Race Relations

Unit 4: Reconciliation

Cultural Aspects Historical Issues Race Relations Contemporary Issues

Unit 1: Cultural Mapping Unit 2: Racisim Unit 3: Power Unit 4: Reconciliation

Walking together towards reconciliation

4.01

Challenging racist stereotyping

It is only since the late 1960s that a substantial challenge to ways of writing and teaching history, which get beyond the highly selective accounts, has begun. Yet even now, much still remains to be done if Australian history is to reclaim its Aboriginal past and fully acknowledge the important episodes of resistance to colonial oppression and racist violence. (Hutchinson, F., 2003; Unit 4, p. 9)

In 1938 Jack Patten and the Aborigines' Progressive Association (APA wrote:

...their 'White Australia policy has helped to create a senseless prejudice against us, making us social outcasts in the land of our ancestors!...

We ask you...not to be misled any longer by the superstition that we are a naturally backward and low race. This is a scientific lie, which has helped to push our people down and down into the mire...Remember, we do not ask for charity, we ask for justice.

Quoted in Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus (eds), The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights: a documentary history,, Allen & Unwin, 1999, pp 85-86

Patten's call for justice and offering of a 'hand in friendship' foreshadows Evelyn Scott's call at Corroboree 2000 when she asked '...Will you take our hand? Will you dare to share our dreams?

Basic human rights are issue here. At Corroboree 2000, 2000,000 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians united in their support and celebration of Aboriginal people. Patten's great grandson, Joe Hedger wrote:

What we want to achieve does not rest in the hands of an individual, nor should we rely on governments and political figures to help us...Our destiny will be determined by the sheer determination and power the people of this country have.

4.02

What does reconciliation mean?

Reconciliation demands recognition 'that it was us who did the dispossessing' (Keating, 1999), understanding, awareness, and compassion; to stop assessing others by double-standards, moral judgements, confused values, arrogant views, and to start listening and cooperating. It requires us to treat each other with dignity. It means taking action and time for building mutual trust.

The word 'reconciliation' had a different meaning in the early days of white invasion:

Governor Phillip's task, as he interpreted his instructions from the British Colonial Office, was to 'reconcile' Aboriginal peoples to the realities of colonisation and to the colonisers' need to 'cultivate the land'. (Hutchinson, F., 2004; Unit 4, p. 21)

4.03

Relationship of the past to the present

We know what the Prime Minister's view was on the apology - he thinks what happened in the past is an issue for the past. I think he's saying that there's no need for this generation to apologise (Evelyn Scott, quoted in The Koori Mail, 17 May 2000, pp 1-2)

Evelyn Scott said this on the eve of the Corroboree 2000 and the People's Walk for Reconciliation, just after talks with John Howard.

The danger with the Prime Minister's attitude is that the history of how Aboriginal people have been treated will be forgotten. Understanding the past is vital for understanding the present. The situation Aboriginal people find themselves in today is a result of how British and their colonial Australian governments have treated them.

Australia's early history of 'reconciliation', was more about Aboriginal people being forced to reconcile themselves to white mans ways rather than about each culture reconciling the differences between themselves and working out ways of cohabiting in peace. The tortuous story of how Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people interacted with each other since first meeting in 1788 raises important issues and lessons for our times.

In 1992, Paul Keating said about reconciliation, in his 'Redfern Park Speech, that...

...we cannot confidently say we have succeeded as we would have like to have succeeded if we have not managed to extend opportunity and care, dignity and hope to the indigenous people of Australia...it is a fundamental test of our social goals and our national will...This is a test of our self-knowledge. Of how ell we know the land we live in. How well we know our history. How well we recognise the fact that, complex as our contemporary identity is, it cannot be separated from Aboriginal Australia. How well we know what Aboriginal Australians know about Australia.

How can reconciliation be meaningful for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people? What are the practicalities of reconciliation and what needs to be done?

For reconciliation to be meaningful, the parties need to want to reconcile, and need to share a definition of reconciliation. They need to agree on what expectations they have of each other and themselves.

When we share meanings and expectations of the practicalities of reconciliation, much can and has been achieved, Paul Keating said in his optimistic 1992 Redfern Park Speech:

Perhaps when we recognise what we have in common will we see the things which must be done - the practical things. There is something of this in the creation of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. The Council's mission is to forge new partnership on justice and equity and an appreciation of the heritage of Australia's indigenous people.

