One of the most important pillars when it comes to reconciliation is respect.
For John Paul Janke (pictured), Wuthathi man from Cape York and from Murray Island in the Torres Strait and co-owner of Rork Projects, that respect means recognising the unique place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people play in our history in society today.
“For me, when we tell the story of us is the story of this nation, that story is about the history of us,” he told a recent crowd at a Property Council event.
“But does our nation’s story truly embrace and celebrate a peoples whose history and survival spans the rise and fall of every other great civilization on this planet?
“Now, some 35 years ago, I was the first indigenous student to graduate from a private boys school in Canberra.
“In my eight years of school, in fact, my entire school life I was taught next to nothing about the world’s oldest living culture. I know more about Egyptian Greek cultures, ancient Sumerian, Aztec, Mayan empires and Native Americans.”
Janke said that in his early education there was no Aboriginal history as part of Australian history and that he was taught that the story of Australia started with James Cook in 1770.
“However, one fundamental grievance will not vanish sovereignty. In the European settlement of Australia, there were no treaties, no formal settlements,” he said.
“Aboriginal people therefore did not cede sovereignty of their lands. It was simply taken from us.
“For me until we properly address this is a nation that will remain a continuing source of dispute and the most fundamental grievance.”
Janke said students today are starting to receive the education he didn’t.
“Students today our children learn the names of these Aboriginal nations, of their sovereignty, of their achievements of Frontier conflict of invasion, affected land of massacres, and of the eviction of Terra Nullius. In fact, they are learning about this nation’s real history.
“So the narrative is now slowly changing from Aboriginal people being just hunter gatherers, cannibals and nomads, to being our first farmers to being our first bakers.”
Janke said respect and truth-telling will play an important part in how we move forward.
“Importantly, that truth-telling process needs to be led by First Nations voices and they will be different in various regions of this country in what that truth will be,” he said.
“Respect, it’s about the recognition and the unique place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people play in our nation’s history, in our story, and in our society today. And for me, I think that’s something that we all should celebrate and be proud of.
“So the time has come for this nation to be brave, to move forward, and to think big.”