Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T23:15:57.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Community Involvement and Education in the 1991-2000 Australian Reconciliation Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Andrew Gunstone
Andrew Gunstone*
Affiliation:
Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences, Monash University, Churchill, Victoria, 3842, Australia
Get access

Abstract

In 1991, the Australian Parliament implemented a formal 10-year process of reconciliation. The aim of the process was to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by the end of 2000. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) was established to promote the process. The process had three broad goals: improving education, addressing Indigenous socio-economic disadvantage and developing a document of reconciliation. This 10-year process achieved several successful outcomes, including the “People’s Movement” and the “Walks for Reconciliation”. The outcomes were predominately linked to the broad education goal and occurred due to the involvement of the Australian community in the reconciliation process.

In this paper, I explore two inter-related programmes developed by CAR - community consultations and encouraging community involvement - that encouraged the involvement of the Australian community in reconciliation and were significantly responsible for the success obtained by the education goal. However, I also argue there were two issues involving many non-Indigenous people - their ignorance of reconciliation and Indigenous issues and their nationalist understandings of reconciliation - that ensured that overall the goals, despite some successful outcomes, were not fully achieved by the conclusion of the formal reconciliation process.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , 2007 , pp. 39 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Attwood, B. (2000). The burden of the past in the present. In Grattan, M. (Ed.), Essays on Australian reconciliation (pp. 254–259). Melbourne, VIC: Bookman Press.Google Scholar
Australian Association of Adult and Community Education. (1993). Australians for reconciliation: Study circle kit. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Birch, T. (2003). “Nothing has changed”: The making and unmaking of Koori culture. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 145–158). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, G. (2000). Not much progress. In Grattan, M. (Ed.), Essays on Australian reconciliation (pp. 228–234). Melbourne, VIC: Bookman Press.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act, 1991. (Cth).Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1994). Walking together: The first steps - Report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to Federal Parliament 1991-94. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1995a). Going forward: Social justice for the first Australians. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1995b). Together we can’t lose: A report to the nation from the Councilfor Aboriginal Reconciliation at the end of its first three years. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1997a). Weaving the threads— Progress towards reconciliation: Report to Parliament covering the second term of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation 1995-1997. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1997b). Australian reconciliation convention—Book 2: Reconciliation in the community. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1997c). The path to reconciliation: Issues for a people’s movement. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1997d). Australian reconciliation convention—Book 1: Proceedings of the Australian Reconciliation Convention. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1997e). Australian reconciliation convention-Book 5: Ideas for action, proceedings of the Australian Reconciliation Convention. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1999). Draft document for reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (2000). Reconciliation, Australia’s challenge-Pinal report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth Parliament. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Djerrkura, G. (1999). Indigenous peoples, constitutions and treaties: A dialogue on Indigenous rights in the Commonwealth. London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Retrieved 9 September, 2003, from http://www.atsic.gov.au/issues/indigenous_rights/international/archives/ Constitutions_and_Treaties/londonshort_Julyl999.pdf.Google Scholar
Dodson, P. (2000). Lingiari: Until the chains are broken. In Grattan, M. (Ed), Essays on Australian reconciliation (pp. 264–274). Melbourne, VIC: Bookman Press.Google Scholar
Fitzduff, M. (1999). Changing history: Peace building in Northern Ireland. In European Centre for Conflict Prevention (Ed.), People building peace: 35 inspiring stories from around the world (pp. 87–103). Utrecht, The Netherlands: European Centre for Conflict Prevention.Google Scholar
Foley, G. (1999). The power of whiteness. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 2(4), 29–33.Google Scholar
Gale, P. (2001). Representations of reconciliation: Bridges, symbols and substance. In Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (Eds.), Reconciliation, multiculturalism, identities: Difficult dialogues, sensible solutions (pp. 123–113). Altona, VIC: Common Ground Publishing.Google Scholar
