Final report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation

Reconciliation has begun to enter the hearts and minds of the Australian people creating one of the most determined and vibrant people's movements ever seen in the history of the nation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians are increasingly working together to recognise and help heal the wounds of the past and move on together.

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The Sea of Hands in The Domain, Sydney, coinciding with Corroboree 2000 on 27 May 2000.

Photo: Karen Mork

Reconciliation will only work if each and every one of us, from the political to the grass roots level, work towards and focuses upon our vision for a united Australia...we must not get distracted or lose sight of the big picture.
Tammy Williams, youth speaker at Australian Reconciliation Convention (1997)

The people's movement is one of the most celebrated outcomes of the work of the Council. Reconciliation has not ended with the finishing of the Council. The people's movement will take it forward.

The people's movement is committed to building better relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community. Achieving this through local communities is one of the main objectives of reconciliation.

Since its early days the Council has encouraged local activity including the establishment and development of local reconciliation groups. These groups have been tremendous sources of community information. They partly formed as a response to Council's Study Circles that were introduced across the country with the assistance of the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education (AAACE).

Many local councils have brought communities together for reconciliation projects and initiatives. Council worked closely with the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) in developing strategies to bring local councils into the reconciliation process.

People have been inspired to initiate their own projects for reconciliation. One of the most colourful and powerful symbols of reconciliation is the Australians for Reconciliation and Native Title (ANTaR) Sea of Hands . This nationally recognised initiative has attracted huge community participation.

The people's movement has been assisted by Council's quarterly magazine Walking Together and other materials.

Early in its life, the Council realised that it needed regionally-based assistance to carry out day-to-day community work.

In December 1992, Council engaged 13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations within ATSIC zones to facilitate discussions about reconciliation within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. These agents distributed information, appropriate to each region, on reconciliation issues. They also coordinated meetings addressed by Council members and reported back to Council on people's views.

In 1993 the Council appointed coordinators in all States and Territories to provide information, seek views and foster partnerships between the wider community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. A resource kit, Working Together - a kit to help you work for change, supported this initiative, containing briefings on current issues, case studies and a video.

In 1995 the AFR program was established to encompass the Community Consultation Agents who had already been operating for nearly three years. The new AFR structure focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consultants working in partnership with consultants from the wider community. Its very nature was an example of reconciliation in action. Each consultancy team included at least one Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander member and one wider community member. There was one consultancy team for each State and Territory and a separate team for central Australia.

A 1997 review of the AFR program resulted in the development of a strategic plan for all contractors. The plan's objectives included information dissemination and support for study circles; local reconciliation groups; sectors, and State and Territory Reconciliation Committees. AFRs were also to assist reconciliation agreements in the States and Territories.

The AAACE assisted the Council to develop and distribute a Study Circle (later known as Learning Circle) kit for people interested to learn more about reconciliation issues.

The eight-week program covered topics such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, contemporary issues, causes of disadvantage and the case for reconciliation. It gave people the opportunity to discuss their views and look beyond media headlines to make up their own minds about reconciliation.

Public libraries in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania distributed the kits as part of Library Week in 1995 to encourage people to join Study Circles or to form their own. The kit was reviewed in 1999 and as a result, 2,000 new Reconciliation Learning Circle kits were distributed to trained facilitators.

The kits have been used by government departments, the defence forces, health and education sectors, as well as in the wider community. Council hopes that the 2,000 kits will remain in circulation and continue to be used by the community.

Council launched the Ambassadors for Reconciliation Program at a media event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics site at Homebush on 29 June 1998. The program enlisted 18 prominent Australians to represent and speak for reconciliation in their fields of work and interest. This number grew to 57 by June 2000.

Arising out of the visit to Australia of Nelson Mandela in September 2000, former ATSIC chairman Gatjil Djerrkura, and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, agreed to co- chair a Reconciliation Taskforce comprising a number of eminent Australians. The taskforce aims to set up an independent leadership forum to undertake practical reconciliation projects. Council hopes that this body will work in close cooperation with Reconciliation Australia, the foundation it has established to help continue the process.

The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Councillor Greg Heys, after receiving Council's first reconciliation award in November 1995.

