Tag Archives: reconciliation

What Reconciliation Means: National Reconciliation Week 2023

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Australia is a diverse country with the oldest continuing living culture in the world, and a colonial past with devastating consequences for First Nations Australians. Reconciliation Australia describes five dimensions of Reconciliation: historical acceptance, race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity, and unity. ‘Be a Voice for Generations’, the theme of Australia’s National Reconciliation Week 2023, reminds us that Reconciliation is everyone’s responsibility, and that it is a journey of coming together to reflect on past generations, while building a better tomorrow for future generations.

It is my privilege to have been born and raised on Whadjuk Noongar Country, and to have lived and worked in Naarm on the lands of the Kulin Nation. I am now getting to know the traditional lands, waterways and language of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains, as well as of other South Australian lands and peoples.

As a non-Indigenous person and second-generation Australian whose parents were both born overseas, for me engaging in Reconciliation means learning about local Indigenous language, culture, histories, stories, and knowledges. It is about seeking out and listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, as well as considering how I might use my own voice. It means acknowledging and reflecting on traditional Country at events, in meetings, and on my podcast, The Edu Salon. It means seeking out, citing, and recommending the work of Indigenous scholars, educators and artists. For example, I have enjoyed listening to outstanding Indigenous scholars Marnee Shay and Kevin Lowe, both of whom advocate for strengths-based approaches to education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in schools.

In a school context, Reconciliation means having, revising and refining a school Reconciliation Action Plan. It means engaging in conversations about Reconciliation at student, staff and board tables. It means an active Reconciliation Action Plan Committee that meets regularly, includes students and staff, and is focused on collaborative action. It means teachers, from early learning through to Year 12, considering how cultural competence is built through curriculum, pedagogy, texts, issues explored, and language used and learned. It means engaging in, and deeply reflecting on the significance of, cultural protocols such as Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement to Country, including in local language and by local people. It means schools considering student learning and scholarship opportunities, enrolments policies, human resources processes, assembly content, events protocols, student experiences beyond the classroom, and school-wide anti-discrimination strategies. It means providing opportunities for staff and students to engage in reflection, learning, service, and culture. It means considering how to build mutually beneficial relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders and communities. It means working to consider how we can develop spaces, supports and opportunities for Indigenous young people.

Contributing to the ongoing work of Reconciliation means all Australians engaging regularly in meaningful discussion about, and taking action on, Reconciliation. It means celebrating, amplifying, and making space for the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. It means enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in our Constitution. It also means acknowledging the violent, unjust, uncomfortable colonial history of our nation and the ongoing intergenerational trauma experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It means considering what behaviours and structures are normalised in our organisations and systems, who benefits from these, what unconscious biases exist, and how we might recognise and interrogate our own ability to participate in a range of opportunities not equally available to all Australians.

Beyond recognition and acknowledgement is action: considering how we might be an effectual part of positive change towards reconciling the peoples of Australia, every day.

What might ‘taking action’ for Reconciliation look like?

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This week is National Reconciliation Week in Australia (27 May-3 June), a week that challenges all Australians to work towards a reconciled relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for a unified, just and equitable Australia for all Australians.

It was only in 1962 that Indigenous Australians were granted the right to vote. And it was only in 1967, via referendum, that Australia’s First Nations peoples were recognised by the government as people. Previous to that, the Australian constitution stated that “in reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted”. In 2008, then- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations—children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families under parliamentary authority. The 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for the ancient sovereignty of First Nations Australians to be recognised through structural reform including constitutional change and a ‘Voice to Parliament’.

This year’s National Reconciliation Week theme is:

“More than a word. Reconciliation takes action.”

Reflecting on what reconciliation action looks like for me, it’s the macro and micro actions we take.

In my school our actions include a Reconciliation Action Plan working group who meet to consider what Reconciliation can look like in our school, and to plan how to bring our Reconciliation intentions to action. It’s building a meaningful relationship and mutually beneficial partnership of listening, seeking to understand identities and realities, and positive action with a remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community school. It is acknowledging Country in ways that are respectful, embedded and that show awareness of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and heritage. For my school, that means acknowledging the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we learn and work, recognising their continuing connection and contribution to land, waters and community, and paying our respects to them, their culture, and to Elders past, present and emerging. It means providing students and staff with opportunities to increase understanding, value and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories, knowledges and rights. It means celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander days of significance. It means always working to improve the ways in which we and our community engage with the ideas and actions of Reconciliation, and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This year in my classroom, engaging with Reconciliation includes studying the poetry of Australian poet Samuel Wagan Watson who encourages his readers to consider the lasting impacts and trauma of Australia’s colonial past, land dispossession, historic and continuing violence towards Indigenous Australians, and the erosion, appropriation and commercialisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language, identity and mythology.

In my academic writing, my actions include citing Indigenous authors and seeking out Indigenous ways of knowing, researching and communicating. In my editing, actions include inviting Indigenous authors to write for books and journal special issues. I can highly recommend engaging with the work of ‘Deadly’ Australian scholars Tracey Bunda, Melitta Hogarth, Marnee Shay and Janet Mooney. In the conclusion of the upcoming edited book Future Alternatives for Educational Leadership, I call for those in educational leadership to openly engage with complex issues and uncomfortable debates, and to make space for the perspectives and knowledge systems of Indigenous and culturally marginalised groups.

During this week’s Q&A program on the ABC, Marnie Omeragic asked:

“It is Reconciliation Week. Is Australia ready to hear its truth? Are we brave enough to learn the atrocities of our past and our present? Deaths in custody, children being removed- it is happening at a faster rate today. The gap is not closing. How will Australia find its heart?”

The panel’s responses can be watched here from the 34-minute mark. The challenge remains for all Australians to consider how our thoughts, language and actions contribute to the aim of a reconciled, just, equitable and unified Australia.