Frontier Wars

Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars 2020 – online gathering

“Nganyji Nguju Bina Bambiji”

Translated from Gimuy Wallubara Yidindji: “We will remember them. We WILL remember them.”

The old people who lived and died during the Frontier Wars, truly gave their lives to protect their families and the beautiful Land which they had lived with and told stories about for thousands of generations.

They suffered gross indignities and injustices: murder, disappearances, poisonings, pandemics, torture, massacre, rapes, detention, dispersion, stolen children, dislocation, social disintegration of clan and band and much more.

It’s 250 years since the British first invaded. They made no treaties. The white settlers warred upon the first peoples and stole their land.

“Nganyji Nguju Bina Bambiji” We will remember them.

____________________

In 2011 Ghillah Michael Anderson initiated the first Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars Anzac Day march to the Australian War Memorial. David Bradbury’s movie Wage Peace documents the Frontier Wars march of 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e315HCFtXcQ

Gimuy Wallubara Yidindji and non-indigenous people who live on their land have been commemorating the Frontier Wars in Cairns for the past 5 years.

Nowra based florist Hazel Davies has been active in getting the Desert Pea recognised as the native blood-on-the-Earth equivalent of the Flanders Poppy.

She has been teaching Desert Pea wreath making and conducting wreath laying ceremonies at the Australian War Memorial and elsewhere.

In this year of contagion, we move on line – and we ask YOU to participate wherever you are.

Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars.

____________________

You can do this by creating your own Anzac Frontier Wars ceremony and sharing it on FaceBook.
Make some smoke with a small fire in your public and private space. Your driveway for example.
Light candles, Improvise a wreath with flowers. Or photocopy one of Hazels Wreaths.
Name the massacres and the local people who suffered them.
Share your ceremony with FaceBook friends.
Join the Zoom session and share there too.

Starts 6 pm Friday 24 April.

The Zoom session will show you a Frontier story from a previous ceremony.

Other stories will be available on the Facebook Event Page. You might have a Frontier Wars story to add.

Bring a response that express ‘lament” – a personal sorry story, a poem or a small live performance. We will show 4 or 5 of the offerings and put the other ones on line.

Watch live from 6pm On FaceBook www.facebook.com/wagepeaceau/

The Frontier Wars Story Camp 2018 at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Graeme Dunstan veteran peace worker and cultural activist reports from the fourth annual Frontier Wars Story Camp. Australian’s cultural understanding of war is based on the silences and lies surrounding the frontier violence which occurred during settlement. Peace workers in Australia have been working for many years to challenge the way Anzac is conceptualised as a foundation to other work against war.

Graeme Dunstan, PeaceBus.

This year, the site of the fourth annual Frontier Wars Story Camp was at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle. Here, with one’s back to the Parliaments Old and New, one can gaze north across the Sacred Fire, the Sovereignty signage, and the flags of the Embassy to a magnificent vista across Lake Burley Griffin, and to the brooding architecture of the Australian War Memorial. The Camp was convened in the week leading up to Anzac Day by Arrernte activist Chris Tomlins from Yambah, NT. I produced it with support from Beyond War.

Our purpose was to raise awareness of the Frontier Wars and build participation in the seventh Anzac Day Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars March on the Australian War Memorial.This year, the March grew to around 150 participants, a number far exceeding that of previous years.

The 2018 Camp was a low-key and loosely organised event, and it promised only two convened storytelling sessions a day, but lots of opportunities for informal storytelling around campfires. No fees or registration were required. About fifty people camped on Embassy for the event.

Ever-contested territory, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a complex and challenging space. And thanks to Chris Tomlins’ leadership, and the support and collaboration of Roxley Foley and other regular residents, the Story Camp brought forth cooperation and cross-cultural confidence.

Decked with Peacebus flags and banners, the Embassy appeared operational and attractive. There was plenty of tasty, wholesome food on offer, plenty of firewood, and plenty of interesting company. The National Capital Authority cooperated by providing extra portable toilets and garbage collection and turning off the sprinklers in the adjacent Rose Garden, to allow camping in the shade there.

