Talking about Reconciliation

Throughout its life, the Council has undertaken many consultations that have culminated in its development of documents of reconciliation. The earliest consultations established the eight key issues of reconciliation and laid the foundation for Council's community education program.

The meeting of Aboriginal people to discuss issues of native title at Manyallaluk (Eva Valley) in August 1993.

Council has facilitated many consultations about important issues for reconciliation. For example, in August 1993, during robust public debate about native title following the High Court's Mabo decision a year earlier, Council held a major meeting of 400 Aboriginal people at Manyallaluk (Eva Valley), on Jawoyn land near Katherine in the Northern Territory. This meeting was called to see if it was possible to adopt a common Aboriginal position on native title. A statement of claims was developed for negotiation with the Government.

In its first major national consultation, during 1994, Council and ATSIC held 35 meetings with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations throughout Australia to discuss social justice issues. This extensive consultation resulted in the comprehensive report to the Government, Going Forward: Social Justice for the First Australians . This report has informed the Council's development of its documents for reconciliation.

The second major national consultation was associated with the Australian Reconciliation Convention of 1997. Through more than 100 public meetings including the Melbourne Convention, it sought the views of all Australians on three key areas: reconciliation in the community; human rights and Indigenous Australians; and documents of reconciliation and constitutional issues. The Convention and its outcomes paved the way for the work of reconciliation for the rest of the decade.

The third national consultation focused on the document of reconciliation. Following the official launches of the Draft Document for Reconciliation on 3 June 1999, the Council sought the views of all Australians on the content of a document of reconciliation and the ways of giving effect to that document.

Council has always been aware of the importance of taking account of all views, including those of people who may not understand or support reconciliation. For this reason it has included comprehensive community attitude surveys as part of its consultation processes. It conducted three significant surveys - one early in its life, one close to the 1997 Convention and one at the time of its consultation on the draft document.

How Council has consulted

Public consultations

Council has consulted the Australian people through meetings, conferences, and surveys. Council members, ATSIC, consultants and State and Territory-based allies have presented Council's views and listened to people's responses. Council has supported their work by producing many publications including Walking Together , discussion booklets, videos, posters and learning circle kits.

In talking about the Council's work, we must mention the absolute extent of the consultation process. ... We've met under trees, we've sat down and heard people's views. Council Member Ian Spicer reflecting on the Council's lifespan (2000)

Early in its life, the Council recognised that it could not consult effectively with the Australian population by itself. From 1992, when it contracted 13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations within ATSIC zones to act as agents in facilitating discussion about reconciliation, the Council has worked through State and Territory-based agents. The original agents later merged with Australians for Reconciliation (AFR) Coordinators, who have continued to work on behalf of the Council throughout the years to follow.

AFR Coordinators have played an increasingly important role in relation to consultations as the Council's work has progressed. In the 1997 and 1999 consultations, they organised or facilitated hundreds of public meetings and assisted local and sectoral groups to run further meetings. They assisted Council members and media specialists with publicity for these meetings to ensure that local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and members of the wider community had sufficient information to confidently participate.

State and Territory Reconciliation Committees have also played a key role in Council's consultations. They provided Chairpersons and speakers for many of the public meetings in the 1997 and 1999 consultations. They were also highly successful in representing Council's documents within their own organisations and involving them in the consultations.

The Australian Reconciliation Convention

The Australian Reconciliation Convention, held in Melbourne 26-28 May 1997, with the theme Renewal of the Nation , was attended by nearly 1,800 people - from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the legal profession, industry and business, the arts, education, health, faith communities, all spheres of government, youth, women's and sporting organisations.

Before the Convention, Council circulated discussion booklets and sought input from people throughout the country through an intensive consultation process leading up to the gathering in Melbourne. More than 100 regional meetings, attended by more than 10,000 people, discussed the key issues, sent in their views and contributed to the agenda and the outcomes of the convention.

Council member Karmi Dunn explains the Draft Document to Alice Springs traditional owner Michael Rice, Central Australians for Reconciliation Chair, Deb Fry, and convenor, Bob Durnan.

The Convention had a major impact on the nation and demonstrated significant community support for reconciliation, recommending:

• education in schools and other institutions about the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the history of race relations;
• improvement in the circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through the efforts of business and industry, local government and other community sectors;
• the development of regional agreements about land ownership and use;
• recognition of the special place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian society and of the central importance to them of land and sea;
• recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' right to self-determination, and
• the development of national document/s of reconciliation.

Local and international speakers - 165 in total - were drawn from sectors relevant to the Convention, including government, community organisations, the mining industry, law, media, business, the arts, faith groups, education policy and sport.

Major highlights were the celebration of the 30^th anniversary of the 1967 referendum in a ceremony which honoured the stalwarts of the campaign for a 'yes' vote, and the presentation of the Australian Reconciliation Awards recognising the broad diversity and success of reconciliation initiatives being undertaken around the nation. More than 300 nominations were received for these five awards.

