Case Studies Archives - Reconciliation Australia

Avenue of change

Ben Taylor — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 02:10:43 +0000

The old gum trees lining Malmsbury-Daylesford Road in Daylesford, Victoria are a stalwart reminder of the challenges and change they have witnessed on this land.

This stretch of road is home to the Manna Gum Avenue Memorial which honours the Dja Dja Wurrung people who lost their lives defending their communities and land in the Frontier Wars.

Local resident and Aboriginal woman Erica Higgins explains that Manna Gum Avenue draws attention to an unspoken part of history. ‘It was the clearing of the land and people, through acts of aggression, sickness and forced removals,’ says Higgins. ‘Trees witness this, it is written on their face.’

First of its kind

Australia is home to multiple avenues of honour, living memorials where trees line major roadways to commemorate and honour those that served in the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and other wars that followed. There are over 200 in Victoria alone. Manna Gum Avenue is the first to remember Aboriginal peoples who were killed in massacres or by fighting to defend their traditional lands during the Frontier Wars (1788 to mid-1930s).

The sycamore trees of Daylesford’s WWI Avenue of Honour prompted Erica to wonder why the same couldn’t be done to acknowledge the Aboriginal people who lost their lives defending this land during the Frontier Wars.

Erica is a member of the Hepburn Shire Council’s Reconciliation Advisory Committee, which was established the council’s Reconciliation Action Plan(RAP). She raised her idea at a meeting in 2019, proposing the memorial be located on the opposite side of the street from the Daylesford Avenue of Honour, where there were already large Manna Gum trees along a stretch of Malmsbury-Daylesford Road.

The Reconciliation Advisory Committee unanimously decided that the idea for a memorial avenue should be taken to council, and a short brief was prepared to support the idea.

Just because the land is empty does not mean their spirit is not here.

Planting the seeds

Donna Spiller was Hepburn Shire Council’s Reconciliation Officer at the time and played a key role in getting the initiative off the ground. Donna’s role was the result of commitments made in the council’s first RAP in 2018.

Donna reached out to Djaara, the representative body for Dja Dja Wurrung people, on whose Traditional Lands the memorial would be located.

Rodney Carter, Djaara CEO at the time, noted that there were no existing memorials to the Frontier Wars on Dja Dja Wurrung Lands. ‘The memorial would afford greater recognition to our fallen ancestors and help us all heal,’ he said.

Rodney then shared the proposal to establish the Manna Gum Frontier Wars Memorial with Djaara members and the board, who were supportive of the project.

Truth blooms

With the support of both the Hepburn Shire Council and Djaara, the project moved ahead. After some delays due to pandemic restrictions, Manna Gum Avenue was unveiled during NAIDOC Week 2021 at a ceremony attended by local Traditional Owners, Aboriginal people, the Hepburn Shire Mayor and other councillors and staff. Hepburn Shire Council won Reconciliation Victoria’s Maggolee Reconciliation Award in 2023 for the project.

Manna Gum Avenue serves as a reminder of the enduring strength and spirit of those who sacrificed their lives for their land. ‘It wasn’t people who voluntarily disappeared, it was people who fought to obtain their rights, and they died,’ explains Erica.

She calls the gums ‘witness trees’ because they endure and witness changes over time, making them a powerful symbol of the Aboriginal people who fought and cared for the land. ‘Just because the land is empty does not mean their spirit is not here.’

The post Avenue of change appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Shared history recognised

Ben Taylor — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 01:48:48 +0000

The community of Gundagai have acted to ensure that two national heroes, local Wiradjuri men Yarri and Jacky Jacky, are known by anyone in their town and beyond.

The town has honoured the acts of two of the greatest lifesavers in Australian history through the erection of a bronze sculpture in the main street.

Yarri and Jacky Jacky saved the lives of a third of the town’s population during the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852 – one of Australia’s greatest natural disasters – rescuing at least 69 people from their rooftops using only a bark canoe and a rowboat.

