The official launch of Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park took place on Sunday November 8. The event attracted around 80 people.
Speakers included John Butcher (GCPC Convenor), Allan Barnes (Marrickville Aboriginal Consultative Committee), Clr Sam Iskandar (Mayor, Marrickville Council), Clr Sylvie Ellsmore (Marrickville Council), Linda Burney MP and Jo Haylen MP.
The Solidarity Choir sang a number of songs during the launch. Continue reading Launch of Marrickville Peace Park
Congratulations to Marrickville Council for recently installing new signage in Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park. Refer to the photos of the signage below.
The original proposal to have Richardson’s Lookout re-named a Peace and Reconciliation Park was initiated by the Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign (GCPC) in early 2014 in anticipation of the Gallipoli Centenary commemoration in April 2015.1
The reasons for this initiative were set out in GCPC’s Mission Statement which stated:
“The Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign does not believe that Australia as a nation was born in war. We honour and respect all Australians who have died and suffered in war both overseas and in Australia’s frontier wars and respect the contribution and suffering of their families and loved ones. We also honour and respect all those who have pursued the path of non-violent resolution of national and international conflicts. Continue reading New signage installed in Marrickville Peace Park
China will be holding a major military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2 on September 3, one day after the anniversary of Japan’s official surrender on September 2, 1945.
Noteworthy is the fact that the Japanese Prime Minister Shinz? Abe won’t be going, neither will US President Barak Obama, nor British Prime Minister David Cameron or any major western leader. Australia will be represented by Senator Michael Ronaldson, the Minister for Veterans Affairs. Continue reading On Forgetting the Second Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945
A timely response to Prime Minister Abbott’s infamous challenge “Whose side are you on?” has recently been written by Douglas Newton, historian and author of Hellbent: Australia’s Leap Into The Great War.
Newton argues that casting doubt on the patriotism of people who eschew a “hate-the-enemy auction” has a long and dishonourable history.
Newton refers to debates in Britain over the Boer War (1899-1902) – “that vultures’ frenzy provoked by gold and diamonds” – where those who questioned the war were roundly smeared and accused of treachery. Continue reading “Whose side are you on?”
The NSW Fabians held a public forum on the Frontier Wars on Friday June 26 in Sydney. The key speaker was the historian Prof Henry Reynolds, author of Frontier War (NewSouth Publishing, 2013) and A History of Tasmania (CUP, 2012).
In promoting the event, the NSW Fabians noted that the Australian Frontier Wars were fought from 1788 to the 1920s between Indigenous Australians and an invading coalition of white settlers, militia, police, and colonial soldiers and that the conflict claimed an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Aboriginal lives and the lives of between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans.
Despite the significance of the Frontier Wars to our shared history, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra continues to reject calls for these wars to be granted the recognition that other wars involving Australians have been officially given. Continue reading Lest We Forget – Recognising the Frontier Wars
The Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign (GCPC) in conjunction with the Cooks River Valley Association (CRVA) held a Reconciliation Walk in Marrickville on Saturday 30 May.
The event was organise to (a) mark the anniversary of the High Court’s Mabo decision on 3 June in 1992 recognising native title (b) call for the Frontier Wars and their deleterious impact on Aboriginal peoples to be officially recognised (c) acknowledge the 1,000 plus Aboriginal soldiers who fought in WW1 and who faced ongoing discrimination, and worse, on their return home and (d) welcome Marrickville Council’s recent co-naming of Richardson’s Lookout as Marrickville Peace Park. Continue reading Report on Reconciliation Walk
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is celebrated across Australia between 27 May and 3 June each year. The dates commemorate two significant milestones on the reconciliation calendar – the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision in 1992.
NRW is dedicated to helping all Australians learn about their histories (Aboriginal and settler) as well as their cultures and achievements and to explore how each of us can join the national reconciliation effort.
In this spirit, GCPC is organising a NRW event on Saturday 30 May. The walk along the river via Aboriginal Interpretive Sites will be led by Wiradjuri woman, Jennifer Newman. Continue reading Join the Reconciliation Walk in Marrickville – Sat 30 May
The ABC’s RN Sunday Extra program, broadcast on 19 April 2015, contains a segment entitled ‘#Brandzacday’ that examines the way Australians are commemorating Anzac Day and the Gallipoli Centenary.
Key issues discussed included (a) the commercialisation of Anzac Day and (b) how the Anzac legend clouds an understanding of the realities of war and Australia’s response to the great imperial rivalries underpinning the ‘war to end all wars’.
A third key issue discussed, and one at odds with (a) and (b) above, is the digitisation of repatriation records which offers a profoundly anti-war narrative that reveals the extraordinary human costs and suffering of the conflict. Continue reading #Brandzacday
On 21 March the Marrickville Heritage Society (MHS) organised a tour of the Cooks River called ‘Walk the Talk’. The main purpose of the tour was to inform MHS’ members and friends about the significance of the Cooks River to Aboriginal people past and present, as well as to learn more about the Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign’s proposal to have Richardson’s Lookout declared a Peace and Reconciliation Park.
The ‘Walk the Talk’ event attracted about 30 members and friends of MHS who walked along the Cooks River from Steel Park to Richardson’s Lookout via Warren Park. Continue reading Marrickville Heritage Society – Cooks River Tour
On 9th March, the ABC’s Four Corners program ‘Bringing the War Home’ focussed on the scourge of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst veterans who served in Afghanistan. During the 14 years since the invasion of Afghanistan, both Coalition and Labor leaders have been eager to wave ADF personnel off to combat in this foreign land. But these veterans’ homecoming has been a different story, an agonising one for many of them. Continue reading A National Shame – Veterans and PTSD