National Reconciliation Week falls between the 27th May and the 3rd June 2018. This week celebrates two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The theme of this years NRW, Don’t Keep History a Mystery, highlights some of the lesser known aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and achievements, to prompt Australians to ask themselves: what are some of the things I don’t know about our shared history? Reconciliation Australia has created a reading list for this years celebrations, some of which the Library has available through Primo Search:
- Declaration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples – a beautifully illustrated edition, in which Michel Streich’s simple yet moving illustrations add powerful resonance to this highly topical and controversial issue. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a clear and strong statement of hope, belief and purpose – an important document for our time.
- Good Morning, Mr Sarra, by Chris Sarra – The remarkable true story of one man’s fight to turn the tide of low expectations, this account follows educator Chris Sarra from his humble beginnings in a large Italian-Aboriginal family to his triumphant achievements today.
- Talking to my country, by Stan Grant – An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture and national identity.
- Black and White together FCAATSI: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, 1958-1973, by Sue Taffe. This rigorously researched and absorbing book on Australia’s pre-eminent Indigenous civil rights organisation began as an oral history and contains rare interviews with former members and strategists, including Faith Bandler, Charles Perkins, Stan Davey, Shirley Andrews and Joe McGinness.
- Dark Emu: Black seeds agriculture or accident?, by Bruce Pascoe. This title puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians.