‘You can imagine, taking the canoe into the water. Bringing people in from off of roof tops and out of trees… no motor or anything on the canoe… the river, as it was, in full flood. And keep doing that for three nights,’ describes Uncle Peter Smith, a Wiradjuri Elder.

The push for recognition

At the time, the men received a small reward and inscribed breastplates. Their contribution to the survival of the township was not given the place in history it deserved, but Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal families in Gundagai never forgot the story of bravery and survival. It was acknowledged in small ways over time as community attitudes shifted and their capacity to honour Aboriginal peoples grew.

Wiradjuri Elder Aunty Sonia Piper notes not only their heroism, but its significance. ‘I always think that must be the first time with the reconciliation, because those two Aboriginal men didn’t care what colour people they rescued.’

Ian Horsley’s family has lived in Gundagai for generations, and he feels a debt to Yarri and Jacky Jacky.

‘[I have] a great-grandfather saved by the two men in the Gundagai flood. We’re descended and here is a result of their bravery.’ Ian recounts how his father would pass on the story and recognised the heroes by donating a sundial in their honour and naming part of his property ‘Yarri’.

Keeping the story alive

Elders have worked to keep the story alive by visiting schools and teaching local history. In the 1980s, the council erected a plaque for the men, and in the 1990s, a park was named in their honour. But, as Ian notes, it was still not the recognition he and others had wanted.

Several efforts were made over the years to mount a sculpture, but it wasn’t until Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council began a new town plan in 2014 that support was formalised and adequate funding finally secured. The plan set aside a place for recognising the heroes and the council called for community members to join a committee to develop the memorial.

The 12-person Yarri and Jacky Jacky Sculpture Committee included Wiradjuri Elders, descendants of those rescued, and council members. They worked together to raise funds and make decisions, meeting a total of 22 times over three years. Their common interest and intention drove their shared goals, but it was important for the Elders to have a privileged voice. They insisted the statue be on a main thoroughfare, petitioned to make the sculpture in bronze (a mark of respect regularly accorded to white historical figures), and successfully advocated for the confronting historical context and flood story to be portrayed in full on the signboard accompanying the sculpture.

All of these requirements enhanced the truth-telling power of the memorial. The views of the Elders were properly heard and understood partly because three councillors served on the committee, indicative of the regional council’s commitment to the project. A lifelong mutual respect was established between committee members through this process.

I think it's made a big difference in Gundagai and as well as in the wider community... the more people know the better it will be.

Unveiling

In 2017, on the 165^thanniversary of the flood, a bronze sculpture was unveiled with a march down the main street of Gundagai and an official ceremony. The whole community attended.

‘We couldn’t have been any prouder on the day that the opening was and we seen all the people around in town and in the main street in Gundagai and it made us feel so proud,’ recalls Aunty Sonia.

Uncle Peter notes, ‘I think it’s made a big difference in Gundagai and as well in the wider community… people will come now to see the statue and read the stories that’s on the board. And the knowledge is getting out there and we’re going to keep telling the story for ever and ever because the more people know the better it will be.’

Committee member Miriam Crane puts it this way: ‘It’s not just about the story being out there so that people can have respect, it’s about then the flow-on effect of that on the people who are affected by the increase in respect that occurs in the broader population.’

Ongoing impact

With the courageous act written formally in history, it is hoped this might be a platform for nation-wide education on this important event.

The statue is a continuing site of truth-telling and healing, with a commemorative corroboree on the 170^th anniversary of the flood, drawing several hundred people together in celebration.

Wiradjuri/Wolgalu man Joe Williams led the event organisation. ‘Many elders have never had the opportunity to learn, practise or participate in these types of gatherings due to the generational challenges that followed the invasion,’ he explains.

‘There were many local Elders who came up to me after the evening, some crying with immense pride. Not only because it was the first time they witnessed such an evening, but they got to watch their nephews, nieces and grandkids partake in the cultural activities that they were forbidden to do.’

