THE STORIES WE TELL

We are shaped by the stories that we choose from our history. Story telling is at the heart of human understanding and these stories are not powerless. They govern our self-image and the basis of our actions. It is important that in choosing the stories of our past that they are relevant and based on a true reflection of fact. As a society we have come through a difficult period where public hysteria was whipped up over a number of issues. Mabo, the Wik decision and asylum seekers seem to have been the big ones. The disturbing fact was the vehemence of ordinary Australians, determined to shut away the secrets of our past and to continue to deny the causes of much of the disadvantages inside our society.

It is through my adult life that I have witnessed first hand the development of the neo-liberal juggernaut and its appropriation of our society. I am in a reflective mood of late and am asking how has this occurred? I am of the belief that it is our storytelling that has provided the 'cracks in the wall' for the big end town with its apologists to attack.

'How is it our minds are not satisfied? What means this whispering in the bottom of our hearts' (Richard Windeyer, 1842.)

The dark secret haunting the Australian heart and consciousness is our colonial past and the treatment of the 300 to 400 tribal societies that existed in Australia. This belongs in our story. This we owe not only to Aboriginal people and Tones Strait Islanders but to ourselves as well. We need to include the story of their tragedies, their survival and their triumph. We need the grace to take into our national consciousness the effects of the dispossession of these peoples.

It is through the inclusion of the stories of the seizure of territories of Aboriginal peoples and the wars that were waged upon them that we as a nation can begin the journey through this century with stories which give us a better understanding of our nation and ourselves as a people.

I believe by opening up our stories to include the hard, cold, shameful facts of our mistakes that we as a nation and as peoples can better resist the downside of a globalised world. Who we are is complex. We Australians identify best with the absence of bullshit It's a tough old journey, but collectively we can find, though our stories and yarns, the sustenance that will maintain our Australianess. I believe that when we do look at our stories we will not only find the triumph of the human spirit but we will also rediscover those people and groups who were able to work in a spirit of cooperation and collaborate together to develop their societies, cultures and communities. These people were also part of the colonial landscape, they crossed the cultural divide and we need also to recognise their contribution to the development of the nation. Their stories are not as romantic as frontier warfare, nor are there victims. But they existed and we must acknowledge them and their triumph.

Reconciliation is not just an afternoon walk to feel good (though this gesture was for most people of all Australian cultures uplifting and helpful) It needs to be personal. It is a search for the stories at the heart of our collective experiences, at the heart of our knowledge and a reply to a 'whispering in the bottom of our hearts.

-Gary