False memories

In the 1960s, Australia had a large influx of people from eastern and southern Europe. It was easy for these people to gain Australian citizenship after a few years of hard work; the citizenship extended to any children under 21 (the then age of majority) – and any children born in Australia automatically became citizens. In 1967 the Federal Government had a referendum so it could be decided if Aboriginal Australians could become citizens and not wards of the state.

I remember that I was surprised when I heard this, as this country was extending citizenship to people of European

ethnicity (at the time there was a White Australia policy) who were new to Australia, but the indigenous people whose ancestors had lived here for at least 50,000 years were not even counted in the census! I can quite clearly remember voting ‘Yes’, as did a large majority of Australians (of European descent). But my memory is false, as at that time I was not yet 21, so I could not have voted. I think the false memory is because I wanted to vote Yes and because some years later the voting age was lowered to 18.

It was only recently that I realised my memory was false when

I watched a documentary and it mentioned the referendum and the date. It makes me wonder how many other memories of historical events are false – I am sure I can remember a visit by Queen Elizabeth and seeing on the TV news the Beatles on the balcony of the Adelaide Town Hall and the news that Donald Campbell had broken the land speed record on Lake Eyre (despite his arrival breaking a 20-year drought). I wonder how many other memories I have are the result of me wanting them to be true… Margaret Pitcher

Canberra, Australia