Reason and Reckoning: Conversations and Provocations

Reason and Reckoning: Conversations and Provocations
Reason and Reckoning: Conversations and Provocations

In 2021, historian Henry Reynolds published Truth-telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement - an exposé of Australia's colonial history as "conduct that wilfully ignored imperial direction from Britain and even the law itself", as one reviewer described it. Several sections of this book spotlit the life and legacies of Sir Samuel Griffith amongst other fathers of federation, such as Sir John Forrest and Sir John Downer, and key colonial figures, including James Cook and Lachlan Macquarie.

Looking particularly at the violent settlement of Queensland in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when Griffith was twice premier of the colony, and then its Chief Justice, Reynolds writes:

Like his colonial contemporaries...Griffith knew exactly what was happening out there in the vast hinterland. He did little to stop the killing. How then should history remember him? Will his high reputation survive the rigours of truth-telling? Perhaps more to the point, should it survive?

This symposium, led by Dr Fiona Foley, takes as its starting point this provocation and the potency of colonial figures whose names still delineate Australia's landscapes and its institutions, such as Griffith University and Griffith Review. It makes space for a range of powerful and diverse invited speakers to use Indigenous Knowledges and other academic prisms to address ongoing colonial structures of naming, rights and other deeper political questions that continue to face the nation - and the University - today.

As an Aboriginal-led research initiative that also seeks to reorient academic work through inclusion of the creative arts, it explores ways in which Aboriginal research, using creative modes such as visual art, performance and writing, can play a critical role in progressing scholarship, countering settler narratives and transforming dialogues in an institutional setting and beyond.

Confirmed participants include: Henry Reynolds, Debbie Bargallie, Sandra Phillips, Tony McAvoy SC, Bronwyn Carlson and Susan Forde.

This event is now at capacity and registrations are closed.


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