Gastrow, P. (1999). A joint effort: The South African peace process. In European Centre for Conflict Prevention (Ed.), People building peace: 35 inspiring stories from around the world (pp. 104–111). Utrecht, The Netherlands: European Centre for Conflict Prevention.Google Scholar
Greer, G.. (2003). Whitefella jump up: The shortest way to nationhood. Melbourne: Black Inc.Google Scholar
Gunstone, A. (2005). Unfinished business: The formal Australian reconciliation pmcess. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 5(3–4), 16–32.Google Scholar
Huggins, J. (2003). Always was always will be. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 60–65). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. (1996). Unfinished business: Australians and reconciliation—An overview of community attitude research conductedfor the Councilfor Aboriginal Reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Juli, P. (1996). An Aboriginal policy for the millennium: The three social justice reports. Australian Indigenous Law Reporter, 1(1), 1–13.Google Scholar
Kurtzer, S. (2003). Wandering girl: Who defines “authenticity” in Aboriginal literature? In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 181–188). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Langton, M. (2003a). Introduction: Culture wars. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 81–91). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Langton, M. (2003b). Aboriginal art and film: The politics of representation. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 109–126). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Manne, R. (2001). The Australian quarterly essay - In denial: The stolen generations and the right. Melbourne: Schwartz Publishing.Google Scholar
McKenna, M. (1998). Metaphors of light and darkness: The politics of “black armband” history. Melbourne Journal of’Politics, 25(1), 67–84.Google Scholar
Moran, A. (1998). Aboriginal reconciliation: Transformations in settler nationalism. Melbourne Journal of Politics, 25(1), 101–131.Google Scholar
Morgan, S. (1987). My place. Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.Google Scholar
Mulgan, R. (1998b). Citizenship and legitimacy in post-colonial Australia. In Peterson, N. and Sanders, W. (Eds.), Citizenship and Indigenous Australians: Changing conceptions and possibilities (pp. 179–195). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nettheim, G. (2000). Reconciliation: Challenges for Australian law. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 7(1), 47–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newspoll. (2000). Quantitative research into issues relating to a document of reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Newspoll, Saulwick, I., Muller, D., & Mackay, H. (2000). Public opinion on reconciliation. In Peterson, N. and Grattan, M. (Ed.), Essays on Australian reconciliation (pp. 33–52). Melbourne: Bookman Press.Google Scholar
Norman, H. (2002). An examination of the limitations of reconciliation as a framework for Aboriginal social policy development. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 5(2), 10–17.Google Scholar
Nossal, G. (2000). Symbolism and substance in the surge towards reconciliation. In Grattan, M. (Ed.), Essays on Australian reconciliation (pp. 297–304). Melbourne: Bookman Press.Google Scholar
Onus, L. (2003). Language and lasers. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 92–96). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Perkins, H. (2003). Seeing and seaming: Contemporary Aboriginal art. In Grossman, M. (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by Indigenous Australians (pp. 97–103). Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, A. (2001). The politics of reconciliation revisited: Germany and east-central Europe. World Affairs, 163(4), 171–191.Google Scholar
Pratt, A., Elder, C., & Ellis, C. (2000, December). Reconciliation: Origins, policy, practice, representations, meanings, futures. Paper presented at the Diversity Conference Imagining ourselves: Reconciliation in the national imagination, University of Technology, Sydney New South Wales.Google Scholar
Pratt, A., Elder, C., & Ellis, C. (2001). ‘Papering over the differences’: Australian nationhood and the normative discourse of reconciliation. In Kalantzis, M. and Cope, B. (Eds.), Reconciliation, multiculturalism, identities: Difficult dialogues, sensible solutions (pp. 135–147). Altona, Victoria: Common Ground Publishing.Google Scholar
Rolls, M. (1998). The Jungian quest for the Aborigine within: A close reading of David Tacey’s Edge of the sacred: Transformation in Australia. Melbourne Journal of Politics, 25(1), 171–187.Google Scholar
Saulwick, I., & Muller, D. (2000). Research into issues related to a document of reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Special Broadcasting Services (SBS). (2000). Corroboree 2000. (videorecording). Sydney: SBS.Google Scholar
Sweeney, B. (1996). A Report on a National Quantitative Survey of Community Attitudes Towards Aboriginal Reconciliation. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Tutu, D. (1999). No future without forgiveness. London: Rider.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, R. (1994). ‘Foreword. In Graham, D. (Ed.), Being whitefella (p. 11). Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.Google Scholar