Goanna frontman Shane Howard returns Order of Australia medal over Voice referendum result

Shane Howard, frontman of veteran Australian folk rock band, Goanna, has returned his Order of Australia medal, saying he cannot be proud of his country in the wake of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. Best known for penning 1982 hit Solid Rock, Howard has written a letter to the Governor-General expressing his “deep sadness” that “Australians had missed an important historical moment of destiny” by rejecting the chance to change the Constitution to recognise First Nations people. While he “respects the democratic result”, the 68-year-old singer-songwriter said: “I can’t be proud of my nation, and feel honour-bound to return my Order of Australia medal”. Howard was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2016 for services to performing arts and to Indigenous musicians. He said he wrote Solid Rock, which featured on Goanna’s 1982 debut album Spirit of Place, to “address the fundamental lie at the heart of our national story”. “I dreamt of a country respectful of our ancient history and honest about our modern history,” Howard wrote in a letter to the Governor-General dated October 17. “I wanted to be proud of my country.” The singer said white colonisation was brutal for Aboriginal people. “The hurt is deep,” he wrote. “It marks when they began to lose just about everything. “The prosperity and privilege we enjoy in this country comes on the back of immeasurable suffering, unconscionable theft and abuse of First Peoples. “The opportunity to meaningfully address those historical wrongs has been dealt another terrible blow with the Voice Referendum defeat.” Howard, who has released 11 solo albums since 1986, added that campaigning during the referendum had “seen the rise of intentional and well-resourced disinformation networks”. “I’m also deeply troubled by the way our First Peoples, our brothers and sisters, our friends, have been so belittled, with such pernicious vilification, in the interests of political power,” Howard wrote. “It’s neither generous nor decent.” Pointing out his great-grandfather was arrested at the Eureka Stockade — the miners’ rebellion that took place in Ballarat during the 1850s — Howard said he held “sacred the democratic principles and freedoms that those Diggers defended and died for”. He claimed “those democratic principles are now under threat”. The powerful letter concluded with a call for people to continue fighting for the progress proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. “I love my birth country deeply but until we loose our colonial shackles, engaged in Treaty-making with our First Peoples, commit to truth-telling about our history and embrace a post-colonial Republic, I cannot be proud of my nation.”