"I want to provide you with my view as an Aboriginal person, a perspective based on social justice, about the process of reconciliation. I want to go to the heart of what I believe the issues are that Australia and Australians must address if Australia is ever going to deal with the legacy of its past. If this legacy is not addressed, if the gulf that has created a society of inequity, of them and us, is not faced fully and honestly, then we will forever remain a diminished nation. A nation that puts its head in the sand and says it's someone else's responsibility.
'Identity is where we need to start. Australians need to begin to understand Aboriginality, to at last appreciate what being Aboriginal means. This is an understanding I wish I could magically endow into the hearts and minds of all people in Australia.
'I would like to share with you a very personal experience, as personal as it is probably universal for Indigenous people right across the planet."
(Source : University of New England)
