PANEL: WHERE WERE YOU ON 13 FEBRUARY 2008? COMMUNITY RESPONSES
Chair: Ingrid Mathews, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney

Panel Title: Where were you on 13 February 2008? Community responses to the Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations
Convenor: Ingrid Mathews, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney

Participants:
Karen Carter
Melissa Stubbings
Dean Bell
Chris Tobin
Julie Crane

Abstract: Ingrid Matthews joined the UWS Centre for Cultural Research in September 2007. She formerly coordinated Caring for Country with UWS (2003 - 2007), which ran environmental management-based field trips for Aboriginal high school students from western Sydney. Ingrid is a member of the NAIDOC (Hawkesbury) Committee; and volunteers with the local Aboriginal Youth and Family Worker. She holds a Bachelor Economics (UNE, 1992); and has completed a Bachelor Laws (UNE, 2008), receiving an undergraduate Human Rights Law prize from the NSW Bar Association (2007).

Karen Carter is a Darug woman and Project Manager at Merana Aboriginal Community Association for the Hawkesbury Inc., which works with the local Aboriginal and mainstream community. Her role includes management of the major days on the Aboriginal calendar, such as the Hawkesbury National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) and Sorry Day events.

Melissa Stubbings is a Darug woman and the Aboriginal legal access worker at Hawkesbury Community Legal Centre. She has long campaigned for recognition of her people, and is a founding member of Hawkesbury NAIDOC and Merana Aboriginal Community Association for the Hawkesbury Inc. She continues to contribute to both institutions, through committee membership and volunteer work.

Dean Bell is a Ngunawal man from the Yass/Canberra area. He is chair of Merana Aboriginal Community Association for the Hawkesbury Inc., and the Managing Director of Yurwang Gundana Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Services. Dean has 30 years of experience in the preservation and protection of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage, working both voluntarily and in paid positions with Government and Community. Dean has also worked in an identified position for the NSW Government in Child Protection for 10 years and is a firm believer that our children are our future. Dean was in Canberra for the Parliamentary Apology and was part of the official Welcome to country on the lawns of Parliament House.

Chris Tobin is a Darug man and Discovery NSW Parks and Wildlife Service Ranger. He works with Projects for Reconciliation on the Battle of Richmond Hill memorial, which remembers the warriors who defended their land against British troops. He is well known across western Sydney for delivering Welcome to country at diverse events and venues. Chris ran cultural workshops for the high school engagement project Caring for Country with UWS, and co-presented the project results (with Ingrid Matthews and Chris Richardson) at the 4th National Indigenous Education Conference (Newcastle, 2006) and annual AIATSIS Conference (ANU, 2007).

Julie Crane has worked in Indigenous HR for 15 years. She is the National Indigenous Employment Coordinator for Centrelink's People Strategy Branch, which supports the 75 Aboriginal trainers across Australia who deliver Centrelink's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Awareness Programme. This programme is designed to increase awareness of Aboriginal history and culture and assist colleagues to communicate sensitively and effectively with Aboriginal customers, communities and peers. Julie also volunteers in her local community to bring about grassroots reconciliation and to raise cultural awareness in her area.

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PANEL: RECONCILIATION COUNCIL - RECONCILIATION CHALLENGES
Chair: Peter Murphy

Program title: The Reconciliation Challenge
Presentation: Reconciliation of what and to whom?: the Australian challenge
Phillippa Cordwell, University of Western Sydney

Abstract: I propose that the Reconciliation of Australia's non-Indigenous peoples with Indigenous Australians, and, through them, with the nature of the land and environment in which we live, is crucial to the societal cohesion of the nation. It is not only crucial to the cohesion of Indigenous with non-Indigenous Australians - which then matters not in areas of the settler society where Indigenous people are invisible. In explaining this proposal I also demonstrate that 'societal cohesion' can only be a thin pretence if it is based merely upon the establishment of legal rights and equality of access to the national economy. 'Societal cohesion' deepens by degrees when any alienation between cultures (difference) is bridged by listening to the stories, and learning from the knowledges of the 'other'. By this ontological process 'societal cohesion' gains its integrity, rather than by political fabrication.

Therefore, respect for 'the validity of different approaches to everyday life, and a desire to understand those differences' is more than a Sunday afternoon activity when we've got time off from our 'real job'. I will refer to the ways in which traditional Indigenous knowledges and economies are based in the land (Country), in contrast to the ways in which the hegemonic settler society uses land as an object of commodification. Out of this arises the importance of sharing story and myth to bind cultures in a society of integrity, an integrity that arises out of shared knowledge. As members of the dominant settler society, non-Indigenous Australians have the responsibility to Reconcile with Indigenous Australians at the level of the land, and break through the illusion of land as an object of commodification, involving only the imperatives of rights and economics.