This account of truth-telling in action is based on a case study from the Recognising community truth-telling: An exploration of local truth-telling in Australia report. The collaborative study between Reconciliation Australia and Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation documents 25 community truth-telling projects. Read the full report.

The post Shared history recognised appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Taking back control

Ben Taylor — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 01:37:15 +0000

Since 2013, the Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation has worked to capture and elevate the untold stories of the survivors of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls (1912-1969), facilitate Survivor networks for mutual support and to reclaim the site of the former home as a safe space to tell stories and progress healing through sharing.

‘Though it was such a dark place, there are a lot of funny stories that they were able to find humour in – for them to be able to find that laughter when they would sit around and yarn, I just found inspiring, that they’re so strong and resilient.’ says Meagan Gerrard, Project and Communications Manager at Coota Girls Corporation, and granddaughter of former resident Aunty Lorraine Peeters.

From 1912 to 1969 hundreds of young Aboriginal girls were forcibly removed from their families and sent to the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls. When they turned 14, they were sent for domestic work that was often unpaid. They were disconnected from culture, identity, family, community, place and language. Many suffered serious maltreatment.

Reconnection

The creation of a safe space to share stories was understood as critical to the healing process, both for the Survivors themselves and for their families. Many Survivors felt silenced and stigma around their identity because that’s what the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls taught them to feel. Some descendants didn’t find out that a family member had been a resident until after their death.

‘I guess it just shows that we don’t talk about it, we don’t highlight it enough to remove stigma to talk about what this means and what it’s meant to our families’, says Alicia Bairle, The Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation CEO.

‘I’d like to see that stigma removed because it’s not something we did to ourselves… it was something done to our families, and it’s not something to be shameful of.’

The informal support Survivors have given each other over the years has been formalised through the corporation. It has now extended this support to Survivors and descendants across the country, offering a healing space through reconnection.

‘That was a big driver too, coming together, they had that sisterhood… their history, their story. They found comfort with each other and healing when they came together’, adds Meagan.

Alicia also says, ‘that a big part of the role of the corporation is ensuring that the stories are out there, the information’s out there and not forgotten, and it’s not excused.’

Holding space

The corporation is advancing the way it listens to, holds, honours and passes stories to descendants through technology, while maintaining respect for the different experiences of the Survivors. With funding from the Department of Education and NSW Library, Meagan and Alicia have trained to record oral histories. They hope to train other descendants to do this too.

Alicia says this enables ‘our Aunts and Uncles to talk about their story, in a way in which suits them, and with safe people that they know quite well.’

This internal communication is a vital step before stories can be shared publicly. ‘It’s not as simple as Survivors or descendants sharing the truth with external communities or broader Australia’, explains Alex McWhirter, Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation Project Officer.

‘It’s actually in between and within the community as well because a lot of people didn’t have the chance to hear those stories from their ancestors or their family members. And so making sure that those stories are shared in a sensitive way with people who are really connected to that story, is really important as well.’

For us it was about taking back that control… It was just such a beautiful experience and one that won't be forgotten

Reconnection and reclamation

Through this process, descendants have learned the stories of Survivors and had the chance to heal with their family. Or if they’d prefer to not share this with their family, that’s okay too – they can be alone with the recorder. Some find it easier to tell a camera what happened.

The digital stories of Survivors are safely stored and archived. This safekeeping avoids the need to re-traumatise Survivors as they do not have to retell and relive their experiences again and again. Once the recordings are stored, it is up to Survivors how much they want shared with others and when.

The corporation has also produced a short film, Walking Our Songlines, documenting the stories of Survivors and their descendants.

One of the objectives of institutions like the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls was to anonymise and homogenise its residents. In response, the corporation has sought to reclaim the rich and varied identities of former residents.

It conducts meticulous work to identify the different language groups the residents come from and supports reconnection with culture and languages among Survivors and descendants so this legacy can be reclaimed. They are also running a youth programme to build connection with young descendants in order to help them understand the experience of their Elders and how they might respond to it.

