Perth Voice Interactive

FOR one day of the year, Aboriginal people are made to feel welcome, and their ancient culture embraced, at Wellington Square.

Tuesday’s Sorry Day reconciliation event—marking the date 18 years ago when the Bringing them Home report into stolen children was released—saw hundreds show up to the square which has a long and not always happy history for Aboriginal people.

Along with cultural activities, dancing and a smoking ceremony, a minor scuffle broke out when activists from a nearby rally outside the WA child protection department paid a visit.

Suffering continues

Activist Mervyn Eades, whose best friend Carl Woods died in police custody in 2006, attempted to take centre stage with a microphone to offer a counter-narrative, that suffering continues.

Hundreds of school kids watched as police intervened and issued Eades a move-on notice, a document many Aboriginal people are all-familiar with. The cops then stuck around to kick a footy with the kids, reporting no further issues.

Perth city council helped fund the event, a break from long hours spent trying to manage nearby residents’ complaints about people camping there.

From our scouts on the street we hear tensions at the square weren’t nearly as severe this summer as in previous years, and the Barnett government’s continuing to roll out kidney dialysis centres in the regions so fewer people need to come to the city for treatment.

Wellington Square has been a meeting place for Aboriginal people long before it was grassed over and a dead Englishman’s name stuck on a sign.

It used to be part of a chain of lush swamps and lakes, used for camping and food, drained in the 1830s. The park’s troubled history is documented at least as far back as 1910, when the Perth council wrote to the commissioner of police calling for more patrols to crack down on unruly behaviour by Aboriginal people.

by DAVID BELL