Departure from Australia

30/1/09 10.30 am.
I am enroute to Perth,with Qantas, having had breakfast, read the SMH and commenced reading Barack Obama’s book. Having read the preface and the first paragraph of the intro I have thought about his words thus far and reflected it will be a long read if I think too much after each para.

So yesterday at this very time I was sitting at work in a room full of colleagues discussing the regional business plan. We spent a long time discussing the CALD and Aboriginal parts of the Regional Plan – areas I am leading with a colleague.

“….as well as America’s hunger for any optimistic sign from the racial front – a morsel of proof that, after all, some progress has been made.” (Commenting on the interest of publishers following his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review).

Powerful words so true of Australia as well.. Our relations with Indigenous Australians has always been on our terms. Mick Dodson’s comments on Australia Day caused a mild degree of controversy and two letters into days SMH certainly put the Aboriginal perspective in context responding to a critic of Dodson’s earlier this week.

So in our business planning meeting we were challenged about this. Government services for over 200 years have failed to understand the history and context of Indigenous aspirations and perspectives. Can we do it now? It seems we have some genuine commitment at the top – a 5% employment target. Ambitious yes. Times seem to have changed and there seems to be some real political will to put the years of rhetoric into a reality that might bring some justice.

”She travelled the world, working in distant villages of Africa, helping women buy a sewing machine, or a milk cow or an education that might give them a foothold in the world’s economy.” (Commenting on his deceased mother)

I am about to do something similar. Not for ten years but as apart of a holiday. For me it is about having a break from work and doing something hopefully useful and helpful rather than living as a tourist photographing buildings and places that I will never look at again. I expect I will get more out of the experience than I contribute. I will be immersed in a different culture, get to learn a bit of history and meet many interesting people. Hopefully my main objective with AAF will be accomplished along the way.

Back to the book (hopefully for more than one paragraph.