A new home

After a one-off grant awarded in 2021 from the NSW Government, the corporation is overhauling the former home site with strong support from Survivors and the local community.

Importantly, the site was heritage listed in 2012. In 2022, 200 volunteers started turning the severely deteriorated site into a healing and education space, including planting a memorial garden and making a yarning circle.

The wider Cootamundra community, including schoolchildren, helped with the work. In the process, they learned the truth of the place they had heard about but didn’t know the full history.

Part of the site improvements included restoration of the weather shed where, Alicia says, ‘The girls used to tap dance and have precious moments of happiness together.’

A reunion held on the site was both an acknowledgement of the past and an intensely healing process with the creation of new happy memories. ‘[The] ceremonial dance was such a big piece for Survivors,’ Alicia adds.

‘It was punishable to practise any form of culture on that site for them. So to have children running free, playing, laughing and then practising culture on the country with them able to sit there and witness that, that was really powerful.’ ‘There was a lot of sharing, a lot of storytelling, a lot of reflection’, Meagan explains.

‘For us it was about taking back that control… It was just such a beautiful experience and one that won’t be forgotten.’

The post Taking back control appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Bonds never broken

Faiza Ways — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 10:15:08 +0000

In 2002, a group of Kinchela Boys Home survivors returned to the site of the home in Kempsey NSW for the first time since they were boys.

With strong childhood bonds never broken, the men were on a journey to reconnect with each other, reclaim their past and support survivors and their families to heal.

Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home was run by the NSW Government from 1924 – 1970 to house Aboriginal boys forcibly removed from their families in order to assimilate them into white Australian society. Built on the stolen land of the Dunghutti, it holds memories, painful and otherwise, for Survivors, and it is a place of deep importance for them, their families, and communities.

The return was not an easy process, as survivors had to confront their experiences – which many had buried. The deep bonds they formed as boys helped them to endure the abuse and harsh conditions of the boys’ home, where they were assigned numbers instead of names.

‘Some of the Uncles said we need an organisation that’s ours, that looks after the brothers and looks after our families,’ Tiffany McComsey, CEO of the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) said.

‘And from that journey this organisation started, and the hope that truth-telling would really lead to change.’

Kinchela’s mission

Over time, KBHAC have developed a survivor-led model of governance and healing. Survivors own their stories and tell them from a place of self-determination.

‘We know how to develop the programs that we need to be able to help the rest of the families and brothers feel in a safer place,’ said KBHAC Chair Uncle Michael Welsh.

KBHAC members emphasise the power of truth-telling to prevent a repetition of the abuse they endured and to create social change.

‘Talking is never easy because it brings back memories that I shut out for so many years but if we don’t keep doing this it allows this trauma to grow. That’s the strength that I gain from this and the journey of the KBH brothers,’ said Uncle Michael.

Truth-telling on the move

In 2020, KBHAC launched a mobile education centre, or ‘site of conscience’. Set up in an old commuter bus, it is an immersive experience designed to convey hard truths about the Kinchela Boys Home.

The front half of the bus is an exhibition that was developed in consultation with the survivors. The back is a cinema and yarning space, where a short, animated film produced by survivors is shown.

The immersive experience helps people to viscerally understand in a way that reading a report does not.

‘We’ve had ministers who have been told multiple times and then all of a sudden, they’re like, “Wait, you were numbers? You didn’t have names?”‘ Tiffany said.

The mobile education centre also has a recording booth where visitors can share their reflections, community members can record their stories about KBH, and the Stolen Generations, and related community histories can be documented. These truths become an educational resource and record for future generations.

Tiffany explained that sharing these experiences between descendants of survivors allows for the sense of isolation to be broken down: ‘It’s like this light bulb goes on and it’s like, it wasn’t just my family.’

Driving engagement

The mobile education centre facilitates a safe space for meaningful engagement. It’s a survivor-led opportunity to extend stories beyond the act of personally retelling their trauma and encouraging two-way interactions.

