Why I won't take part in Reconciliation Week this year

Next week, 27 May to 3 June, is National Reconciliation Week (NRW). For the first time since NRW commenced in the 1990s, and having talked with my First Nations friends, I won’t be taking part in any celebrations this year.

Reconciliation Week was created as a meaningful effort to try to heal the damage and pain inflicted on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders since colonisation in 1788.

We made some progress on 27 May 1967 when Australians voted in huge numbers to recognise First Nations people in the constitution. That vote, nearly 50 years ago, sent a clear message that Australians overwhelmingly supported the proposal that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would be counted as part of Australia’s population.

It took decades, until 14 October 2023, for Australians to be given the next opportunity to make a statement in support of our First Nations people by providing them with a direct voice to parliament.

History will now show that while we were willing to ‘see’ our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders when we voted two generations ago, we couldn’t find it in our hearts to vote to ‘hear’ them last year.

‘Reconciliation’ is about unity and respect between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians. Such a wonderful concept in theory.

But when 60 per cent of Australians vote ‘no’ to giving our most disadvantaged a voice, how does that foster unity and respect?

What are our First Nations people supposed to celebrate during the upcoming National Reconciliation Week given the smack in the face we gave them last October?

I know there are many non-Indigenous people like me, still gutted by the Voice Referendum result, who will give National Reconciliation Week a miss this year. The whole thing just seems so meaningless when put in context.

About the writer

Jeremy Lasek has many decades of experience in media, marketing, events and PR. His career began in the Illawarra with the Lake Times, ABC Radio and WIN-TV. For eight years Jeremy was news director for WIN in Canberra and was national news director before joining the National Capital Authority as head of media and events. Jeremy was executive director of ACT Government Communications, Events, Arts, Heritage and Protocol for many years, was Chief of Staff to the ACT Chief Minister and had responsibility for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations in 2013. Before returning to Wollongong, Jeremy was CEO of the National Australia Day Council (including the Australian of the Year Awards) and head of communications for the Australian Federal Police. He was part of the Yes23 campaign and is a regular Illawarra Flame contributor.