We have established a committee to develop our first Reconciliation Action Plan, made Acknowledgement of Country mandatory for all meetings, display the Aboriginal flag and ATSI symbols in public areas of all sites, proactively support NAIDOC Week and hosted an Organisational White Privilege Workshop with John Bonnice from the Bendigo Reconciliation Committee for our Senior Leadership Team as a catalyst for change.
These are small steps for our organisation but it’s important the journey has started.
Sorry Day asks us to acknowledge the Stolen Generations, and in doing so, reminds us that historical injustice is still an ongoing source of intergenerational trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Islander families, communities, and peoples.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples on February 13, 2008, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and Indigenous assimilation.
Today, 23 year after the Bringing Them Home report and 12 years since the National Apology, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still 10.6 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be removed from their families.
Since the establishment of Sorry Day, there is now another important milestone in Australia’s history on this date. At the conclusion of the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention at Uluru, council member Megan Davis delivered the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a consensus document on constitutional recognition, developed by a 16-member Referendum Council of Indigenous and non-Indigenous community leaders.
Let us take time today to reflect.
Gerard Jose
CEO
Bendigo Community Health Services