As a result of the views expressed through this consultation, the Council decided to develop a document or documents of reconciliation in its final term.

Consultation on the Draft Documents for Reconciliation

Following the national launches of the Draft Document for Reconciliation in June 1999, the Council embarked on one of the most far-reaching public consultation processes ever undertaken in Australia on a matter of public policy.

Between July and December 1999, Council organised consultations in cities, regional centres including the Torres Strait, country towns and outback localities. Council members attended more than 100 public meetings, and a greater number were held under the auspices of other organisations, bringing the total number of meetings to almost 300. These were organised with the help of the coordinators of Australians for Reconciliation and State Reconciliation Committees in each State and Territory. Many regional meetings were co-chaired by ATSIC regional councillors.

One of the many workshops at the Australian Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne in May 1997.

Written feedback came from 263 public meetings, 200 public submissions and from nearly 3,000 citizens who completed personal response forms. Governments, interested individuals, community groups, organisations, faith communities, and professional and peak bodies were represented in the responses.

Special interest consultations

Council has also undertaken extensive consultations with special interest groups.

In developing its national documents and in its efforts to gain commitment to them, Council met the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Federal Opposition and the Leader of the Australian Democrats, Premiers and Chief Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition of each State and Territory. It also held round-table meetings with senior government officials of each State and the ACT. This process ensured the full involvement of people with significant responsibility for implementation of the strategies.

As well, Council members took every opportunity to raise the subject of the document in other discussions in local, workplace, sectoral and interest groups. It wrote hundreds of letters explaining the process and asking for feedback. Special letters went to:

• All members of Commonwealth, State and Territory Parliaments
• Every local government authority
• Federal, State and Territory directors/secretaries of all political parties
• The Youth organisations of all political parties
• All schools
• Business institutions
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and State and Territory Departments of Aboriginal Affairs
• Peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations
• Trade unions
• Service organisations
• All peak bodies, organisations, groups and individuals on the Council's extensive outreach mailing list.

There is no political gain in acquiring legal recognition of the status of our elders or of traditional Indigenous lores and practices - it's more a merging of traditional lores and the Australian laws to allow a better managed society. This is the principle of reconciliation. John Abednego, former Torres Strait Regional Authority Chairperson and Council Member (1999)

The Council's extensive consultation with non-government organisations and sectoral interest groups has been particularly important in establishing sound partnerships and ensuring that community leaders understand the Council's goals.

From the end of the consultation process until April 2000, the Council considered the public response. Discussions continued with representative bodies and pivotal stakeholders such as governments, ATSIC and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, political parties and service-delivery agencies about the formulation of the final drafts, about the details of the strategies, and about their willingness to commit to the document.

Social Research

Throughout the decade, the Council regularly commissioned independent social research to gauge community attitudes about reconciliation. This research helped identify the main issues in the public mind, monitored changes in attitudes in the community and helped the Council formulate its communication strategies. As it finalised the national documents for reconciliation, Council paid careful attention to social research alongside the feedback it had gained through the formal consultation process.

One major conclusion of this research was that so often Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians are talking past each other, not with each other.

Social research in 1991-92 established a baseline on community attitudes. The two phases of this research involved a series of discussion groups and a national survey of 1,200 respondents, including a 13-question face-to-face interview. This quantitative research identified areas where knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories was negligible or poor and indicated that the concept of reconciliation was difficult and abstract.

In November 1991, the proportion of people saying they were in favour of Aboriginal reconciliation was 48%. This changed little in the next few years. However, by 2000 broad support for reconciliation had reached about 75%.

In May 1995, a pilot qualitative study highlighted a continuing level of ignorance and apathy, as well as many misconceptions about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues in the community.

During 1995-96 three surveys in a comprehensive study suggested that:

• 51% of Australians had heard about the process of reconciliation;
• 83% supported the concept of reconciliation, with 48% registering 'strong support';
• 73% believed that some type of formal agreement would improve relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and the wider community;
• 53% of people thought that relations between these groups were currently either 'very poor' or 'quite poor'; and
• 84% said that responsibility for improving relations fell on all individuals, with around 50% also nominating the Federal Government and State and Territory governments as carrying a major responsibility.

The survey showed that support for reconciliation was high, probably reflecting greater understanding of the concept. However, the research also indicated persistent levels of apathy, misconception and fear about the position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, suggesting that the Council, governments and community educators across the board still had a great deal of work to do.

In 1996, a joint research project, involving the Council, the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia and the Bureau of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Population Research, sought the attitudes of people of non-English speaking backgrounds. This research informed a series of consultations with non-English speaking background communities leading up to the Convention.

In 1999-2000 three sets of social research gauged the public's reaction to the reconciliation process and to Council's draft document.

