My Anglo Celtic ancestors and I may have worked hard for my comfortable lifestyle, but its foundations are at least to some degree undeniably embedded in injustice, maltreatment and disadvantage for Indigenous Australians.
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Appointed by the NSW Department of Education to establish the Awabakal Field Studies Centre in 1976, I recalled feeling embarrassed when it was pointed out that we, the department and local environmental educators, had named the centre without any consultation with the Awabakal people.
Our intentions were honourable, but our insensitivity was clear.
Seeking to engage more effectively, I was initially saddened to find that for some in the local community that the hurt was too deep for them to feel comfortable with us. Amazingly, there were others like Ray Kelly, who reached out to us and taught us a great deal, even though we were probably pretty slow learners.
One of the most profound challenges is that of understanding, of experiencing a landscape through the senses and cultural connections of others.
One of the most profound challenges is that of understanding, of experiencing a landscape through the senses and cultural connections of others.
Very early in my time heading the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), in 1998, I was required to consider issuing a consent for the Murray Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) to manipulate water levels in Lake Victoria in western NSW.
It was one of the most complex decisions I've ever faced. So, I decided to spend a night camping on the shore of the lake with the Barkindji elders to get an insight into the lake's cultural significance.
It became painfully clear that it wasn't just the 'bones and stones' that were important, but the actual lakeshore landscape. The middens and burials were there because the shoreline landscape itself was culturally significant. It was then that I realised we had it all upside down, we had to restore the vegetated landscape so that the plants would stabilise against erosion without needing intrusive engineering solutions.
With the benefit of the wisdom of the Barkindji elders I issued a consent for MDBC activities at the lake to continue but with strict conditions requiring careful management of the lakeshore landscape in consultation with the traditional owners.
Of course, my conditional consent was appealed by the MDBC and several years of protracted negotiation were required to settle key issues.
In restructuring the NPWS it was pleasing for me to be able to create a designated Aboriginal position as a director on the NPWS executive and to encourage some very capable young Aboriginal staff who were not only hard-working and able public servants, but came to NPWS with the confidence of community elders.
They helped establish stronger links between NPWS work and community cultural aspirations.
After leaving NPWS I was honoured to serve with two very capable Aboriginal people to devise a reparation scheme for people who had lost money from the long disbanded Aboriginal Trust Funds, which had operated up to the late 1960s.
It was pleasing to have our recommendations adopted by government and an all Aboriginal panel put in place to deliver at least a small measure of restitution for people.
The generosity of spirit evident as we travelled around NSW consulting with communities was very inspiring.
I have had a similar reaction reading the recent Uluru Statement from the Heart. It seems to me to be a beautifully succinct and reasonable document, providing a very positive basis for a national dialogue. To have it so immediately rejected by the government was very disappointing.
Far from being in any way threatening, I think the proposals for Constitutional recognition, a Voice to Government and a truth telling Makarrata Commission represent a robust and very constructive way forward.
I find it hard to imagine that anyone could read Kate Grenville's Secret River or Mark Tedeschi's Murder at Myall Creek and not recognise the need for non-Indigenous Australians to recalibrate our approach to reconciling our future with our past.
Maybe we have to quietly and politely challenge any friends who haven't yet done so, to read these books.
Acknowledging the harsh truths of past injustices is a prerequisite for an inclusive future.
Along the way, choosing a different date to celebrate our national day and similar gestures rate as very minor concessions in the interests of a future society in which we can all take pride.