Program title: Working with Aboriginal Communities Reconciliation Australia
Presentation: Working with the Aboriginal Communities
Helen Campbell, Redfern Legal Centre Jackie Jarrett

Abstract: Redfern is a significant hub of services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is the home and starting point for legal, health and welfare services provided by independent self-managed indigenous organisations. Redfern is where people come if they are searching for relatives, if they just got off the train, if they just got out of prison. On any one day the actual number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Redfern area is greater than numbers shown on the census. The report of the recent NSW Parliament Inquiry into Redfern-Waterloo highlights the significance of this area for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and concludes that the significant disadvantage faced by those communities requires innovative and enhanced service provision.

The severity and prevalence of domestic and family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is well established. For recent research see for example Australian Institute of Health and Welfare "Family Violence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples" 2006. Redfern Legal Centre employs an Aboriginal Outreach Worker to support Aboriginal women dealing with legal and court processes arising as a result of family violence. We aim to provide an effective culturally appropriate holistic and supportive link between the services of RLC - especially for women dealing with domestic violence but also for discrimination, tenancy, credit and debt, family and welfare law matters where DoCS has intervened to remove children from their parents - and the community and with other Aboriginal services operating in the inner Sydney area.

The Aboriginal worker raises awareness of our service and encourages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to come to us. Our partnership with Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women's Centre is crucial to meeting this objective. This is an outreach/liaison/education project to raise awareness in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities of the Redfern and inner Sydney areas about family violence and the legal and other support services available. It is also, importantly, about showing the way to those services, to guide and to walk with those who need assistance. People have the right to live free from violence in their families and communities. The community education aspect of the role is about raising awareness of non-acceptable behaviour and empowering people to speak and act against it.

D1.S3.Pan3 – Rm4.236

PANEL: REFLECTING ON RECONCILIATION AT THE GRASSROOTS - NSW RECONCILIATION COUNCIL
Chair: Renee Williamson

Abstract: The panel will be chaired by Renee Williamson, Chairperson of the NSW Reconciliation Council. Renee is a Murri woman from the nation groups of North West Queensland. She is the former Deputy Chairperson of the NSW Reconciliation Council and former co-convenor of ReconciliACTION Youth Network. She is currently working as the Aboriginal Legal Access Program Coordinator for the Combined Community Legal Centre's Group (NSW) and is studying a Bachelor of Law/ Media Arts & Production at UTS.

Speaker 1 - David Crew David Crew has been the non-Indigenous Riverina/Murray Regional Representative on the NSW Reconciliation Board since 2005 and an Executive Committee Member since 2006. He is a member of Nyerna - Deniliquin Local Reconciliation Group and is Project Coordinator for the Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre Aboriginal Corporation and Vice Chairperson of Intereach NSW Inc (previously Regional Social Development Group). David is an archaeologist, and is married to Jeanette, a Mutthi Muthti woman from southwest NSW.

Speaker 3 – Josh Edwards - Representative of ReconciliACTION Youth Network ReconciliACTION was started in 2002 by a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people from metropolitan, regional and remote New South Wales. Since then, ReconciliACTION has grown to become a national network involving young people from across Australia, with autonomous partner groups in NSW, the ACT and Victoria. ReconciliACTION's aims include community education, advocacy, support for young people working to overcome racism in their local communities and skills and leadership development. Josh will discuss strategies and barriers for young people getting involved in reconciliation projects and activities. He will present a case study of a ReconciliACTION project highlighting both the particular challenges faced by projects run by young people and what can be achieved.

Speaker 2 - (Aunty) Beryl Carmichael Aunty Beryl Carmichael is a Ngiyampaa woman from Western NSW, currently living in Menindee. She has been the Indigenous Western Regional Representative on the NSW Reconciliation Council since 2005 and is convenor of the Broken Hill Local Reconciliation Group. Aunty Beryl has actively worked towards better education outcomes for Aboriginal children for more than 20 years. She was formerly associated with the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group for many years. She has received an Honorary Doctorate from Tranby Aboriginal College in recognition of her commitment to Indigenous issues and in 2007 received the Indigenous Heritage Award from the NSW Government for service to Indigenous culture, in teaching youth language and customs. Aunty Beryl will reflect on her achievements in advancing reconciliation and the challenges she has faced. Aunty Beryl's achievements include: successful lobbying for Aboriginal Studies to be included in the school curriculum, the employment of Aboriginal Aides in schools, and the establishment of positions for Aboriginal workers such as Cultural Awareness Officers; and creating better awareness and understanding of the needs of Aboriginal children by educators.

