Seats divisive

No to nukes

ON Tuesday the ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) flag was unfurled on Hobart’s Town Hall. How truly fortunate we are to live in city that actively supports a nuclear-free world and a community where the threat of nuclear war is unlikely. However, until the world is free of the threat of the kind of nuclear explosion that killed so many in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, we are not free. This Saturday, those of us who remember the horror of those bombs and who want an end to this dreadful threat will hold a vigil on Parliament House lawns to ask each Australian to stand together to have our government sign the ICAN Treaty to ban these destructive weapons.

Memorabilia anger

INSTEAD of focusing on the issue of the morality of trading in Nazi memorabilia, reader Nev Rodman turns the discussion into an anti-Israel one (“Worry about Palestinians”, Letters, August 7). The one has nothing to do with the other. As Jews are still being slaughtered in America and elsewhere by white supremacists who WHEN all Australians, individuals and groups, have, and are seen to have, the same rights and privileges, the same duties and responsibilities, then, and only then, can we have true reconciliation. If any group should be given designated seats in parliament, that group would be seen as having privileges. It would be a betrayal of democracy. It would be divisive and would hinder reconciliation.

Enlightened by art

TODAY is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. For insight into Tasmania’s indigenous peoples’ history, visit Tasmanian Aboriginal artist Julie Gough’s exhibition at Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tense Past. Gough links historic items with modern experience to illuminate the history and continuing experiences of Tasmanian Aborigines. The exhibition is a totally immersive experience of history, with the full horror of the 19th century Black Wars and slaughter of the first people.