The British have got there before us. For different reasons from Australians – who don’t seem to put much thought into what their honours system is about – and mainly to do with the concept of Empire and what that meant for the colonised. There appears to be increasing unease among British people of non-Anglo descent about what the awards they are offered stand for particularly as they are titled eg OBE, Order of the British Empire, long unchanged. An article from The Guardian on this topic is linked below. The British system is an imperial system of awards based on the ranks of chivalry and serves as a template for the Australian honours system. [“New calls to replace ’empire’ with ‘excellence’ in UK honours system” by Robert Booth, The Guardian online 11 June 2021]
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
