WHAT CAN I DO?
Wounds can heal
The Journey of Healing offers Australians of every background the chance to help heal a wound at the heart of our nation - the tragic impact of white settlement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
This is a huge task, far beyond the capacity of Governments to achieve. It will only happen as hundreds of thousands of Australians get involved.
That is why Sorry Day gave such hope. It showed that hundreds of thousands want to get involved.
Many are doing outstanding work already, all over the country. Many more are needed.
Pinning a Journey of Healing badge on your lapel symbolises your decision to get involved. You may not see clearly what to do. That doesn't matter. It could be an advantage, because the first step must be to sit down with those you feel divided from, and listen to them. From that listening may come the creative initiatives which will build new understanding.
Please tell us what you are doing towards healing in your area. These stories will be carried on these web pages, and will give ideas to others. We could see a rolling series of initiatives all over the country, a social transformation at the grass-roots.
If you are a teacher or you work with children please look at the Education Kit as well for suggested activities.
This letter has gone out widely to academics. If you think of someone to whom it should go, please contact John Bond by email at johnbond@netspeed.com.au or by phone at 02 6281 0940, and he will send a copy.
Dear Professor,
I am writing to ask you to consider arranging a lecture or publication next month focusing on issues raised by the Bringing Them Home report. Last year the National Sorry Day Committee launched the Journey of Healing, to overcome the continuing effects, among people on all sides, of the forced removal policies.
This year the Journey will continue. Its patrons are former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Chair of ATSIC Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue. The enclosed statement outlines the aims of this year's Journey.We have developed these initiatives with the warm support of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, who have established a sub-committee, headed by Sir Gustav Nossal, to liaise with us. They did so in recognition that Bringing Them Home touched the conscience of the Australian community.
They, and we, believe that the wholehearted implementation of the report's recommendations is a key to reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.In the past three years, the media has come to recognise 26th May as a day to focus on the stolen generations and the Bringing Them Home report. Sorry Day in 1998, and the launch of the Journey of Healing in 1999, received massive media coverage. We are working to ensure that this will be true again this year.
Mandatory sentencing is a highly pertinent issue, since Bringing Them Home resulted from the discovery that, of the 99 deaths investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 43 were found to be of people removed from their families as children. And many other issues raised by the report need to become the focus of media attention. Issues such as the current method of dealing with the grievances of the stolen generations, through the courts. And the question of how best to answer the fragmentation of family life and loss of parenting skills which have resulted from the separation policies. And the whole issue of self-determination for Aboriginal Australians.
These are crucial issues if we are to find the unity on which the future of all of us depends. We see no way to answer many of our environmental problems, for instance, or arrest the decline of rural centres, without the wholehearted involvement and commitment of the Aboriginal population.Other countries grapple with similar issues, and some have made considerable progress. We need to hear their experience. We also need to counter a lot of disinformation. If we are to do this, authoritative voices from the academic world – particularly, where possible, Aboriginal voices – have a vital role.
Hence our request that you consider arranging a lecture, seminar or publication through which you can contribute your expertise. We would be glad to provide support in any way we can. We are in touch with a wide range of people in the media who are keen to play their part in highlighting these issues. If they can receive information and research on these issues, we believe they will show the Australian community the seriousness of the situation many Indigenous Australians face, and point towards solutions.
We hope that this will bring many Sydneysiders to the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation events on 27th and 28th May; and help make the people’s movement an unstoppable force for change.This is a unique year, when the international spotlight on our country will multiply whatever efforts we make to identify Indigenous disadvantage and offer ways to answer it. We would like to ask your help to make the most of this opportunity.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
John Bond
(former) Secretary National Sorry Day Committee