RECONCILIATION WEEK
National Sorry Day, or the National Day of Healing, is an annual event that has been held in Australia on 26 May since 1998.
The Bringing Them Home report, which was tabled in Australian Parliament, was the result of an inquiry into government policies and practices during the 20th century that caused Aboriginal children to be separated from their families, with the intention of assimilating them into white Australian culture. This resulted in what became known as the "Stolen Generations", with the effects of these traumatic removals being felt by succeeding generations even today. The report made many recommendations, including that state and federal governments should issue formal apologies and that funding should be provided to help deal with the consequences of the policies.
Some John Therry students attended the Sorry Day Service on Wednesday 24th May as part of our commitment to Sorry Day and reconciliation week. This service was held at the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Church in Minto, in support of Sr Kerry who works closely with our College. Our students helped in all aspects of the Mass and represented the College with great pride as always. We are blessed to have students from diverse backgrounds at John Therry, including many who are Aboriginal. The great gift of this is that students get to know people from all different cultures, and see first hand that the stereotypes that might exist for different groups of people are unfair and untrue. We have far more in common as humans than differences between cultures. We hope that reconciliation week provides the opportunity for us all to learn more about the beautiful culture and gifts of the Aboriginal traditions, so we can walk more gently together into the future.