Event
Date
Launch of Mark McKenna’s book
This Country a Reconciled Republic?
Manning Clark House, 14 May 2004
Thanks to Gatjil,
Thanks MCH and all of my colleagues at the ANU
Thanks to my friends and family for being here tonight
When I first sent the email asking Gatjil to launch the book, Gatjil phoned back straight away. Look Mark, about that book launch, thats no trouble.
I dont know too many people who would describe a journey All the way from Arnhem Land to be there tonight as no trouble.
One and a half hours across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cairns
4 hours to Sydney then finally to Canberra.
Thats a long way to come. And I think it shows how much the republic and reconciliation matter to Gatjil
So thanks to Gatjil again its a great honour
My reasons for asking Gatjil
1997-1999 ATSIC Chairman, the one indigenous leader who kept trying to explain the importance and relevance of Aboriginal issues and reconciliation to the republic.
And when I began to write this book, his public comments were a constant source of inspiration.
So to the book.
In many ways this book is a by product of the two books that preceded it
Not because it draws on similar material but because it attempts to marry my earlier work on the rep with my recent work on Aboriginal history
I mean in particular Looking for Blackfellas Point
I suppose because it was through writing that book that I came to ask myself why it was that Australian republicans had managed to build a republican movement that saw reconciliation as an entirely separate issue.
I think in many ways, it is only when you study or read Aboriginal history that you fully understand their predicament today.
The other reason I came to ask myself about the connections between the republic and
Reconciliation was through spending time and living overseas.
In 2000 I lived in London, working at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies. Most of the British people I met were nonplussed by the failure of the republic referendum. Many interpreted the referendum mistakenly as an endorsement of the monarchy and Australias traditional ties to Britain. Some of my colleagues and friends in London, and others in France and Germany were keen to question me on the failure of the referendum.. And I was often confronted with a question I hadnt expected. One of the most newsworthy aspects of Australian politics in Europe is indigenous affairs reconciliation, the stolen generations, economic and social disadvantage in Aboriginal communities, the debate over frontier history, and the struggle for land rights and native title. The question usually went along the following lines;
‘So what does the republic say about Aboriginal people, what does it say about reconciliation? When I explained that the republican movement was separated entirely from the movement for reconciliation, being focussed solely on the campaign for an Australian Head of State, almost all of my friends found this difficult to understand. From their perspective as outsiders, the issues surrounding reconciliation were the most pressing moral and social concerns in Australia. How could republicans, who claimed to project a new vision for Australia, exclude the issue of reconciliation from their platform? How could they pretend that a republic could be declared and remain silent on reconciliation? It was largely through being confronted with questions such as these while living overseas, that I came to understand the need for a book such as this.
Imagine the day, if you can, when the Australian republic is declared. This is the day we replace the sovereignty of the Crown with the explicit declaration of the sovereignty of the Australian people. Would we wish that this day comes to be seen much like the Cook Bicentenary in 1970, the opening of new Parliament house in 1988, the Bicentenary celebrations in 1988, and the centenary of federation in 2001? Yet another day when our ‘celebrations are haunted by the shadows of historical injustice towards Aboriginal people a day when Aboriginal protesters mourn their exclusion from the republic. Or would we wish that this day be different?
To get our republic over the line, patriotism alone is not enough. An Australian Head of State is a consequence of becoming a republic. It should not be its rationale.
If we ask ourselves this question what is our emotional connection with the republic or as Gatjil said to me today what is our gut feeling? Why does the republic matter? We might answer that it is Australian independence, or Australian identity. Yes, thats one gut feeling but there is another. The same gut feeling that caused hundreds of thousands of Australians to march for reconciliation in May 2000. The need for justice for indigenous people. And why is this gut feeling relevant to the republic?
Because if we become a republic then we must remove the sovereignty of the Crown. And If we remove the sovereignty of the Crown, then surely we must say something about the people whose sovereignty the Crown usurped. Surely we cannot turn away from what is undeniable, from what the Crown has served for so long to obscure. That the original owners of this country were Aboriginal people.
This is the reason why we have to acknowledge that the first plank of an Australian republic regardless of how our head of State is elected should be constitutional recognition of Aboriginal Australians. This is not a political liability, but a political opportunity to form a fundamental symbolic link between the two great symbolic issues of our time.
Im not arguing that constitutional recognition will, if introduced, complete the process of reconciliation, but I do argue that it makes the one necessary contribution the republic can make.
So if you ask me why do we need to connect the two issues, why not just pursue the reconciliation agenda without connecting it to the republic my response to you is that the republic is not just about political strategy. More importantly, it is aboutresponsibility.
As republicans, we need to take responsibility for including the very urgent issue of constitutional justice for Aboriginal Australians. We need to listen, both to our own history, and to the demands of Aboriginal people.Responsibility, Ownership, Inclusion and ultimately - political leadership.
Australia needs a vision of a republic that is one for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike - a republic committed to reconciliation and democratic process, a republic worth fighting for and a republic worth voting for. And ultimately, that is what this book is about.