Abstract:
Like other postcolonial countries Australia has witnessed profound changes to
understanding of the national past over the last twenty years, particularly in relation
to events which have occurred within the 'living memory' of the twentieth
century. This chapter explores some of the issues relating to history and memory
that have emerged in a range of public forums. I argue that historical understanding
is now shaped by an overall shift to a memorial framework as the
principal mode of interpreting the past. This memorial culture is characterised
by a shifting range of historical sensibilities, so that the past, its meaning and
relationship to the present, has been a central factor in the politics of memory
played out in parliaments and the press, particularly in relation to the experience
of indigenous people over the past century. I also explore the limits to this
memorial framework and the tangled relationship between memory and history
currently evident in public discourse.
