- Monumental Disruptions, by Bronwyn Carlson and Terri Farrelly. Aboriginal Studies Press, $39.95.
Monumental Disruptions by Bronwyn Carlson and Terri Farrelly is aggressively written. A non-Indigenous Australian reader may well feel admonished - if not guilty - as the book "explores the different colonial commemorations present across this continent today (and) how these relate to Aboriginal people".
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Non-Indigenous Australians are referred to as "settler Australians". Australia is referred to as "so-called Australia". "Black" (in reference to people) is written with a capital "B" and "white" with a lower case "w". Sydney is Warrane, Melbourne is Naarm, Canberra is Ngambri and Tasmania is lutruwita. The reasons for choosing this terminology are provided.
Carlson and Farrelly, academics at Macquarie University, have assembled an extensive collection of stories and attitudes concerning selected Australian monuments. These include untruths accepted as true Australian history; atrocities - including the frontier wars and massacres; neglect of the involvement of Indigenous people in settler Australian history; the settler Australians' ignorance of Indigenous history and culture. More contemporary matters include climbing Uluru, Australia Day, Junkan Gorge, and the Voice to Parliament.
James Cook is the first target, warranting a chapter on his own. The attack is rarely personal. It is more against the authors' belief of what Cook stands for: "the discoverer of Australia".
The Cook statue in Hyde Park Sydney has become a prime target and rallying point for protests by Indigenous people and settler Australians seeking to define Cook's place in Australian history. Cook is not the only "explorer" commemorated for "discovering" regions already occupied by Indigenous people.
A provocatively titled chapter "Dishonouring Murderers, Thieves and Intruders", tells of prominent commemorated colonials whose racial crimes are relatively unknown - or ignored. Governor Macquarie, John Batman, Robert Towns (of Townsville) fall into this category.
In many controversial aspects of information related to colonial monuments, Carlson and Farrelly present alternative opinions from authorities and individuals - even Andrew Bolt - as well as giving the Indigenous point of view.
With "recasting Australian history", the book addresses the question of what to do with those monuments which are inappropriate - topple, destroy, remove or update?
Monumental Disruptions concludes with a plea to "settler" Australians to investigate the relevance of their local statues and monuments, and the existence of any Aboriginal sites, and be active in correcting mistakes and neglect.
