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Opinion - A day to reflect on our racial tolerance
Whether republican or monarchist, most of us took some delight in seeing the Aboriginal kids of Redfern interacting so happily with Prince William a week before Australia Day said Frank Brennan's Australia Day call for more tolerence reported on CathNews on 25 January 3010.
The atmosphere was more relaxed and less politically charged than when his grandmother accompanied the Aboriginal artist Michael Nelson Tjakamarra to inspect his grand Tjukurpa mosaic of the Law and the Dreaming in the forecourt at the opening of Parliament House in Canberra back in 1988, the bicentenary year.
While non-Aboriginal dignataries waited inside the new building the Queen stepped into a forecourt packed with Aboriginal protesters and their supporters demanding land rights and self-determination. Their grievance was legitimate, though some politicians bemoaned Aborigines raining on their parade.
The High Court's corrective Mabo judgment and the Commonwealth Parliament's Native Title Act were still years off. Now it is routinely appropriate that British royalty should first meet with indigenous Australians on arrival to these shores. Indigenous Australians now have a place at the table of national celebration and identity.
Though Australia is a multicultural society spared the plight of ongoing racial and religious conflicts, the world still wonders about the limits of our racial tolerance.
FULL STORY Frank Brennan's Australia Day call for more tolerance
