BY KAMALA EMANUEL
HOBART — While the "walk for reconciliation" across the Tasman Bridge planned for July 23 has the endorsement of the political establishment as well as Aboriginal people, calls are also being raised for far more substantial steps towards justice for Australia's indigenous people.
Deb Chandler, a walk organiser and member of the stolen generations, has been impressed by the large number of people eager to take part. School students in particular are keen to repair the hurts of the past, she said. "When people walk together, they talk together and learn to live together. It creates a unity. John Howard won't say sorry, but the country is doing it for him", she said.
For Aboriginal Joan Wright, it is also about reconciliation and unity. "It'll promote more unity if more white people come. I see too much segregation, too much racism ... There could never be justice for what was taken away from us, but there could be reconciliation without racism and segregation. I'm coming, and so are my kids, my workplace, my broader family. I hope it's huge."
Rosie Smith told Green left Weekly she is looking forward to the "opportunity to see how much support we have from the mainstream community". Asked if it is about reconciliation, she said: "No, it's an opportunity for us to put our point of view ... We want to have a treaty, we want justice for Aboriginal people, sovereignty and self-determination, a recognition of being a people. We want control over decision-making, about what happens to our young offenders, about what health needs need to be addressed, and our needs in the education system."
Smith says she knows many groups will be preparing banners and placards to raise these and other issues and make the walk more than just a reconciliation event.
For Kerry Stone, too, "Things are too unfair for [the walk] to be about reconciliation. Maybe for white people, but not for us." Most of Tasmania's Aboriginal people have their Aboriginality questioned frequently, she said, because of the myth that Tasmanian Aborigines were wiped out. "The walk gives the Aboriginal community a chance to come together as a community, to acknowledge that we're here and we're staying", she said. "It's going to be very emotional. I'll be proud to be a part of it."
John Dickson, who works for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council, said that if the Legislative Council select committee had agreed to hand back eight culturally and historically significant parcels of land to the Aboriginal community as requested, it would have pushed reconciliation forward. Its refusal to do so has meant that reconciliation is "stuck", he said.
Dickson sais there is disbelief and disappointment at the decision. "We thought we mightn't get it all, but that we would get at least some."
Tasmanian Greens representative Cath Hughes said, "The federal government has been trying to constrict the parameters as to what reconciliation should address. But the leadership is not coming from the politicians; the community is almost driving this. It's a symbolic expression of people's endorsement of a mandate to provide justice for Aboriginal people."
Democratic Socialist Party organiser Alex Bainbridge explained that the DSP draws inspiration from the walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in particular the justice contingent that took part. "Hundreds of people joined the contingent around the slogan 'No reconciliation without justice', calling for sovereignty, a treaty, and social justice, demanding that the Howard government overturn mandatory sentencing, restore Abstudy and stop Aboriginal deaths in custody", he explained.
"The official version of reconciliation is tokenism if the racism, the unequal treatment of Aboriginal people, remains unchallenged", he said. "The message we are going to be putting forward is simple: justice before reconciliation."
Caroline Spotswood from Riawunna, the Aboriginal education unit at the University of Tasmania, put it plainly: "I've got nothing to reconciliate about", she said. "Other people can go, that's fine. If they want to say sorry, that's fine. If it's for the injustices and about admitting to taking Aboriginal land, and the murder and rape that occurred to take the land, that's fine. But I don't need to do that. I hope it's not just the 'in thing'. But if it's about justice, I'll be there."
[See page 30 for details of the walk. Ring the DSP on 6234 6397 for information about the 'Justice before reconciliation' contingent.]