This description is derived from a participant observation conducted in Lecture 1 on the 27th October.
Today’s lecture is treating the topic of reconciliation. After a short introduction outlining the history of reconciliation, L1 asks the question: What is reconciliation? She does not answer it right away, however, but first talks about the picture which is included on the slide. It is an artwork done by school children, she explains, and what she loves about it is that the people on it have really weird feet and no noses. She laughs about this before returning to the question.
To explain the history of the term ‘reconciliation’, L1 first tells the students what can be found online if one is looking for images about reconciliation the way she has in preparation for this session. The fact that the first images which come up had to do with Christianity made her think about how many Human Rights related topics come from a background of faith. After talking about the role of Christian churches in the recent past as opposed to the colonial past, she addresses the issue of the separation of church and state. For this, she refers to the judges on the panel of the Mabo case and presents two of them in detail. When someone asks a question, L1 repeats it for those listening to the recording before answering it. The student asks again and L1 answers, adding her own assumptions where she is not sure. A different student then adds an idea to this on which L1 comments.
Turning back to the slides, L1 lists the members of the first Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and briefly outlines their background and contribution. She then reads out the preamble of the Act of Legislation for reconciliation before giving additional information. She proceeds with the next slides in the same way. While talking about Reconciliation Australia, L1 opens their website which she describes as “really worth having a look at”. She opens the tab about the RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) when she reaches this topic and reads out the definition of the project, which can be found on the page. She then explains it in more detail and gives examples of actions taken in the frame of the RAP.
L1 now shows a video about the extent of reconciliation and gives some more information about the work Reconciliation Australia has done connected to the curriculum. Something else which is worth noticing, she says, is that Reconciliation Australia was really good at using social media in order to reach people. That made it more public and accountable.
L1 now turns to the RAP of the university in order to explain the process and structure of RAPs. She opens the document, reads out some lines, scrolls through the pages and gives extra information. She then explains how the knowledge about reconciliation and RAPs can help the students when they are applying for a job. They could find out whether the company they want to work with has an RAP and then address this topic in a job interview. As an example for other institutions’ RAPs, L1 shows a video made by a company to present their RAP.
Afterwards, L1 presents Close the Gap as another campaign. She points out a video by Oxfam about this topic for which the link can be found on the slide. L1’s further explanations on Close the Gap also include the criticism which is often expressed by Aboriginal people. When she notices that the time is almost up, she comes to an end very quickly, simply inviting the students again to look at the Oxfam video and the Reconciliation Australia website.
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