STAN Grant believes this country’s biggest failure is its inability to recognise indigenous sovereignty. 

The acclaimed journalist and indigenous rights activist argues that Australia has never fully dealt with the “fundamental fact of the invasion” and the dispossession of Aboriginal people.

Grant has called into question the concept of reconciliation itself suggesting that it is not clearly defined.

“We talk about reconciliation, but what is that? It’s this fuzzy concept that has no real political meaning at all,” Grant said.

“There is no fundamental acknowledgment of the sovereignty of first nations’ people and there is no acknowledgement of the truth of our history.

“We have these gestures, and this convoluted language around reconciliation, ideas of healing and unity before we have even faced up to questions of justice.”

Grant will deliver this year’s Manning Clark lecture, at the Australian National University. Its title is “An all historical fever: how history may yet be the death of us”.

The Walkley Award-winning journalist will point to the significant role that history continues to have in shaping our identity.

Grant draws inspiration from the works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote about the resentful man, caught in a time warp, returning to the source of injustice that he cannot fix.

“Nietzsche talks about a historical fever that breeds resentment,” Grant said.

“It’s so difficult for us to let the past go, to forget or to forgive, and in the absence of justice that becomes even more difficult.”

In his lecture, Grant postulates how history “haunts us” and that the wounds of our past help to define us.

“I was very influenced by Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. He talked about memory being the memory of wounds and if I look around our world right now that’s what you see, the conflicts of our world are rooted in some sense of historical grievance or vengeance.”

Grant sees a historical connection between our nation’s history and its identity, and cites examples around the world, current and historical, to add weight to his argument.

“China talks about the 100 years of humiliation, domination, exploitation by foreign powers, Vladimir Putin talks about the collapse of the Soviet Empire as the great catastrophe of the 20th century, Donald Trump who promised to Make America Great Again and restore it to some former glory,” Grant said.

“Look at this latest conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. It’s rooted in history and identity and I think that history and our relationship with it is one of the big challenges of our age.”

He will also explore the concept of history, how we define it, interpret it and how it is valued.

“History is not simple, history is complex, there are contending and competing truths; who tells the truths, who owns the truth, is history just recorded back?” Grant said.

“What about historical memory, what about the things that were never written down, never recorded like the frontier massacres, the killings here in this country that were never recorded.”

A Wiradjuri man, Grant was born in Griffith, NSW, in 1963. His mother is from the Kamilaroi people and his father is Wiradjuri.

Grant spent most of his childhood on the road living in small towns and Aboriginal communities across NSW. 

A fierce advocate for indigenous rights, Grant said that representation of Aboriginal people in Australia is still an ongoing issue.

“We have more indigenous people in our parliaments than we did before, we have more indigenous people graduating in universities, there is progress being made, if that’s what you call it, but at the same time so much of the other markers for health and Aboriginal lives are going backwards,” Grant said.

“Our people are still dying 10 years younger, people are still locked up in obscene numbers dying in police custody, more children taken from their homes and put into foster care, so it’s very hard to measure something and call it progress.”

A journalist since 1987, Grant has worked for the ABC, SBS, the Seven Network and Sky News Australia.

He argues that diversity in mainstream media is still narrow.

“I’ve been in the media for well over three decades now and I haven’t seen in any way a proper representation of our people. In fact, you are better off looking to National Indigenous Television (NITV) that does stories by and for indigenous people because it recognises a failure within commercial TV and a failure at the ABC, to an extent as well, to properly represent that diversity in our community more broadly,” Grant said.

“Again, it’s not something I can get disheartened about, it’s a cold, hard reality that you live with and I don’t expect anything more frankly.”

Stan Grant presents the 21st Manning Clark lecture at 6pm, Thursday, June 17, at Manning Clark Hall, Cultural Centre, Kambri Precinct, ANU, $30 ($20 members, $25 concession). Book at trybooking.com/BRFJU

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