PeakCare commends the Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Taskforce and Micah Projects for co-hosting their incredibly thought-provoking forum on 4th September to discuss the learnings from Canada and Australia about institutional child abuse. The messages delivered by Mr Robert (Bob) Atkinson AO APM, Chair of the Taskforce and Dr Marie Wilson, former Commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, were both poignant and powerful.
It became quickly apparent that if we are to build the foundations for healing and reconciliation, truth must be regarded as the cornerstone. But this is not confined to truth about past injustices and atrocities. It is not only the truth that belongs to yesterday, but also the truths of today and the ‘new’ truths that we wish to create for tomorrow.
Elsewhere in this edition of eNews, you will notice the release of the Feedback Survey Report compiled following the National Child Protection Conference co-hosted by PeakCare, the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak and the Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia in late June. Consider as you read some of the comments submitted as feedback whether the ‘truths’ exposed by not only the Royal Commission of Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and other inquiries such as the Forde Inquiry, Carmody Inquiry and Bringing Them Home Inquiry to name just a few, have been fully appreciated and whether the legacy of the thousands of people who courageously told their life stories during the course of these inquiries has been truly honoured. If this were the case, we would not have received feedback dripping in racist overtones, nor would we have received comments suggesting that respecting human rights is somehow anomalous, rather than integral, to good child protection practice.
Congratulations to the Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Taskforce and Micah Projects for continuing to shine a light on the truth and, in the words of the speakers at the forum, “maintaining the momentum”.