KBHAC wants the mobile education bus to connect with the hearts and minds of future generations, which is why its content and media target a young audience. The yarning circle space brings in oral testimony, archival material, artifacts, film, images, audio and interactive materials.

The future of Kinchela

Uncle Michael and Tiffany emphasise that truth-telling is an ongoing process – institutional change is slow and intergenerational trauma cannot be addressed in a one-off event.

While the mobile education centre delivers truth-telling all over the country, the Kinchela Boys Home site has become a permanent place of truth-telling grounded in the power of tangible evidence.

The KBHAC has been campaigning to obtain ownership over the land so it can be turned into a national site of truth-telling and healing with the creation of a living museum and healing centre.

The site was added to the 2022 World Monuments Fund Watch List as one of 25 heritage sites of worldwide significance.

Creating a permanent site of truth-telling allows survivors and communities to reclaim their past by determining the future of the place that impacted them so deeply.

‘My love in my heart, as a kid, is still in that bloody home. It’s a fact and returning the ownership to KBH survivors is going to allow me to return the love that I lost in that place,’ said former resident Roger Jarrett.

‘Just the thought of going there makes you feel a little bit better than you were before, giving you a feeling that you achieved something. I achieved my last little bit of pain easing, you know.’

This account of truth-telling in action is based on a case study from the Recognising community truth-telling: An exploration of local truth-telling in Australia report. The collaborative study between Reconciliation Australia and Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation documents 25 community truth-telling projects.

See more of Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation’s research via deakin.edu.au/adi

This article is from Reconciliation News #52. Read the rest of the issue.

The post Bonds never broken appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Defying colonial standards

Ben Taylor — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 06:31:04 +0000

Nih, Kaartdijin, Birdya (Listen, Learn, Lead) is the motto that guides Mosman Park Primary School in Perth. They put these three words into practice as they went on an in-depth truth-telling journey that celebrated the heroism and culture of the Noongar people.

It started with a letter from a student to the school principal about the name of her school sports faction. The school nih (listened) to her concerns about it being named after Captain James Stirling. He was a colonial administrator who helped to establish the Swan River Colony in 1829.

He was also a violent oppressor of Aboriginal people, leading an attack against the Bindjareb Noongar people, now known as the Pinjarra Massacre.

The school administration had already been thinking about this, but the student’s letter was a catalyst for action. It sparked a process that would change many aspects of the school.

The school then kaartdijin (learned) together about the full story of Captain James Stirling and of their local area.

The student council researched the history of the area. Through the act of looking into the past, they learned about Noongar history, people and places that are important to the community. They tried to see their area and its past from Aboriginal perspectives.

An old name, a new identity

The student council researched new names for the sports faction that would acknowledge the past and encourage reconciliation.

They presented what they found during their search to the whole school. They talked about the spiritual and historical significance for Aboriginal communities and about the courage of Aboriginal heroes past.

Pamela Chatfield, Associate Principal of the school, reflects, ‘It’s important that our kids know what we didn’t learn when we were kids. That’s why we’re so passionate about it. We weren’t taught reconciliation. We weren’t taught true history. And now we’re going to rectify that.’

The next step was to birdya (lead). By taking a stand and making the necessary changes, Mosman Park showed other schools that it was possible to change the way things are done – that there’s a better way.

Students and teachers were invited to vote on what the new name for the sports factions would be. The story of Fanny Balbuk got the most votes.

Fanny’s story

Fanny was a strong Aboriginal woman who protested against the settler occupation of her land in the 1800s – the very area where Stirling had set up a colony and committed acts of terrible violence.

She is reported to have walked through colonists houses and yards if they lay in her way, refusing to recognise their authority on her land.

‘She would go to what is Government House and in Noongar call out saying, “You’re standing on the graves of my Ancestors, get off!”,’ says Whadjuk Ballardon Noongar custodian Ingrid Cumming in an interview with the National Indigenous Times.

‘It was literally like camping at Fremantle Cemetery for her, you know, it was where her grandparents were laid to rest.

