Student Name: Natalie Kruger Student Number: S0193160 Program: Bachelor of Social Work

1. Student Name: Natalie Kruger Student Number: S0193160 Program: Bachelor of Social Work Course Code:SOWK14004 Assignment:Portfolio Topic:Reconciliation Activity Date Due:16st August 2013 Word Count: 2,556 (including referencing) Lecturer: Pamela Croft

2. Culture Reconciliation Australia is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse nations in the world. Culture is defining aspects of a person’s identity, how they perceive themselves and the groups that they identify with (Education & Communities 2013). People who are from a different country and reside in Australia are to have the knowledge of Australia and to understand what it means to be Australian. The following topics are required in order to receive an Australian Citizenship: Australia's democratic beliefs, rights and liberties, government and the law in Australia (Department of Immigration & Citizenship n.d.). The importance of culture and living in Australia is enormous and the activity planned and implemented is aimed at teaching ten Filipino participants the Indigenous-Australian history and the meaning of reconciliation. Australian Flag Indigenous Flag Filipino Flag

3. Culture Reconciliation Food The food that the group made was damper and toast with vegemite which are traditional to Australia. Cooking was to show them what food is traditional in Australia, what they taste like and whether they liked it or not. This activity was completed by tenFilipino women and it was good to see them experience some “aussie” food as some had not tried them before. Clip The clip was very useful to allow us to have a better understanding of the Indigenous people. It was good for me to watch as I haven’t studied any Aboriginal history before. Opinions of participants Most of the participants have not tasted vegemite, they were not brave enough to try it and with some persuading they tried some and many of the ladies disliked vegemite. Overall they disliked both foods that were made and I myself only liked the vegemite on toast as I was given this when I was a child so I am used to it. The clip that played on Aboriginal-Australian history was really beneficial (Stolen generations / Australian Aboriginal brief history 2009) as many of the ladies did not have much knowledge of the topic, as well as myself. Even though the clip was brief it was very informative and a lot of new information was gained.

4. Clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fNvEm8wlPw#

5. RECONCILIATION Oxforddictionary.com (2013 p. 1) definition of reconciliation is the action of making one view or belief compatible with another. In 1991, the Commonwealth government passed the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act. This Act is a tenyear process of reconciliation between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The reconciliation process consists of three goals: these goals were to educate the wider Australian community about reconciliation and Indigenous issues; to promote an ongoing national commitment to address Indigenous socio-economic disadvantage; and to investigate the appropriateness of developing some form of document of reconciliation (Gunstone 2005). The council of reconciliation consists of 25 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people ; at the end of the tenyear period the Council is required to make recommendations to the government to help achieve reconciliation (Bennet et al. 2013). After this tenyear process a number of declarations were made; however, each significantly failed to address the many concerns of Indigenous people (Bennet et al. 2013).

6. RECONCILIATION What was the event? The event was to include tenladies from the Bundaberg International Women’s Society (IWS) in a cooking day with Australian traditional food, watching a clip on the history of the Aboriginals in Australia and what is reconciliation. The Australian-Aboriginal history I think comes hand in hand with reconciliation and the reason why I incorporated this into the activity is because I have not completed any course on Aboriginal-Australian history and I thought it was essential to explaining what reconciliation is and how it is an important part of history. The purpose of this activity was to teach the tenFilipino ladies about traditional cooking, some of the history in Australia and what reconciliation means. I felt that, since all of the participants are permanent residents in Australia, the activity planned and implemented was appropriate. The importance of this activity was focused on Australian food, history, reconciliation and the importance of having knowledge about the country the participants lived in. What did I do? I rang the president of the International Women’s Society and asked if tenof the members would be interested in doing an activity on reconciliation; she asked tenFilipino participants and they agreed. The ladies came around at 11am and we started the activity. As food was involved I informed the participants prior to the activity to not eat a big lunch as we would be trying some traditional Australian food. What did I hope to achieve? My goals for this activity were to not only inform some of the Filipino IWS women but to help them understand what happened in Australian history to the Indigenous people and what reconciliation means. I feel that while Australia is such a multicultural country, I believe that others that are not from an Australian or Indigenous background may not know the history of Australia or what reconciliation is, as many of them are migrants and therefore the Filipino community living in Australia needs to be informed.

