Reconciliation Week

Reconciliation Week: Saturday 27 May – Saturday 3 June 

Wheelers Hill Secondary College is proud to celebrate reconciliation week. Throughout the week, students will be participating in activities where they will learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.  

The dates May 27 and June 3 are two significant dates for reconciliation as these dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. 

27 May 1967 On this day, Australia’s most successful referendum saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the Census. 

3 June 1992 On this day, the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision, the culmination of Eddie Koiki Mabo’s challenge to the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ (land belonging to no one) and leading to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of lands. This decision paved the way for Native Title. 

Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.