National Sorry Day begins a week of reflection

Today is the 26th May, and it marks the date on which the "Bringing them Home" report was tabled, on May 26 1998. The enquiry into the removal of children from their families was co-chaired by Sir Ronald Wilson and Mick Dodson, and they were supported by co-commissioners Annette Peardon, Marjorie Thorpe, Dr Maryanne Bin Salik, Sadie Canning, Olive Knight, Kathy Mills, Anne Louis, Laurel Williams, Jackie Huggins, Josephine Ptero-David and Professor Marcia Langton.

The report detailed how the actions of successive Governments (State and Federal) has created generational grief, trauma, impacted on mental and physical health, and created circumstances that has lead to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over representation in our prisons,high drug use, high delinquency rates and it has pulled apart a family structure that had survived for over 60,000 years before the the Europeans rocked in. It has lead to a loss of culture, and language.

The numbers of children and families involved is extraordinary, one half to two thirds of children were removed, most were only in their infancy. They lost the people who loved and cared for them, and were handed over to people who mostly could care less. As these children grew up, because of the trauma they had been exposed to , they were then classed as unfit parents and the removals continued, and sadly still do today, with Aboriginal children being one of the highest groups represented in statistics on children being taken from birth parents. 

"many young Indigenous women experienced child-rearing for the first time while they were still experiencing the process of removal. This set in motion a cycle of removal – the children of a removed child would then be removed. By the stage the discriminatory laws were changed and replaced by welfare laws common to all, Indigenous children were still being removed. These laws required that the child be in a state of ‘neglect’. Human Rights Commission 

Last year while discussing Reconciliation and what it means I overheard a couple of younger people question why we have to keep saying sorry when Kevin Rudd did for the Nation. Saying sorry once doesn't repair generations of trauma, it doesn't rebuild your family and the memories that you never had a chance to build with your Mother, Father, Aunties Uncles and cousins, it doesn't restore your sense of belonging and pride in being who you are and where you have come from. 

Two weekends ago, I along with around 350 Early Childhood Educators form across the nation, gathered at the Gold Coast to attend the Early Childhood Australia Symposium on Reconciliation, it was the third year this type of gathering has been held on this issue. We listened to dynamic young aboriginal men and women tell their story and it was heart wrenching to hear the level of dysfunction , trauma and generational grief that is so debilitating you actually wonder how they actually survived and got through. 

 
It is very clear, that until we all understand how impactful and debilitating the responses to policy have been on generation after generation, and that means putting yourself in the the shoes of aboriginal men and women, and seeing through their eyes, the unrelenting racism that still permeates our society, the grief of missing, aunts, uncles, holes in families created by missing people that would cripple you with grief. I would suggest its like Post Traumatic Stress Order, and sadly it has not been diagnosed or treated properly, and that in part tells its own story.

National Sorry Day marks the beginning of Reconciliation Week, this year it celebrates 50th Anniversary of a landmark referendum held in 1967 that saw Australians vote in favour (over 90%) and Australian Government to change the Constitution so it could be involved in the affairs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Constitution of 1901 made no mention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in fact regarded them as just part of the Flora and Fauna. Fifty years the Australian people, with a resounding yes vote said we recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

We have all heard the Paul Kelly song "From Little things Big Things Grow" and that tells the story of a Gurindji stockman, Vincent Lingiari, the workers and families walked off Wave Hill and began their seven-year strike in 1966, initially people thought the walk off was about pay and conditions, actually no pay, just rations, but it was much more. Vincent said ..

"We want them Vestey mob all go away from here. Wave Hill Aboriginal people bin called Gurindji. We bin here long time before them Vestey mob. This is our country, all this bin Gurindji country. Wave Hill bin our country. We want this land; we strike for that."

The Gurindji strike was not the first or the only demand by Aborigines for the return of their lands – but it was the first one to attract wide public support within Australia for Land Rights. In part it raised the nations conscious on something that had been pushed far form their minds, and gave impetus for the referendum vote.

Vincent had to wait until in 1975 when he was handed part of his land back following Gough Whitlams intervention with the Vesteys.  

"On this great day, I, Prime Minister of Australia, speak to you on behalf of all Australian people – all those who honour and love this land we live in. For them I want to say to you: I want this to acknowledge that we Australians have still much to do to redress the injustice and oppression that has for so long been the lot of Black Australians."

"Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever."  Gough Whitlam, Prime Minister, August 1975.

The following year, 1976, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act was passed by the Fraser Govt.

The second celebration in this special Reconciliation year, is the 25th year of the historic Mabo decision, where the High Court of Australia validated the land claim made by Eddie Mabo against the Queensland Government.  He challenged the declaration by Britain when they arrived that the land was empty land or land that belongs to nobody (terra nullius) they did this while staring at the a group pf people from the local Gadigal people of the Dharug (Eora) nation who had come down to watch.  While the First Fleet may not have had the knowledge the the 60,000 years of continuous connection with the land, or of their farming techniques, using fire to create pasture lands for game, rock barriers in rivers to catch fish, or history that was not recorded on parchment or stone, but through songs and stories that began in the dreaming, but still the land was not vacant because there were people standing in front of them and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have had a continuous connection to the land in tehg claim and that they have not done anything to break that connection.  The High Court agreed with Mr Mabo and declared that Terra Nullius should not have been applied in the action of claiming sovereignty over the land.   Sadly Mk Mabo died 5 months before the decision was handed down, but his legacy has seen over 2 million square km be recognised under Native Title.  

Reconciliation is not just about sorry, or land, its about much more.  Its about non Aboriginal Australians learning more about the diverse language groups (Nations), and their unique continuous connection with this island continent that they have had for at least 60,000 years.  

Considering our Western Civilisation was born when the Sumerians began living in grouped shelters around 5,000 BC, we are a much younger upstart that our first nation.  Some may argue that if they had been around for so long why hadn't they discovered clothes, designed the wheel and became modern. No need really, they learnt to live with the land, understood her cycles and moods, and managed her in a way that rewarded them, with all they needed.  No other indigenous cultural in the world was as successful in understanding and living within and with the natural world.  All the other groups, basically kept modernising their societies and at the same time devoured the  natural resources and this ultimately led to there culture collapse and ultimately death,  We need to head that warning.  So we need to understand Culture and this underpins Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now and in the past and also how it links them to the land. 

We also have much to learn about Family and how it works in each nation group.  We have a responsi9bility to revisit the 230 years the Europeans have been here and how they treated the Indigenous people who had been here for 60,000 years.  We have a responsibility to learn the truth and to make sure our history isnt sent to the cleaners so we dont hear of the massacres, atrocities, rape and murder the mass poisonings of water holes, or food stocks.  We also need to undertsnad that South Africa didnt invent the apartieh system, no they borrowed the idea from us, the White Australia policy of the early 20th Century. We have a great big gap in our history books that doesnt talk about local swimming pools with a gate for whites only and one for blacks, where if you were aboriginal you couldnt leave the mission without the correct permit, where you were paid less, often not money at all but but in flour, sugar and tea, a country that had policies that could see you locked up if you spoke in own language.  

There are many people alive today who:

• Were forcibly removed from their parents under government policy
• Had their children taken away. 
• Were not allowed in towns after 6:00 at night. 
• Were not allowed to be in certain areas without permission. 
• Were barred from schools and hospitals. 
• Returned from wars only to find they did not have the same rights as white people. 
• Have not enjoyed the same rights as others, simply because they were Indigenous.

There are even a few very old people today who witnessed killings and poisonings as young children. This affected those people deeply.

Acknowledging and knowing all this is also not enough, because each of us is part of this journey to reconcile with our first nation people.  We have challenge those who enable racsim to thrive, we have to ask for the truth that has been removed from our history books.  We have stop changing national policies and how we run our Indigenous portfolios, we have to listen more, and allow for solutions to evolve from those we are aiming to support, and we have to recognise that our First Nation People, should be recognised in the Constitution as being here before our ansectors rocked up, and that we didnt pay for the land we developed.  

We also need to acknowledge country in a sincere and meaningful way at our public and I would even say private fucntions.   It's a mark of respect the custodianship and special relationshiop with the land that the first nation people had, and we all benefit from how they cared for this place for so long, It also acknowledges the wisdom of elders, who were tasked with passing stories and histories of how the world worked and out of these came the knowledge you needed to live your life and follow its cultural and law. 

We could also start flying the three flags that represent this Nations People.  

These three flags represent three distinct cultures and histories with this nation.  

Reference http://shareourpride.reconciliation.org.au/sections/our-shared-history/