‘What she was trying to do was say that there are ways to do things and you’re just being arrogant to it, so I guess in her way she was saying, “I’m not going to respect your fences, I’m not going to comply because you’re not listening to me so we can move forward together”.’

Following Fanny’s example

Recognising Fanny Balbuk at the school amplified this incredible story of a woman courageously and tenaciously standing up for her culture and her people.

One Aboriginal student was proud to see how the project took off amongst her peers, leading to the school being a finalist in the Reconciliation Australia’s Narragunnawali Awards.

‘It makes me feel proud because people recognise the Aboriginal culture,’ she says. ‘I find it really nice that people want to learn about the Aboriginal culture and the fact we’re sharing it all around WA and it might go even further is really special for our school.’

The school held a design competition for the new sports faction symbol. An Aboriginal student created the winning design of a bibjool (gecko). This took the house name from Stirling Stars to ‘Balbuk Bibjool’.

It was such a success that it prompted the school to recreate the rest of the logos for the houses with the new designs by a parent – who is also an Aboriginal woman and artist.

It makes me feel proud because people recognise Aboriginal culture... we're sharing it all around WA

Language of the Land

Mosman Park’s journey continues with a new whole of school logo to celebrate community. It drew its apt motto ‘Listen, Learn and Lead’ from keywords that structured its Reconciliation Action Plan vision.

Collaborating with an Elder who was on the school board, the motto words were translated into the first language of the area.

And all the children now also proudly sing the school song in Noongar language, bringing a personal connection to Country and culture every day.

‘We now have instead of Stirling House, we have Balbuk House. Our logo has the river and the sea in the trunk of the tree and the green represents the fig tree that is at the centre of our school. In the leaves of the tree is our community,’ says Pamela.

‘We’re changing a lot of the way we do things, because it’s important to us that we incorporate the full history of our school.’

The school truly embraced the opportunity to acknowledge the past and make meaningful changes in partnership with the community. In the process the whole school community got involved with reconciliation and truth-telling.

They truly nih, kaartdijin and birdya actions that defy the colonial standard, just like their hero Fanny Bulbuk.

The post Defying colonial standards appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Truth-telling through art and connection

Alex Bleasdale — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 04:39:07 +0000

A new report showcases community truth-telling changing narratives of our shared history. Such is the case with Mayapa Weeyn, a sculpture that has created a conversation in Portland, Victoria about who and what we commemorate.

Gunditjmara Original Custodian Walter Saunders created Mayapa Weeyn and co-authored this story.

Truth-telling moments are a way to bring people together over shared histories. They begin as an invitation: a chance to learn and experience stories through a local cultural lens. But the power of truth-telling doesn’t end there. Often a process is sparked – one that can change a whole community’s view on their past and impact their future.

The Convincing Ground massacre is the name given to the first major recorded massacre in Victoria. It happened on the coast at Allestree on the coast of Kardermudelar (Portland Bay), roughly 10 km from the town of Portland, now the Shire of Glenelg in southwestern Victoria.

Approximately 60 members of the Gunditjmara Tribe were killed in a dispute over ownership of a beached whale. Only two members of the clans survived the massacre.

In 2005, members of the Aboriginal community, through their Cultural Heritage Officer, halted bulldozing and development work at the Convincing Ground site. The community, including Walter Saunders, heavily advocated for the sacred site. Their advocacy convinced the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal, and it was agreed the site would be set aside as a reserve.

A new kind of monument

Walter’s truth-telling advocacy didn’t end there. Throughout the area there are statues of early settlers permanently promoting the ‘heroic’ colonial past, Walter set about creating a monument to his people to contrast this imperial narrative.

The Cart Gunditj and all 59 clans of the Dhauwurd Wurrung are commemorated in Walter’s statue, Mayapa Weeyn (make fire). It symbolises the signal fires the Cart Gunditj lit to alert other clans when whales beached. Even though these events were noted in historical diaries and journals, Walter’s story through the sculpture became an accessible way to have a conversation, sometimes in unexpected ways.

