Paul Keatings Redfern and War Memorial speeches, written over 30 years ago, remain a powerful indictment of Australias failure to reckon with its past and present, writes DrDavid Stephens.

PAUL KEATING, Prime Minister from 1991-96, gave two especially memorable speeches, one in Redfern Park, Sydney, on10 December 1992(videohere) and one at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, on11 November 1993(videohere) at the interment of the Unknown Australian Soldier.

Keatings speechwriter,Don Watson, worked on both speeches.

The Redfern Park speech contained some words which should be engraved on the footpaths outside the homes of every Australian who voted No in theVoice Referendumof 2023. The Unknown Soldier speech is remarkable in a different way, and well come to that.

The Australian War Memorial is still failing to acknowledge the Frontier Wars as an important part of our history.

Redfern Park first. Here are the key sentences:

Shorthand: We, Whitefellas, pinched Blackfellas Country and then did our best to wipe Blackfellas from the face of Australia. Surely, a good enough reason to have voted Yes in 2023 to make a start on the path of Reconciliation.

Dont No voters come back with that argument that we werent there, we didnt do it, it was a long time ago? We all, Black and White, have a responsibility to address the consequences of what happened then today.

Some of those results are catalogued in theClosing the Gap reports. Keating at Redfern Park went on to mention the then recentRoyal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which, he said, showed with devastating clarity that the past lives on in inequality, racism and injustice.

The metrics have changed little in 30 years; many have got worse. All our yesterdays connect to our today.

Now, the Unknown Soldier speech from 1993.

Again, here are some key sentences, with commentary:

We know almost none of the names of the Indigenous men and women who died in Australia in the Australian Wars from 1788 to at least 1928. Tens of thousands of unknown Australians.

Somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 Indigenous Australians and perhaps 3000 settlers, military and police, died in the Australian Wars. We do not know the exact number of Indigenous deaths because bodies were burned and buried, stories hushed up and records lost or destroyed.

Jeff McMullen's powerful 'Mabo Address' in Sydney, is reproduced here in full in the hope that Koiki and Bonita's "seasons of hope" will continue.

A mature Australia will be one that recognises the unity of our Black and White history.

Indigenous numbers, lands and waters have been decimated since 1788. Disease, poisoning, rape,Snider riflesand hard-hoofed herds destroying Country, all helped bring the change.

Blackfellas stuck together, often in the face of overwhelming odds and hardship.

Our Black and White history reveals stories of bravery and sacrifice, and what it means to be Australian. Heritage need not wear a uniform

Australia today still bears the scars that Keating described in 1993. Indigenous Australian warriors and old men, women and children died in horrendous but unknown numbers.

Wouldnt it be great if our most famous shrine, theAustralian War Memorial, gave equal weight to the deaths of men and women defending Australia in our overseas wars and the deaths in the Australian Wars the wars fought on Country, for Country?

DrDavid Stephensis editor of theHonest History websiteand a member of theDefending Country Memorial Project, campaigning for the Australian War Memorial to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars.

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