Thursday, June 08, 2006

reconciliation..


Last week was Reconciliation Week. I managed to get to my local event run by the Port Phillip Council. I took my little girl, Aurora and we met up with a few friends there. We took part in the smoking ceremony and each received a gum leaf passport. We sat in the cold sunlight and listened to some speakers as screams erupted from the carriages, rattling down the Big Dipper at Luna Park.
Aurora took great delight in pronouncing to all and sundry that she had been to RECONCILIATION. She is 4.




Concentration and endless imagination. The magic of child's play....and the mess!!

7 comments:

Phaedra Press said...

it's hard to separate the creative life from the child, they keep popping up in both our blogs. ain't that grand.

scout said...

what is reconcilliation week? us canuks are out of the loop on that....got a link for it?

scout_vagabond@yahoo.ca

austin said...

If you run your mouse over the title for the blog "reconciliation" you will find a link to reconciliation victoria. Reconciliation Week is organised by Indigenous groups all over Oz to highlight Aboriginal issues and to highlight the quite recent colonial past and its impact on Aboriginal people and to encourage the general public to actively engage with Aboriginal people in their quest for recognition for that past and awareness of their ongoing struggles and achievements. Unfortunately we have a prime minister who makes reconciliation nigh impossible due to the fact that he denies the symbolic power of apologising for wrong doing so as to enable a new process to begin. His legal background probably primes him to think that any statement of sorrow is like an admission of guilt and would make him liable! I'm sure you wished you didn't ask the question! Here is some more info from the national organisation http://www.reconciliation.org.au/i-cms.isp?page=87 Have you canuks got similar organisations?

Annamarie said...

I don't think we have a similar organisation, but we certainly should have.... Maybe Scout knows more about this than I do...

However, our prime minister sounds like he's related to yours.... and so is our Ontario Premier, [Squinty] McGuinty... And they're all related to the Bushes. One big happy family! [sarcasm]... (Although they are not really related, they may as well be for all the similarities...)

Annamarie said...

P.S. Thanks for enlightening us about the Reconciliation... Very interesting.

BTW you have a nice blog with wonderful pictures.

Also, I thoroughly enjoy your comments on Scout's Harper Valley blog. You have a great sense of humour :)

Annamarie said...

*That should read: 'Reconciliation Week'.... Sorry, I left that out...

austin said...

Thanks for the visit annemarie. I am enjoying the Canadian connection. There are many similarities between our colonial outposts though I must confess I have much to learn about Canada. I went through a stage, many moons ago, when I was reading a few Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro but that is the limit of my Canadian education. Mind you I did have a Canadian friend way back in the days when I was an art student!