Reconciliation - What IS that?

I went to a reconciliation breakfast in Fitzroy yesterday arranged by my wonderful friend Siu Chan. It was at Charcoal Lane that somewhat contentious reconstruction of the old Aboriginal Health Service in Gertrude St Fitzroy. I stayed the night before at Maggie Fooke's Arts Hotel in George St thanks again to Siu's arrangement and Maggie's generosity. I hadn't walked up Gertrude St at 7am for 20 years or more. Whenever I go to Fitzroy these days I feel melancholic because of the ghosts everywhere. I see so many people who are not there now. Not literally, but my memories are so powerful that I am hardly present myself as I am returned to an earlier time while standing in the same place. Les's family live large in these memories but also many other people. I remember Uncle Trevor, who I always loved for the story about him holding up the art supply shop with a paint brush stuck up his jumper. One that he had taken off the shelves. I remember having breakfast with Les at the Burek shop just next door to the Royal Hotel, that at one time was owned by Uncle Eugene who won it in a two up game. I remember being in the Royal and being abused by an angry Aboriginal man and being gently told by Les that he was someone who had had a hard time of it. I understood that Les didn't need to stand up for my honour as I was already the one with the power just by virtue of my whiteness. I remember walking the streets at night singing Patsy Cline songs, looking for Les, who had been speeding for too long and needed to be guided home to bed. I remember visiting the uncles in the park beneath the flats. I remember the first time I met Les's mother, Gwen Lovett, on the 17th floor of the high rise. She hadn't been out of the flat for many years due to her agoraphobia, set off by an attack in the lifts. I remember going on marches in NAIDOC week. We all met in Gertrude St, outside the Health Service and in a tight little pack walked through the city streets shouting Land Rights Now. Les, Mille, Bear and many others were walking down Gertrude St with me yesterday morning. They came into Charcoal Lane and were amazed by the fancy restaurant with young Aboriginal people serving food and the pack of people there to support the sale of a beautiful photograph of Jack Charles by Rob McNicols to raise money for an Aboriginal music festival. As Kyle Vander Kuyp gave the address, after a welcome to country, I began to cry. I couldn't stop. I had to leave. I was both moved but also deeply sad about all those people who wouldn't see the changes they had participated in. I wished they could be there.

The most poignant thing about this for me, on reflection, is how this must be for Aboriginal people who are all surrounded by so much loss and death. So many tragic circumstances. So much bereavement.
I sometimes wake in the morning and feel the deep well of sadness and grief, that is mostly still water, ripple and threaten to tip over the lip that holds it in, beginning a flood. I am surrounded by support in the very structure of society that I belong to. I can go and get a coffee, call a friend, go to work or the studio, a multiple of ways to hold back the flood. Not so for many Aboriginal people who stay home to avoid the feelings of rejection that are either out there, or imagined as being out there, based on past experiences.

I came across a Youtube clip that provides the best explanation for reconciliation I have ever heard.
It is 17 minutes long but worth every minute. If you are Australian or live in Australia you should watch it and send it around to everyone you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LP4GSk0Y0

Les at Trades Hall - Photo by Marina Baker