Be a Voice for Generations

The theme for 2023 National Reconciliation Week, 27th May-3rd June is ‘Be a Voice for Generations’.

The theme is all about encouraging all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives. In recognising the work of generations past, and working towards the benefit of generations future, if we all act today, we’ll end up with a more just, equitable and reconciled country for all.

Two people who locally advocated for a more just and equitable society, albeit 200 years ago, were best friends Biraban, a bilingual Aboriginal man and leader of Newcastle/Lake Macquarie’s first nations peoples, and the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld, a British missionary sent to convert the local people to the word of God. Their names may sound familiar, two of our local reserves are named after them.

National Reconciliation Week is a time to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation throughout our community.

Such an opportunity for learning is provided in the 1hr documentary Biraban and Threlkeld : Finding the Third Space, available on YouTube. 

Biraban and Threlkeld captured songs, poems, ceremonies and dreaming stories, and represented Aboriginal people, whose testimony could not be accepted because they could not swear an oath on the Bible, in court. Together, they undertook the first systematic study of an Aboriginal language anywhere in the country and created the first ever translation of the Bible into an Aboriginal language. It’s also the first time an Aboriginal language was printed. Their work was so thorough that it is still being used to this day to reconstruct language. The film uses decades of research and is told using both First Nation and European historians, academics and linguists.

The CPPA used the Awabakal Dictionary- Community edition to propose a name for one of our reserves. Nikinba, meaning place of coal, is the suggestion for the reserve we refer to as Stansfield, locally identified as that is where you can access it from, it currently has no formally recognised name.

Grounded in Truth Walk Together with Courage

This year’s theme aims to foster positive race relations, acknowledging the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the broader community must be grounded in a foundation of truth.

Whether you’re engaging in challenging conversations or unlearning and relearning what you know, this journey requires all of us to walk together with courage.

The world has changed our knowledge has changed, the ‘truth’ that we were taught has changed.

For us all to grow together as a community it’s time relearn the past.

If you haven’t read the award winning Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, it is capable of

generating a profound shift in understanding from what many of us were taught. Dark Emu provides an opportunity to appreciate the complex culture of our first nation people.

“Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians, it allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived — a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent”. In June, Young Dark Emu- A Truer History will be published for young readers. (Booktopia)

Some great Reconciliation Reads…Part 2

In 2014 came DARK EMU BLACK SEEDS: agriculture or accident? By Bruce Pascoe.

Here further extensive evidence makes a compelling argument “that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing” as well as building houses, storage and dams and altering the course of rivers to provide for irrigation.

So many revealing stories from early explorers such as Major Thomas Mitchell and Charles Sturt are common in early colonial records. Writers such as Mary Gilmore and Kate Langloh Parker tell stories of pioneering families witnessing planting ceremonies, dam building, irrigation and harvesting.

It is now believed that over long periods of time Aboriginal people made changes to genomes and habitats of plants through selection of seeds for use. In the case of RICE the genome of Australian rice is of importance as Asian rices are losing qualities that protect them from diseases. Protection of the environment without use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and even, at times, the growing of rice in brackish water are features that have valuable effects in food production.

Other grains, such as wild oats (a round grain) were extensively harvested and the process of baking developed. Grindstones from Walgett (dated to 30,000 years ago) and Kakadu (dated to 25,000 years ago) suggest that Aboriginal bakers were at work well before Egyptians (dated to 17,000 years ago) previously believed to be the earliest bakers. Sturt describes the “evening whirring of hundreds of mills grinding grain into flour”.

Early records “were so persistent in their description of grain harvests from all parts of the country that Norman Tindale in 1974 was able to draw a map of Indigenous grain areas “which went way beyond the current grain growing areas.

The loss of valued grasses through grazing was disappointing to early settlers – one Wimmera settler commenting that after 3 or 4 years of grazing “the long, deep rooted grasses… have died out”(to be replaced by??).

An example of the managed use of valuable but scarce ‘domesticated’ plants is the Bush Tomato or Desert Raisin (Solanum centrale) now a feature in cooking products. This is now needing to be built up in availability by Aboriginal groups – not a rapid process.

While Bruce Pascoe is strongly arguing for a reconsideration of the “hunter-gatherer” label for pre-colonial Australians he also points out that the SHARING and TRADING of the fruits of the land by Aboriginal people resulted in “a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity” .

This book has been well recognised as making an interesting and compelling case for a different way of looking at our land and its history.It is available at Lake Macquarie Council libraries.

Reconciliation Reads

In the past 6 years two “eye opening” books have been published in Australia about the nature of the Australian landscape at the time of European settlement. Both authors have carefully searched archives, diaries, reports, letters, drawings and paintings from the early days of settlement as well as extensive archaeological evidence about management of the environment by Aboriginal people. The first of the book reviews by Robyn Gill is below.

Bill Gammage in 2011 published The BIGGEST ESTATE on EARTH HOW ABORIGINES MADE AUSTRALIA. He found that “early Europeans commented again and again that the land looked like a park. With extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands and abundant wildlife it evoked a country estate in England.” He attributed this to “an extraordinarily complex system of land management” by Aboriginal people “using fire and the lifecycles of native plants to ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods throughout the year” (“firestick farming” – virtually a form of mowing).

Many details of this management process and the sources of the information are the focus of Gammage’s book. He concludes that, “once Aboriginal people were unable to tend their country it became overgrown and vulnerable to the hugely damaging bushfires we now experience.”

Interestingly, low intensity “cool burning” is being widely used again as a way of stopping the hot fire outbreaks. The low to medium intensity hazard reduction burn promoted by Landcare, facilitated by LMCC and carried out by Fire and Rescue on the Coal Point Ridge recently has had great results in reducing flammable material and also in regenerating the local vegetation so it competes better with weeds. Many rural Landcare groups are holding field days with titles such as COOL BURN INDIGINOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT FOR PRODUCTIVE PASTURES.

This book has been well recognised as making an interesting and compelling case for a different way of looking at our land and its history.It is available at Lake Macquarie Council libraries.

The second book review will follow in the July Chronicle.

National Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is celebrated across Australia each year between 27 May and 3 June. The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey—the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.
May 27 marks the anniversary of Australia’s most successful referendum and a defining event in our nation’s history. The 1967 referendum saw over 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise them in the national census. 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the ’67 referendum.
On 3 June, 1992, the High Court of Australia delivered its landmark Mabo decision which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land—that existed prior to colonisation and still exists today. This recognition paved the way for land rights called Native Title. This year is the 20th anniversary of the Mabo decision
National Reconciliation Week provides a time to reflect on the national reconciliation effort. The NRW website lists several actions that we can take.
Look and listen: We have a rich multicultural society that we can be proud of. Why not listen to or go watch some of our talented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists? Dan Sultan, Christine Anu, The Mills Sisters, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Iwantja Band, Busby Marou, to name a few.
Give your brain a workout: Exercise is the key to good health—for both body and mind. According to the Australian Reconciliation Barometer 4 in 5 Australians believe it is important to know about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and become open to learning more. 
Knowledge and understanding is important for reconciliation.  Why not watch a movie, pick up a book and learn a bit more about our awesome country and the amazing people that make Australian great. 
(Abridged from http://reconciliation.org.au/nrw)