National Reconciliation Week
Last week was National Reconciliation Week with this year’s theme being Our History, Our
Story, Our Future.
2016 marks 25 years of formal reconciliation in Australia with the establishment of the Council for
Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1991. It is also 15 years since Reconciliation Australia was formed and
10 years of success in the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program.
There were a number of events held at UNSW to celebrate the week. The Law Faculty provided
a morning tea with special guest speaker, Dunghutti woman Ashlee Donohue. Additionally, the
School of Mathematics and Statistics hosted a Sorry Day lunch and Tigger’s Honeypot Childcare
Centre held an afternoon tea and music jam.
The children at Tigger’s have been learning about the use of symbols to share meaning and
stories, inspiring the invitation to the afternoon tea. The four year-old artist of the invitation shared
a description of her work:
“These are the symbols of the sun, the rainbow and water. This is a girl who was going up in
circles. The girl decided to travel down to the happy boulders. When she was on her way she
experienced moving ledges so she drew train tracks and the tracks takes to the sea and over and
even to New York. This is the house where the girl lives. It has sticks on the bottom of the house,
they need to cling to the cliffs so that they don’t get blown away by the wind.”
The Law Society also organised for a group of staff and students to attend an Indigenous
Cultural Tour in La Perouse with Kadoo Tours, owned by Yuin elder Tim Ella, who is also
Chairman of the La Perouse Land Council.
The tour took place on Friday June 3 and a few Nura Gili staff
members, Frances, Ren and Bek, participated in the tour. This
date was highly significant as it was the anniversary of the
1992 High Court Mabo decision which legally recognised that
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special
relationship to the land that existed prior to colonisation and
continued after, paving the way for land rights.
The tour group were welcomed to country with an ochre
ceremony and Tim shared stories about growing up in La
Perouse. They walked through a bush trail hearing facts about
the people and they learnt about the techniques used by
Indigenous people of the area to make their tools and
weapons. Tim showed the group a traditional campsite and
showed the group where his people fished and how they
communicated. After trekking down to the rocks, Tim shared
some scary stories of Bigfoot. As the group headed to the
ochre dunes, Tim shared knowledge that had been passed
down to him about where his people hunted certain animals,
such as the kangaroo, wombat and possum as well as where they camped and searched for
bush tucker.
Tim also spoke about the importance of the ocean to his people and shared stories of how they
fished the bay, hunted giant whales and battled sharks. He explained why this area is so
significant to him and his family.
The Nura Gili staff who participated said the tour provided a great insight into local Indigenous
knowledge and was a nice way to celebrate Mabo Day and Reconciliation Week.
The childcare centre’s commitment to teach children about Reconciliation Week has earned them
a spot on the Australian Family Education and Care Awards shortlist. Tigger’s have implemented
an educational program that incorporates songs, books, basic Indigenous language skills and
visits from Nura Gili and Indigenous elders to help the children learn about reconciliation and
Indigenous history.
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