Reconciliation Awards

In 1995 Council initiated Reconciliation Award Certificates to recognise the reconciliation efforts of the Australian community. Certificates have been awarded to organisations and individuals that demonstrated outstanding contributions to reconciliation. The certificates acknowledged good practice and inspired others to join the people's movement. AFR Coordinators played a major role in identifying groups who might qualify for an award and in arranging award ceremonies attended by the Council Chairperson.

The first awards went to the Awabakal Newcastle Aboriginal Cooperative and the Newcastle City Council for contributions to reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the wider community n the Hunter Region.

Council presented five National Reconciliation Awards at the Australian Reconciliation Convention in 1997 recognising the efforts and achievements of Australians striving towards reconciliation. The winners were chosen from a field of nearly 300 nominees. They covered the categories of community, culture/land, government, business/industry, and youth. As well as highlighting some obvious examples, the awards uncovered many reconciliation activities that were effectively promoting change in local communities.

Throughout its life Council continued to commend groups and individuals for their reconciliation efforts, acknowledging that not all efforts could be spotlighted but that everyone involved in the people's movement was helping to drive reconciliation forward.

Since Council launched it in 1996, NRW has emerged as an important week on the national calendar. It has been characterised by special media articles and programs, local activities, book and report launches, exhibitions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, sporting events, picnics, barbecues and much more. The week has also lifted the profile of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags which increasingly have been flown above civic buildings, schools and other community and institutional centres during this time. Schools have played a central role in organising reconciliation speakers and art competitions.

NRW has carried a different theme each year since its inception. In 1999 the theme was 'Reconciliation: It's Up to Us'. This theme signalled the fact that reconciliation was a grass roots movement. The theme for 2000 was 'Corroboree 2000' to mark the presentation of Council's reconciliation documents to the people of Australia at the Sydney Opera House on 27 May, the first day of NRW.

Council hopes that local communities will continue to embrace NRW and that the commemorative week will live on in the life of the nation as an important symbol of reconciliation.

The National Sorry Day on 26 May 1998 marked the first anniversary of the tabling in Parliament of the Bringing Them Home Report. It was a unique national event that contributed much to the momentum of the people's movement for reconciliation.

Subsequently the National Sorry Day Committee (NSDC) proposed that the date henceforth should be marked in a different way, using the idea of a Journey of Healing as an appropriate mechanism for moving forward from Sorry Day. The Council has supported the new concept, noting that the themes implied by its title, and promoted by the NSDC, were broadly consistent with the goals of the reconciliation process itself.

A Journey of Healing ceremony was an important feature of Corroboree 2000 in Sydney on 27 May 2000.

The people's movement has campaigned hard for governments and communities to incorporate practices that will recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and respect the unique status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's first peoples.

Council has adopted the use of appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols at public meetings and ceremonies and encouraged other organisations to do the same. This included the use of 'welcomes to country' and 'acknowledgments of country' as a way of promoting greater understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and acknowledging the traditional owners of the land.

It is time to move the process of reconciliation with a little more speed. That is the task. If not now, when? If not us, who?

Faith Bandler, author and activist (1999)

The practice of 'acknowledging country' began to be widely adopted from the mid 1990s. Council encouraged people and organisations to acknowledge the members and elders of local communities and their forebears, who were custodians for many centuries. The practice included acknowledging that the land on which people were meeting was the place of age old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal, and that the people's living culture had a unique role in the life of the region.

Council has also encouraged people to negotiate with local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander elders to include a 'welcome to country' for appropriate significant events.

'Welcome to country' and 'acknowledgment of country' are now common practice for opening special events or meetings in many organisations. (For more information about how to go about these practices and protocols, see the Council's booklet Sustaining the Reconciliation Process .)

The Council, together with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the Australian Local Government Association, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and the National Council for the Centenary of Federation (NCCF) this year have produced a kit to assist communities develop their own local symbols of reconciliation. The kit was largely funded by the NCCF and DIMA through its Living in Harmony initiative.

The experiences of seven pilot projects commissioned in 1999 helped in the development of the kit Local Symbols of Reconciliation - What Can We Do! Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians worked in partnership on these projects to develop symbols of reconciliation appropriate to their local communities.