7. RECONCILIATION What happened and what did I achieve? In my activity my plans of cooking , showing a brief story on Aboriginal-Australian history and information on reconciliation, were achieved. The activity was on reconciliation and to understand reconciliation I believe that people should know about Aboriginal-Australian history to have a better understanding. Cooking vegemite toast was easy to make and I made the participants do it themselves. It was interesting to see that the majority of the women looked at the food and were blocking their noses as they said that it smells really bad. I think this is hilarious as one of the common foods in the Philippines is called stinky fish and the smell of that is a lot stronger than vegemite and Filipinos love to eat it. The majority of the food that was made in my activity was thrown out as the participants did not like it very much but I am happy because they tried it. After cooking, the ladies came to the living room were I played the clip of the Stolen generations / Australian Aboriginal brief history (2009) which went for ten minutes. After watching this clip I asked the ladies if they had any questions and one lady asked me two questions that unfortunately I could not answer as I am not familiar with the Aboriginal-Australian history and they were: why did the old parliament take away the children and abuse them if the whole point behind taking them was because they thought their biological parents were unfit for parenting? Why did it take so long for the government to apologise to the stolen generation? One lady was really interested in the clip and the others were very quiet. I guess I did not really think about what would happen if someone had asked any questions so that is something to remember when doing an activity and it would be important to know the topic thoroughly before commencing the activity. I then read some information on reconciliation so that the participants would be informed enough to answer the following four questions on the next slide. I think that I was successful as the participants were able to answer the four questions after I informed them aboutreconciliation which is essential in this activity.

8. RECONCILIATION What is reconciliation? Have you heard of reconciliation before today? Has reconciliation been successful in Australia? How do you feel about Aboriginals and their rights in Australia? Why did I choose this target group? I have a personal connection with the culture of the Philippines and I felt the need to base this activity around a group of important people in my life and because many of the IWS members and myself are not familiar with the Aboriginal-Australian history and reconciliation. This group of people and culture are very important to me as I am half Filipino and Australian. I also think that I should know some of the Australian-Aboriginal history, especially since I live in Australia and am studying to become a social worker.

9. RECONCILIATION What made this activity successful? I think what made this activity successful was that the ten participants from the International Women’s Society are a group that encourages and is interested in learning new cultures and making new friends. The IWS was founded in 1996 and currently holds 60 members and also includes males, even though the name states otherwise. The IWS is very accepting of other cultures and was created by Norma Jensen to provide outlets for women from different ethnic backgrounds to meet, socialise and learn about each other’s culture and help to assimilate. The society’s ethos is to foster friendships without cultural barriers, to promote harmony and peace in the community (N Jensen 2013, personal communication, 12 August). The participants were very eager and willing to learn new things and were open to other cultures. The ten IWS women were very helpful and participated in the activity as they too promote cultural assimilation, are accepting of other cultures and supported the purpose of the activity. How were the people involved and how did people respond to the activity? The participants were involved throughout the whole processas they were hands on in the cooking process whichI supervised. They helped in making the damper and after the clip was watched there was a small discussion and a chance for anyone to askquestions. Even though I was unable to give adequate answers they were very nice and the group discussed the question as a whole. I think everyone responded to the activity very well as they all know each other and get along because they are all members of the International Women’s Society.

