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I take a very different view. I believe that the balance sheet of our history is
one of heroic achievement and that we have achieved much more as a nation of
which we can be proud than of which we should be ashamed.
In saying that, I do not exclude or ignore specific aspects of our past where we
are rightly held to account. Injustices were done in Australia, and no-one should
obscure or minimise them.
We need to acknowledge as a nation the realities of what European settlement
has meant for the first Australians, the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and in
particular the assault on their traditions and the physical abuse they endured. (1996b,
n.p., emphasis added)
Combined, these speeches represent the view Howard held throughout his Prime Ministership
of Australian history and how it should be remembered (although it could be argued that his
perspectives gradually became even more politically conservative, with a lesser emphasis on
remembering any negative aspects of Australia’s history particularly in the context of school
curriculum debates). Reactions for and against these types of statements and perspectives
held by Howard are examined in greater depth in the Continuation and proliferation of the
history/culture wars section of this overview and demonstrate how this view pervaded public
debate over the eleven years from 1996-2007. It has, therefore, been necessary to quote
Howard at length here, so that an accurate portrayal of his views can be presented, enabling a
strong critique of his, and other conservatives’, views on this topic with the history/culture
wars.
A1.5.5 May 27, 1997: Howard’s Australian Reconciliation Convention speech.
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, set up through an Act of Parliament from 1991 to
2001, was legislated to address the following objective:
The object of the establishment of the Council is to promote a process of
reconciliation between Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider
Australian community, based on an appreciation by the Australian community as a
whole of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and achievements and of the
unique position of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders as the indigenous peoples
of Australia, and by means that include the fostering of an ongoing national
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