A Perth incident last month, described by police as a suspected terrorist act at an Invasion Day rally, has become a focal point in a broader conversation about how Australia understands its past and its present. In a new podcast, Lorena Allam, a senior researcher at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, discusses the episode with Nour Haydar and frames it within a longer arc of racialised violence and denial in this country. Police allege a 31-year-old man was engaging in a terrorist act and that the motive was tied to a racially motivated ideological cause, with online material cited as part of the suspect’s exposure. The discussion emphasises that colonial terrorism in Australia cannot be understood in isolation from generations of policy, policing and media narratives, and asks how public memory shapes responses to such events. Allam highlights that a critical reading of this history is essential to interpreting what happened and what it might mean for future policy and practice.
