Tamworth Reconciliation Week starts with The Long Walk

The city marked the start of the week with The Long Walk on Saturday – a take on the 2004 walk from Melbourne to Canberra in a show of support for an equitable and inclusive Australia – with dozens of locals weaving their way through the CBD from Ray Walsh House to Bicentennial Park for an official ceremony. 

Among them was Gomeroi man, Don Craigie.

“What this means to me today, especially after the statements that came out of Uluru yesterday ...  (is that) our people have said that we would like our name not just written into the constitution, but entrenched into the constitution as the first peoples of these lands,” he said.

“When there has been disagreement amongst peoples and communities, it’s about getting together either through a Makarrata, a treaty … so we can work out our problems in a formal way that is acceptable by all.”

His comments follow the Uluru convention rejecting to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution, instead backing the Indigenous voice. 

It also called for a "Makarrata Commission" to supervise agreements between Indigenous groups and government and a period of truth-telling about the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Kamilaroi man Len Walters believed education was key to moving toward reconciliation.

“It’s very important that we look at reconciliation as a way of understanding one another a lot better ... where everybody knows a little bit about aboriginal culture because culture is the foundation of who we are as people, and it always will be,” he said.

“Regardless of what findings come out of all those talks (in Uluru), it’s important we as a community still stay strong and look at ways in which we can further progress the way in which we go about reconciliation in this town.”