Principal

This week I would like to highlight Reconciliation Week, which is running from last Monday to next Monday. The week provides an impetus to reflect on the state of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and this year carries the theme that reconciliation is needed Now More Than Ever. The theme is explained by Reconciliation Australia as:

Now more than ever the work continues. In treaty making, in truth-telling, in understanding our history, in education, and in tackling racism. We need connection. We need respect. We need action. And we need change.  Now more than ever, we need reconciliation.

Weeks such as Reconciliation Week often get pulled into political arguments and tangled with political perspectives – but they needn’t. Goals and values such as connection, respect and tackling racism need no special justification, they are self-evidently good for all. 

As an English teacher, I like to look at the root form of a word and to see how its history and composition helps to illuminate its meaning or possible uses. In this case ‘reconciliation’ carries connotations of two groups or people coming together. Its root, the verb ‘reconcile’, can also mean to make sense of something or come to peace with it. We can reconcile ourselves to our past failures. We can reconcile ourselves to a reality or a past that is challenging. I believe that we can begin to reconcile the past of Indigenous relations and treatment in this country, in a way that acknowledges this often-difficult past without attributing blame to anyone in the present. I encourage you to look at the resources available from Reconciliation Australia to consider how we might all contribute to this process of reconciling.