On Thursday 19th and Friday 20th April, lead story teller, Bruce Pascoe, followed the theme of his book, Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident,to establish Aboriginal people at the time of first contact as consummate agriculturalists, and not as the hunter gatherers that the land-grabbing colonisers purported them to be. His second storytelling session attracted over thirty visitors to the Embassy. His theme for that session was Aboriginal bread making. Bec Horridge recorded it and produced it for Earth Matters Radio (Aboriginals were the first bread makers. )

Floral activist, Hazel Davies, set up a Desert Pea-making workshop at the Embassy where she shared the creation story of the Desert Pea as an indigenous ‘blood’ flower, the native equivalent of the Red Flanders Poppy, and showed visitors how to simulate a Desert Pea with red felt and beads. The annual lantern lit Anzac eve Peace Vigil was also part of the program.

Chris Warren, a regular at Story Camps, retold his story about the smallpox epidemic at Sydney Cove in 1779 as germ warfare. The 2018 Story Camp also brought forth the story of the Canning Stock Route from a white worker who had been part of a return to country journey there in 1987. He read from an original hard copy of the 1908 Royal Commission report and wept.

Anzac Eve Peace Vigil

The 2018 Anzac Eve Peace Vigil, the seventh annual vigil; attracted about 120 participants. At the event, they used 140 tetrahedron shaped, candle-lit lanterns.

The lanterns are stored at the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre near Bungendore. Since most people return the lanterns, as master lantern maker I only have to repair those damaged in transport. The experienced network of volunteers, make the production of the event easy.

The Chorus of Women are now experienced, well prepared, and their songs are well rehearsed. Nin Phillips, the Nunawal elder who has been giving the welcome at the top of Mt. Ainslie for the past four years is well rehearsed and knows what to expect.

Promoting the Vigil has also become easy because Canberra people regard it well. In fact, it was included in the printed program of the 2018 Canberra and Region Heritage Festival.

The big creative challenge of the Vigil is conducting the liturgy in the Forecourt of the Australian War Memorial. How should we create a secular sacred experience to match that of the Dawn service, that maximises participation in a sharing of lamentations and the yearning for peace?

Ned Hargraves and the Reconciliation Dance

Camp Convenor Chris Tomlins arranged for his maternal uncle Ned Hargraves, a Warlpiri elder, to leave his country and travel to Canberra to support him during the Camp. This was a major accomplishment. Tomlins and Hargraves had come to Embassy via the Confest during the previous Easter on the Edward River 80 km west of Deniliquin.

There, Ned painted up and taught a ‘Reconciliation Dance’ to a racially mixed group of men—”ten white, ten Black, minimum.” Ned used a deep red ochre he had brought from his country, in addition to fluff feathers to stick on with sugar paste. He arrived at Confest with the feathers still attached to three dead wedge tailed eagles, road kill from their journey. Hargraves also made ceremonial head gear for the dancers. These were conical caps made from leaves and twigs, and bound with red woolen thread.

It took most of the day to paint up, a patient and intimate process. Rehearsal time was limited. To the sound of didgeridoo, the men came stamping out of the dark towards the central Confest gathering fire. The first attempt was somewhat fumbled and the light poor. The crowd called for a repeat. Uncle Ted invited any man present and wanting to join them. This invitation was taken up with alacrity, and with the second performance, 50 men came stomping towards a brighter fire.

The impact on the Confest crowd was truly profound, like finding a friend after a long search, the satisfaction of a deep yearning. Next evening, in a dusty sunset, a women’s reconciliation dance was performed, which, likewise, blissed the women who painted up for it and the audience.

Arriving at the Tent Embassy, Uncle Ned wanted to present another Reconciliation Dance on Anzac Day. I suggested at the end of the Frontier Wars march, outside the AMW and before the official Anzac ceremony. That way, it would be a big media event. Chris Tomlins wanted this too, and Uncle Ned agreed, but then changed his mind for a smaller, more sacred event and no media attention at the Sacred Fire of the Embassy at sunset on Anzac Day. Meanwhile I had shot off a media alert about Uncle Ned and his intended Reconciliation Dance at the AMW.

