By JESSE GRAHAM
INDIGENOUS culture and history was celebrated, remembered and discussed last week, when more than 100 community members gathered for a special Reconciliation Week event.
The Yarra Ranges Council held its annual Reconciliation Week event on Thursday 4 June, at Healesville’s Memo Hall, drawing residents, community groups and Indigenous elders for a day to explore and discuss Indigenous culture and heritage.
Councillor Fiona McAllister was Master of Ceremonies at the event, which opened with a didgeridoo performance by Robert Brambett and a moving Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy.
After a Wayapa Wuurrk visualisation meditation by Jamie Thomas, keynote speaker Professor Mick Dodson took the stage.
Prof Dodson spoke about the harm wrought on the Indigenous community since the arrival of Europeans in 1788, and the “seeds of distrust” sown between the two communities since.
He said the “impact of British intrusion”, as well as policies from successive colonial and post-colonial governments, such as those that created the stolen generations, dealt a “legacy of misunderstanding and mistrust” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
“This legacy remains in our society today,” Prof Dodson said.
“By understanding the events of the past and the importance they have on Aboriginal people, and seeing the events through our eyes, the healing can begin.”
The conversations on the day centred largely on the concept of ‘Indigenous ways of knowing’, which Yarra Ranges Indigenous Development officer Garry Detez described as “stuff based on connection.”
“You’re connected to all that is, rather than the western way of knowing you’re separate from all that is,” he said.
“Once you start to understand the connections you have to your natural environment, that’s when the notions of family, kinship and country come into that space, when you can connect to all that is and bringing that into the organisations around their power structures.”
A discussion panel featuring HICSA’s Brooke Collins and Anne Jenkins, family violence worker Rose Sullivan, Mr Detez, Prof Dodson and Mr Thomas, then took questions from the audience.
The panellists spoke about the importance of passing on Indigenous stories, culture and attitudes of respect caring, sharing, to future generations, as well as their own influences and motivations in working towards reconciliation.
“It wasn’t that long ago that we weren’t allowed in the bloody town hall, let alone sitting on stage having this conversation – that motivates me. We are changing,” Prof Dodson said.
Mr Thomas likened the atrocities committed against Indigenous people in the past to injuries, and said that non-Indigenous Australians should act like doctors – by not feeling guilty for the actions of the past, but trying to help with the healing.
“Don’t be guilty about the past injuries – you never did it – but don’t perpetuate them by ignoring it, but help heal it,” he said.
For more photos from the event, visit mail.starcommunity.com.au.
