THE AGE Thursday 27 May 1999 Going past the PM to the people for healing By LOWITJA O'DONOGHUE LAST year on this day, 26 May, Sorry Day was an occasion that commemorated the tabling in Parliament of the Bringing Them Home report - the report that documents the stories of the stolen generations of indigenous people. The report is a crucial document. It has revealed the experiences of our people by inviting them to tell their own life stories in their own way. It has brought to light a shameful and graphic chapter in our history and opened the way for us to acknowledge what the ongoing effects of this have been. Many Australians were made aware for the first time of the pain suffered by our people - pain resulting from our forcible removal from our families and our traditional lands. And one of the outcomes of the report was that Australian people began to think about and talk about Australia's history from the point of view of Aboriginal people. What emerged from this process was an understanding that the effects of white settlement on Aboriginal people were devastating. Our culture was ravaged by violence and brutality. Those who survived it were stripped of their families, their cultural heritage, their lands, their dignity, their identity and their way of life. And so, not surprisingly, the effects of this legacy continue to live with us. There is not an Aboriginal person in Australia today who is untouched by it. It is not easy or comfortable to look at these realities. Indeed, many people have not been able to - sadly, there are still many myths and much denial about aspects of Australia's history. Yet, one thing is profoundly significant. That is, that in acknowledgment of the consequences of Aboriginal dispossession, hundreds of thousands of Australians across the country came together to express sorrow and to apologise to Aboriginal people. Many church leaders, community leaders and state politicians made formal statements of apology and these were accepted by our people as a necessary and meaningful first step towards recovery and reconciliation. For indigenous people of this land and their supporters, there are three essential elements in the process of reconciliation:(1)Recognition and acknowledgment of the past and its continuing legacy. (2)Commitment to practical action in achieving the aims of reconciliation. (3)Working towards unity for a better future for us all. There are many strong individuals and groups in Australia who have taken on the hard work of realising these goals. Their collective efforts offer hope for an Australia of the future that can rid itself of racist colonial attitudes and embrace its diversity. This is a vision that I hold close to my heart. It is a vision that sustains my ongoing work towards a reconciled Australia. It is therefore with deep sadness and enormous frustration that I have to say that the Government of our day has failed us. Significantly, our Prime Minister has repeatedly refused to offer a formal apology on behalf of the nation to our people. He consistently responds to descriptions of indigenous experience as ``a black arm-band view of history''. These are the responses of denial that I spoke of earlier and they diminish him as a person and Australia as a nation. At the very time when visionary, courageous leadership is needed, our Prime Minister has fuelled the fires of division. Instead of leading the possibilities for healing, he has set the scene for antagonism and adversity. He has maintained a climate in which indigenous people, who are striving to reclaim their dignity and their rightful place as citizens of this land, are put under further stress and are often regarded with hostility and suspicion. He has either failed to grasp or refused to see that we cannot move forward until the legacies of the past are properly dealt with. An appropriate starting point would be to ensure that the recommendations of Bringing Them Home are fully implemented, although it should be said that there are examples of important work taking place as a direct result of the recommendations. However, it is also the case that very few of the 54 recommendations made in the report have been implemented. It is testimony to the Australian people who are involved in reconciliation that the movement continues to grow in strength, regardless of our Government. If reconciliation is to be achieved, it will be by the efforts of the people's movement. And they will achieve it in spite of the Government - not because of it. This year's theme of reconciliation - Journey of Healing - flows from 1998's Sorry Day, and expresses the progression from acknowledgement and apology to the beginnings of the process of healing. It is important to understand the scope of what this healing involves. The wounds have cut to the heart of our people and there is no simple remedy. Our way of life was ravaged by white settlement. We were dispossessed of our traditional lands, our families were ripped apart and our culture was regarded as worthless. All Aboriginal people have been profoundly injured by this legacy. Many of our people have never found their families - and some who have made contact have been devastated at the difficulties of trying to bridge years of separation. Many of our people continually grieve for their lost past and, at the same time, see their own children caught up in problems resulting from their marginalisation in the dominant culture. Some of our people live in continual fear that their children will be taken away from them. A fear that is understandable if you consider, for example, the hugely disproportionate number of Aboriginal youth who are detained in custody. The Journey of Healing, then, involves individual personal journeys as well as the collective journey of our people. In this process, we invited all Australians to support and assist us. It is the joining together in this way that reconciliation is all about. And it is the only way in which healing can take place.This is an edited extract of a speech by Aboriginal leader Lowitja O'Donoghue in the Journey of Healing ceremony at Federal Parliament yesterday. 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