Reconciliation Week 2018 an opportunity to come together

This year will be the first year when Tasmania has been able to participate fully with all other Australian states in this special week designed to bring all Australians together in a spirit of truth and friendship.

I’d like to use this opportunity to share my own personal commitment to truth and reconciliation.

I think that we sorely need truth and reconciliation in Tasmania as I believe that there is a widely held view that Tasmania’s Aboriginal population is treated ‘specially’ for no good reason.

For me, there is good reason and that is quite simple; non-Aboriginal Tasmanians like me are the beneficiaries of the dispossession of the First Tasmanians.

I live in a wonderful place with wonderful possessions and places to visit on land and sea.

I often ponder who was here before me and what they were doing before the ships arrived.

Their descendants are here with me today but have often not had the opportunities I have enjoyed and often cannot live as well as me.

I believe I have a personal responsibility to the First Tasmanians and actively seek reconciliation.

This is not guilt, but a sense of fairness through which I seek peace with the mirror.

I hope other Tasmanians, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, understand what I am saying quite frankly and ponder their own positions toward reconciliation.

Reconciliation Week runs from May 27 to June 3, and Reconciliation Tasmania has planned two separate events, each to be held separately in the South, North and North-West of Tasmania.

The first events are three reconciliation breakfasts, each to be addressed by well known and highly respected national Aboriginal leader, Mick Gooda. There is a modest cost to attend these breakfasts.

The other three events are ‘On Country’ days to be led by Reconciliation Tasmania’s co-chair, Fiona Hughes. They will allow interested Tasmanians to experience Tasmanian Aboriginal culture up close and personal. There is no charge for these events but numbers are limited. If demand warrants it, more ‘On Country’ days will be offered again later in 2018.

Reconciliation Week’s program is as follows:

May 27 – southern ‘On Country’ day at Oyster Cove in Southern Tasmania at 9.30am to 4pm

May 28 – ‘Reconciliation breakfast’ to be held at Blundstone Oval, Bellerive at 7.30am to 9am

May 29 – ‘Reconciliation breakfast’ to be held at Chalmers Hall, Launceston at 7.30am to 9am 

May 30 – ‘Reconciliation breakfast’ to be held at Emu Rhododendron Gardens, Burnie at 7.30am to 9am 

June 3 - Northern ‘On Country’ day at Bakers Beach at 9.30am to 4pm

June 10 – North-West ‘On Country’ day at Rocky Cape at 9.30am to 4pm

Full details and registration for all events can be found at  rectas.com.au

I invite all Tasmanians to reconsider their position on reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Tasmanians with a view to helping Tasmania become an even better place to live.

Reconciliation Tasmania welcomes new members through its website and suggests that participation in the upcoming reconciliation week activities as a good way to get started.