THE Fremantle Society and its president John Dawson have threatened to sue mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge and the City of Fremantle for defamation over a social media post accusing him of racism.

Ms Fitzhardinge posted the video to her mayor-hannah-fremantle  Instagram account after the launch of national Reconciliation Week at the Fremantle Passenger Terminal on Wednesday, where she says she was inspired by a speech from premier Roger Cook urging people to call out racism.

“I got an email yesterday from John Dowson speaking on behalf of the Fremantle society, calling me ‘disgraceful’ for including Aboriginal people in a conversation about 2029 and how we acknowledge 200 years of colonial arrivals here in Fremantle,” Ms Fitzhardinge said in the video. 

“I just want to call out that; I don’t think that’s okay, and I think we should be beyond the point where we make a big fuss about Aboriginal people being included… Aboriginal people should be front and centre of this conversation. 

“To be called disgraceful for including Aboriginal people… I’m sorry, John Dowson, I don’t think the Fremantle community is behind what you’re saying.” 

Mr Dawson, a former deputy mayor of Fremantle, responded by delivering a letter from lawyer Rob Garton Smith at Wednesday’s council meeting which says the mayor had “grossly misrepresented” his email.

“We want to table a letter tonight to the whole council from a senior lawyer, alleging serious defamation and taking action on that,” Mr Dowson said. 

“Having spoken to a lawyer today, they have said that this is not a minor defamation, it’s a million-dollar defamation…what’s been done by the mayor representing you is incredibly serious. 

“We are shocked… because what we said was trying to unite everyone and not dividing them.”

Mr Dawson’s email had been sparked by an item at Wednesday’s meeting titled Manjaree – Vision Purpose Guiding Principles, which he described as “probably the most disgraceful item to have been put forward to the council for decades”. 

“The area, known officially as Arthur Head, not Manjaree, is one of the most important colonial historic sites in Australia. It also has significance for Aboriginal people,” Mr Dowson wrote. 

Layers

“There are many layers of history for Arthur Head besides it being the site of the oldest building in WA [the Roundhouse]…as we head towards the state’s Bicentenary, there needs to be planning which celebrates 200 years of those many layers of history, and also acknowledges the perspectives of Aboriginal people. 

“Your Council item is focused on Aboriginal issues and reflects poorly on the Toward 2029 Working Group whose only community member was Aboriginal…this shockingly biassed item should be withdrawn and redone. 

“The Bicentenary must be a positive and inclusive time that brings people together and not divides them as you are doing.”

Mr Garton Smith drew the council into the potential action as one of the “publishers” of Ms Fitzhardinge’s comments, saying an accusation of racism in Australia was one of the most egregious things to say about a person.

“In other words, the statement that you were ‘calling out racism’ in reference to my clients constitutes a very serious defamation.” 

Speaking to the Herald on Thursday, Mayor Fitzhardinge doubled down on her post, saying the colonial perspective of Fremantle’s settlement had already been well-documented. 

“The item presented at council last night, called ‘disgraceful’ by John Dowson, was to commence a consultation process to provide a more complete history of the Manjaree/Arthur’s Head area, as we head towards 200 years of colonial history,” she said. 

“As chair of the working group, Jenny Archibald, pointed out [at the meeting], there has already been a significant amount of academic research and history written on the establishment of the Swan River Colony and colonial arrival at Fremantle.”

Ms Fitzhardinge says the Indigenous community member was sought to include a more detailed Aboriginal perspective of Fremantle’s colonisation, and that it was unfair to expect Indigenous City staff to contribute unless they were specifically employed to do so. 

“The challenge we are addressing is how to integrate this well-documented history with truth-telling around both the longer, tens-of-thousands-of-years history of Manjaree that existed pre-colonisation, and with the more recent history of dispossession, incarceration and discrimination,” she said. 

“This effort is crucial if we are to truly reconcile colonial and indigenous perspectives, into an accurate, and more complete history…something that I believe everyone interested in local history should support,” Ms Fitzhardinge said.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER