I was recently having breakfast at home reading the Canberra Times (10 April 2013) report of the death of British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher. The article included a series of photos documenting Mrs Thatcher’s life. One of the photos caught my interest. The caption read ‘Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and British PM Margaret Thatcher in Canberra’ 1st July 1979.
Last Saturday, 27 April, was the 109th anniversary of the Watson government. On 27 April 1904, the government of Alfred Deakin collapsed after Labour members led by John Christian Watson withdrew support. Watson was then commissioned to form a government, which lasted just four months.
Joan Child, AO, was Australia’s first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Her death on 23 February 2013 has been mourned by all sides of politics. When elected in 1974, she was the Australian Labor Party’s first female Member of the House and only the fourth woman to sit in the House.
On 8 March the Museum of Australian Democracy celebrates International Women’s Day. This year marks some significant anniversaries for women in the political sphere and there is no better place in Canberra to mark these events than at the museum, located in Old Parliament House.
One of the highlights of my first year at the museum remains the visit I received from a teacher at a local girls’ school. I had heard from one of our staff members that this teacher had been very creative in devising a learning activity on Federation.
On a hot day in Perth, just before the opening of the History Teacher’s Association National conference, the judging panel met to assess the entries of the State Finalists in the National History Challenge.
The exhibition shows off a wonderful portfolio of linocuts created by the Melbourne Popular Art Group in 1954, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade.
The museum has just acquired this photograph and unique letter from a dealer which digs deeper into one of the more famous stories in Australian history.
So proclaims the slogan on one of the myriad political badges collected during the course of the museum’s Great Badge Swap. The program, launched in June 2011, is an opportunity for you to contribute to the museum’s permanent collection by donating a badge that you have worn to express solidarity, dissent, celebration, hope or humour and to share your personal experiences of wearing the badge and what it signified to you. Your response has been wonderful…and democratic.
From 26 November until 2 December the museum will be hosting a special History Channel film preview—a new documentary, “The People Speak”, which has the intriguing tagline “Democracy is not a spectator sport”.
Having worked at Old Parliament House since 2006, before the Museum of Australian Democracy existed, I’ve often had a small role in assisting with exhibitions—mostly doing research for text panels or for objects on display. But the Art is a Weapon exhibition, due to open in December 2012, is the first one with which I’ve had this level of involvement.
Currently on display in the museum’s Prime Ministers of Australia exhibition is former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s boots. The black leather RM Williams riding boots were worn by Kevin Rudd when he tabled a motion in the Commonwealth Parliament on 13 February 2008 apologising to the Stolen Generations for the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families.
Each year the Museum of Australian Democracy marks the anniversary of the events that surrounded the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975. This year we will focus our commemoration on one place, on one day.
The museum recently acquired two significant objects for its permanent collection which provide an opportunity to explore the road to reconciliation for Australia’s Indigenous people—a message stick and a kangaroo skin petition book.
Saturday, 15 September is the United Nations International Day of Democracy, a day for marking and celebrating the institution of democracy. This year the museum and the United Nations are together marking the day.
The release last week of Jenny Hocking’s second part of her two part biography of Australia’s 21st prime minister, Gough Whitlam has re-invigorated debate around the events of the dismissal of Whitlam’s government on 11 November 1975.
This month the chambers of Old Parliament House again rang with the sounds of passionate debate - on the right of the Federal Government to intervene in State matters. The voices belonged to students taking part in the 2012 ACT Constitutional Convention.
Come along to our ‘Hats-Off to Democracy’ workshop these July school holidays. This is a free family-friendly activity, suitable for kids aged 5 – 12 and their carers.
The National Indigenous Youth Parliament was developed by the Australian Electoral Commission in conjunction with the YMCA and the Museum of Australian Democracy.
This month marks ten years since the Democratic Republic of East Timor (also known as Timor Leste) was born. The long and bloody struggle to gain independence from Indonesia resulted in the creation of one of the world’s newest democracies in May 2002.
