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commitment to co-operate to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
disadvantage. (Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 Part 2, s. 5)
In May 1997, the national council hosted the Australian Reconciliation Convention. John
Howard created national attention and wide-spread controversy in the eyes of some and
praise by others for his commitment to a process of practical reconciliation (as distinct from
an official government apology) through offering the following opinion of Australian history
in his Opening Address,
...all Australians - indigenous and otherwise - need to acknowledge realistically the
interaction of our histories. Our purpose in doing so should not be to apportion blame
and guilt for past wrongs, but to commit to a practical programme of action that will
remove the enduring legacies of disadvantage. At the same time, we need to
acknowledge openly that the treatment accorded to many indigenous Australians
over a significant period of European settlement represents the most blemished
chapter in our history. Clearly, there were injustices done and no-one should obscure
or minimise them. (Howard, 1997, n.p.)
This part of his speech, particularly the mention of injustices experienced by Indigenous
Australians over an extended time period as a “blemished chapter” caused many of the
delegates to stand up and turn their backs on Howard while he was delivering his speech; an
act which generated wide spread media coverage. This then fed into the already established
history/culture wars, further fuelling division in the community, a polarisation in many ways
created by and mediated through the media, over whether or not the Australian government
as representative of all Australians should formally apologise for past injustices towards
Indigenous Australians. It is largely through the context of the history/culture wars debates
that this issue was sustained in the public arena, with commentators still discussing the issue
some four years later (see, for example, Carney, 2002).
A1.5.6 November 14, 1997: Henry Reynolds coined the phrase white blindfold.
Henry Reynolds’ speech Aborigines and the 1967 referendum: Thirty years on can be seen as
contributing three key elements to the history/culture wars. First, was his use of the term
“white blindfold” (1998, p. 64), a term that as a result of this speech entered the common
vernacular. Second, he introduced a personal and personality dimension to the debate, one
that would continue to gain momentum through personal attacks between contributors to the
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