A SPECIAL morning breakfast was held in the Queens Gardens on Wednesday last week, where more than 400 members of the local community came together to honour the Stolen Generations.
The event, which acknowledged the 11th anniversary of the National Apology, was initiated following the National Apology in 2008, which was attended by locals, Fran Smullen and Renee Dean. On their way back to Shepparton they wondered how to do something locally that recognised that.
They wanted local non-Aboriginal people to understand what the apology meant and symbolised for members of the stolen generations, their families and communities and all Aboriginal people.
Co-convener, Dierdre Robertson, said, “The wider community are not responsible for what happened in the past but they are involved in the future and what happens in the future.
“We involve all secondary schools and some primary schools, which is really great. Our children are the future so it is important.
“This year we had students from Goulburn Valley Grammar School, Olivia Bolton and Patrick Bolton, read the apology.
“Members of the wider community hearing young people stand up and talk about the impact of the apology on them today and the Stolen Generation, shows the flow-on, intergenerational effects.
“This year, Ebony Joachim was one of our young guest speakers and she shared her grandmother’s story of being taken, but she spoke as if it was from her point of view.
“Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe followed that with a speech about how she didn’t learn in school about the way Aboriginal people farmed the land, how they understood the seasons and astronomy and how they had a really complex system of collaborating. It was a really powerful speech by Kim.
“Eric Brown then played the didgeridoo while we had a minute of silence, which was very powerful. Then we had Lillie Walker finish off by singing. She ended singing in language, which was wonderful.”