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PANEL: INDIGENOUS EDUCATION 1 - ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES - BOARD OF STUDIES
Chair: Kevin Lowe

This session will describe the implementation of the NSW Aboriginal Languages K–10 Syllabus in two locations – the Wiradjuri language program at Parkes High School in central western NSW and the Dharawal-Dhurga language program at Vincentia High School on the south coast.

In each case the program provides both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students with an interesting and challenging course of study. The positive impact of the teaching and learning of Aboriginal languages goes beyond this academic experience for students. More broadly, the program in each location is a powerful impetus for the school and community to work together on a curriculum project which values community knowledge and supports community aspirations for language revival. The school-community partnerships formed through the languages programs are long-term and enduring, and facilitate a two-way learning process which goes beyond the school gates and leads to greater communication, understanding and reconciliation in the local community.

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PANEL: INDIGENOUS EDUCATION 2 - ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVES - BOARD OF STUDIES
Chair: Kevin Lowe

D2.S4.Pan3 – Rm4.235

PANEL: TANGYEGERE / INTERVENTION
Vanessa Davis, Warlpiri/Luritja woman, resident of Trucking Yards town camp and member of the Tangentyere film research team in conversation with Heidi Norman, UTS.

D3.S1.Pan3 – Rm4.234

PANEL: NSW LAND RIGHTS
Chair: Peter Murphy

Abstract: This panel brings together three studies of different periods in the struggle for Aboriginal politics rights throughout the 20th century in NSW. They examine Aboriginal political activism to understand the way in which demands were framed and struggles responded to, contained and bureaucratised. Maynard recovers the lost history of early 20th century Aboriginal political activism and resistance and demonstrates how the united movement of the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association (AAPA) shaped and informed Aboriginal political demands. Norman examines the moment when much of the 20th century political activism came to a kind of crescendo with the passing in 1983 of legislation recognising Aboriginal land rights in NSW. She argues the recognition of Aboriginal land rights marked a critical change in relations between the state and Aboriginal people. Morris examines the period following the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act and the dramatic changes that took place in NSW in the 1980s. The changes serve to illustrate a series of political, economic and social changes that echo shifts in a globalising world and the historically contingent factors that shaped political debate around indigenous rights in NSW.

Program title: Aboriginal Political Demands In Early 20C
Presentation: Aboriginal Political Demands In Early 20 Century
John Maynard Heidi Norman, University of Technology Sydney

Abstract: Heidi Norman and John Maynard discuss the history of NSW Land Rights legislation and Indigenous struggles and strategies.

Program title: 1983 Land Rights Act, NSW
Presentation: Aboriginal land rights
Heidi Norman, University of Technology Sydney  

Abstract: 2008 marks the 25th Anniversary of the passing of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1983. This panel brings together academics, lawyers and land council administrators to examine the significance of the ALRA in the Aboriginal rights and land justice movement.

Program title: Mid Nth Coast Aboriginal Action After NSW Land Rights Act
Presentation: The period following the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act and the dramatic changes that took place in NSW in the 1980s
Barry Morris, Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS), Newcastle University.

Abstract: In 1978 the NSW government commissioned what became known as the Keane Report, which raised expectations about land rights among Indigenous people and their supporters and was a matter of considerable public attention. But the legislation that eventually resulted was extremely limited and the target of wide spread protest. However, some gains were made in Indigenous political conditions, especially in governance through Aboriginal Land Councils (ALCs), before it too was undermined by a series of amendments. These amendments were devised by the newly elected neo-liberal-styled government. My concern here is not with the crude contours of neoliberalism, but its specific initiatives, strategies, and governing practices in relation to indigenous affairs. In 1986, the newly elected NSW government was the first to link major neoliberal policy reforms to existing programs regarding indigenous recognition. The reforms were continuous with broader policy initiatives of neoliberal reform for a minimalist state. The experiment with land rights in NSW revealed how the parliamentary road to land rights proved vulnerable to changing political parties in government, especially where political ideologies differed markedly. The failure to establish satisfactory land rights legislation by State governments in the 1980s effectively led to the increased significance given to the enactment of the Native Title Act (1992) through the High Court, which led to a political response by the post-1996 neoliberal-styled Federal Government remarkably similar to the strategies previously conducted in NSW.