Keating stresses the need for action in improving the conditions for Aboriginal people in housing and health to 'give meaning to 'justice' and 'equity'. He also mentioned the Mabo case as a pivotal action towards reconciliation:

By doing away with the bizarre conceit that this continent had now owners prior to the settlement of Europeans, Maba establishes a fundamental truth and lays the basis for justice... Mabo is an historic decision. We can make it an historic turning point, the basis of a new relationship between indigenous and non-Aboriginal Australians.

...The message should be that there is nothing to fear or to lose in the recognition of historic truth, or the extension of social justice, or the deepening of Australian social democracy to include indigenous Australians. here is everything to gain.

Federal Government leadership has changed since this highpoint in Australian reconciliation. Rather than continuing to lead us towards race reconciliation, the Howard government has become a follower of American imperialism in its supportive of its expansionism in Iraq, and its economic, education, and (some say) spiritual values. Our present government appears to lack the courage to recognise and assert our nation's unique identity.

The Liberal-National coalition government led by John Howard has stalled rather than encouraged the reconciliation process. (Hutchinson, F., 2003; Unit 4, p. 39)

How can ordinary people contribute to reconciliation in useful ways?

The notion of 'ordinary people' suggests a group with some aspect of shared experience. For the purpose of addressing the Australian reconciliation issue I'll translate that as 'all individual Australians', including government ministers, pop stars and you and me.

Our individual experiences of family or lack of family, community or lack of community, culture or lack of culture, employment or unemployment, all shape us all in different ways. Each of us responds differently to different situations. One thing Australians share is living in this country. Knowing the history of this country is one contribution individuals can make towards reconciliation. When I was at Eora College to start this course I met an old Chines man who had come to live here just recently. He spoke very little English, but had enrolled at Eora because he considered it 'right' that he should know about Australia from 'the Australians' (the indigenous people of this country). For him it was an act of respect for someone moving into a new place. Although he was unable to easily make contact with individual Aboriginal people because of his difficulties with language, he would sit is classes and listen and observe. His participation in the college was one way for him to reconcile his differences with the Australian culture.

Actions that individuals make towards reconciliation can operate on many levels - personal, family, cultural, social, educational and political.

Acquiring knowledge about the country you inhabit, Boori Pryor writes in his book 'Maybe Tomorrow' (1998, pp 99-100) makes people 'feel more like thy belong rather than being alienated through lack on knowledge.' One thing schools can do is dedicate a room for educating all students about Country, through maps, the arts and direct learning from local Elders.

Many schools have virtual rooms dedicated to learning about Australia from an Aboriginal perspective. These take the form of website, set up by teachers and students and sometimes parents, who agree with Boori Pryor's vision.

4.04

Landmark reconciliation events

In 2000 I was in Tasmania and worked with a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people writing 'sorry' on the pavements of Launceston. On that day many walked across the Tamar river bridge in Hobart. After spreading ourselves out to write on as many pavements as we could around town, we met up in a local cafe and talked about the day and what it meant for us. I had moved to Launceston in 1995 and had got to know people through teaching and being involved in the 'Snakepit' local art co-operative. It was through through the art and education communities that I'd known about the 'sorry' writing project. The project was initiated by local people and supported by the Launceston City Council. For me it the day meant doing something of personal significance in public, and as part of a local community. We agreed that it felt good knowing that we were acting in unison with people participating in other ways around Australia.

After moving to Sydney in 2003, I met people who had Walked for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000, and been actively involved in a reconciliation group. They said it was a very active time, where people were really starting to feel positive changes were happening in relationships between people.

4.05

The process of reconciliation

...It is crucial when a relationship has been damaged or when a potential relationship has been made impossible, that the perpetrator should acknowledge the truth and be ready and willing to apologise...We all know just how difficult it is for most of us to to admit that we have been wrong. It is perhaps the most difficult thing in the world - in almost every language the most difficult words are 'I am sorry'. Thus it is not at all surprising that those accused of horrendous deeds and the communities they come from...almost always try to find ways out of even admitting that they were indeed capable of such deeds. They adopt denial mode, asserting that such-and-such has not happened. When the evidence is incontrovertible, then they take refuge in feigned ignorance...

...True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the degradation, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end there will be real healing from having dealt with the real situation. Spurious reconciliation can only bring spurious healing...

D tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, Rider: London, 1999, pp 217-218