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Friar rides for reconciliation

16 August 2005 - A 65-year-old Dominican friar has left on a 2,700 kilometre-long bicycle journey from Canberra to Alice Springs bearing a message of reconciliation to Aboriginal communities along the way.

Peter Murnane is making the personal pilgrimage to mark his 40th year as an ordained Catholic priest and hopes the trek will give Australians pause to reflect on what he says is 200 years of mistreatment of Aboriginal people.

Labor MPs Peter Garrett and Bob McMullan and Liberal Senator Gary Humphries were on hand at the small ceremony on the lawns of Parliament House.

Each gave Friar Murnane and his six companion riders messages to convey to the towns that the group will pass through on the 40-day ride.

They will also bear with them ashes collected from the sacred fire tended at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in front of Old Parliament House, which will be delivered to the elders of Uluru’s Mutitjulu community in a gesture of healing.

Among those setting out with Friar Murnane from Parliament House yesterday was Aboriginal story-teller Phillip Yubbagurri Brown.

The pilgrims will cross four states and territories to say ‘sorry’ for the past governments’ policies of removing Aboriginal children from their families, and for the suffering caused by Aboriginal deaths in custody.

“In setting out on the long road to reconciliation, this group of caring Australians are showing the path to healing for us all,” Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said.

Source: SBS

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