Together with other invited experts, the Research Centre’s Director Ann McGrath and Collaborating Scholar Heidi Norman contributed to the Senate Inquiry into nationhood, national identity and democracy.

 

The Report, which has recently been published, shares some of their insights, particularly in relation to Indigenous history and Australia’s deep past. McGrath noted that 'the way history is told…shapes the national psyche. It becomes our story'. Noting that there was an increasing appreciation that ‘Australian history goes back to long before 1788. It is a history of the continent long before European settlement’, she urged for a deeper appreciation of Australia’s deep human past.