‘I could feel it in my body’: War on a history war

Abstract

Tony BirchAs a way of making a contribution to this discussion and to think about what we can both build, and build upon, in Australia I want to begin by talking about the production of history in Australia. In doing so I will call on people, intellectuals and writers, whom I feel affiliated with, personally, creatively and politically. I am keenly interested in processes of cooperation and collaboration.I believe such ventures that are central for a new way of thinking in Australia. We do sometimes, through necessity or desire, work individually. But for me this is no longer enough. I want to consider the relationship between political and intellectual solidarity.I am not interested in the notion of intellectual discussion as either an individual or pluralistic model of thinking. The first is for me too isolating and self-indulgent, while the second is too often a strategic comment made by those who only feign pluralism in support of the status quo and the maintenance of their own authority.I will begin with some brief reflections on what I believe were the key motivations that drove the so-called history wars, and the persistent attacks on Aboriginal people in Australia over the past decade, which, of course, are inter-related. As a result of the discussion of colonial history in the last decade, and the concerted attempts to erase or sanitise colonial violence, enormous psychological damage has been done to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities alike. I am also particularly interested in the role of left or liberal historians in this debate, and their failure to engage competently in such a war, let alone win it. I want to end by discussing how we might put creative, political and ethical spaces into being in Australia; places where we can bypass these regressive debates and do something more productive. I want to begin by commemorating somebody who did attempt to think in more creative

Sites of Violence, Sites of Peace, Sites of Justice: Transforming the Relational Landscape of Yogyakarta

“…Through the transformation of spaces and relations enabled by the tours, new questions of responsibility and the ethics of engagement with state harm are raised. The survivors no longer have the “burden of carrying the memory” of these sites alone (see Birch in the context of settler-colonial Australia, Birch, 2006, p. 23). As one survivor explained (personal communication, November 7, 2018), they knowingly pass these sites in their day-to-day life, while others living in and visiting Yogyakarta walk by without knowing or acknowledging their significance.…”

Whitefellas at the Margins

“…One of the most influential and enduring nationalist tropes functioned to position 'the Aborigine' as part of the Australian continent's fauna. Like the kangaroo, emu and possum, 'the Aborigine', according to this trope, constituted just another part of the landscape, part of the Australian wilderness that non-Indigenous colonists had found, battled, conquered, tamed and transformed into what they referred to as the 'settled districts' (Attwood and Arnold 1992, Birch 2005, 2006, Russell 1998.…”

‘Keeping story alive’: screening Indigenous resistance in Mitch Torres’Jandamarra’s War(2011) andKeepers of the Story: Jandamarra(2010)

“…In this essay, I explore how in Jandamarra's War (2011) and Keepers of the Story: Jandamarra (2010) Indigenous director Mitch Torres attempts to move beyond the relegation of Indigenous history to the role of 'minor history' (Birch 2006) by retelling a colonial story of conflict and resistance from a new Indigenous perspective. I argue that by melding Western and Bunuba history-telling practices, documentary techniques and dramatic re-enactment, she pursues a process of hybridisation and creation of new historical practices able to maintain the cultural specificity of Indigenous history, while at the same time challenging our understanding of the role that 'place' plays in documentary practices by showing how Jandamarra's story belongs to Bunuba country and focusing on the role that country has played in keeping his story alive.…”