The journalists must have begun chafing AMW director Brendan Nelson about this because he sent me an email asking that, out of respect for the families of service people, whose special event the Anzac Day parade was, this not happen.

The ensuing exchange of emails between us spelled out our positions in the campaign to have the AMW recognise and commemorate the Frontier Wars.

Ned’s Reconciliation Dance occurred at sunset, witnessed by a small crowd of Embassy residents and tourists who happened to be passing by.

The dance was short but powerful—indeed it was the most powerful piece of cultural performance I had ever seen on Embassy.

Conclusion

The Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars campaign might be the most sustained campaign to reform Anzac Day that the AMW and the RSL have ever faced.

Numerous historians and journalists are urging the change. The Frontier Wars March and its promoting Story Camp are where and how supporters can make direct contact and vote with their feet.

As can be seen in the email exchange with Mr Brendan Nelson, who can barely bring himself to use the words ‘frontier wars’, the campaign has led the AMW and the RSL to make major efforts to recognise and include the ‘Black Diggers’ in Anzac commemorations. This has meant among other things, changing the Dawn Service liturgy so as to start with a didgeridoo solo, the now obligatory inclusion of Aboriginal faces in AWM exhibitions, and having Black Diggers up front in the Anzac Day March of 2017.

But recognition of the service of the Black Diggers is a different issue to recognising the Frontier Wars, though one leads to another, as David Stephens noted in reviewing <http://honesthistory.net.au/wp/allusions-in-beanland-two-exhibitions-at-the-australian-war-memorial/> the thoughtfully curated For country. For nation exhibition. <https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/for-country-for-nation>

In fact, the AMW recognises only wars that have taken the Australian military overseas to imperial wars—wars of empire, first the British, and now the U.S. Empire. Recognition of the Frontier Wars interrupts the glorification of that narrative. It also brings into witness both the deep denial of the settler state about its land grabbing invasion, and the conscious attempt to distort Australian history and promote militarism as the national ethos.

Which explains why the military establishment at the AMW is so reluctant to accommodate the change, and why it is so important for promoters of an independent and peaceful Australia to campaign for the reform.

During the Camp, a journalist for a webzine called The Sydney Criminal Lawyers sought my opinions on the Frontier Wars campaign. There, I suggest, what might happen if the AMW recognised the Frontier Wars.

For sure, we are winning the media on our campaign to remember the Frontier Wars as part of national Anzac Day commemorations. It is only a matter of time before that change comes to the AMW.

But before that happens, we will likely see small grassroots actions to memorialise the Frontier Wars locally. Individuals and small groups making their own Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars Desert Pea wreath and laying it upon their local war memorial on Anzac Day.

This is the genius of Hazel Davies Desert Pea campaign. It combines a creation story about blood soil with the invitation to make art and act locally. Her stated vision is of Desert Pea Frontier Wars story on every Australian war memorial within five years.

I am grateful to all the volunteers, helpers, performers, marchers, lantern and flag bearers, and community activists who made these events possible.

Australian Nonviolence Project Funding

Australian Nonviolence Projects/Beyond War funding was used to pay for some costs associated with the project.

Graeme Dunstan

Peacebus.com

27 August 2018

Frontier Wars: A dialogue with Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial, Anzac season 2018.

Dr Brendan Nelson AO and Graeme Dunstan, Peacebus Captain, have been dialoguing about Anzac, peace and lamentations from when Dr Nelson was first appointed Director of the Australian War Memorial in December 2012.

Graeme conducted the first Anzac eve Peace Vigil in 2011 but relations with the then director, Major General Steve Gower AO, Graeme’s former Battalion Sergeant Major while he a staff cadet at Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1963 had been prickly. Only the goodwill of the Australian Federal Police had enabled the event proceed.

