Healing preferable to opening old wounds, says UK envoy Vicki Treadell

UK high commissioner Vicki Treadell has issued a pointed warning against ‘digging around and opening old wounds’ in response to comments urging Britain to address its colonial past.

British high commissioner Vicki Treadell at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

UK high commissioner Vicki Treadell has issued a pointed warning against “digging around and opening old wounds” in response to comments urging Britain to address its colonial past, saying the way forwards should be one of “healing” and “respecting each other for who we are today”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong in London in February said Britain needed to come to terms with its colonial past, sharing stories of her ancestors who worked as domestic servants for British colonists.

In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday titled “Modern Britain: Our journey beyond colonialism”, Ms Treadell said Britain’s diversity and inclusive society was “who we are today”.

“I agree with Penny Wong – we must frame ourselves for who we are today. We must not let others constrain us in a past reality,” she said. “To understand modern Britain is to understand we must project with pride our modern multicultural reality. Our diversity and inclusive society we strive for is who we are today. This is our nationhood, a nationhood that demands equality and fairness – at home and abroad.”

She said the high commission in Australia was researching Britain’s colonial history so “we as diplomats can understand and address it”.

“We need to confront that and to understand it, and that will inform the way we work and how we develop the very modern partnerships I have been talking about,” she said.

“We can dig around and open old wounds when actually this should be about healing and moving forward and actually respecting each other for who we are today.”

Despite not launching any direct criticism Senator Wong for her comments, Ms Treadell appeared to issue a veiled warning that the relationship between Britain and Australia “should never be taken for granted”.

“Relationships do not survive … unless they recognise change and adapt to new dynamics. If not, we wake up one morning and realise we no longer recognise each other,” she said.

On Australia’s decision to remove the monarch from the $5 note, which the UK reportedly was not aware of until it was publicly reported, Ms Treadell said no offence had been taken.