Latest news with #ReconciliationAustralia
SBS Australia
5 days ago
- General
- SBS Australia
25 years on from the Walk for Reconciliation, were the hopes of that historic day realised?
It was one of the largest demonstrations in the country's history, but some have questioned what concrete gains were made. Credit: John van Hasselt - Corbis/Sygma via Getty Images On 28 May 2000, an estimated 250,000 people walked across the bridge as part of Corroboree 2000. Organised by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the two-day event brought together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to reflect on reconciliation and express public support for First Nations peoples. The walk became one of the most widely covered public demonstrations in Australian history. Unfinished Business - Corroboree 2000 Similar events were held in Brisbane, Adelaide and other cities, with tens of thousands participating across the country. Karen Mundine, now CEO of Reconciliation Australia, says she remembers the sense of momentum on the day. "To see the hundreds of people in the trains, heading across the bridge and starting to walk, to hear the chatter, to see the flags, to see that bridge fill up with people, was really exciting," she told Living Black. At the time, the event was seen by many as a hopeful moment in the reconciliation movement. But for some of those closely involved, it also exposed the gap between public sentiment and political follow-through. Patrick Dodson, chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 2000, relfected that 'politicians were out of step with the public", as the energy of the weekend was not followed by substantial structural reform. That tension was visible during the official proceedings at the Sydney Opera House. Then-Prime Minister John Howard, who had previously declined to apologise to the Stolen Generations, addressed the audience. His speech was met with protest, and his comments on land rights prompted a pointed response from Dodson: 'There will never be social justice in this country without equity.' Corroboree 2000 marked the culmination of a decade of significant developments in Indigenous affairs. Despite this momentum, the years following the walk saw a shift in policy direction. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was disbanded in 2005, and the federal government adopted a 'practical reconciliation' model focused on service delivery, rather than legal or constitutional reform. Many of the issues identified in that period remain today. Gaps in health, housing, education, and incarceration persist. In some areas, they have deepened. 'There has to be a national process of truth telling," Linda Burney told Living Black's Karla Grant. "I'm not saying it has to be now, I'm not saying it has to be tomorrow. It should not be scripted. It should not be initiated by government.' The statement reflected ongoing caution—but also highlighted the lack of clarity around what such a process might look like, or when it might begin. Former Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt told Living Black that responsibility and leadership must often come from within community: 'I think if we take the lead as Aboriginal people with all of the organisations that are committed, then you don't need governments. Governments will commit, but it depends on how strongly they commit and what they're prepared to commit. And it doesn't matter which government is in.' Reflecting on the state of reconciliation today, Professor Tom Calma said to Karla Grant: 'Some people said, 'Reconciliation is dead,' but that's far from being true.' Twenty-five years after the bridge walk, Corroboree 2000 continues to be remembered—but it also raises a clear question: how can symbolic events be transformed into long-term, structural change? Watch now Interviews and feature reports from NITV. A mob-made podcast about all things Blak life. The Point: Referendum Road Trip Live weekly on Tuesday at 7.30pm Join Narelda Jacobs and John Paul Janke to get unique Indigenous perspectives and cutting-edge analysis on the road to the referendum. Watch now
The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘Genocide': Patrick Dodson condemns Australia's Aboriginal youth incarceration rates
Former Labor senator Patrick Dodson has condemned the country's Aboriginal youth incarceration rates and child removals as an ongoing genocide against First Peoples and an 'embarrassing sore' on the nation. 'It's an assault on the Aboriginal people. I don't say that lightly [but] if you want to eradicate a people from the landscape, you start taking them away, you start destroying the landscape of their cultural heritage, you attack their children or remove their children,' Dodson said. 'This is a way to get rid of a people.' Dodson said there was no other word for it than genocide. 'It's to destroy any semblance of any representation, manifestation in our nation that there's a unique people in this country who are called the First Peoples,' he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Indigenous families are over-represented in child-removal statistics. In 2024, more than 44% of all children in out of home care were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. In Dodson's home state of Western Australia, Aboriginal children make up more than 60% of all children in care. First Nations children are also 27 times more likely to be in detention than non-Indigenous children and young people. The Yawuru elder, whose traditional country centres around Broome, spoke to Guardian Australia before the release of his Reconciliation Memoirs, an annual event held by Reconciliation Australia in which they produce the memoirs of a longstanding champion of the reconciliation movement. Often referred to as the 'father of reconciliation', Dodson has tracked these worsening statistics in his decades in public life. He served as a commissioner on the 1989 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, as chair of both the Central Land Council and the Kimberley Land Council, and as co-chair of the parliamentary inquiry into constitutional recognition, before being nominated for the senate in 2016. He retired from politics last year due to ill health, but has not given up the campaign, calling on prime minister Anthony Albanese to use his overwhelming victory in the federal election this month to press ahead with a national truth telling commission and a treaty process, despite the failure of the voice referendum in 2023. Those three priorities – a voice to parliament, national truth-telling, and a Makaratta commission to oversea treaty-making – were outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017. Albanese has previously said he endorses the principles of truth-telling and treaty-making but stopped short of committing to establishing a commission. Dodson said now is the time to revisit the issue – and stressed that doing so would not undermine the referendum result. 