So when Dr Nelson took office, Graeme, guessing his email address, sought a meeting. With no Personal Assistant yet appointed to vet his emails, Dr Nelson received the message directly and responded likewise, accepting.

The two hit it off. Mutual respect prevailed and Dr Nelson expressed himself interested in innovation and creating community participation events which promoted peace at the War Memorial.

Every year since there has been a meeting with Dr Nelson in his office with Graeme accompanied by women from the Chorus of Women in which the occupation of the War Memorial Forecourt for the performance of a lantern-lit liturgy of lament for peace had been negotiated.

To understand the depth of this goodwill one needs to understand that the Anzac eve Peace Vigil takes place just 8 hours before the Anzac Dawn Service and uses the same space. (The Dawn Service is the biggest event of the AMW calendar – 120,000 attended in Anzac 2015 for example.) And this with no fees, no disclaimers signed and no public liability insurance paid.

Getting access to Dr Nelson in the lead up to Anzac is not easy and the 2018 meeting had been negotiated 3 months in advance. Alas come the morning, Graeme got carried away with his meditation and yoga practice by Lake Burley Griffin and missed it. An elder’s moment maybe.

The Chorus women were there to carry the day and negotiated a workable agreement without Graeme’s presence. But it seemed to Graeme that his disrespect and neglect had weakened the relationship somewhat, hence the discordant tone in the dialogue that follows.

The following email dialogue took place in the context of the fourth annual Frontier Wars Story Camp and preparations for the seventh annual Anzac-eve Peace Vigil and Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars Anzac Day March.

From Brendan Nelson, 20 April 2018

Dear Graeme,

I received a copy of your media release regarding the proposed Reconciliation Dance on Anzac Day 2018 at the Australian War Memorial. Thank you for keeping me informed.

On Anzac Day we remember all Australians who have served in uniform in times of both peace and war. Almost 4000 veterans and current serving personnel will gather to reflect and remember experiences, mates, and comrades standing shoulder to shoulder among those proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans. These men and women have fought for the right to freedom of expression to which you are also entitled; however, this day is dedicated to them. Thousands will attend the Memorial for the purpose of honouring them as they march across our Parade Ground. I do not believe the action you are proposing will in any way positively further the reconciliation cause to which we all aspire. As Director of the Australian War Memorial I cannot and do not support any activity which intrudes or impacts on our national day of commemoration.

As you are aware, I am supportive of reconciliation and actions that progress the healing of our nation. In this regard, I have spoken with the National President of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services Association (ATSIVSA) and he has proposed that the Reconciliation Dance group could perform in Remembrance Nature Park at the base of Mount Ainslie following the ATSIVSA Anzac Service held at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial on the lower slopes of Mount Ainslie. This would be at approximately 7.15 a.m. on Anzac Day, and would be well received by the many attendees to this ceremony each year. Should you agree to this approach, the Australian War Memorial would formally acknowledge and raise awareness of the performance in the script at the end of the Dawn Service.

I would appreciate your considered response to this proposal.

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Nelson

From Graeme Dunstan, 21 April 2018

Dear Brendan,

Thank you for your letter and its warm tone.

In it, you suggest we move the proposed Reconciliation Dance from outside the Australian War Memorial at the top of Anzac Parade at the conclusion of our Frontier Wars March (at about noon), to Remembrance Park at 7.15 a.m.

I ran this past Uncle Marbuk Wilson, co-creator of the Reconciliation Dance. His response was prompt and curt.

Referring to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial on the lower slopes of Mount Ainslie, he retorted, “Just like the Missions. Out the back and out of sight. I want my people upfront!”.

There is you answer, my friend.

The men who take up the challenge to paint up and do this dance will be upfront in the Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars March to the Australian War Memorial on Anzac Day.

At the police line, they will create a performance space and perform their dance using didgeridoo, clapsticks, and smoke..

Sounds harmless to me. The media cameras will love it of course. So will the crowd watching the Anzac Day march, and so will the witnessing nation.