10. RECONCILIATION How did I handle the activity and what would I do differently? I think I handled this activity well, however I think it would have been more beneficial if I knew a bit more about the Aboriginal-Australian history and then possibly I could have answered the two questions that were asked about the clip and also have a better understanding of reconciliation, as I believe the history is what I am lacking knowledge of. I really liked the clip that was viewed and I would not change it because it was one of the strengths in the activity that helped inform both the participants and myself. I wish I could have set up the clip so that I could have read the writing on itas it may have been too fast for some people to read. While waiting for the damper to cook the participants were talking amongst themselves in their native tongue. I can only understand some of the language and it made me feel a bit left out. Perhaps I could have asked them to speak English but I was not sure if that was rude or not. I was not sure if I did too much which made this activity exhausting; maybe I should have planneda short activity instead. Was it a positive or negative experience for the participants and myself? I think it was a positive experience for all of the participants and myself because we all learnt a lot about the Australian-Aboriginal history and reconciliation which was the main goal of this activity. Itwas a great experience to do this activity with my fellow Filipino friends and everyone respected each other’s opinions which was really important. I can not see the negative experiences as I do not believe there were any as all of the participants involved stayed after the activity and were having a great time. What have I learned from this experience? It was a really fun activity and I guess the biggest message I pulled from this activity is that every culture is equal and that we need to work together to promote harmony and peace in the community. I also realised how important it is to respect other people’s cultures and by working with the IWS group. I learnt about Australian-Aboriginal history but I also learnt more about the Filipino culture and I am so proud to be half Filipino and Australian. I can see how reconciliation and the Australian- Aboriginal history are interrelated and I truly believed that I would have gained more out of this activity if I had completed the Aboriginal history course.

11. RECONCILIATION What I think I could do with the IWS group to further develop reconciliation? The International Women’s Society is not only a group that celebrates their culture and traditions but they also have other multicultural members that play an important role in sharing their culture and traditions; some of these cultures include: Australians, Naturalized Australians such as: Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Filipino, German, Italian, English, Indian, Tongan, Polynesian, Russian, Guernsey, Nigerian, and New Zealand. A further idea on reconciliation is to invite the Indigenous people to the IWS and ask them to contribute to the group by sharing their culture and traditions, just as all the other members in the group have done. What links were made in relation to the course and its readings ? I think the biggest course related idea that can be seen a lot in this activity is the importance of cultural diversity and respecting one’s culture as well as many others, as Australia is one of the biggest multicultural diverse countries in the world. As the International Women’s Society is not actually an organisation per se, it still has services and people to interact with for the same common goal of working together, encouraging equality, assimilating all cultures and working in harmony. All characteristics are needed to reconcile with the Indigenous community as well as others. In the ten year formal process of reconciliation one of the three goals was to educate the wider Australian community about reconciliation and Indigenous issues. I believe that this activity can be a start to educating some of the community and by developing further reconciliation activities can help to inform a greater audience.

12. RECONCILIATION Why was this important for me to do this activity and reflection. Doing this reconciliation activity is important, as I wanted the members of the International Women’s Society to have an understanding of the Indigenous Aboriginal culture as well as becoming more educated on reconciliation and Indigenous issues. Like myself who comes from a Filipino background I want to have a better knowledge of the Aboriginal and Australian history and so I felt the video clip was necessary to inform the group, especially since the Australian-Aboriginal history is not known. I also felt the need to include participants in tasting some of the traditional food of Australia. While the participants have an understanding of our Filipino culture, I was curious to know what the IWS members knew about the history of the country that they live in. I felt this subject was hard as I have not got any knowledge of Australia or Aboriginal history so that is why watching this clip was essential.

13. RECONCILIATION Cultural Sensitivities Permission of Participants/photos The permission of participants that were involved in this activity, as well as pictures that have been taken, are acknowledged and have given consent. Participants that have a diverse and cultural background will be respected along with their cultural identities and views. The diversity within and among culture will be recognised and acknowledged by social workers (Australian Association of Social Work 2010).

14. References Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) 2010, Code of ethics, viewed 13 August 2013, http://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/740 Bennett, B Green, S Gilbert, S Bessarab, D 2013, Our voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Work, Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Australia. Department of Immigration & Citizenship n.d., Australian citizenship test resource, Australian Government, viewed 10 August, http://www.citizenship.gov.au/learn/cit_test/test_resource/ Education & Communities 2013, Understanding racism, NSW Government, viewed 10 August 2013, http://www.racismnoway.com.au/aboutracism/understanding/culture-language-identity.html Gunstone, A 2005, The formal Australian reconciliation process: 1991-2000, a paper prepared for the National Reconciliation Planning Workshop, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University Oxforddictionaries.com 2013, Reconciliation, viewed 13 August 2013, http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/reconciliation?q=reconciliation Stolen generations / Australian Aboriginal brief history 2009, video, 9 October, viewed 10 August 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fNvEm8wlPw#