Speech for the Main Entrance Opening Reception, Australian War Memorial

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It is a great pleasure to be here for this opening reception. 

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese performed the ‘official’ opening of the Main Entrance in February, tonight’s reception is another important moment in a season of openings that you have held for a magnificent and utterly compelling space. 

And, of course, the real work of the Entrance has already begun, as it has welcomed many thousands of Australians from near and far, and visitors from around the world, into this place of commemoration. 

A task for which it is so beautifully devised and so impressively arranged. 

From the light that pours through the oculus, and gives visitors a new and surprising view of the Memorial’s architecture and intent … 

…  to the words cast into the floor that mirror the qualities depicted in the windows of the Hall of Memory … 

… the entrance welcomes, invites, challenges and surprises.

It piques our curiosity and inspires engagement. 

On Wednesday morning I spoke at a ceremony at the Australian National University to rename an important building on campus in honour of the late Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG. 

As you all know so well, Dr O’Donoghue made a powerful and exemplary contribution to the life of this country, and to the health, wellbeing, education and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

After her death, a little over a year ago, we mourn her wise counsel, determination and compassion. 

Dr O’Donoghue’s family were at the heart of the decision-making that led to the inauguration of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre. 

They were invited, as Dr O’Donoghue’s niece and head of the Lowitja Foundation, Deb Edwards, said so beautifully, to ‘gift her name’ to the building. 

When we sing the names of those who come before us, we don’t just celebrate their achievements, we preserve their legacy. 

And the same song is sung, so beautifully, in the Main Entrance, with the display of Captain Reg Saunders’ medals and photographs. 

Captain Saunders, a distinguished Australian soldier who served in World War II and the Korean War, was, in 1944, one of the first Aboriginal Australian officers commissioned by the Australian Army.

I am delighted that family members are here with us this evening, because it is an opportunity to honour the close and careful work you did with the Memorial to deftly carve an important space, in the heart of the building, to commemorate Captain Saunders’ service, celebrate his achievements and preserve his legacy.

In doing so, you have created a powerful representation of Australia’s complex, multilayered and diverse story of service and sacrifice. 

One that represents the purest form of stewardship, which is so deeply embedded in the Memorial’s ethos. 

And as my wonderful Army Aide-de-Comp, Captain Katherine Higgins reminded me, just today, each year, the Australian Army participates in Exercise Saunders, a joint community development project with Army and local Aboriginal communities.  

They work together on really important programs.  

Lots of construction projects all over the country at a new site every year.  

This year, it will be conducted in the Torres Strait, and I know for sure that the soldiers who will participate in that moment take part in it as a memorable part of their service. 

And Captain Higgins told me about how much it meant to her and how much it means to not just young soldiers, but to all who participate. 

That seems to me to be about stewardship. 

Because stewardship is not only about preserving yesterday, it is about transforming today. 

As my predecessor, Dame Quentin Bryce, described it so beautifully, stewardship is about honouring tradition and being thoroughly contemporary. 

About telling the whole story – and telling all the stories – with respect, wisdom and compassion – so that we can all learn, grow and be uplifted together. 

I had the great privilege of celebrating a new generation of leaders and stewards when the winners and runners-up of the Simpson Prize came to Government House earlier in the week. 

This Year 9 and 10 history-writing competition, which asks students to conduct research into the First and Second World Wars, is named in honour of the courage and compassion of John Simpson Kirkpatrick – whose beloved figure today stands alongside his donkey carrying a wounded soldier just outside the doors to the Main Entrance. 

What those young historians already know is that, in the great theatre of yesterday – filled with individual achievement and collective endeavour, with joy and celebration, tragedy and drama – we discover so much of our contemporary selves. 

And what they are exploring, as researchers and writers, is the opportunity for truth-telling that lies in our history, as a chronicle of the human spirit that inspires, uplifts and educates, and enables us to effectively shape and build our future. 

I congratulate the Memorial for embracing the opportunity of the Main Entrance for exploration, and taking forward Charles Bean’s vision to construct a place for all Australians to come, to commemorate and to remember. 

Giving space to vitally important, but less well-known, chapters in our nation’s history of service and sacrifice, you fulfil the most important responsibilities of stewardship as a gift to our nation.  

And, moving towards one of our most important days of commemoration, Anzac Day, which we will mark this year as the 110^th anniversary of Gallipoli, I will carry this responsibility with me in my public and private acts of remembrance. 

Here at the Australian War Memorial, I look forward to the story continuing to evolve and transform throughout the years ahead. 

Thank you.