By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Ranges residents are being called on to learn about and celebrate Aboriginal culture and history early next month, with the council hosting a Reconciliation Week event in Healesville.
The council’s event, From Racism Towards Cultural Pride and Safety, will be held at Healesville’s Memo Hall from 10am-1pm on Thursday, 9 June.
Speakers Professor Kerry Arabena, Richard Frankland and Anne Barton will discuss white privilege and its impacts, as well as celebrating cultural pride and living with cultural safety.
Mr Detez said that Ms Barton was the great granddaughter of Sir Edmund Barton – Australia’s first Prime Minister, and one of the architects of the White Australia policies.
He said Ms Barton would discuss white privilege – privileges in society that benefitted white people more than non-white people from similar backgrounds – and the impact it had on modern Australia, while Prof Arabena would discuss cultural approaches to improving Aboriginal health and well-being.
Mr Frankland, a Gunitjmara man and singer-songwriter, will discuss cultural safety, and the idea of a society free from racism.
Prof Arabena has a Doctorate in Human Ecology, and is chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equity Unit at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health – and is a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait.
Last year’s event at the Memo drew residents, community group representatives and Aboriginal elders, discussing the state of reconciliation and the concept of “Indigenous ways of knowing” – a term Mr Detez described as “stuff based on connection”.
“You’re connected to all that is, rather than the western way of knowing you’re separate from all that is,” he said.
“Once you start to understand the connections you have to your natural environment, that’s when the notions of family, kinship and country come into that space, when you can connect to all that is and bringing that into the organisations around their power structures.”
This year’s event is being organised by the council, in conjunction with Inspiro and Healesville Indigenous Community Services Association (HICSA).
Mr Detez said he hoped Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals from the Yarra Ranges would attend the event – particularly those who may not know much about reconciliation, racism and Aboriginal culture.
“That’s the main reason why we’re putting this sort of stuff on – to provide some deeper insights into a lot of the issues that are affecting our society today,” he said.
“We’re really interested in moving past this concept of racism, to a community where all cultures are valued, acknowledged and recognised.”
For more information, or to RSVP to the event, email g.detez@yarraranges.vic.gov.au, or call 9294 6462.
