Our Mardi Gras float celebrated 20 years of queer activism with pride.   

    Pride in ourselves as lesbian, gay, trany, bi   

    Pride in communities which support and recognise the critical nature of reconciliation.

  
  
    Our support came  from indigenous and non indigenous people  interested in inclusion, activism and piracy. 
THE PARADE!
What was in our float?
    And we danced to it ...  !
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Talking Queer Stories of Reconciliation

Interviews with eight Queers for Reconciliation participants
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Don't forget to sign in to the Guestbook with your thoughts and comments!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.2.98 Press Release  

16.2.98 Press Release  

Press coverage

 
THIS SITE was developed to promote Queers for Reconciliation's float in Mardi Gras but will still continue to be online as a contribution towards Reconciliation. If you would like to become involved in this website's development then contact the site maintainer 

There is plenty of information on this site that you can use to advance Reconciliation.  

  • teach yourself then your friends how to say "welcome" in an indigenous language
  • learn about the stolen generations
  • learn about Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander culture
  • contribute your thoughts on black/white and gay/straight relations.
  • sign an online apology to the 'Stolen generations' from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identified communities.
  • explore ...
  • contribute ..
YOUR energy is STILL needed in the year of the 'race based' election! 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 ONLINE APOLOGY to the 'Stolen generations' from the lesbian, bi, trany, gay and queer identified communities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Reconciliation statements
by Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras
"We support and maintain respect for difference and equality for all groups who are faced with discrimination."
by the bisexual & transgender communities
"We believe that racism and the reconciliation processes are the business of every Australian."
by Sydney Gay & Lesbian Community Organisations
"We believe that non-indigenous Australians have a great deal to gain from Reconciliation by coming to terms with our collective past and valuing Aboriginal culture and history."
 
by Gay & Lesbian Welfare Association (Brisbane)
"We realise that everything we have, or have accomplished here, has been at your expense and through your dispossession."
 
by the Australian Council of Social Service (covers many HIV/AIDS agencies)
"We know that the impact of the past continues to resound today."
Mick Dodson's remarks at the launch of Black + White + Pink indigenous anti-homophobia campaign
"Reconciliation is about inclusion, acceptance, accommodation of all our differences."
Lesbians & Gays for Reconciliation (Melbourne)
"As Australians, we are all diminished by our Federal government's willingness to put aside the fundamental 
rights of Indigenous Australians in favour of a small group of powerful vested interests." 
 
Image from the Lesbian & Gay Anti-Violence Project's 
'Which one of this mob is gay?' campaign. 
The project was developed by the AVP with ATSIC.
 
In January this year the Sydney gay and lesbian community newspaper The Sydney Star Observer published an eight page wrap around abour Reconciliation.
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
Indigenous Delegates at the Constitutional Convention
      Pat O'Shane, David Curtis, Gatjil Djerrkura OAM,
George Mye, Neville Bonner, Lois O'Donoghue CBE, AM
Indigenous Law v Non-Indigenous Law:
How Can We Move Together Towards Tomorrow?
by Mary Yarmirr
a paper from the Women's Constitutional Convention
 
 
 
 
 
 
Recommended reading
  
Take some time out, make yourself a drink, sit back and READ something like ... 
 
  

Leaping lizards: the giant goanna of peace 
Bridging gaps ... the seven metre goanna created for Moree's reconciliation festival by Sydney lesbians and local youth 

Anwernekenhe: the Black Survivors 
 
"Hundreds of years ago diseases like small pox and scrurvy claimed thousands of Aboriginal lives. We can't let HIV do the same thing and decimate the community." 

Invasion Day 1998: Aboriginal Statements 

"When an ideology that elevates to national hero status the architect of indigenous genocide, it infests the fabric of society. School children, from the time that they can reason, are inculcated with the notion that theft equals righteousness, colonialism equals liberation, that indigenous peoples were and are savages, and that Euro-American superiority has been vindicated through the colonialism of the western hemisphere" 

Aborigines' Progress Association manifesto (1938) 
  
"We have in our arteries the blood of the Original Australians, who have lived in this land for many thousands of years. You came here only recently, and you took our land away from us by force. You have almost exterminated our people, but there are enough of us remaining to expose the humbug of your claim, as White Australians, to be a civilized, progressive, kindly and humane nation. By your cruelty and callousness towards the Aborigines you stand condemned in the eyes of the civilized world" 

Indigenous people's Law-Ways: Survival against the colonialist state 
by Irene Watson 
the true story of Hindmarsh 

"To those who say as they did when they planted the theory of terra nullius upon our lands that we were peoples without law, and to those who say women's law-business is a fabrication, I say: you are ignorant, and have much to learn." 

