in memorial or standalone recognition of the frontier, that some have proposed that ought to take place, there are ways to deal with this,” he said.
The senator said he believed “that discussion is before us”.
“Certainly, our government hasn't got a closed mind on it,” he said.
“The War Memorial is steeped in a particular tradition. There's no reason why we shouldn't.”
The Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Source: AAP
'Not conceived' to commemorate the frontier
The Australian War Memorial Director Matt Anderson says the institution was "not conceived" to do that.
Speaking to Perkins in an upcoming episode, said the memorial was conceived to represent overseas military activity, not military activity in Australia.
“My understanding of the history of the memorial is when it tasked its historians to go back and look at that very question, they could find no evidence of forces, military forces, raised in Australia engaged in the frontier violence and frontier conflicts,” he said.
It's a claim Perkins labelled “absolutely factually incorrect”.
Mr Anderson said that the memorial does acknowledge frontier violence as real, and criticism that they do not is misplaced.
“We do, but what we seek to do is tell the story of frontier violence in the way in which it affected the men and women."
The episode spotlights the only current recognition of the frontier wars at the national memorial - a painting by Rover Thomas detailing a massacre in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
“It’s just one story, and can’t represent the magnitude of this history,” said Perkins.
Christie's Aboriginal Art Specialist Shaun Dennison looks at an Aboriginal painting by Australian artist Rover Thomas entitled 'Ruby Plains Massacre' which now hangs in the Australian War Memorial. Source: AP / MATT DUNHAM/AP
Dodson on the Queen's Day of Mourning
Senator Dodson also responded regarding the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the conversations on the legacy of the crown in Australia.
“I can understand it's been difficult for me, and many Indigenous Australians, given that the dispossession of our countries was made by the British, and the development of the legal fiction of Terra Nullius,” he said.
The senator said he can imagine the Queen would represent “all the worst things" that have stemmed from colonisation and referenced the Stolen Generations which bordered “on genocide”.
"There’s not a lot to be empathetic to the crown and Britain and the crown of Australia and in that regard from First Nations peoples," he said
Protestors during the "Abolish the Monarchy" rally in Brisbane. Credit: NITV News: Tanisha Stanton
“But I think there are times for doing the right thing and taking time to at least show courtesy to someone else is not a big deal,” he said.
He suggested divorcing the queen and colonisation “to some extent” to pay respect to “another human being“ and it’s something “we do in our own custom”.
“I would hope that we can find been gracious enough to do it for the queen I mean, but I can understand if people are hostile towards that concept,” he said.
