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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1611 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

I met those labelled as troublemakers who were dispatched to an island near Townsville, Palm Island, where they could be isolated and better controlled. I met parents who had lost their children and who had either no contact or very little contact with them. And everywhere I found Aborigines who, after years of paternalism and neglect, lived in deprived circumstances. I also found in abundance dignity, determination, hope and energy to change their circumstances and to find justice. Despite efforts, it is still taking too long. Part of that justice is the acknowledgment of the past, of the total dislocation of our Aboriginal communities, and of the fact that Aborigines have been very badly treated. That is the case in this region, as it is across the continent.

I am proud to know some of the Ngunnawal people, those who lived here for generations. It is a troubling message to me that I now occupy and claim to own a small piece of land, with my home at Theodore on it, which was for generations the home of other people. I know some of their descendants. Near me is the evidence of that occupation - rocks where axes were ground, and scarred trees where bark was taken. Do I not owe something to these people - not only the people here but all those across the continent? Some people in the community say that for stolen children and for other injustices there should be no guilt, no apologies. I cannot accept that. I do have a guilt for not knowing and not acting more than I have. I am sorry for the fact of the stolen generations and all the other injustices. All Australians are responsible for what has happened in our country. We should all act together to see that justice, dignity and decent living are finally delivered to our people who were here first.

MS TUCKER (11.23): I would like to start with something that Patrick Dodson said about reconciliation. He said that, in order to have a relationship with indigenous people based on understanding, respect and mutual action, all levels and sectors of the Australian society need to be involved, and to be involved requires knowledge. This motion of apology is about reconciliation and it is about having knowledge. Reconciliation is about today and it is also about yesterday. The eight key issues of reconciliation were and are all about knowledge.

The first key issue is understanding the importance of land and sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. It is about the idea that all Australians care, but some care in a different way. The second key issue is about knowledge of relationships between indigenous people and the wider community. The way it was expressed in the reconciliation statement is that we have a wrong-headed relationship with our indigenous people, racist and ethnocentric attitudes which have led to social policies such as segregation, protectionism and assimilation. Children were taken to "improve their cultural identity" and to make them "better Australians". There is a huge issue, and we need to have knowledge of this, about who are the real indigenous people. Racism and ethnocentricity - I can never say that word; but it means, basically, that we think we are better than the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - have led to discrimination against these people as distinct peoples as well as against those who are denied that group identity by others. Indigenous status has been denied some indigenous Australians who have cross-cultural relationships, consensual or otherwise, in their family trees. We have to have knowledge of that and the pain that has brought.

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