Marking Country Map Launched at the New Australian Embassy in Washington DC

Ambassador of Australia to the United States, Kevin Rudd AC hosted ANU Professors Ann McGrath and Jackie Huggins AM FAHA to launch the Marking Country map on 4 October 2023. This was the first launch event of its kind held in the new Australian Embassy building in Washington DC.

The interactive map shows the deep history stories of Indigenous community groups across Australia through a different kind of temporal ontology called an ‘Everywhen.’ It is important for users to approach the Marking Country site leaving behind a traditional western perception of ‘history.’ Ambassador Rudd opened the event by sharing profound insights about Indigenous history. Later, while reading Laura Rademaker’s chapter in Everywhen, Rudd also noted a special interest in how Indigenous people make their own meanings and draw parallels between their own temporal conceptualisations and Christian time/ Indigenous time.

In early 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal Apology on behalf of the nation to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples. He also introduced the annual ‘Closing the Gap’ report to parliament. McGrath added that her mission and that of the former Prime Minister’s were linked “…for our Laureate program, and the Marking Country site, aims to ‘close the History gap’ - incorporating Indigenous Australia’s deep history into the history of the nation.”

Professor Jackie Huggins spoke in more detail about representations around Indigenous ideas of time, the Uluru statement, the history behind the Voice, and the historic need for a Voice. She also spoke about what being on Country, walking Carnarvon Gorge, meant to her.

“We're all about truth telling in our Country now. Where do we start? Well, we start at the basic premise, and that is Aboriginal history. The history that needs to be told and needs to be shared. I've loved doing that for many years now, in terms of my own research and writing—believing that this is an act of love but it's also an act of great consciousness and nation building for the whole nation, for Australia. So yeah, that's why I studied history, to really bring out those truths that were not there for me and were denied all that time ago.” Huggins has said.

Following the event McGrath was approached by several Australian defence force officers and DFAT personnel based in the US, “they had discussed the deep history topic and tried out the Marking Country site with their children.” Especially striking to the Professor, “...was the strong interest expressed, and also the emotion. Several people teared up, apologetically so, when talking about the topic. I was impressed by how much conviction was coming from Washington-based Australians working for DFAT. Possibly this is based on a special kind of patriotism that one feels working on behalf of one’s country overseas, along with the realisation that the nation needs to see itself differently, to see its history differently. In order to be a better nation.”

This project aims to assist educators in covering Australia’s deep history by exploring different Indigenous communities and their stories.