 
 
 
 
 
Image from the Lesbian & Gay Anti-Violence Project's 
'Which one of this mob is gay?' campaign. 
The project was developed by the AVP with ATSIC.
 

Primal fear: Race, politics and respectable Australia 
By David Marr 

"Did you (like me) jump out of your skin at the sight of the old black man standing in the rain in Peter Weir's The Last Wave? It was a fright straight out of childhood. Who taught me about black bogeymen who take little children away? Probably my grandmother. I'm still carrying that baggage and know I'm not alone in that." 
  
  
  Try the INFO page or the LINKS pages for more GOOD reading  
  
 
 
 

 
 
Who are the Aboriginal people of NSW? 
 
 

  
Food for thought
  

" 'At no stage did Aboriginal civilisation develop substantial buildings, roadways or even a wheeled cart.' Dispossession was bound to happen, he said. 'Those in the guilt industry have to consider that developing cultures and peoples will always overtake relatively stationary cultures'." 

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fisher 
(The Australian 22.6.93, page 8) 

Fisher was defended against accusations of bigotry and racism by none other than Australian Prime Minister John Howard 
(The Courier-Mail; 9.7.93, page 2) 

Now you can see why they find it impossible to say 'sorry'? 

 
To find out how to contact our beloved leaders check out the SUPPORT page 
 
Read 'A Black view of Howard's way' 

"I don't think there's ever been such ill-will about the administration and policy development in Aboriginal affairs ever in the 20th century, having due regard to previous historic periods and different ways of thinking. I mean, these blokes are reinventing the 19th century." 

Read about who will gain from the government's racist Ten Point Plan 

"..  if Aboriginal people get to share the riches that are still left in this country, what is wrong with that? because it's only been 125 years since they took all the riches .." 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
  
 
 
It's the Black and White Mardi Gras
The Sydney Morning Herald covers the first organised Aboriginal float in the Bicentennial year of 1988.
  
  
Mardi Gras '98  
Festival events
  
  
  
  
Blak Babe and Kweer Kat 
Local artists Brook Andrew and Rea draw upon their own histories to make an exhibition which takes as its starting point identities in conflict. 
February 12 - March 7 
Gitte Weise Gallery 
Level 2, 94 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 
Tues-Sat 11am-6pm 
CitySearch coverage of Blak Babe and Kweer Kat 
Sydney Sidewalk coverage of Black Babe and Kweer Kat 
  

Festival launch 
 
The Festival Launch featured welcome by Wendy Brady, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Board member and a member of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal nation, and didgeridoo played by Greg Fleck. The Netcast has been taken down but we hope to include footage of Wendy from the Launch soon.  
  
 
The Mardi Gras Netcast featured coverage of Queers for reconciliation's float and some great commentary including the story of the Goanna. The Netcast has been taken down but we hope to include footage featuring our float soon. 
  
  

Pool Party 
Produced by Raymond Blanco, Artistic Director, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre. Victoria Park was once a Koori corroboree site - we're reclaiming it as a space for all of our tribes. 
February 14 
Victoria Park Pool 
Victoria Park, Parramatta Rd, Darlington 

Black Roots 
Sydney's leading indigenous art gallery gathers four indigenous gay and lesbian artists, ranging across a variety of styles, for this group show. 
February 3-28 
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative 
27 Abercrombie St, Chippendale 
Tues-Fri 9am-5pm 
Sat 12pm-4pm 
CitySearch coverage of Black Roots 
Sydney Sidewalk coverage of Black Roots 
  

  
  
  
 
PARADE PHOTOS!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
Photos by
Amanda James
 
 
 
 
 
 
LOGOS, BANNERS, FLAGS, ANIMATION'S
Add a graphic to your pages to show your support.
If you would like to help with designing banners, providing
graphics and photos or IN ANY OTHER WAY with the
website that would be appreciated!
Contact the Site Maintainer.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
        
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 This site like the reconciliation process is always UNDER CONSTRUCTION. If you have any contributions, problems or ideas regarding this site please contact the site maintainer. If you are HTML proficient (or even not) you can help with the maintenance and development of this site, just ask how. If that all sounds like too much trouble leave your comments in the Guest book!  
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