Moree community discuss the meaning of Reconciliation Week

Throughout this past week the Moree community shone as both Aboriginal and non-indigenous members came together to share stories and culture in a celebration of our diversity on the path to reconciliation.

While Reconciliation Week is about celebrating and building on the respectful relationships between Aboriginal people and other Australians and marks two significant dates in Australia’s reconciliation journey – May 27, celebrating the anniversary of the 1967 referendum which saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the national census, and June 3, commemorating the landmark Mabo decision in 1992 which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a special relationship to the land – the week means many different things to many different people.

Over the past week, The Moree Champion, set about finding out exactly what Reconciliation Week means to various community members in Moree.

Many said the week is all about people coming together.

“It’s about the whole community coming together and having an understanding of everyone else’s cultures,” Darrel Smith said.

“It’s about cultures coming together,” Julie French said.

“You’ve got to reconcile together, respect yourself, respect your culture.”

A number of people said the week is more than people coming together, but an understanding of each other’s cultures and an acknowledgement of our history so that we can work together to move forward, towards reconciliation.

“Reconciliation means to recognise things that did happen in the past but to go forward and to reconcile as one,” Betty Swan said.

“We can reflect back on the past but we can’t keep living in the past, we’ve got to move forward.”

“We use it as a time to come together, both Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people to bring up issues that have been in our communities and in our nation and in our country and to try to work towards a positive outcome for everyone involved, not just for Aboriginal people but for non-Aboriginal people,” Barbara Cutmore said.

“Also to be proud of where we’ve come from. We need to remember our past and our history but also to look forward to our future for our kids and our grandkids and to make sure they experience a great time in our country.”

For Lloyd Munro, who grew up on the mission when segregation still played a big role in Moree, ceconciliation is about the journey.

“Reconciliation means to me a journey, that not only the community’s got to take, it’s also what I’ve had to take in my lifetime,” he said.

“For me, growing up on the reserve, on the mission, going to an Aboriginal school, and then going to high school, culturally you’re changed because my life was on the Mehi. We had our own pool, our own school, own community hall and our own church. Those days probably 5,000 people used to live on the mission. In 1972 I went to high school and it was a whole different world, a different community.

“I had to survive it and I believe I did, but it’s all about the journey of not only for my myself but also the non-Aboriginal community, whether you’re white, European, everyone who comes in our community needs to know about who we are as a race, as a people, and vice-versa we need to know about non-Aboriginal people and their lives and their journey.”

David ‘Crocket’ Craigie said the week is all about education.

“They have to know about us, we have to be educated about them,” he said.

“If we get educated, our people will go far.”

Cathy Duncan believes Reconciliation Week is about showcasing the positive in the Moree community.

“It’s about relationships, it’s about respect and it’s about Moree and the future Moree can have by people working together,” she said.

Finally, Goodstart Early Learning Centre’s preschooler Kizzy-Anne Wall’s simple explanation of Reconciliation Week sums it up perfectly.

“Be nice to people and say nice things,” she said.