"Reconciliation is over"
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“I often hear or read of people saying that reconciliation is dead. And I’ve got to say I find it deeply irritating and a bit of a cop out. “Just because the political argy bargy around reconciliation doesn’t appear on the front page of the newspaper as often as it did a decade ago – just because a term that should be easily understood can be so misunderstood – this does not mean that reconciliation has been lost." Professor Mick Dodson, Director Reconciliation Australia |
Following the high profile Bridge Walks of 2000, some people felt that reconciliation slipped off the national agenda – others felt the walks meant that Australia had “done" reconciliation.
The reality is somewhere in between.
Reconciliation is not an ‘event’: it is a journey, it’s about the way Australians think and act all the way from a personal to a national level. It is about closing the gaps in life expectancy and opportunity. There are very few examples of this that don’t involve partnerships between Indigenous peoples and the rest of the community – corporations, government agencies, sporting codes and community organisations. We have the ingredients to replicate it because we’ve seen it in action in local councils, schools and workplaces, industry groups and community organisations. We know that it involves respect and honesty and partnership. 22
Reconciliation is one of those words holding different meanings for different people. Most people agree that reconciliation is about equal rights (81%) and mutual respect (77%).23 It is not about making white Australians feel guilty.
As Mick Dodson explains it:
“Reconciliation is a movement that’s moved beyond being about fine words and is now about taking action. It's gone beyond being recognised as a moral issue to being recognised as an economic one also – the opportunity costs of not making progress are frightening and the Australian business sector knows this and wants something done about it.
Reconciliation has got beyond being an issue of the left and a tad exclusive in the people it attracts, to being an issue that engages a broad range of Australians, as it must, whatever sector they’re from, whatever political persuasion.
This is what’s happened to reconciliation. This is what needed to happen to reconciliation. And I urge all Australians to get the information you need to be part of the conversation through reconcile.org.au."
LINKS
- Monitoring ‘practical’ reconciliation: Evidence from the reconciliation decade, 1991 - 2001
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
Social Justice Report 2003
Check out: ‘Reconciliation and government accountability,’ Chapter Two.
22 Professor Mick Dodson, speech “Whatever Happened to Reconciliation"? Raymond Gaita presentation, June 2007.
23 Attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples and Reconciliation. Australian Reconciliation and Australian Research Group. 2007
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