Forwarded with permission > Date: Sunday, 7 March 1999 16:30:24 > From: Peter Clayton > To: Reconciliation List > Subject: Clean up Australia Day in Redfern > > Reconciliation Network > > Yesterday, Clean up Australia Day, the Harbour to Hawkesbury AFR group > participated in a remarkable act of reconciliation in Redfern, Sydney. We > helped the Redfern Aboriginal Corporation (RAC) and the local community in > a massive clean up operation. > > We believe the success of the day resulted from very careful planning and > preparation. > > We first let the RAC know of our interest. We had two stipulations. We > would need to be invited and we would need to work alongside local > residents. Otherwise, we were in danger of sending all the wrong messages. > > The RAC board considered the matter and wrote a letter inviting our > participation. One of our members made several visits to Redfern to > discuss the project and, last Thursday, two of us attended an RAC board > meeting. > > We had activated our phone tree to alert our membership to the project. On > the day 20 of us attended. We were joined initially by four people from > other reconciliation groups. This number later swelled to perhaps ten. At > all times we worked alongside RAC people and were gradually joined by an > increasing number of local residents. > > The RAC had organised a truck, gloves, garbage bags, rakes and spades. > > It is remarkable what 40 or 50 people can achieve in a short time. A part > of Redfern actually looks different this morning from what it looked > yesterday morning. One of our members remarked, "We have achieved more > reconciliation in three hours here than we could in ten years of meetings > in Chatswood!" > > We finished the day with a barbecue provided by the RAC. This was > especially nice because we had worked so hard together on a really > worthwhile project. We are already working on ideas for maintaining the > links and doing more joint projects in the future. Sunday 07 March 1999 > will be an inspirational memory for many of us for life. > > Best wishes > > > Peter Clayton > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/ > ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
