Abstract:
The concept of 'sharing histories' has been a key goal of the Australian Reconciliation
process. It involves a widespread popular concept of history as a collection of facts, to
which previously excluded voices can be simply added-in to make the collection more
comprehensive. This article indicates differences between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians' understandings of the concepts of both 'sharing' and of
'history'. It then traces the narrative shifts which tend to occur when complex memories
previously retold in community settings are transferred to adversarial public platforms,
resulting in simplification and polarisation. The article argues that the processes by
which all groups construct and narrate their histories shape their historical content.
Further, collaborating in these history-making processes offers more opportunities for
generating new relationships than do confrontations between the simplified finished'
histories which become weapons in intense public political conflicts. Finally, I suggest
alternative approaches to 'sharing histories' that may allow the processes of
collaborative investigation to take precedence over the arithmetical approach of collecting
and adding up facts for new retellings of Australian pasts.
