Reconciliation Week 2022: Reconciliation Week 2022

What is Reconciliation Week?

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme, “Be Brave. Make Change.”

This is a challenge to all Australians— individuals, families, communities, organisations and government—to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

Why these dates?

The dates for NRW are the same each year; 27 May to 3 June.

These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

27 May 1967 On this day, Australia’s most successful referendum saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the Census.

3 June 1992  On this day, the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision, the culmination of Eddie Koiki Mabo’s challenge to the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ (land belonging to no one) and leading to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of lands. This decision paved the way for Native Title.

(information from NRW site)

2022 Artwork

Each year, a competition is run to choose an artwork to represent the annual theme. 

The 2022 artwork has been created by Torres Strait Islander illustrator, Tori-Jay Mordey.  It shows the different faces of Australians working for a just and equal society.

Unpack the artwork in your class using this lesson or use the See, Think, Wonder Routine.

Create your own poster

As a group, or individually, children can be assisted to create their own NRW poster based on the 2021 theme. While they are creating their poster, encourage them to think about:

• What colours or symbols might help to show reconciliation and show what it means to be brave and make change? How? Why?
• What words or phrases they might like their educators to help them write on the poster, and what might those words help to teach people about NRW? How? Why?
• Who might they like to show their poster to? How would they like people to feel, and what would they like them to learn, when they see/read the poster?

(questions from Narragunnawali website)

What is reconciliation?

Reconciliation means different things to different people.

Head (think): What do you already know about reconciliation? Why is history an important part of reconciliation?

Heart (feel): What do/could we feel about reconciliation? How is reconciliation part of our own story?

Hand (act): What are some things that you/we/people could do to help to make reconciliation better? How can we make sure that, in the future, reconciliation will live in our hearts, minds and actions?
 

Inquiry Questions to Consider

Early Learning

• What does ‘being brave’ mean? How can you be brave as a learner? 
• Who are some people who have been brave and made change in the reconciliation movement both in the past and present? How can all Australians be inspired by these role models to be brave and make change for the future? 
• Why is it important to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ contributions to our national and local communities?
• What do you think the 2022 NRW artwork and poster tells us about identity (being and belonging) and learning together (becoming)? How does it represent reconciliation in our minds, hearts and actions?

Lower Primary

• What does the 2022 theme for NRW mean to you? Why is it important?
• What do you think “make change” might refer to in the NRW 2022 theme, Be Brave. Make Change? Who can/should ‘make change’ and how?
• What does ‘brave’ mean? How can we use learning to help us be brave? Why is it important to think and learn before we act? 
• What are some of the brave shared and individual actions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that have led to change in the past? What changes are they trying to make happen? How can all Australians be inspired by these role models to be brave and make change for the future?
• Why is it important to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ contributions to our national and local communities? 
• What is a ‘journey’? Why do you think the process of reconciliation in Australia is often called a ‘journey’? 
• Why is celebrating NRW important to the wider journey of reconciliation? 

Upper Primary

• What does the 2022 theme for NRW Be Brave. Make Change. mean to you? Why is it important? 
• What do you think ‘make change’ might refer to in the NRW 2022 theme? Who can/should ‘make change’ and how?
• What does ‘be brave’ mean to you? Why and when can it hard to be brave? How might ‘being brave’ help you take action and make change towards reconciliation? 
• What are some of the brave shared and individual actions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that have led to change in the past and present? Why is it important to amplify and listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices and perspectives, and how can you actively do this?
• Why is it important to think before we act? What could you— together with others—do to turn learning about reconciliation into meaningful action to make change? How can we use learning to help us be brave?
• What changes is the reconciliation movement trying to make happen? How can all Australians be inspired to be brave and make change in the present and future?
• What is a ‘journey’? What are some key milestones that have been made in Australia’s reconciliation journey in your lifetime and/or before you were born? What can we learn from these milestones?
• What are some milestones/changes that you hope to be part of in the next 20 years of our reconciliation journey, and why? 
• Why is celebrating NRW important to the wider process of reconciliation?

(questions from Narragunnawali website)