Why reconciliation matters: A personal story

As part of commemorating National Reconciliation Week, Alcoa’s Leah Brackin shares her story and explains why mutual understanding is key to moving forward as a unified society.

Less than 60 years ago, Australia’s Traditional Owners were not recognised as people under the Constitution.

Prior to a referendum on 27 May 1967, there was no recognition of Aboriginal people in the census. They had to apply for permission to marry their partner of choice.

That may all be in the past, but for many people, including Alcoa Senior Community Relations Advisor Leah Brackin, it is less than a generation ago and a lot of the associated pain still runs deep.

A proud Aboriginal woman whose “mob” hails from Western Australia’s Kimberley region, Leah considers herself to be privileged. But she speaks openly about the struggles she and her family have had to face finding their way in the world.

“My great grandmother was born in the Kimberleys, near Halls Creek, and at birth was taken from there to Bruce Rock (about 2600km to the south) where she was registered as a British woman’s birth child,” Leah said.

The removal of children from their families in Western Australia was authorised under the 1905 Aborigines Act and the oversight of the “Chief Protector of Aborigines” who became the legal guardian of every Aboriginal child to the age of 16 years and permitted authorities to “send and detain” Aboriginal children in institutions and in “service” (work).

Leah’s own mother and two of her aunties were removed from their mother when they were just five, four and two because they were deemed to be suffering from neglect. In truth, Leah’s grandmother was away working to provide for her family and the girls were in the care of relatives. Authorities saw the opportunity to remove them claiming mistreatment, and not only took them from their home but separated Leah’s mother from her younger sisters.

In the homes, the young children were required to relinquish any remaining aspects of their own culture and were often grossly mistreated and abused. One of Leah’s aunties was placed in a dormitory for girls aged three to five where anyone who wet the bed received an electric shock as a deterrent. That was occurring during the 1950s, the post-war period when Australia was undergoing a long boom of prosperity, full employment and rising living standards.

Not so for the country’s First Nations peoples, many of whom are still alive today and carry the burden of such trauma.

Leah says the lack of what many people consider basic human rights, the mistreatment and ongoing injustice that occurred over multiple generations are the reasons why barriers remain for many Aboriginal people.

“So many Aboriginal people over generations haven’t had the role models to teach them how to be good mums or dads,” Leah said.

“There’s a lot of trauma there. Mum raised me and my sisters well – we were fortunate she had the support of the wider family and that was a big help. But not all people have that capacity or opportunity. If they’ve grown up being unloved, treated badly, never having had good, positive role models, then how are they going to show love and raise their children?

“You can’t do what you can’t see and that’s where you get problems with mental health, and people turning to alcohol and drugs, not just because of their own experiences, but because that trauma has been carried on through generations.

“That’s why we start losing our connection to Country and to our culture.”

Connection to Country is a vital aspect of Aboriginal culture. It is often misunderstood by non-Indigenous Australians who see it as an issue of ownership. But as Leah explains, ownership is not the objective.

“From the time of European settlement, Australia was considered terra nullius, or ‘no man’s land’,” she said. “That means before colonialisation, no one lived here but that’s a complete myth. That’s what Eddie Mabo fought to have changed and it’s what the High Court overturned on 3 June 1992.

“Think about how you feel about your home or a special place you like to visit, then imagine some outsider saying you can’t go there anymore. That’s breaking your connection with country and it’s heartbreaking.

“I didn’t grow up on my ancestors’ Country in the Kimberly, but I’m still drawn to it and I go back there whenever I can. It’s not about owning a piece of it, it’s about being able to go there and hunt, fish, learn our stories and heal.”

Leah as adamant that reconciliation is not about blame or making people feel guilty. She says it is about developing a mutual and truthful understanding of the history and moving forward together with a sense of all Australians having equal access to the same opportunities. And she says reconciliation needs to be driven by all people.

“It’s not about saying sorry because I did something wrong, it’s about saying I’m sorry that these things happened to you,” she said.

“It’s acknowledging that we’ve gone through these past traumas and are still living them, about understanding there is this multi-generational trauma continuing.

“Aboriginal people have always been the ones trying to educate people, coming to a line to meet where others are comfortable. We’ve had to always say that we’ll do better, we’ll conform to what you need us to do, we’ll act more non-Aboriginal.

“The only way we’re going to move forward is for that to stop. We’re saying it’s time for non-Aboriginal people to step past that line, come over here to us, walk with us. There’s no need for non-Aboriginal people to be defensive – it’s time to let the guard down, hear what we are saying without feeling attacked.

“The Aboriginal culture is a beautiful, peaceful culture, never about violence. We want to share it. We want to move forward and that’s why we say walk with us, come on this journey.

“It’s a journey not just for Aboriginal people to lead. We need our non-Aboriginal brothers and sisters leading with us. Because that’s what reconciliation is about – we have to be in this together.”