On the threshold of Reconciliation Week, REAIE encourages our members around Australia to stand together in recognition of Australia’s First Peoples; recognising that we all live, learn and work on unceded land.
Understanding the sovereignty of this country and upholding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, cultural heritage and rights, reinforces our recognition of the importance of true democracy; where everyone’s voice can be heard and new learnings generate shared actions and responsibilities. This agenda can only be realised when we each do our part. To truly recognise importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices requires that we open our minds and hearts, holding the responsibility of ‘listening’ at the core of all that we do. This attitude of openness is underpinned by a listening that is “sensitive to the patterns that connect us to others, where our understanding and our own being are a small part of a broader, integrated knowledge that holds the universe together” (Rinaldi, 2006).
REAIE makes a firm commitment to listening to the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as we go forward – seeking deeper understandings of ancestral knowledge systems and promoting contexts of cultural safety for all. Making this commitment to respectful engagement, genuine collaboration and consultation in this way, acknowledges that different perspectives, languages, histories, symbols and stories underpin and encode a shared humanity. This week, in the true spirit of reconciliation, we uphold and celebrate the relationships, knowledges and rich perspectives that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to bring as we work together to reimagine children’s education for a just society.
