{"id":251494,"date":"2020-01-26T00:09:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=251494"},"modified":"2021-01-23T18:33:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T08:33:50","slug":"what-unites-us-what-divides-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/01\/26\/what-unites-us-what-divides-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What Unites Us, What Divides Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mayor Keith Campbell, centre, congratulated Junior Citizen of the Year Brenna Prendergast and Citizen of the Year Mark Beil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cherbourg Elder Eric Law<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘We Need To Bring This Country Together’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wakka Wakka Elder Eric Law AM was invited to do the Welcome To Country at the awards evening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This whole country about 7:00am tomorrow will take a deep breath, and about 11:00am will exhale and then say ‘thank God it’s over’,” he said sadly.<\/p>\n

“We have to have a national day of celebration but it has to be for everybody.\u00a0We have one group that is celebrating and another isn’t.”<\/p>\n

Uncle Eric said later in the year there would be NAIDOC, again with just one group celebrating.<\/p>\n

“We need to bring this country together. As a teacher, I see our young people are starting to grasp that,” Uncle Eric said.<\/p>\n

He referred to a recent\u00a0interview<\/a> <\/strong>in which Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said Australians must engage in a “truth-telling”.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think Australia is ready for that truthful conversation,” Uncle Eric said.<\/p>\n

The Vietnam veteran said he was proud of the Australian flag on the stage – which he fought under, and his grandfather fought under – but he would add the Aboriginal flag as well as a reminder of the oldest continuous culture in the world.<\/p>\n

“We should all be immensely proud of both flags flying together literally and figuratively.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

January 25, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australia Day has become a day to remember what unites us and what divides us … but it is also a day to salute all the people in our communities that go above and beyond any divisions.<\/p>\n

A crowd of about 150 people gathered in the Kingaroy Town Hall on Saturday evening for the annual presentation of the South Burnett Regional Council’s Australia Day awards.<\/p>\n

The major winners on the night were:<\/p>\n