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AIMS

Every person must have the freedom to be open and honest in their communication with others so that a foundation of mutual respect is established. This is essential for any long standing friendship or relationship to have meaning and sustainability.

This mutual respect is a great missing link in the existing relationships that many non Indigenous and Indigenous peoples have with each other. And this is a big reason why this nation has not been able to come to any real meaningful political change that respects our First Nations - their history, culture and law.

Truth Telling Together has three broad aims: 
 

  • To create an ever growing online portal to house resources to aid in Truth Telling and education of First Nations history, cultures and laws.

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  • To inspire the growth of mutual respect through truth-telling and education of self and of others.

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  • To aspire for meaningful and empowering political change that comes through Makarrata - an Indigenous led and controlled solution process, eventually leading to Treaty with First Nations.

'Without truth-telling there can be no mutual respect, and without mutual respect there will never be meaningful and empowering political change.'

- The late Rev Dr Gondarra OAM

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Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra has laid the following foundations for understanding how and why First Nations are still disempowered today. 

 

DJALKIRRI / FOUNDATIONS OF UNDERSTANDING
 

We must acknowledge that: 

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  • Most of us have been brought up, educated and influenced by the dominant paradigm and most of our belief systems, ideologies and perceptions of the world are framed within this dominant world view.

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  • First Nations have a very different world view that is in many instances in direct conflict with our own. 

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  • Within Australia there are hundreds of First Nations and each have their own world view, culture and laws. We cannot use a one size fits all approach in our understanding of them and the solutions that are appropriate.

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  • Different First Nations within Australia have been affected by colonisation to varying degrees, under different methods and at different times across history. The impact varies across each Nation and all have their own stories, trauma and truths.

 

  • First Nations world views are often misunderstood, misrepresented and still considered ‘primitive’ and ‘less sophisticated’ than the dominant. 

 

  • The dominant world view demands that First Nations engage only within the dominant paradigm

       (eg. governance, education, healthcare, decision making), meaning that they are always 

 â€‹      operating in a foreign space, compromised and never in their full power and autonomy. 

 

  • We can all inadvertently make this demand on First Nations people in the way we ourselves operate through our own conditioning. 

 

  • Only through mutual respect of diverging worldviews can there be meaningful and empowering political and social change that is not tokenistic and compromised. 

 
 
 © Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM

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