Wendy asks..where did we all come from?
So on Friday by show of hands we discovered what we all know..we're all visitors. So returning to the start of controversy corner a certain migrant (who Australian taxpayers actually paid for him and his family to come here - really??) posed the question...... "If you were going to pick a date to celebrate the being Australian on Australia Day,......would you really pick the date that the continent was colonised? Isn't that like picking the battle of Colloden as "Scotlands" day?.... Just saying.
As we head away from reconciliation week and into Naidoc week are we comfortable with this situation?
Are we Diverse enough?
Last weeks controversy corner was met with complete agreement that we should see what we can do to get Australia Day moved to a more inclusive day (see below). So thats something a certain scribe has on his "things to do" list.
But this week something more controversial. It starts with the question...are we diverse enough as a club? Obviously at an organisational level, Rotary is representative of the world community with over 1,200,000 members "in more countries than MacDonalds" was the slogan which I think is still true.....and all races and communities are part of the Rotary family....but what about locally?
At Alex we've been very fortunate to balance up our male and female diversity at Alex Rotary and hopefully are no longer seen as a man's club. But like most Rotary clubs we are predominately "oldies". So that brings challenges as well as opportunities.
We'll probably never represent the community age profile due to the nature of Rotary and todays society.... But what about visitors to our community?
We know that the Sunshine Coast attracts a very high percentage of residents as first time migrants - either interstate or overseas....what can we do we attract them to Rotary?
Reconciliation or Invasion?
This is a story about reconciliation, appropriate to Reconciliation week, but perhaps controversial in some quarters.
A few years ago Tamika, young team leader from AIME - an amazing aboriginal mentoring support group at USC, spoke to the club. It was the first time a certain scribe heard the phrase" Invasion Day". It sort of jarred with me at the time but I could not really explain why.
Then recently Graeme spoke to the club about how the local parish priest always spoke of the Sunshine Coast as "a destination" and a show of hands demonstrated that we were all recent visitors. (some more recent than others!)
The more I thought about it, and Tamika's words, the more I realised that Tamika was right. (and this is from a scribe whose race who have been front and centre in every invasion for over 400 years). So when folks ask my opinion on the date of Australia Day I say that the date is wrong. I'd be upset if for example Scotlands day of celebration was on the anniversary of Culloden.
The date to celebrate this wonderful country doesn't pass the 4 way test in my book, and the celebrations of Australia should go ahead on a different date. That would improve reconciliation.
What do you think? Silence is assent.