Page 492 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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At the orphanage, they would celebrate the birthdays on one day. There were too many kids, too many cakes. They celebrate on the same day and get the same present. It was always a little matchstick doll and a little matchbox…She was just a number…The apology for her on that day was a final kind of recognition that “I actually—I exist. My name is Veronica Anne McDonald.”
John Wenitong was the National Indigenous Education Development Officer for the Cape York Institute. He reflected on the impact on his work one year following the apology.
In the scheme of things publicly, for the majority of mainstream Australian people, I do not believe it has done that much, to tell you the truth. But in the areas of government and in the areas of philanthropy and corporate Australia, it has woken them up. It has woken them up to, “Hang on a minute. Something really bad did happen and our forefathers were part of that. Our country was part of that.” That is starting to change philanthropy, corporate, and government attitudes to how they work with Indigenous people. I see that in my work all the time.
While progress has been made in the decades since the Bringing them home report was released, including the cultural shift advanced by the apology, we know that child protection systems across the country, including here in the ACT, continue to disproportionately engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, and that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders children are overrepresented in out-of-home care.
The recommendations in the Our Booris, Our Way review and the advice of the Implementation Oversight Committee continue to guide the ACT government’s work in this space. Child protection work is complex and difficult at the best of times. It is now driven by the best interests of the children and not by some of the ideology that of course drove the Stolen Generations. But it is still a challenge. It is still a shocking overrepresentation. Building the change we need to see in the system is an enormous challenge, but it is one we must rise to. I know we must do better and so do our workers.
Heritage—Bass Gardens Park
MS VASSAROTTI (Kurrajong—Minister for the Environment, Minister for Heritage, Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services and Minister for Sustainable Building and Construction) (4.59):
Last November I had the pleasure of meeting Victor, a year 9 student at Canberra Grammar School, at the Narrabundah Family Fun Day. Victor is here today. As we were having a great conversation I was lucky to hear about his conservation work at Bass Gardens Park, a historic heritage park in Griffith. Bass Gardens Park was planted in 1930 and 1931 as part of the development of Blandfordia 5, a suburban heritage project in Griffith and Forrest. The Gardens Park is an integral part of Sulman’s Blandfordia 5 garden suburb design.
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