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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-15 Daily Xml
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Blackwood Reconciliation Walk

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:12): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Will the minister inform the chamber about this year's Blackwood Reconciliation Walk?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:13): I would be most pleased to inform the honourable member about this year's Blackwood Reconciliation Walk. I spoke yesterday about the origins of Reconciliation Week in Australia running from 27 May to 3 June bookended, as I talked about yesterday, between the 1967 referendum anniversary and the Mabo Day anniversary, the handing down of Mabo v Queensland (No 2), the 1992 High Court case.

WA Senator Pat Dodson, often referred to as the father of reconciliation, has often talked about reconciliation not as a destination but as a journey that we are constantly striving towards, which was very fitting for the Blackwood Reconciliation Walk, being a journey itself.

The first ever major reconciliation walk took place on 28 May 2000, when around a quarter of a million Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to show their support for reconciliation. Subsequent walks followed right across the country. Some new groups have organised annual walks to show that continual journey that we are on.

On Sunday 28 May, I had the privilege and opportunity to attend the 2023 Blackwood Reconciliation Walk through Blackwood. The annual reconciliation walk sees hundreds of people from the surrounding community come together to support and celebrate Reconciliation Week and the continued reconciliation journey that we are all on.

Each year, the Blackwood Reconciliation Group—one of the oldest such groups in the country, if not the oldest reconciliation community group in the country—puts together their Walk for Reconciliation through the suburb of Blackwood. This year, we gathered on what was a cold and slightly rainy morning outside the Blackwood Uniting Church. After a Welcome to Country, we were entertained by the Coromandel Valley school choir and spent some time reflecting on reconciliation. Many speakers reflected on what it means, the reconciliation process, in relation to the legislation that South Australia passed, becoming the first place for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the country, but also in the lead-up to this year's referendum to enshrine a Voice to Parliament.

Dr Kim O'Donnell led the two-kilometre walk to Colebrook Reconciliation Park, with supporters following and showcasing their support in the hundreds. Colebrook Reconciliation Park was set up with marquees, hot coffees, warm food, as well as a campfire to keep the hundreds of people assembled warm while formalities continued. It was fitting that the Colebrook Reconciliation Park was where the walk finished.

We know that the site of Colebrook in Eden Hills has been a major part of the reconciliation journey in Australia, having been the place that members of the stolen generations were taken to in South Australia, in Eden Hills. Before that, Colebrook was located just outside Quorn towards the Flinders Ranges in the small community of Colebrook before it was moved to Eden Hills some time in about 1944. The forerunner before it was the Colebrook institution near Quorn, which was the United Aborigines Mission in Oodnadatta which started up some time in the twenties. Some very notable South Australians have spent time at Colebrook, including former Australian of the Year Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue.

It was the opportunity to have a couple of former residents, Aboriginal people who had stayed at the Colebrook Home, speak and share their experiences with those who had assembled after the walk. They were talking about the often devastating effects that removal from their family, from their culture, had on them and the time they spent at Colebrook Home, which was where we gathered at the Colebrook Reconciliation Park. It was a very moving end to the Reconciliation Walk from Blackwood Uniting Church to Colebrook Park, the very site where speakers were removed from their families too and grew up without their family and their culture.

There were a number of other members of parliament who attended the day, partook in the walk and were at the Colebrook Reconciliation Park. I particularly want to acknowledge the member for Elder, Nadia Clancy; the member for Waite, Catherine Hutchesson—who has been very involved personally with the Blackwood Reconciliation Group, and I have had the pleasure of attending the Blackwood Reconciliation Group a number of times with the member for Waite—the member for Badcoe, Jayne Stinson; and the member for Reynell, the Minister for Child Protection, the Hon. Katrine Hildyard.

I want to acknowledge all those hardworking and very committed people, as members of the Blackwood Reconciliation Group, for all their efforts in hosting this poignant walk each year, and I look forward to participating in the walk for many years to come.

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