Andrew Peters, Aunty Dot Peters, Mayor Terry Avery, chair of the Indigenous Advisory Committee Robyn White, and back row: Cr Len Cox, Cr Samantha Dunn, Indigenous development Officer Garry Detez and EACH CEO Peter Ruzlya at the Reconciliation Lunch in Healesville. 65434
By Mara Pattison-Sowden
WURUNDJERI elder Aunty Dot Peters told a gathering in Healesville last week that reconciliation was happening every day.
“It happens every day of our lives by walking down the street and saying hello,” she said.
Eastern Access Community Health CEO Peter Ruzlya and Aunty Dot’s son Andrew Peters were guest speakers at the Reconciliation Lunch held at Sanctuary House Resort last Friday 27 May.
Mr Peters has been interviewing indigenous AFL players for his PHD at Swinburne University in an effort to link the past with the present.
“I’m trying to show what indigenous identity is today,” he said.
“You don’t have to live off the land and be dark skinned to be Aboriginal, but a lot of Australians don’t understand that.”
Mr Peters said he was talking to the players about how they perceived their identities while they were younger and how that identity has changed since becoming sports stars.
A strong advocate for reconciliation, EACH CEO Peter Ruzlya spoke about what it meant to himself and the wider community, and the difficulty in healing a society’s co-existence.
“It is a hard road to reconciliation… and there are powerful deep psychological forces saying don’t reconcile and yet, what choice do we have?” he asked the audience.
“We either stay the same or move forward no matter how hard and uphill the road of reconciliation is.”
Mr Ruzlya said reconciliation was the ultimate process in conflict resolution, more powerful than the courts or mediation, but also more difficult.
“Reconciliation seems to be impossible but it impacts the 200 year history of both the white population and Aboriginal population,” he said.
“It can shift relationships to a new level, and transform the future of relationships.”
A service will also be held tomorrow, Wednesday 1 June, at Healesville RSL at 6pm.