I remember saying to you years ago that we Anzac advocates for recognition of the Frontier Wars by the Australian War Memorial are knocking on a door, and we intend to keep on knocking till the door opens.

Our message to you and the directors of the Australian War Memorial is to open up to the Frontier Wars. To admit them.

Recognition of the Frontier Wars is the gateway to reconciliation.

If that distracts from the RSL ceremonies in the AMW, so be it.

Recognition of the Frontier Wars requires a big re-think for all Australians, including the RSL and the Australian military generally.

It disturbs me that the RSL is transforming the Anzac Day March from a solemn remembrance of the war dead by veterans and their families to a living soldier parade to glorify militarism. But that is not the issue here.

No attempt will be made to disrupt the RSL ceremony within the AMW. But you may hear some knocking.

You know how much I admire the dignity and civility which you bring to the task of holding the nation’s war grief. And it is right that you should defend the dignity of the AWM and its ceremonies. You have a role, and the role brings responsibilities.

But how I yearn to have you come to the Tent Embassy to sit at a campfire with Uncle Ned and Uncle Marbuk and others for some yarning.

How I yearn to see you set aside your suit and surrender to the ochre!

What a spectacular and transformative moment that would be in the story of the nation.

May this find you well and happy.

Graeme Dunstan

From Brendan Nelson, 23 April 2018

Dear Graeme,

THEIR SPIRIT OUR PRIDE

I received your Media Release of 22 April and planned actions to deliberately disrupt the Anzac Day National Ceremony. I did so with extreme disappointment and regret. Disappointment at the deep disrespect it proposes to the veterans and service personnel, both Aboriginal and non-Indigenous, who will be gathered to commemorate those who have given their lives in the service of our nation. I regret that the critically important path to reconciliation will not be furthered, but more likely damaged by the actions you intend to undertake.

I would hope you would recognise the significant effort the Australian War Memorial invests in being an open, welcoming and unifying institution. To welcome and honour veterans and their families with open arms in a world in which they can feel strangers and not well understood, is an essential function.

The commitment by the Australian War Memorial to a respectful relationship with you and the causes you champion has been demonstrated in a number of ways:

Facilitation of and support for the Anzac Eve Peace Vigil to utilise the Memorial’s Parade Ground:

Acceptance of the peaceful ‘Frontier War’ march;

Facilitation of the Frontier March attendees placing a wreath or floral tribute at the Stone of Remembrance along with other attendees at the conclusion of the National Ceremony;

Provision of Memorial resources to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services Association ceremony on Mount Ainslie; and,

A standing offer to raise awareness of the proposed Reconciliation Dance if it builds on the successful foundations of the Indigenous Wreathlaying Ceremony on Anzac Day morning.

Additionally, at our March meeting I shared with your colleagues our advanced plans to install a significant Indigenous sculptural commission which will recognise and commemorate the military service and experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This important sculpture, to be located in a prominent area of the Memorial’s grounds, will honour the legacy and the equality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service and sacrifice, and the enduring impact on country and nation.

Furthermore, permanently displayed with great pride in the entrance to the Memorial’s galleries is a significant addition to our collection a painting created by 19 senior male artists of the Anangu Fitiantiatiara Yankunytiatiara ‘APY’ bands, commissioned by the Memorial to tell their story of Aboriginal Australians defending Country. The distinguished Aboriginal men held hands and said a prayer in language over the Tomb for all those Australians who have died for our nation.

Our program extends beyond the walls of the Memorial with the Indigenous exhibition For Country for Nation which has commenced its national tour in Bundaberg, Qld, after a successful 12-month display in our galleries These are just some of the programs we are undertaking to recognise the important Indigenous story encompassed by the Memorial’s charter.

The Council of the Australian War Memorial acknowledges the protracted and tragic violence that occurred during the colonial dispossession of Indigenous Australians. This story and the story of Indigenous opposition to European settlement and expansion should be told. However, this Australian History should be told at the National Museum of Australia, not the Australian War Memorial. I might add that this is the strong view of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service and Veterans Association.

