What did I hope to achieve?
Objective:
Develop my personal knowledge of my local area and share this experience with others in the area.
Contribute to my community’s awareness of the history and culture of the Yuibera people.
Strategy:
After researching my local area I put together the information that seemed of high relevance and interest. From this I created a mini tour of the area and promoted the tour using word of mouth and social media. As the misconceptions about the history of Aboriginals in the Mackay areas was common among locals my aim was to target people from the local area.
Research:
I researched the local indigenous history in the community by talking with elders in the community, library and internet research. I then spoke with non-Indigenous people living in Mackay to gain an understanding of how they perceived the history of the Yuibera people.
Actions:
From the research conducted I identified common ground and knowledge gaps that I could incorporate into my event. The most commonly talked about places are the walks at Cape Hillsborough, The Leap and the South Sea Islander hut located in the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens.
How was the reconciliation event advertised?
A general invite was put out to the Mackay Community. This was completed via social Media, word of mouth and leaflet drops at some local community neighbourhood centres.
While the response was positive there where scheduling and transportation difficulties among those who wanted to attend resulting in only one person being able to make it.
What happened and what was achieved?
The tour occurred on a Tuesday, in attendance was one other person, Amelia. The first stop was the Diversity board walk and the Yuibera plant trail at Cape Hillsborough National Park. This walk highlights the plants in the area and the traditional uses that the Yuibera people had for them (Department of Parks, Sports and Racing 2012). There are also areas of cultural significance that can be viewed throughout the walk, including a midden (Department of Parks, Sports and Racing 2012). The walk went for approximately one hour. While on the walk the time was used to discuss what it would have been like before settlement, and the ingenuity needed to live harmoniously off the land and how these practices could be applied to modern day life. For example, the possibility of developing farming practices that are more suited to the Australian climate (Wilson 2014).
Next stop was The Leap, and the feeling there was quite different. Amelia had only heard the commonly told and incorrect history of The Leap. On the drive there we spoke about the real history of The Leap, and how it was hundreds of people who died, not just a single woman (Richards 2014). Once there, we walked around the area, taking in the height of the mountain. We even spotted some caves at the top that were mentioned in the history of The Leap by Moore (1990). The original plan was to have lunch at The Leap hotel, but the combination of the weathered statue depicting an Aboriginal women holding her baby and what we had been discussing had such a negative impact on us that neither of us wanted to stay for lunch. Instead we continued on to the South Sea Islander hut and had lunch at the Botanic gardens.
The South Sea Islander hut was closed, it is only open on Sundays, so we walked around the area and discussed our combined knowledge of South Sea Islander history, beginning with how they were brought to Mackay, the impact of the white Australia policy and the present day community (Mackay Regional Council n.d., Miller 2010). Amelia is of South Sea Islander decent which meant she had a large input on this topic. After leaving The Leap with such a negative feeling this made a nice change.
This day had a positive impact on both myself and Amelia. There seems to be this prevalent idea that one history needs to be ignored so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can work together to shape the future. This day highlighted that it is the knowledge of all the involved cultural groups that can explain the past and present and allows us to move forward together.
What made this event successful or not in terms of achieving the goal of reconciliation?
I believe this event was successful as it raised awareness of local culture and history. Throughout this activity, (including the research for the tour) new connections were made between myself and community members. This resulted in a deepened understanding and respect for each other’s culture, history and differences.
How did the participants respond to the activity?
A short feedback form was provide at the end of the tour, the responses are as follows:
How would you rate the overall experience?
8/10
What part of the day did you enjoy the most?
The bush walk, it was interesting, I learnt a lot and it was at a nice relaxing pace.
What part did you least enjoy/would change?
The dead snake in the bush walk, I am terrified of snakes.
Amelia and I at Cape Hillsborough
How did I handle the experience?
When I initially heard about the event I felt overwhelmed. How could I organise a reconciliation event in 6 weeks?! Let alone something that I connected with and was proud to put my name to, not just something that I was doing for the marks. After my freak out, I sat back and read the literature and then talked with students that had completed this task previously. It was through this process, combined with reflection that I came to realise that it wasn’t the size of the event that mattered but the quality (Bindi, Green, Gilbert, Bessarab 2013).
Once I realised this I felt more comfortable talking with people in the community about my reconciliation event. It surprised me how positive people were in response to discussing this event. Building on these interactions in the community and independent research I put together a day tour of areas of significance in the Mackay area.
Due to my extensive preparation I felt confidant on the day, was able to talk with confidence about the areas we visited and answered any questions asked.
Was it positive or negative for the participants (including myself)?
Positive
What have I learnt from this experience?
Reconciliation is about actions not words, and it doesn’t matter what size the group is as once the knowledge is shared it is out there ready to be shared again, in another setting.
What would I do differently next time?
I would hopefully have more time to devote to the event. I would also try to organise it so that it occurred on a time when the South Sea Islander Hut was open. Unfortunately this was not possible to do this time due to time restraints but even with the hut closed it was still a valuable and rewarding visit.
In what ways did your experience link to the readings and other theoretical literature?
Before I could begin planning my event I had to understand what reconciliation is. To develop my understating I wrote my own interpretation of reconciliation which I included in the beginning of this document. This interpretation is based on the readings found in the course and my own research.
Once I had an understanding of what reconciliation is I began to think about how I could implement a reconciliation event in my local community. It was this understanding of reconciliation that allowed me to develop a reconciliation event that aimed to increase local knowledge of the history of the Yuibera people and South Sea Islanders. This event provided me the opportunity to develop respectful relationships between myself and my community, which includes Indigenous individuals and organisations.