‘I had to design the sculpture, buy the stainless steel and weld the five-metre-tall sculpture in my shed,’ Walter says.

I had to get it cut out by the laser cutters, purchase fasteners and welding rods. All of the shopkeepers and other people involved in that process knew the story and said, “Congratulations, it’s about time the story was told.”

Walter erected the sculpture in 2018 at Whaler’s Lookout on Cart Mountain. With Mayapa Weeyn firmly embedded physically in the town, Walter continues to tell stories to residents and tourists about Convincing Ground. It’s an ongoing conversation inspiring others to share truths in response. During a talk at the local library, a resident revealed to him: ‘My family killed an Aboriginal person and they threw him in the well, and then we filled up the well, and I know where the well is, Wal.’

The conversation continues

The community is taking ownership of this shared history, restoring the site itself as a reflective area. The Gunditj Mirring corporation won a $30K grant in 2020 and set about cleaning up the site, replacing weeds with native plants. They plan for it to be a place for learning the full history of the site and to ‘contemplate a healing future’.

While these plans are underway, an annual smoking ceremony has been taking place at the site on 26 January, led by Gunditjmara man, Chris Saunders. Over a few years the small number of attendees grew to a crowd of 300.

At first, it was just family and Elders … But now, it’s shifted to include the wider community, which we wanted to see all along.

A private ceremony for Traditional Owners is held at dawn beforehand. Later in the morning, another smoking ceremony takes place for the wider community at ‘the Ploughed Ground’ in Portland.

This area is claimed to be the spot where the Henty family first ploughed the land, ‘introducing’ European farming to Victoria. A memorial stone stands ‘in commemoration of the discovery of Portland Bay by Lt James Grant’ in 1800. However, there’s evidence of Gunditjmara people cultivating the land well before settlers arrived.

A shared story and steps forward together

With truth-telling spreading through the community through experiential and informal processes, the communityis inspired to know more. They’re questioning what’s around them, and what to do about it.

Two years after Mayapa Weeyn was installed, local Gunditjmara resident Shea Rotumah called for the council to assess their stance on the colonial monuments. The mayor committed to auditing the monuments and better understanding their significance.

As the community explores its history more deeply, Walter points out that people must be appropriately supported to meaningfully participate in community truth-telling, should they wish to do so. He also emphasises it’s about embedding agency and sovereignty rather than victimhood.

Over the decades of truth-telling for this community (so far), discussion has moved away from a debate about whether a massacre happened or how many people died. It has become about increasing recognition of and respect for the significance of these events for Gunditjmara people.

People are taking more initiative to learn truths in histories, knowing more about their effects on Aboriginal people and the community.

They’re being proactive, sharing the commemoration event through advertising in the community and on Facebook. For this coastal Victorian community, it’s a step forwards together – to better understanding and eventual reconciliation.

The Recognising community truth-telling: An exploration of local truth-telling in Australia report documents 25 community truth-telling projects, including 10 in-depth case studies. Read the full report.

See more of Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation’s research: deakin.edu.au/adi

This article is from the 50th edition of Reconciliation News magazine. Read the rest of the issue.

The post Truth-telling through art and connection appeared first on Reconciliation Australia.

Strength in sharing culture

Ben Taylor — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 06:31:03 +0000

Mannalargenna was the leader of the Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway clan of the Coastal Plains Nations at Tebrakunna (north-east Tasmania). Mannalargenna Day honours him for his contribution to the survival of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples and cultures.

From 1831 to 1835, Mannalargenna worked with British colonial officers, attempting to resolve the conflict between their peoples in a diplomatic way. Ultimately 200 Aboriginal survivors of the war were removed to Flinders Island. Mannalargenna had been falsely promised they would one day be able to return.

All but 47 of them died, including Mannalargenna, who died of pneumonia after he, too, was exiled. Before he died, Mannalargenna had negotiated unions for his sister and four daughters with British seamen. Many Aboriginal Tasmanian people trace their lineage through these unions.