Symbols have included: a memorial at Myall Creek to commemorate the deaths of Aboriginal people at the hands of stockmen in 1838; a cultural exchange program between the Victor Harbour and Fregon communities; and a permanent museum display at Noosa, Queensland, representing the history of the Gubbi Gubbi people.

Local Symbols of Reconciliation - What We Can Do! , is being launched in December 2000. It will be available through the websites of the partner agencies.

For me, reconciliation is about all of us understanding how other people think and live their lives, and realising that we are connected to them too.

Bruce Martin, Aboriginal student at Canberra Grammar School (1999)

Sustaining the People's Movement

Reconciliation is an ongoing process that requires the long-term commitment of all Australians. Council has developed a three-tiered structure to continue the reconciliation process. It comprises local reconciliation groups, State and Territory reconciliation committees, and a national foundation, Reconciliation Australia.

To date there are an estimated 396 local reconciliation groups dispersed throughout the country. Many of these groups evolved from Reconciliation Learning Circle groups, or interested people in churches, workplaces, educational and professional institutions, and national and local community organisations.

They played a key role in Council's public consultation process on the draft documents for reconciliation. They have also been active in negotiating local agreements, hosting NRW events and contributing to Council's magazine Walking Together .

AFR coordinators have worked tirelessly to support local reconciliation groups and this task will be passed on to State Reconciliation Committees. A 'toolkit' for local groups will be available by the end of the year at Council's website, www.reconciliation.org.au which will become the website for Reconciliation Australia.

In 1996 the Council asked AFR coordinators to set up State Reconciliation Committees. This was in response to the success of an advisory committee in Western Australia.

The initiative sought to encourage community leaders to offer their skills, resources, networks and support bases to the reconciliation process.

Council has worked closely with SRCs and AFR Coordinators through workshops and other forums to plan ways of sustaining the reconciliation process beyond the life of the Council.

In the past, SRCs have mostly been voluntary organisations. With the folding of AFRs they will lose a large part of their administrative support base and will need funding to continue the work of reconciliation. Council sought funding for SRCs as part of a round of meetings in August-September 2000 with Premiers and Chief Ministers.

A federation of SRCs, formed after Corroboree 2000, will act as an advocacy body for the people's movement at State/Territory and national levels. The federated body will provide a unified SRC voice and provide a support network for State and Territory committees. The Federation of SRCs has resolved to work cooperatively with Reconciliation Australia.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation cannot do this for people. People have to do it for themselves. We have to work together for change.

Patrick Dodson, Chairperson, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation 1991-97 (1997)

Reconciliation Australia

Reconciliation Australia is a new independent foundation established by Council to continue the work of reconciliation.

Reconciliation Australia will begin formal operations from 1 January 2001. Its object is to give effect to the Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation . It will continue to pursue widespread support for reconciliation through Council's policy that reconciliation is not an issue just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples but a challenge for all Australians.

Like Council, the foundation will focus on partnerships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community. Council proposes that this 'whole of community' perspective will add value to the work of governments and all sectors committed to reconciliation. Council has advocated that Reconciliation Australia play a neutral broker role in the reconciliation process to bring all parties together to raise community awareness about the issues of reconciliation.

The Council has had a major focus on education and believes that continuing education, discussion and promotion of reconciliation issues should be a central feature of the foundation's work. It will be set up to provide inclusive leadership and promote educational tools and programs that remove barriers to reconciliation such as a lack of community awareness and understanding of issues.

Reconciliation Australia may also take on a reporting role to monitor the nation's progress towards reconciliation.

Council hopes the foundation will be an independent and flexible body that will determine its own priorities in accordance with the future evolving needs of the reconciliation process and the people's movement. For these reasons, the Council has not made formal recommendations to Reconciliation Australia in this final report.

The Council has approached the Commonwealth Government for seed funding and tax deductibility status for Reconciliation Australia to assist with its establishment and initial operations. However, as an independent body, Reconciliation Australia will depend on the goodwill and financial support of the Australian community.

Reconciliation has still a way to go, but I am inspired by the convention and the people's feelings of togetherness and the wonderful human warmth when people work together for a common cause.