The first two surveys comprised a qualitative component conducted by Saulwick and Associates involving focus groups and in-depth interviews, and a quantitative component conducted by Newspoll polling 1,300 people. The responses presented a mixed picture of community attitudes about reconciliation and related issues, but strong general support for the process of reconciliation.

Reconciliation and coexistence can be the means by which that wound (terra nullius) is finally healed, but not without commitment and leadership from the most senior of our political and community representatives. Peter Yu, Executive Director, Kimberley Land Council (1997)

The Newspoll study showed that large majorities supported propositions such as:

• All Australians should have equal rights and opportunities (92%).
• The nation should recognise the traditional beliefs and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (92%).
• In the past Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were treated harshly (84%).
• The process of reconciliation is very or quite important (81%).
• Money spent to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has not helped much (78%).
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people don't do enough to help themselves (68%).
• The nation should formally acknowledge that Australia was occupied without consent (64%).
• There is no need for an apology (62%).
• The nation should formally acknowledge Aboriginal people as the original owners of traditional lands and waters (62%).
• The community was more divided on propositions such as: * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are disadvantaged when compared with other groups (41% agree: 52% disagree).
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are worse off in living conditions (52% worse off: 41% same or better off)).
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have special rights (58% against: 35% for).

People tended to support the concept of a document for reconciliation (57%), but after seeing the draft document, 74% supported all or most of the content. The group that commented on the content of the Draft Declaration showed a relatively close division of opinion on the wording of issues such as an apology (45% for: 44% against); acknowledgment of original owners (47% for: 39% against); colonised without consent (51% for: 40% against); stop the injustice (49% for: 30% against) and customary laws (56% for: 32% against).

To me there are three essential elements in achieving a lasting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: honest and realistic acknowledgment of the injustices of the past; shared commitment to overcoming Indigenous disadvantage and providing equality of opportunity for all Australians; and mutual acceptance of the importance of working together to ensure that our differences do not prevent us from sharing equally in a common future. Senator John Herron, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (1996)

The third round of qualitative research surveyed the views of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders so that the Council could determine whether there was a difference between their views and those of other Australians about the reconciliation process. Saulwick and Associates conducted the research in March and April 2000. Group discussions took place in Morwell, Victoria; Elizabeth, South Australia; Leonora, Western Australia (two groups); Elcho Island, Northern Territory (two groups); Mt Isa, Queensland; and Moree, New South Wales. A group discussion with Torres Strait Islanders took place in Townsville.

The researchers reported on the following points of similarity between the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians:

1. The position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia today is a tragedy and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture has been seriously damaged.

2. The past should be confronted and acknowledged, and then we should look forward.

3. An acknowledgment of past wrongs and apology, but without today's Australians taking personal blame, is appropriate.

4. No monetary damages or compensation should be attached to any such acknowledgment.

5. Australia is a nation of diverse peoples where diversity should be celebrated as a unified whole.

6. Australia would be a better place if Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other Australians were to become reconciled.

7. The full history of Australia since 1788 should be written and taught in our schools.

Three main points of difference between the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians related to:

1. The issue of equality . All agree that people should be treated equally, but perceptions of what equality is and how to achieve it differ sharply. The wider Australian community tends to disapprove of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people receiving special treatment. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people see special treatment as essential if they are to attain equality.

2. Deciding the rights and wrongs of the past . On some matters, such as past acts of extreme violence, there is little or no disagreement, even if there is a lot of ignorance. On other matters, such as the Stolen Generations, there is disagreement over whether it was right or wrong, and over whether it was well meant or not. There is also a lack of shared understanding of the consequences for those affected by the policy.

3. Three elements in the Draft Declaration (aside from the apology) are important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These are:

a) recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the original owners and custodians of the land;

b) recognition of customary laws, beliefs and traditions; and

c) acknowledgment that Australia was colonised without the consent of the original inhabitants.

Chairperson Dr Evelyn Scott received a standing ovation, including applause from the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, and the Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard, after her speech at Corroboree 2000 in May 2000. Photo: Karen Mork

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were generally sceptical about whether the Draft Document for Reconciliation would make any real difference to their lives. However, some thought it would be an important symbolic gesture.

The research suggested that there were four main strands to the thinking of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the question of an apology:

1. First, it meant acknowledging that what happened in the past did happen and that the denial of it must stop.

2. Second, it meant acknowledging that the wrongs of the past were truly wrong.

3. Third, that this past - wrongs and all - must be taught as part of a full and true Australian history.

4. Fourth, the word 'sorry' was not about monetary compensation or damages, nor about today's Australians taking personal responsibility, but about acknowledging that wrong was done and expressing sorrow about it.

Outcomes of Consultations

There are still many Australians who have never heard of the Council or its work. There are many who have not begun to think deeply about reconciliation as an issue. However, the Council is confident that its extensive consultations have ensured that the views of a broad cross-section of the Australian community have informed its major decisions and the documents. The challenge for the future is to engage the majority of Australians in discussion and debate about the issues so that they can be resolved.