National Reconciliation Week
24 May 2022 by Lawrie Hallinan
The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme is: “Be Brave. Make Change.”
Reconciliation Australia say that this is
a challenge to all Australians— individuals, families, communities, organisations and government—to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.
Since 1996, Australian’s have marked National Reconciliation Week—27 May to 3 June as a commemoration of two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey:
- 27 May 1967 On this day, Australia’s most successful referendum saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the Census.
- 3 June 1992 On this day, the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision, the culmination of Eddie Koiki Mabo’s challenge to the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ (land belonging to no one) and leading to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of lands. This decision paved the way for Native Title.
