These are controversial topics because many continue to deny the truth of history.

That's because, as Winston Churchill noted when he appropriated an anonymous expression, "History is written by the victors".

Or, as Wagga Wagga City councillor Vanessa Keenan aptly commented in The Daily Advertiser, "History is often only told through the voices of privilege and white, powerful men".

It is high time we listened to others and acknowledged the true facts of the past.

Which brings me to the first point: statues. The toppling of statues overseas has quite rightly again raised the issue of who we celebrate here in our statuary.

The statue of Captain Cook in Sydney's Hyde Park is the usual example cited when this is discussed. Though he is a significant explorer, I'd like to focus on the broader issue of how we acknowledge our past. Written history is not as problematic as statues, for the myths promulgated by white supremacist historians can later be debunked by the less biased ones.

The Australian 'Frontier Wars' are a good example, for in the early 1980s Henry Reynold corrected the record.

Another myth that needed correcting was the one that our First Peoples were nomadic hunter-gatherers.

Aboriginal historian Bruce Pascoe has shattered that myth in his ground-breaking work, Dark Emu, which presented irrefutable evidence of permanent agriculture and large settled communities.

So what to make of the statues of 'privileged white powerful men'? There are several things that could be done, apart from removing them of course, which is one option. More palatable to those who like their history whitewashed would be to add plaques correcting the history.

Another option would be to add other sculptures that corrected the story. In Sydney, that could be to add a sculpture honouring Aboriginal resistance to white invasion, such as a statue of Indigenous warrior Pemulwuy. Or we could simply put the current statues in museums.

Now to slavery. The Prime Minister tried to use all his 'Scotty from Marketing' skills to work his way out of his statement that slavery had never existed in Australia, but failed, for any true understanding of our past knows that slavery did exist, in the widely practiced form of First Nations peoples being forced to work for only rations, and of course the infamous practice of 'Blackbirding'.

I was pleased to see the issue of local place names raised in The Daily Advertiser, noting that Wiradjuri man Mark Saddler said that Captain Cook Drive on top of Willans Hill was one name he would like to see changed.

The road was named Captain Cook Drive in 1970 "to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the discovery and exploration of the east coast of Australia", as its plaque states.

I support Wiradjuri man and Wagga Black Lives Matter organiser Joe Williams, who said Captain Cook Drive should be renamed "after an Aboriginal resistance warrior".

So on this topic, it was pleasing to read in The Daily Advertiser last week that Greens MP Abigail Boyd has been able to prevent local NSW Legislative Council Nationals MP Wes Fang putting a street names motion to the upper house that "the history of our nation should be retained and acknowledged as a guiding light for future generations". What disingenuous nonsense, Mr Fang.

Finally, but briefly, the equally vexed question of film and television. HBO was right to temporarily remove Gone with the Wind pending the addition of some contextual information that would point out that its depiction of slaves being happy in their servitude was a sign of its times. I couldn't agree more, for young people new to it might think its racism was approved of these days.

The issue of blackface, such as used by Australian comic performer Chris Lilley is more complex, but surely it is time to acknowledge that blackface is deeply offensive to people of colour. In this day and age, it should never be used, just as statues of privileged white men should not be left to stand unexplained and uncorrected.