Reconciling with the Frontier: Accounting for Colonial Conflict

Reconciliation Australia’s biennial survey indicates that more than 80% of Australians are committed to acknowledging the history of Australia’s contested frontiers. This project will make a profound contribution to Australia’s national interest by building a regional historical story map of the colonial frontier that engages directly with current national concerns. By eliciting historical accounts across both rural and urban contexts, it will open dialogue on the nature of historical knowledge. Its collaborative methodology will engender broader social pathways for reconciliation that include the involvement of different community groups and cultural institutions. Its impacts will be realised in virtual and physical forms of display, both online and in public exhibitions curated by South Australia’s principal cultural institutions. By bringing together different kinds of historical perspective to shed new light on South Australia’s foundational histories of frontier conflict, the project will enable and encourage contemporary programs of reconciliation.