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PANEL: STRATEGIES
Chair: Daryl John Adair

Program Title: Rethinking Sport

Nico Schulenkorf, University of Technology Sydney
Alana Thomson , University of Technology Sydney

Abstract: Sport has been recognised for its social value and inherent nature to be used as a vehicle to foster commitment towards change and social development among different ethnic groups (Stidder and Haasner 2007; Sugden 2006; Lynch, Taylor & Toohey 1998). One area of social development is reconciliation. This paper and presentation includes two case studies with very different approaches to sport as a vehicle to encourage mutual understanding and development. The first case study from an international perspective is based in Sri Lanka and utilises participatory inter-community sport events as a means to bridge ethnic divides between Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim groups. The second case from an Australian context utilises a sports role model program in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, which informally promotes reconciliation both in the community and in the role models’ social networks. The findings from the case studies provide two striking examples of the opportunities and challenges in using the vehicle of sport to foster reconciliation. First, the process of developing partnerships between organising bodies and communities is analysed. Second, the strategies of fostering mutual respect among all participants are discussed. Looking to the future, there is the need for greater understanding of how to strategically manage the outcomes from such programs, and to contribute to policy which fosters the development of social legacies for communities through sport.

Program Title: Native Title law and reconciliation
Presentation: The Politics of Remembering and Forgetting: native title law and reconciliation in Australia
Francesca Dominello, Macquarie University

Abstract: The post-Mabo era was to be the age of reconciliation and the end of unjust dispossession of indigenous peoples' lands. However, as the more recent cases in native title show this vision did not become the reality. In this paper, I will examine Mabo in its historical context. In particular I will examine the claim that Mabo was a product of the 'new history' movement in Australia. This movement developed in response to the silence that had shrouded the history of colonial relations between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Through the writing of these histories, new historians have raised awareness of the history of colonisation in Australia and the impact it has had on indigenous peoples in particular. In the paper I will outline the ways in which Mabo is a product of this history. However, if Mabo did not bring to an end to the injustice and inequality facing indigenous peoples in the context of land law in Australia, it is because of the traces of another history informing that decision and the events that followed it. In this paper I will refer to this history as the 'old history' of Australia. In this history indigenous peoples are placed in a paradoxical position: they are inferior, but still seen as threat to the colonial enterprise. The paper will explore how this 'history' is repeated in Mabo and continues to inform the High Court's approach to native title law.

Program Title: Media and Reconciliation
Presentation: Reconciliation and the Media: a study of newspaper reporting of Reconciliation post-2000
Ben Spies-Buther, Macquarie University
Sylvie Ellsmore, NSW Aboriginal Land Council

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a research project undertaken by ReconciliACTIONnsw, a youth anti-racism and Indigenous rights organisation. The project examined media coverage of Indigenous reconciliation in broad sheet Sydney papers - the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald - in 2000 and 2005. Using a content analysis framework, articles referring to Indigenous reconciliation were coded according to their frequency, the extent to which they discussed the issue, the issues they associated with reconciliation, the Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices they quoted and whether the article was a news or opinion piece. The results reveal a significant decline in the frequency of articles since the peak of activity around the 2000 Harbour Bridge Walk. This decline was far more pronounced for the Sydney Morning Herald. There were also significant differences between the papers coverage in terms of the issues covered and the people quoted. We argue that this study supports the view that the Australian prioritised coverage of Indigenous reconciliation and attempted to agenda set, favouring a conservative conception of the reconciliation process closer to the (then) Federal Government's own position. The paper ends with reflections on the current reconciliation debate and the role of the media in framing these issues.

Program title: Moving Forward
Presentation: Moving Forward: towards a substantive reconciliation process in Australia
Andrew Gunstone, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University

Abstract: In 1991, the Australian Commonwealth Parliament unanimously implemented a formal ten-year process of reconciliation. The process aimed to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by the end of 2000, in time for the centenary of Australia in 2001. The process had three broad goals - educating the wider community about reconciliation and Indigenous issues, addressing the socio-economic conditions of Indigenous people, and investigating the desirability of developing some form of document of reconciliation. Abstract: In 1991, the Australian Commonwealth Parliament unanimously implemented a formal ten-year process of reconciliation. The process aimed to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by the end of 2000, in time for the centenary of Australia in 2001. The process had three broad goals - educating the wider community about reconciliation and Indigenous issues, addressing the socio-economic conditions of Indigenous people, and investigating the desirability of developing some form of document of reconciliation. In this paper, I examine this formal ten-year reconciliation process. I argue that neither its aim nor its three goals were successfully addressed by the end of the process. Further, I discuss several key reasons why the process failed, including: the manner of the establishment of the process; the different approaches to reconciliation; the nationalist discourse of reconciliation; the emphasis on a restricted concept of justice; and the emphasis on improving relationships rather than on also accommodating differences. Finally, I discuss some key issues that the new Rudd Government needs to address in order to facilitate a genuine substantive reconciliation process in Australia. D3.S3.Pan2 – Rm4.236

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