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| home | news lReconciliation victories to be found: RidgewayBy Tony Stephens
The Democrats senator grew up on the nearby Bellwood mission at Nambucca and remembers having to sit in the cinema stalls when the white people were up in the balconies. The cinema on the North Coast closed more than 30 years ago, but Senator Ridgeway officially reopened it recently. "Black and white people now walk through the doors together," he said. Senator Ridgeway was named yesterday as the National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee person of the year. His award came a day after it was revealed that the Prime Minister, John Howard, had signed an order that "indigenous affairs and reconciliation" be replaced with "indigenous policy co-ordination" as a policy aim. Senator Ridgeway, now facing a tough battle to retain his seat in the election, entered the Senate in 1999 with high hopes that the nation would achieve a "common purpose" and a measure of reconciliation by 2001. Admitting to disappointment over the slow progress, he blamed Mr Howard for insisting on bringing indigenous people into mainstream Australia and for lacking the leadership to promote a culturally diverse society. However, he pointed to progress at the grassroots: the cinema, the 70 indigenous doctors in Australia, indigenous lawyers and politicians. About 2000 people had marched through the streets of Taree after the council decided not to fly the Aboriginal flag. Now Aboriginal flags flew in front yards around the town and from cars. Ted Simpson, an Aborigine, became Mayor of Brewarrina in May; Senator Ridgeway's uncle, Martin Ballangarry, became the first indigenous member of the Nambucca Valley Shire Council. "I'm the eternal optimist," Senator Ridgeway, 41, said. "I expect Australia to have an indigenous prime minister and an indigenous president of the republic within my lifetime." Bowraville was the setting for the movie, The Umbrella Woman starring Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward. Many of the props for the movie can now be found in the Museum. Origin of the name Bowra remains a mystery as there are four versions, three stemming from Aboriginal words meaning "Bullrout", "Scrub turkey" and "Bald head". The fourth meaning is said to have come from an army man, Captain Bowra, who had been sent to the area in search of cedar. Source: Sydney Morning Herald / NSW Holiday Coast
NAIDOC Awards Recognise Our Ongoing Culture Senator Aden Ridgeway 9 July 2004 -There is no greater honour for an Indigenous person than to be acknowledged by your own people, and with an award like NAIDOC Person of the Year. I want to thank and acknowledge ATSIC and all Indigenous people in this country. I don't want to downplay the significance of this award but it is not a separate moment in my life, it places me in a continuum of culture-in one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Our culture has had its "award winners" before me and will have many more after me. We are not all going to get awards like this one; there just aren't enough to go around. But it is the combination of these big events and the small and un-noticed things that we all do every day, that keep our culture and people alive. All of these things represent our struggles and our joys; all of these moments define our lives. This award is a pure feeling of coming home for me. It is an award for my grandmother and my mother - for all of my family because I am the sum total of them. These are desperate political times. Indigenous Australians are being squeezed into a mono-cultural one-size-fits-all straightjacket by a Federal Government which displays no vision and no imagination. Events like NAIDOC Week give us Indigenous people space to be together; to dream together and to make a better future together. I invite all Australians to join us in celebrating our culture and survival. Aden Ridgeway will be presented with the NAIDOC Person of the Year Award at the National NAIDOC Ball in Perth tonight. For more information on NAIDOC: http://www.atsic.gov.au/events/NAIDOC/default.asp
Aden Ridgeway is the Australian Democrats’ Senator for NSW. Read Aden's latest newsletter here Contact Aden senator.ridgeway@aph.gov.au Parliament House: Ph 02 6277 3848 Fax 02 6277 5727 Source: Aden Ridgeway's website
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10 July 2004 - Aden Ridgeway accused the Howard Government yesterday of a "morally indecent act" in writing reconciliation out of its objectives, but took pleasure from victories for reconciliation won across the nation, such as in the old theatre and cinema at Bowraville.
