recognising reconciliation

Cr Samantha Dunn and Aunty Dot Peters at
the Yarra Ranges reconciliation lunch, this year
held at the Healesville RSL.

Reconciliation week is an important week in Yarra Ranges.

One of the features of the week is the annual Reconciliation Lunch, this year's lunch themed Recognition Reconciliation.

It was about recognising the advancements that have been made toward reconciliation but by the same token recognising there is still more work to do.

Since 2010 Council’s Indigenous Advisory Com-mittee (IAC) have been involved in activities designed to set a new strategic direction for our work in Reconciliation.

Research conducted by a Swinburne University student is providing a rich background on key areas such as cultural development in the urban context and culturally respectful evaluation.

Since 2006 Yarra Ranges Council has employed an Indigenous Development Officer and established an Indigenous Advisory Committee to assist council in the delivery of its priorities, which include:

• Maintaining an Indigenous voice on Indigenous issues
• Acknowledging and protecting Indigenous cultural heritage
• Engaging Indigenous young people
• Promoting health and wellbeing
• Building stronger relationships and new partnerships with the wider community in order to promote business and employment opportunities.

This year will see council launch our Indigenous Employment Strategy and in collaboration with our Indigenous Advisory Committee, develop a new 3 to 4 year action plan that will focus on opportunities for participation in contemporary cultural activities.

Yarra Ranges has the highest indigenous population of the Eastern metropolitan councils and we take great pride in our indigenous cultural heritage.

celebrating reconciliation week at burrinja

Burrinja is planning a great range of activities to coincide with this year's Reconciliation Week.

There's a wonderful exhibition, 

Memories - Contact with White People Exhibition

4 May - 24 June. 

Based on Patsy Lulpanda’s canvas painting with the same title comes an exhibition of artworks from the Burrinja Collection that explores the theme of contact with white colonisers from the Aboriginal perspective. Depictions of policemen, cattle, prison trees, massacre sites and nuclear test sites tell stories of dispossession, disempowerment and destruction, and yet their telling provides future hope. Entry Free.


Friday 1st June, is Indigenous Film Night, details:

Session 1 @ 7pm
Too Many Captain Cooks (1989), Documentary, 18mins
This film seeks to replace the stereotypes promoted by the non-Aboriginal history of white settlement in Australia.
Beneath Clouds (2001), 94 mins
Drama about Lena, the light-skinned daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Irish father and Vaughn, a Murri boy doing time in a minimum security prison in North West NSW.

Session 2 @ 9.30pm
Babakiueria (1986), 30mins
A comic but powerful satire that reverses roles, imagining what it would be like if a black first fleet had arrived in Australia in 1788 to settle an area inhabited by white natives.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2001), 94 mins
Dramatic feature based on the 'stolen generation' theme about three young indigenous girls who are snatched from their mothers' arms and placed in a settlement 1,500 miles away. They escape and use the rabbit-proof fence to guide their way home, as they are chased by white authorities and a black tracker.

Entry Free

Saturday 2nd June has some great activities.

Toy-Making for Children - 11am and 2pm

Kids will combine soft grasses with colourful wool to create their own beautiful animals. This is a 2-hour workshop by Adrienne Kneeborne, and parents are welcome to stay.

Places are limited so please book online or call 9754 8723. Cost $5

In Words: Eileen Harrison and Carolyn Landon - 2.30pm

Aunty Eileen describes herself as a survivor of a failed political push to assimilate Victorian aborigines into the wider community by forcing them off the mission at Lake Tyers, and she talks about her life from a cultural, personal, emotional and political perspective.

Cost Free. It will go for approx. 1 hour. Places are limited so please book online or call 9754 8723.

Sunday 3rd June, the activities continue...

In Conversation: Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage

Sunday 3 June - 2.30pm

Gippsland resident and author of Convincing Ground, Bruce Pascoe will present his recent book Dark Emu, an examination of the Aboriginal economy as seen by the “Explorers”. Bruce Pascoe will be in conversation with Bill Gammage, who recently published The Biggest Estate on Earth – How Aborigines made Australia, a book that examines land-management strategies used by Aboriginal people around the country prior to colonialisation.

Cost $10/Members Free. This talk will go for approx. 90 minutes. Places are limited so please book online or call 9754 8723.

Basket Weaving for Adults

11am to 4pm

Using coil stitch, thread and locally collected native grasses participants will create one gorgeous basket to take home. Materials provided. Adrienne Kneeborne is an artist from Tennant Creek, NT, living and working in Warburton.

Cost $35/$25 members. Places are limited so please book online or call 9754 8723.

It's a great program of events to celebrate reconciliation week. 

 

samantha in the press - reconciliation

Hard road to reconciliation
Mail Newspapers
by Mara Pattison-Sowden
31 May 2011

lets walk the mile, lets reconcile

It was wonderful to celebrate the start of Reconcilation Week with a luncheon in Healesville. An annual event on the calendar, it's wonderful to catch up with community members and elders.

Pictured left to right: Top Row; Cr Len Cox - Deputy Mayor, Cr Samantha Dunn - Lyster Ward, Garry Detez - Yarra Ranges Indigenous Liaison Officer & Peter Ruzyla - CEO of Each, Bottom Row; Andrew Peters - Lecturer in Indigenous Studies at Swinburne, Aunty Dot Peters, Cr Terry Avery - Mayor and Robyn White - Chair, Yarra Ranges Indigenous Advisory Committee.

Speakers on the day included Aunty Dot Peters, Andrew Peters and Peter Ruzyla (CEO of EACH). All of them compelling, challenging the notion of reconciliation and identity.

Yarra Ranges is proud to acknowledge our indigenous heritage and work positively with our indigenous community in many ways.

let's walk the mile, let's reconcile

It was great to join with community to celebrate reconciliation week last week. Speakers on the day included elders, Aunty Dot Peters and Uncle Henry Atkinson.

Aunty Dot and I at the Let's Walk the Mile, Let's Reconcile celebration in Healesville. Yarra Ranges was the first government of any tier to formally say sorry to indigenous people. We are committed and proud to stand by our indigenous community.

Uncle Henry Atkinson talked about the lack of equality for indigenous people when it came to employment, education, housing and health. He talked about the lack of fairness and equality and that there has been no compensation for the Stolen Generation.

Uncle Henry's went on to say "our ancestors didn't give up and neither should we". Compelling, as always, Uncle Henry is a strong advocate for reconciliation and indigenous rights.

Part of celebrations included the launch of the Shire's Practical Indigenous Protocols. The protocols are a practical guide for working with the indigenous community in the Shire. It has broad application and helps people gain an understanding of our Indigenous heritage and history and to acknowledge and learn how this affects us today.

The protocols talk about how to communicate and collaborate together with respect and in a culturally appropriate fashion.

Indigenous communities in Victoria continue to face intolerable inequities in health, education, employment, the provision of public services and justice. We must focus on grassroots and state-wide solutions that result in local, regional and systemic reconciliation. We must eradicate individual and institutional racism. Only with these measures we can start to address these intolerable inequities and work to true reconciliation and self determination.

I have always been a strong advocate for indigenous rights and self determination and will continue to push for reconciliation and equality for our indigenous community.