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26 June 2008

Hello,

I am studying Social Work with Central Queensland University this term I am studying Reconciliation in the Workplace and Community and would love to be able to understand fully how I can be an effective worker in this area a question that we have to consider is:

Discuss the importance of FCAATSI to the reconciliation and comment on its present day significance. While I understand the important role that FCAATSI has been over the years, I would like to understand more about its present day role and the part it has in the reconciliation movement.

I would appreciate any information you can give me as i really want to understand be and be an effective person when working with your people. Help me to understand please.

Concerned Student

Answer

Dear Concerned Student,

I am the historian responsible for the text of the Indigenous Rights website which the National Museum is hosting.

You have asked about the importance of FCAATSI to the reconciliation movement and its present day significance. These are rather large questions so let me firstly tell you what happened to FCAATSI, before I talk abour importance and significance. (Some of what I am saying here you will find on the site)

The organisation began in 1958 as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. There were always Aboriginal members but in the early days they were in a minority. In 1964 the Torres Strait Islanders, who had started coming to the annual conferences, successfully agitated for their name to be added so it became FCAATSI. During the 1960s more and more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people came to annual conferences, and spoke up about what they wanted. By 1970 there was a strong push for power in the organisation to go to people of Aboriginal or Islander heritage. This led to a split as some people argued that a black and white alliance was the strongest way to address injustice and change racist attitudes. In 1972 a reformist Labor government, led by Gough Whitlam was elected, and supported the many locally-based Indigenous bodies which were springing up all over the country. There were Aboriginal legal services, and medical services. There were Aboriginal arts and theatre organisations and Aboriginal-controlled journals and magazines and then Land Councils. From 1972 to 1978 FCAATSI continued but it struggled to be the effective umbrella organisation which it had been in the 1960s as many of the new Aboriginal-controlled bodies, funded by Government, were negotiating directly with Government. In 1978 FCAATSI formally came to an end.

FCAATSI remains important however, as it shows us a time when black and white Australians did work together to change laws and attitudes. There have been many instances since then of such co-operative work. For example the Link Up organisation which helps Aboriginal people separated from their families to reconnect. And of course the reconciliation movement which began formally in 1990. You might like to contact Reconciliation Australia to find out about branches in existence near you. Another organisation which has worked effectively over the last few years is ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) You might like to check out their website too. Though any of these bodies you may be able to build relationships with Aboriginal members and in that way come to understand the concerns Indigenous people have and their ideas about the role of non-Indigenous people in providing the sort of support they may want in any political campaigns they are engaged in.

I hope this helps a bit. The other way that non-Indigenous Australians can get an education in this field is to read accounts by Aboriginal people of their lives. There are lots of these now. Here are some good one: Elsie Roughsey, 'An Aboriginal Mother Tells of the Old and the New''; Noel Loos and Koiki Mabo, 'Edward Koiki Mabo: his life and struggle for land rights'; Alice Nannup, 'When the Pelican Laughed', Shirley Smith, 'Mum Shirl', Margaret Tucker, 'If Everyone Cared'. These are all wonderful life stories by people of courage and good humour who suffered at the hands of racist policies and attitudes, but never gave up in their fights to improve things for their people.

Best wishes with your important endeavours, Sue Taffe