Richard Flanagan’s speech – at the Garma Festival in August 2018 should be reproduced in bronze on a monument in Canberra, along with the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Copies of both should be a mandatory presence in every school in the country, that every child/student be aware of the content and value of what is expressed.
If merit were any guide, Richard Flanagan should immediately replace either the Prime Minister or the Governor-General, or both. He demonstrates all the excellence, humanity, and complexities of true leadership that appear to be spectacularly lacking in both of the above. His foreword to Behrouz Boochani’s book, “‘No Friend but the Mountains’ is similarly exquisite and unflinching. More power to his arm.
– Elizabeth Chandler, Napoleon Reef NSW