Testimonials

Linda Burney
Former Director General
New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs

I pay tribute to Scholastic for having the vision to recognise the need for this Reconciliation kit. What a welcome sight the Reconciliation resources would have been when I was going to school. It would have been revolutionary and reassuring.

My own school experience, like most Australians of my generation, was essentially the teaching of a false history of Australia and a curriculum that did not reflect, or at best reflected a distorted and ugly image of, Aboriginal Australia. I recall vividly being taught that my people were aimless savages with no technology and the closest example of 'stone age' man living today.

Mick Dodson, whilst he was Social Justice Commissioner, said, 'Social Justice must always be considered from a perspective which is grounded in the daily lives of Indigenous Australians. Social Justice is what faces you in the morning. It is awakening in a house with an adequate water supply, cooking facilities and sanitation. It is the ability to nourish your children and send them to a school where their education not only equips them for employment but reinforces their knowledge and appreciation of their cultural inheritance. It is the prospect of genuine employment and good health: a life of choices and opportunity , free from discrimination.'

The Reconciliation series is designed in partnership with Indigenous people. It is aimed at the primary school level and its task is to develop an appreciation and respect for Aboriginal culture.

The resources embrace the fundamentals of reconciliation and set out to develop an understanding of our beliefs, our shared history, and the issues facing us, both as a nation and as Indigenous people.

In essence, the series recognises the importance of the Aboriginal story within the total Australian story.

Australia is not at peace. The Reconciliation series is a significant step in ensuring that this generation of young Australians grows up with a shared knowledge of the past and a recognition that all Australians share in, and celebrate, Aboriginal culture.

This kit will also send the message to Indigenous children that our stories and voices are part of the Australian mosaic that we should be proud of.

Thank you to Scholastic which has been an important player in the education arena for recognising that a country that cannot value all its citizens will always be
diminished and that the generation of young Australians in schools today
deserves better.

Linda Burney

Former Director General
New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs, MP