There have been a number of events in Lismore today as part of National Reconciliation Week, a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements towards reconciliation in Australia.

The date remains the same each year for National Reconciliation Week — 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.

HART Services on Conway Street held a reconciliation event this morning involving a smoking ceremony by Uncle Gilbert, creating a symbolic hand tree, live music from Uncle Billy and a BBQ by the Lions Club. The event was attended by Australian Government Services Australia employees, Summerland Credit Union and other nearby staff from local businesses plus the wonderful volunteers from HART.

Uncle Gilbert explained that reconciliation week was all about supporting each other and looking after each other, especially the elderly and closing the gap.

"We close the gap as a community," Uncle Gilbert said, "The government's not doing a good job. The reconciling starts with each other as we walk together and respect each other."

HART Services CEO Isaac Smith echoed those thoughts.

"It's been great. It's been great this morning to see people come along and we're here having some kangaroo and enjoying a barbecue. We really wanted to focus on reconciliation week and this year's theme a voice for generations because a lot of people focus on Naidoc, which is a great celebration, but reconciliation for us works really well because we have a big client base, multigenerational and we want all of them to experience that sort of connection to local culture."

"So, for us reconciliation makes the perfect event to bring the businesses of Lismore together, the community of Lismore together to think about reconciliation."

Part of the reconciliation event this morning was the creation of a hand tree where anyone covered their left and right hands in paint and placed them on a painted tree on the side of the HART building.

"Handprints are a really, sort of graphic symbol of connection for First Nations people. So it's really nice way of connecting a person to a place because when you look at First Nations culture, it's all about connection to place."

"So, there's something to say about putting your hand, I know this is a building, but putting your hand on the building, putting your hand on a tree, like feeling a rock, there's something in that. There's no surprise that if you talk to mental health experts if you go for a walk in the bush, you're guaranteed to feel better than when you started."

Issac is hoping this can become and annual event at HART Services on Conway Street that grows each year giving more businesses the opportunity to be part of Reconciliation Week.

"It's a bit hard for a retail shop or a bank to do a reconciliation event in their business, but for us, we've got this great space here. Reconciliation is all about joining with others, so if we can encourage all the businesses in Lismore to start seeing this as an annual event that they can come to, it could be something really, really impressive for Reconciliation Week. So, I really want to push that with the chamber and push that with other businesses to be involved."

Lismore City Council held a special flag raising ceremony in front of the Corporate Centre this morning followed by a morning tea for the Aboriginal Advisory Group.

Aunty Jenny Smith gave the Welcome to Country and raised the Aboriginal flag. She spoke to the Lismore App about the importance of the event.

“As a local Widjabul Wia-bal custodian of this area, for me, it's an important step forward in the growth and the maturity of this nation as a whole, because it shows that we aren't alone as aboriginal people,” she said. 

“People are now starting to listen to what we have to say… because we have so many stories from the past histories that are important, that we need to teach the rest of Australia.”

“I was born in the Stolen Generation era, I could have been taken - I had a brother taken under the Aboriginal Protection Board Act… a lot of people believe that stuff like that doesn't exist today, it still exists in whatever shape or form, especially the trauma from what I went through as a sibling.”

“So reconciliation week for me and my family, it’s an opportunity to be heard - we're not pointing the finger at people, we just want people to understand this is our true history.”

“For us to move forward as a nation we need to respect it, acknowledge it, and work forward from it.”

Council staff observe the raising of the flags.

Lismore City Council Mayor Steve Krieg said it was important for Council to recognise the week.

“Last year we launched our Reconciliation Action Plan, which was worked on by our Aboriginal staff and it's an amazing document,” he said.

“12 months on it's good to see how far we've come with that – obviously it's a living document, and we try and live through that document every day and in how we work, but also how we live.”

“It's not a pleasant history in Australia with how we treated the Aboriginal people, and you can't change the history, but you can learn from it and move forward.”

 “We all aim for a day when there's no racism and we can all live side-by-side as one people and as a Council that is our goal, that we can all work and live together as one people.”