Julie Smith, participant at the Australian Reconciliation Convention (1997)

Bridge Walks for Reconciliation

As part of Corroboree 2000, Council organised a People's Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday 28 May. In an unprecedented display of unity, nearly a quarter of a million Australians streamed across the national icon in support of reconciliation.

Even if nothing can repair what we have done We say sorry

Though that may never replace the people who died We say sorry

Though we can only try to replace what we took We say sorry

As we try to understand what we did We say sorry

We do not ask you to forget but forgive We say sorry

Though sorry may seem so small to some With the voice of a nation We say sorry.

Sarah Rubenstein, Year 9, The Friends' School, Hobart

During and in the wake of Corroboree 2000, hundreds of thousands of Australians participated in bridge walks and other related events across capital cities, regional centres and country towns. Brisbane attracted more than 70,000 people to walk across William Jolly Bridge. An estimated 55,000 crossed the King William Street Bridge in Adelaide and 25,000 walked over the Tasman Bridge in Hobart. Walks in Melbourne and Perth, scheduled for 3 December were expected to involve similar large numbers.

Following Corroboree 2000, Council received many messages of public support. A commemorative issue of Walking Together in August 2000 marked the historic success of Corroboree 2000, the bridge walks and related reconciliation events.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation has developed a booklet for release in December 2000 which details actions that individuals, organisations and governments can take to sustain the reconciliation process. The booklet proposes actions in six key areas:

4. valuing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ceremonies in significant events and celebrations;

These actions are complemented by information about reconciliation resources and contact details for relevant organisations.

The end of the Council's final term on 1 January 2001, places the future of reconciliation squarely in the hands of the Australian people. Council is confident that the people's movement will provide the impetus for change and ensure that reconciliation continues beyond 2000.

Reconciliation is becoming more widely understood and supported by the nation. The people's movement has played an important role in shaping a more inclusive Australian identity. It has done this by influencing how governments and others do business and carry out the nation's social, economic and political agendas. The people's movement must be sustained if true and lasting reconciliation is to be achieved.

EXCERPT FROM A LETTER TO COUNCIL FOLLOWING CORROBOREE 2000 BY SUZANNE MCCOURT, BIRRAG, VICTORIA

Was it worth it, people have asked me? Unequivocally yes! What did you think as you crossed the bridge, my son asked, what did you feel?

I told him that long before I sighted the bridge, I was overwhelmed by the huge numbers participating. That at the suburban station where we were crowded and crunched onto carriages en route to North Sydney, the air of goodwill and camaraderie was palpable. That when I saw the river of people pouring onto the bridge, the helicopters, media crews, banners and balloons, I knew I was part of an historic occasion.

We walked in an icy breeze, Australians of every descent - Indian, Asian, Greek, Italian, Turkish, English, Irish, Aboriginal. There were turbans, yarmulkes and Nike caps, saris, shorts and designer jeans. I felt, for the first time, the full breadth of our multi-cultural heritage. And I felt such pride that tears came to my eyes.

Over the railing, I glimpsed the sails of the Opera House and saw the first fleet's arrival at that very spot. I saw the beginnings of our tragic slaughter and abuse of the indigenous people. And I felt shame; shame for my ancestors in country Australia who introduced disease and appropriated land, who saw themselves with unalienable rights, rights we now recognise they never had.

Then I looked up and saw the word 'Sorry' being written in the blue, blue sky and I cheered with everyone else... it was a quiet march, no slogan chanting or rowdy shouting, a family march with children in prams and pushers, carried on shoulders, running through the crowd. How could I not think of stolen children and shattered lives, of separations, trauma, violence, generations of pain?... Walking on towards Darling Harbour, I looked back. A huge snake of people moved over the bridge, a giant rainbow serpent wearing a skin of colour, predominantly red, black and gold. I wished I knew more about Aboriginal mythology. Wasn't the rainbow serpent responsible for the beginnings of life? Were our marching feet helping to create a new life? A reconciliation of past and present, black and white? Surely, I thought, if so many people can come together to say they want change, then reconciliation and justice is just a breath away.

These were some of my thoughts, some of the things I told my son. He wondered if the people I marched with were thinking the same. Perhaps they were, I said. Perhaps our thoughts were taken up on that cold westerly wind, carried high into the sky like a prayer, to be heard in the hearts of people everywhere. I hope they were, he said.