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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-02 Daily Xml
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National Reconciliation Week

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:44): I rise today to speak about one of the most important weeks in our Australian calendar, Reconciliation Week, celebrated each year between 27 May and 3 June, dates chosen as they represent two important milestones on our national journey to reconciliation.

Of course, 27 May is the anniversary of the 1967 referendum in which over 90 per cent of Australians voted to give our commonwealth government the power to make laws for Indigenous Australians and provided the ability for them to literally be counted by including them in our census. The date of 3 June is also significant because it marks the anniversary of the High Court delivering the 1992 Mabo decision. This landmark case officially recognised the special relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have with the land and, finally and importantly, paved the way for native title.

The theme for Reconciliation Week is 'It's time to change it up'. It encourages all Australians to 'change up' the way we think about reconciliation and systematic discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Reconciliation Week this year invites us to also join the Recognise campaign, a growing campaign focused on ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are officially recognised in our Australian constitution.

Australia's story is one of the richest and longest in human history. It spans tens of thousands of years and at its heart is the oldest living culture on our planet. It is an inspiring and impressive history, but Australia's constitution, our set of rules, our founding document which symbolises on the local and global stage what we are about, does not recognise that culture. It is silent about tens of thousands of years of history. It does not recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and, shamefully, it also gives governments the power to discriminate against groups of Australians voting based on race.

We need to remove that discrimination and we need to include recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people because it is the right thing to do and so that Australia can lift its head and authentically live the values we so often pride ourselves on having as a nation: fairness, inclusivity and diversity. It is our generation who can do this. It is our generation who can break the silence and who can proudly shape a better and fairer future, and we in this place have a strong role to play in doing this. We are in a unique position to talk about this campaign in our communities and I have been heartened to hear this conversation and conversations about reconciliation happening in my southern community continuously over the past week.

Leading up to Reconciliation Week, I worked with the Southern Football League, all clubs in that league, and particularly the Noarlunga Football Club to host the first SFL Reconciliation Round game to commemorate Reconciliation Week. Our celebration that day included a welcome to country by Kaurna elder, Auntie Leonie Brodie; a performance by outstanding local artist, leader and musician, Allan Sumner; and really important words about our Recognise campaign by Joel Bayliss, a fellow Reconciliation SA board member and outstanding community advocate and activist. Many people in the league said that this was the first time they had been part of such a conversation and they looked forward to continuing to talk about reconciliation.

I attended the Reconciliation SA breakfast and hosted exceptional Wirreanda High School students Cheyenne, Victoria and Nathan and their teacher Azra. My conversations with these students who have worked hard this year to ensure that Aboriginal veterans are appropriately and respectfully remembered gave me great hope for the next part of our journey to reconciliation.

In the lead-up to Reconciliation Week I worked with community organisations, council and local Aboriginal elders on our local southern community celebrations at Ramsay Place which were widely attended by southern schools who participated in an artistic competition focused on bringing to life in visual art and words the meaning of reconciliation. I saw some of this artwork at an incredibly special assembly at Christies Beach Primary School and left this assembly, in which every year level had explored reconciliation, feeling very hopeful that our future generations of leaders will collectively progress a truly reconciled Australia.

I also had the great pleasure of attending the Christies Beach High School reconciliation assembly, with an acknowledgement of country by students, moving speeches from Uncle Jim Snow and Jessica Wishart, a beautiful performance by the very talented Ellie Lovegrove, and a lunch cooked outdoors by students and teachers. I left my last reconciliation activity for the week knowing that our past will be remembered and honoured, that our present is understood, and that our future will be one in which the issues we still face will be resolved and one in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians will work together respectfully towards a truly united Australia.

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