Preamble

A lot of organizations now have a preamble when a meeting is started recognizing, Aboriginals and their ancestors. I don't have any issue going along with it because I think the coming of europeans the most significant history this Australian continent has ever seen.

I was reading the 'Quakers Handbook of Practice and Procedure in Australia' and was struck with their preamble. It is everything which I would want to say...

 

Quakers in Australia acknowledge that we live and worship on the lands of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander peoples, country which gives them physical and spiritual identity and is filled with the spiritpresence of their ancestors.

We acknowledge:

the sovereignty of Australia’s First Peoples over the land we inhabit;

that the land was taken from them at devastating cost, with no just resolution;

that this trauma is ongoing and diminishes us all;

that our testimonies call us to be in right relationship with all peoples, the land and ourenvironment.

Therefore we seek in our daily lives:

to educate ourselves about the true history and present reality of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander peoples, and uphold their right to self-determination;

to acknowledge within ourselves, and bring into the light, that which contributes to the debilitatingeffects of racism, insensitivity, lack of awareness and misrepresentation;

to work towards justice and peace, and healing for us all.

 

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