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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4473 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Planning began in 1995 for the centre to be based on Acton Peninsula with the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies but was put on hold during the Assembly's land swap inquiry. Work is still on hold until the Commonwealth's siting study for the National Museum of Australia is completed and the site for the gallery and the institute is announced. If suitable arrangements can be made, there does not seem to be any reason why the centre could not start to operate from a temporary site in the meantime. Whether the permanent centre is co-located with the two Commonwealth facilities will be determined once the Commonwealth site is decided. When siting issues are resolved, the consultative council will become closely involved in the planning and development of the centre.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre has the potential to become a primary focus for reconciliation in the ACT. It could be a great asset in the community for developing an understanding and appreciation of indigenous culture and art by the non-indigenous population. I would like to add that the Canberra Theatre Trust has always supported the work of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in the performing arts. The many productions that the trust has been involved with and supported since 1990 have all dealt with reconciliation and affirmative action issues. Artists and productions featured in 1995-96 include the Bangarra Dance Theatre, Corrugation Road, and The Seven Stages of Grieving. Members of the Assembly who saw those productions will understand that they were very good and were very useful in reconciliation generally.

Looking at NAIDOC Week, it is becoming a significant week in the ACT calendar. This year there were many activities throughout Canberra, including those organised by government agencies. NAIDOC Week, when Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders celebrate their culture, provides another focus for the development of understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous members of the community. Members will recall the presentation to the Assembly during this year's NAIDOC Week of the Aboriginal artwork, "Past, Present, and Future Aboriginality in the Canberra Region", which hangs in the corridor outside the committee rooms. This work, which commemorates the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples, is much admired and, I am sure, appreciated by all who are here in this Assembly. Its emphasis on hope for the future is a fitting reminder for us all to keep working to improve the wellbeing of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and to do all we can to facilitate reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous members of the ACT community.

I would like to finish by foreshadowing that I intend to move a motion in support of the process of Aboriginal reconciliation and to endorse the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's vision which was originally adopted by the Second Legislative Assembly on 20 April 1994. I would like to thank Mr Whitecross, who has added significantly to this motion by putting to me the words that Mr Patrick Dodson, the chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, put to all members of this Assembly.

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