“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol.” – Paul Keating, Redfern speech.
Reaching out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be daunting for non-indigenous people, until respect is safely established, and an equal listening approach. In my own journey of learning how to form connections over more than three decades, the first few awkward approaches were quickly followed by wide smiles and regular ‘taking the mickey,’ a sign of trust and friendship.

As we approach another election campaign, likely to be salted with the usual ‘culture wars’ insinuations that aim to divide us, I want to encourage everyone to reach out to your First People neighbours and seek solidarity as ‘fellow Australians.’

Growing up on the Blue Mountains in the 1950s-60s, in the place that inspired Eleanor Dark’s famous trilogy, The Timeless Land, I was mesmerised by that very timelessness. As well as an uncomfortable sense that something wasn’t right in this place. A feeling that has never left me.

And the cause was clear, as Prime Minister Paul Keating was the first national leader to admit, in his famous Redfern Speech, on the 10th of December 1992:

“It was we who did the dispossessing”,........

© Pearls and Irritations