For Reconciliation Week 2017: how I think Australia can reconcile.

In Year 4, I became best mates with an Aboriginal boy named Alex, who I'm still good friends with after 20 years. As he was Indigenous and I autistic, I think we were bound to immediately click. Obviously that never occurred to me then (I wasn't even diagnosed with Asperger's until Year 7 anyway), but it makes all the sense in the world to me now. Because we were both outsiders.

As a white man nonetheless, despite that I still don't and shouldn't claim to know how it feels to be up against racism, whether in Australia or anywhere else. And I do know our Indigenous peoples can very stand up for themselves, but we all must continue to stand with them.

For Reconciliation Week 2017, here I wish to express what I believe Australia can and must do, especially white Australians, to ensure future generations no longer need to have the same discussion. Last Saturday, 27 May, was the 50^th anniversary of the historic 1967 referendum which granted Indigenous Australians citizenship and voting rights. But for all that achieved, look how much still hasn't changed. What do you think all the activists, black and white, who fought for that recognition then would say if they could see us now?

We mustn't ignore the history. As you know, the national apology was given to the Stolen Generations in 2008. But I feel dwelling on that, even individually, will ultimately just hold us back. Taking a contemporary view, firstly we need to either (depending on our own ethnicity) ignore or combat the prevailing stereotypes of Indigenous Australians. They are not and have never all been obscene, substance-abusing welfare types, or only good at sport. Whites may also think they smell weird, but it's quite likely we smell equally strange to them. And plenty of us break the law ourselves.

Then there's the matter of the life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, which has a slightly deeper historical connection as it stems largely from the European settlers' introduction of drugs, alcohol and foreign diseases. I'm no medical expert by any means, but I'm inclined to think we will only bridge that gap if we collectively retain an historical and contemporary consideration. Severing a sickly branch from a tree may help it temporarily, but sometimes to really fix a problem you have to dig for the roots.

And here, the roots are racism and its apparent “excuses.” Nothing excuses it. We are all equal.

Happy Reconciliation Week 2017!