May 25, 2018
The South Burnett Regional Council and Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council have both received one-off $5000 grants to celebrate National Reconciliation Week, which runs from May 27 to June 3.
Member for Maranoa David Littleproud and Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien announced the grants on Thursday.
This year, National Reconciliation Week has special significance because 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, as well as the 25th anniversary of the Mabo High Court decision.
In the 1967 Referendum, First Australians were recognised in the Census for the first time following an unprecedented 90.77 per cent ‘yes’ vote for their recognition.
The Referendum also gave the Australian Government the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
And the Mabo High Court case in 1992 was another landmark moment, overturning the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’ that led to the passing of the Native Title Act 1993
Native title is the legal recognition that some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have rights and interests in certain land because of their traditional laws and customs.
Since the Mabo decision, native title has been recognised over more than two million square kilometres of land and has led to opportunities for economic development and independence for Indigenous Australians.
The South Burnett and Cherbourg Councils will partner with the Cherbourg Historical Precinct Group to remember and celebrate these two significant events.
National Reconciliation Week will be preceded by Sorry Day, an annual event that has been held in Australia on May 26 since 1998 to remember the historic mistreatment of Australia’s Indigenous population.
Sorry Day commemorates the day the “Bringing Them Home” report was tabled in Parliament (on May 26, 1997).
This date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations, as well as for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and their supporters among non-indigenous Australians.
It took until 2008 for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to make a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and Indigenous assimilation.
Mr Rudd’s speech was not universally welcomed at the time, but in the past 11 years it has come to be seen as a defining moment in Australian history.
Sorry Day also has special significance for the South Burnett, because the dormitory system that existed at Cherbourg until the early 1980s played a role in the Stolen Generations system, splitting families apart and leaving many who went through it with permanent mental and emotional scars.
More information about National Reconciliation Week is available online
