Reconciliation Week

Each year Reconciliation Week is held between 27 May and 3 June to commemorate two very important dates in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian relations:

27 May is the Anniversary of the 1967 referendum when 90% of Australians voted to remove clauses, which discriminated against Indigenous Australians, from the Australian Constitution. This also gave the Federal Government power to make laws on behalf of Indigenous Australians.

3 June is the Anniversary of the High Court’s handing down of the judgement made on the Mabo case, in which Eddie Mabo argued that Murray Islanders’ rights to their land were not extinguished by the annexation of the islands by the State of Queensland. The Court agreed and ‘terra nulius’ – the idea that Australia had been empty of people when settled by the British – was abandoned.

During Reconciliation Week each year the Koori Centre works in collaboration with the Student Union to celebrate this week with special events.

2009 Sea of Hands Image Gallery

All images taken by Curtis Flood
2009 Sea of Hands installation designed by Adam Ridgeway.

Contact Details:

Koori Centre
Phone: (02) 9351 2046
Email: koori@koori@usyd.edu.au