Your proposed actions will not achieve your objectives. Indeed they are likely to set them back.

l implore your continued respect of our mutual goal of recognition of and continued reconciliation with Indigenous Australians.

Were nonindigenous people to set out to deliberately disrupt an Aboriginal sacred ceremony, I would be disgusted and ashamed. Actions of the nature you propose on Anzac Day and the sanctity of what is honoured will elicit similar emotions.

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Nelson

From Graeme Dunstan, 24 April 2018

Dear Brendan,

Be assured that there will be no disruption of the Anzac Day National Ceremony.

My apologies to you if I have caused you unnecessary alarm.

The Anzac Day Frontier Wars March will approach the Memorial as it has done in previous years carrying wreaths, stand in silent witness till the Ceremony is done, then lay the wreaths on the Tomb.

The only difference is that there will be a dance by Aboriginal men after our arrival at the police line. Produced by Uncle Marbuk Wilson, this dance will take no more than a few minutes.

You will be pleased to know Uncle Ned Hargraves has decided to produce his Reconciliation Dance at the Sacred Fire at the Tent Embassy at sunset on Anzac Day. You are invited to come witness this. And participate, too, if you should choose.

I do appreciate the good work underway at the Memorial to move towards reconciliation with the land’s First People and I am grateful for the collaborations we have had producing the Anzac-eve Peace Vigil.

I am glad to hear that the Council of the Australian War Memorial acknowledges the protracted and tragic violence that occurred during the colonial dispossession of Indigenous Australians, and wants these stories told. Our difference is that you see this as the responsibility of the National Museum, not the War Memorial.

Imagine suggesting the stories of WW1 ought be museumised rather than memorialised.

It’s an insult, dear Brendan. It’s a diminution of the suffering of the longest war, with the greatest casualties and with the greatest impact in terms of transformation of landscape and society. It’s a duck and dodge excuse, and, as such, a stain on the dignity of the Memorial.

So our door knocking continues at another Anzac. As does our friendship.

Lest we forget the Frontier Wars.

Graeme Dunstan

Frontier Wars Camp and Story telling

Frontier Wars Project: Camp and Storytelling
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, 19 – 25 April 2018

All and anyone, black or white, are invited to hear or tell Frontier Wars stories this Anzac season

Our aim is to raise awareness of the Frontier Wars in the lead up to Anzac Day, to lament the suffering caused and the injustice done and to unite in resolution to end it.

Come to the Tent Embassy. Come for a session, come for a day or come and camp for a week.

Thursday 19 – Wednesday 25 April 2017
Aboriginal Tent Embassy
King Georges Terrace, Canberra

Each day there will be two formal, themed storytelling sessions 10 am and 4 pm plus plenty of opportunities to sit around campfires and just yarn.

A volunteer kitchen will cater. Food by donation.

This will be the fourth annual Frontier Wars Camp. It will be convened by Arrentre activist, Chris “Peltherre” Tomlins from Yamba near Alice Springs and produced by Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com.

Special guests will be Widabul shaman Lewis Walker of Tabulam NSW and Bruce Pascoe, a writer, from the Bunurong clan, of the Kulin nation.

Lewis will dance and sing a very different and very grim story about the founding, in 1885, of the Upper Clarence Light Horse by squatter C.H.E Chauvel, father of General Sir Harry Chauvel.

Bruce, author of Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture Or Accident? will tell of the Convincing Ground Massacre (1834 near Portland, Victoria) and other impacts of the settler frontier.

The Camp will conclude with participation in the Anzac Day “Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars” March to the Australian War Memorial.

This March will be led by Ghillar Michael Anderson (http://nationalunitygovernment.org/) and assemble at the corner of Constitution Ave and Anzac Parade, Reid, ACT from 10 am Wednesday 25 April.

Bring a flag or make a placard to carry which names the frontier war massacre in your home town or region.

Further information
Chris Tomlins 0490 023 419
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688