Professor Greg Lehman is one of these descendants and explains the importance of Mannalargenna’s story today: ‘He represented the strength and resolve of Aboriginal people to defend their country against invasion.

‘At the same time, he also represents a willingness to try and negotiate a diplomatic solution. He stands for resistance and cultural strength, but also a pragmatic desire to try and work out a way to live together. I think that resonates right through to today, 200 years later, with the ongoing need for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.’

Celebrating a hero

Mannalargenna Day is celebrated every year at Little Musselroe Bay on the first Saturday of December. The bay was the final sight of their country by Mannalargenna and other Aboriginal Tasmanians as they departed the coast for Flinders Island.

The seeds of the festival were planted in 2008 when, descendant of Mannalargenna, Elder Dr Patsy Camerson AO, gathered a group of six Aboriginal Tasmanians of north-eastern ancestry and registered the Melaythenner Teeackana Warrana (Heart of Country) Aboriginal Corporation (MTWAC).

MTWAC wanted to create a safe and inclusive space for reconnection to country and culture after a difficult history of dislocation and removal and challenges around contested identity.

The first Mannalargenna Day was held in 2015 with about 60 participants, most of whom were MTWAC members and family. It quickly grew to several hundred because the MTWAC made a conscious decision to make the day as inclusive as possible. This was so that the broader community could learn too.

Country, Culture and community

From the very first gathering, interested visitors were welcomed to participate fully in all aspects of the day and return year after year to advance their learning journey. ‘We allow people to wear our ochre. It’s about tangibly having part of Country on you and understanding that. They see our dance, they see our smoking ceremony.

‘They get so much out of it each year that they want to come back and connect again… we invite people to continue their learning. So we want people to feel like they can, outside of Mannalargenna Day, come and walk with the landscape and continue to connect with it as well’, says organiser Jo Cameron.

Entry is free and the events of the day include cultural performances, food, walks, tours, storytelling, artistic and language workshops and a formal lecture. There are men’s circles, women’s circles and circles for the gender diverse.

Participants are encouraged to ask questions and to engage in conversation. It is about learning through the sharing of information but also through the direct experience of culture and of being on Country.

The day is a generous offering of Aboriginal experiences inviting non-Aboriginal people to see the area and history through an Aboriginal lens.

We allow people to wear our ochre. It's about tangibly having a part of Country on you and understanding that.

Mannalargenna at large

Organisers have also sought to increase the profile and educational reach of the annual celebration by actively inviting people of status in the broader community, such as the Governor of Tasmania.

As the festival has grown, so too has its base of financial and logistical supporters. The MTWAC commitment to a culture of inclusiveness extends to its sources of support. This now includes a broad range of individuals and local businesses, as well as local and state government officials.

A major natural resource management company in Tasmania provides volunteers, while local sponsors provide important resources in terms of food and logistics. This broad base of collaboration has also increased the number of attendees.

As with any public truth-telling activity, aspects of it are inherently confronting, and there can also be differing views on how it should be done.

‘Inevitably there is some risk involved in participating in a process of truth-telling, which needs to be managed by effective Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leadership’, explains Greg.

The organisers emphasise that how truth-telling is done can affect how it is able to be received.

Jo discusses the event’s impact as a truth-telling space: ‘Truth-telling includes discomfort, of course, and it’s really easy to kind of point the finger… my feeling is that when you learn, you need to feel safe and you need to feel like you can open your mind. You want to do that in a way that invites people to want to keep learning and keep connecting. I think that’s one of the key factors of Mannalargenna Day.’

She adds that the key to recovering the history and strength of Tasmanian Aboriginal people is to move away from deficit and disempowerment. ‘What’s been missing is that real focus on the strength of our culture and survival,’ she says.

‘It’s not about forgetting, it’s not about saying that the traumatic experiences [didn’t occur]. It’s about shifting the discourse.’

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