'He's got time. It's time for us to take stock,' he said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'There are two other destinations. They can all be pursued by way of legislation, but that requires commitment and will not only of the government but of the people.' He said a national truth-telling process would allow the nation to move away from culture wars and grapple with the history of the land and its contested foundations. 'There's no hidden traps in the whole thing,' he said. 'It's a facing up to an honest way to deal with the First Peoples of this nation, to deal with a contested history, with a view to trying to come to a common narrative about whom we are as Australians in this modern age.' Dodson's Reconciliation Memoirs, written in conjunction with journalist Victoria Laurie, detail his early life growing up in Broome and the loss of both his parents in childhood, followed by his public life which began in the priesthood. It also tackles his disappointment at being unable to take on a greater role in the referendum campaign due to treatment for cancer. The memoirs series has previously featured former senator Fred Cheney, Noongar writer and songwriter Dr Richard Walley, and former head of Reconciliation WA, Carol Innes. Dodson said that the process of examining his long legacy in public life allowed him to reflect on the unfinished business of reconciliation, in a country that is yet to reckon with the legacy of colonisation and dispossession, and yet to afford First Nations people an equitable seat at the table. 'It's a great country, but it's just that the First Peoples are not enjoying a lot of the greatness,' Dodson. 'We should pick up and resolve these issues that are a blight on us as a nation. Our relationship with the First Peoples has not been settled, has not been agreed to between First Peoples and the nation and we've got to do that.'
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Flinders Island councillor in push to stop Welcome to and Acknowledgement of Country protocols
A local councillor from Tasmania's Flinders Island wants to stop Welcomes to and Acknowledgements of Country at events the council is involved in — a move the Mayor says would cause division. Flinders Councillor Garry Blenkhorn said "Australians did not want separatist development" and that discontent with the Acknowledgement of Country was growing. "These protocols are not historical and have only existed for around 50 years." Flinders Council has included the Acknowledgement of Country in publications and events since 2019. Since 2013, the council — which covers the Furneaux Group of islands, including Flinders Island, off Tasmania's north-east coast — has also held an alternative celebration to Australia Day, which it describes as an "inclusive celebration of being Furneaux Islanders". In the lead up to the federal election, the merit of the welcomes to and acknowledgements of country was questioned by then-Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Senator Nampijinpa Price. Reconciliation Australia, the peak body for reconciliation with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, said they were "simple but profound ceremonies which allow Australians to express respect for traditional owners of the Country on which the ceremony occurs". "Long before the colonisation of Australia, under traditional protocols, when one group entered the land of another Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander nation, they would ask permission. The hosting group would welcome the visitors and offer them 'safe passage and protection of their spiritual being during the journey'," it said. The organisation rejected the suggestion that welcomes and acknowledgements were divisive. "In fact, reconciliation provides a strong foundation for a more unified society," a spokesperson said. Reconciliation Australia said they should be performed when organisers of meetings or events deemed it appropriate. "The regular positive response of [for example] sporting crowds to Welcomes to Country ceremonies indicates that many Australians welcome these ceremonies." It said in the lead-up to National Reconciliation Week, it was important to understand what the ceremonies represented. The Flinders Island community has the second-highest proportion of Aboriginal people in Tasmania. It is also the location of the old Wybalenna Mission, where Aboriginal people were exiled to in the 1880s, and where many died as a result of European disease and poor conditions. Flinders Island Mayor Rachel Summers said Cr Blenkhorn's proposal would cause division over what was "essentially a very brief" part of council events. "It's literally 30 seconds, 60 seconds, when we just acknowledge the contribution the Aboriginal community has made over their time as custodians of the land," Cr Summers said. She said she was disappointed Cr Blenkhorn had not raised the issue before submitting a notice of motion for Wednesday's council meeting. "Things like this which have real community impact should come to a [council] workshop in the first instance, and then we could have had that discussion. "And if he was saying that he wanted to put this motion forward, then we could have maybe done some community engagement," Cr Summers said. She said Aboriginal associations and the services they provided were "critical" to the whole community. In response to Cr Blenkhorn's motion, the council's general manager, Warren Groves, said the motion "could well be seen as difficult to reconcile" if supported and contrary to efforts the council has made to improve its relationship with the Aboriginal community and stakeholders. Mr Groves said he had recently spoken with the chief executives of the Flinders Island and Cape Barren Island Aboriginal associations and the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania. He said "all three CEOs are strongly opposed to any proposed withdrawal of the Welcome to or Acknowledgement of Country from council proceedings". Cape Barron Island Aboriginal Association chair Aaron Maynard said the council told him about Cr Blenkhorn's motion. "Words can't really explain how disgusting and just how disrespectful this is to everyone," Mr Maynard said. "Our people on this land in Australia are the oldest living race in the world at 65,000 years old, and we're still not celebrating that to our full capacity." He said he would be attending the council meeting. Speaking on ABC Local Radio on Sunday morning, Tasmanian Aboriginal activist and lawyer Michael Mansell said the idea was "disappointing". "So, again, it's people who just have a very different view, and we need to tolerate that, but why they would try to destroy something that's very positive, and that people do want to participate in, is very hard to understand," he said. The motion will be debated on Wednesday. Cr Blenkhorn was contacted for comment.
