Journey of Healing

National Day of Healing

Report of the National Inquiry into the Stolen Generations

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Stolen Wages Campaign

Inform yourself as to the background of the Stolen Wages campaign in Qld

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Senate Inquiry Report

Unfinished Business: Indigenous Stolen Wages

7 December 2006

National Reconciliation Week 2007: Their Spirit Still Shines

Forget Howard and join reconciliation push, Fraser urges
from: The Age, 28 April 2005 - By Michael Gordon, National Editor

Malcolm Fraser accepts that John Howard will never deliver an apology on the nation's behalf for past injustices to Indigenous Australians. But he insists that everyone can do more to hasten the process of reconciliation.

'You get to the stage where banging your head into a brick wall is not a really productive enterprise,' the former Liberal prime minister said yesterday of the push for an apology to those hurt by the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. 'I believe there ought to be an apology, but I also believe that the current Government will not give that apology,' he said. 'The wider process of healing is not going to be fully understood or appreciated until there is a government that is prepared, on behalf of Australians, to make that apology.'

In the meantime, he insisted, the focus had to be on those areas where progress could be made. 'There's a lot that people can do, in spite of the Government.'

To this end, organisers of National Sorry Day on May 26 have decided to call this year's events around the country a National Day of Healing. The aim is to give fresh momentum and a broader focus to a grass-roots reconciliation movement.

Mr Fraser announced the move yesterday with Doris Pilkington Garimara, the author of 'Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence', whose mother and two sisters were among the estimated 50,000 Indigenous Australians removed from their families between 1910 and 1970.

'Though our tears may have dried up, the pain we endure in our hearts is still unbearable,' Ms Pilkington Garimara said.

The goal of this year's events would be to hasten the process of healing and 'awaken the Government from its sleep of apathy,' she said.

Mr Fraser said that even though the Government would not say sorry, it should put more resources into its policy of 'practical reconciliation', which was 'not working'.

On several indicators, Indigenous wellbeing had gone backwards, the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians had not narrowed and Australia was now the only Western country with an Indigenous population and no indigenous representative body, Mr Fraser said.

Lamenting what he sees a the lack of political will on both sides of politics on Indigenous issues, Mr Fraser said: 'I've almost made a speech for the Opposition, but the Opposition hasn't made that speech. Why won't the Opposition make that speech?

National Sorry Day 2007 Brisbane Events

Saturday 26th May: National Day of Healing Ceremony – a ceremony to remember members of the Stolen Generations at King George Square, Brisbane, 5.30 p.m.

Wednesday 25th May: Great Aboriginal Debates – Topic 4 is diverse Indigenous spiritualities, Chermside Library, 7.00 p.m., entry by donation.

Thursday 26th May: National Day of Healing Dawn Ceremony Sherwood Park Arboretum (close to Joseph St entrance) 7.00 a.m.

Thursday 26th May: National Day of Healing – Link-Up Day in Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane, 9.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m.

Friday 27th May: Sorry Day Dinner at University of Queensland – Guest speaker: Mike de Gagne, Aboriginal Healing Centre, Canada

Saturday 28th May: National Day of Healing Rally and Walk – starts at Roma Street Forum, Brisbane, 10.00 a.m. with walk to Musgrave Park, South Brisbane and food and activities to follow. 

The Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign seeks to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not overlook the poverty suffered by Indigenous Peoples around the world including Australia.

The MDGs do not specifically target Indigenous Peoples but Indigenous Peoples are often the ones most affected by extreme poverty and usually rank at the bottom of most social and economic indicators.

Australian key social and economic indicators show that Australian Indigenous Peoples are living in poverty: our children are twice as likely to die in infancy, and we suffer from more preventable diseases, higher unemployment, lower house ownership, lower engagement with education and we are six times as likely to be murdered.

Poverty is a very real and debilitating experience for many of our people.

The MDGs must be aligned with poverty reduction strategies that address the particular needs of Indigenous peoples. Without the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples our marginalisation and exclusion will continue.

Here in Australia we must compare the living standards and levels of health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with those of the rest of Australia – not to the poorest of the world’s poor. In our effort to help the poor overseas we must not forget the poor in our own country.

Find out more about the MAKE INDIGENOUS POVERTY HISTORY campaign click here

From Feb to Nov on the second Monday of each Month.

7:30pm to 8:30pm: Guest Speaker 

8.30pm break for a cuppa

8.45pm monthly ESJG business meeting

9.30pm finish

Topic: ESJG: Supporting Brisbane's Charitable Organisations to Help Those in Need

Taringa Baptist Church, Morrow St, Taringa (UBD ref 178 N2)

Note change in date and time of meeting

Deported to Danger  A Study of Australia's Treatment of 40 Rejected Asylum Seekers

A project of the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education in cooperation with School of Education, Australian Catholic University

http://www.erc.org.au | ERC in Google News