West Australian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Australians urged to walk together for reconciliation
As Australians crossed into a new millennium, more than 250,000 people crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation. It was an iconic moment Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine said, and one being remembered 25 years later as Reconciliation Week begins with the theme "Bridging Now to Next". "That was such a great moment, to see so many people came out in force and say 'I want to be part of this work, I want to be part of reconciliation'," she told AAP. Reconciliation Week is held each year between May 27 and June 3, marking the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. Ms Mundine said to understand where Australia found itself, it was important to understand the past, the triumphs and the setbacks, and the truth of its history. "'Bridging Now to Next' is really about learning from history, it's about grounding us and where we are today and then using all of that combined knowledge to chart a new path forward," she said. Ms Mundine said 25 years after the bridge walk, there was still a need for reconciliation in Australia, with the issues of voice, treaty and truth-telling, raised in the Uluru Statement from the Heart not yet dealt with. "(During the referendum) we weren't able to convince enough Australians to get that over the line," she said. "That's the job of reconciliation to get out there and broaden the Australian community's understanding about history and understanding that impact on First Nations people, not just in the past but as it happens today." Monday marked eight years since the Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued, an anniversary that brought up a lot of emotion for Allira Davis. The Cobble Cobble woman is a co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue and Australia still has a long way to go to meaningfully recognise Aboriginal people. "We still need structural reform in place," she said. "We still need something that represents us. "Unfortunately, Closing the Gap is not working. We've only met four of the 19 targets ... something needs to change." But just as the thousands who crossed the harbour bridge for reconciliation in 2000, Ms Davis said there were plenty of people who stood with First Nations people in October 2023, and continue to do so. "We do have 6.2 million friends that did vote yes," she said. "In terms of reconciliation, I think our non-Indigenous brothers and sisters are still walking with us."
Perth Now
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Australians urged to walk together for reconciliation
As Australians crossed into a new millennium, more than 250,000 people crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation. It was an iconic moment Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine said, and one being remembered 25 years later as Reconciliation Week begins with the theme "Bridging Now to Next". "That was such a great moment, to see so many people came out in force and say 'I want to be part of this work, I want to be part of reconciliation'," she told AAP. Reconciliation Week is held each year between May 27 and June 3, marking the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. Ms Mundine said to understand where Australia found itself, it was important to understand the past, the triumphs and the setbacks, and the truth of its history. "'Bridging Now to Next' is really about learning from history, it's about grounding us and where we are today and then using all of that combined knowledge to chart a new path forward," she said. Ms Mundine said 25 years after the bridge walk, there was still a need for reconciliation in Australia, with the issues of voice, treaty and truth-telling, raised in the Uluru Statement from the Heart not yet dealt with. "(During the referendum) we weren't able to convince enough Australians to get that over the line," she said. "That's the job of reconciliation to get out there and broaden the Australian community's understanding about history and understanding that impact on First Nations people, not just in the past but as it happens today." Monday marked eight years since the Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued, an anniversary that brought up a lot of emotion for Allira Davis. The Cobble Cobble woman is a co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue and Australia still has a long way to go to meaningfully recognise Aboriginal people. "We still need structural reform in place," she said. "We still need something that represents us. "Unfortunately, Closing the Gap is not working. We've only met four of the 19 targets ... something needs to change." But just as the thousands who crossed the harbour bridge for reconciliation in 2000, Ms Davis said there were plenty of people who stood with First Nations people in October 2023, and continue to do so. "We do have 6.2 million friends that did vote yes," she said. "In terms of reconciliation, I think our non-Indigenous brothers and sisters are still walking with us."
