Queensland's Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry will hold information sessions at Dunwich for the Minjerribah/Terrangerri community on Friday 1 November at 5pm, and Saturday 2 November from 10am.
Aunty Mary Burgess from Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-in-Council Aboriginal Corporation is encouraging as many people as possible to come along, to learn and ask questions about how to participate.
"We're our world's oldest living culture and to understand about our past, it needs to be told," Aunty Mary said.
"That's what I believe in. And there certainly is a lot of stories there that need to be told with the past and that comes towards the healing process.
"It needs to be told for the healing to happen."
The Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry is working together with Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-in-Council Aboriginal Corporation (MMEICAC) and the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) to co-design the engagement process for the truth-telling sessions, which will be held at Minjerribah/Terrangerri from 9 to 13 December this year.
QYAC chair Cameron Costello said this is a historic moment for all people on Quandamooka Country - Quandamooka people, other First Nations groups and non-Indigenous people - who have their own stories to tell.
"So that we as a community - not only Quandamooka people but the broader community - can be part of that understanding and allow the healing process to take place on Country," Mr Costello said.
"There is a very deep history of colonialism within Quandamooka country that hasn't been told and that the broader public aren't aware of.
"As they say, the truth will set you free. And for us to collaborate with our allies to make sure that history is told is so important - so that we can ensure that we all move into the future together - united as a community."
Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry Member Cheryl Buchanan thanked all the people who have already attended community awareness sessions on Minjerribah/Terrangerri, and encouraged them to come along to the information sessions as well.
She said there will be an opportunity to ask questions and learn about how to participate in a truth-telling session.
"Many of the other Elders who are still there, we really want them to come forward to share those stories with us," Member Buchanan said.
"We're very aware about the trauma. So ours is a trauma-informed process where there will be counsellors available for people when these sessions are being held.
"But the generations now, the generations even just before me, and the generations of the future, the young people need to be able to hear first-hand from our people of what really happened and the way that it affected them and the way that they have attempted to live a life of normality."
Update added 8.30pm eastern time 31 October, in response to the LNP government vowing to scrap the Pathway to Treaty Act and end the truth-telling inquiry:
The truth-telling community information sessions at Minjerribah/Terrangerri/Stradbroke Island
for Friday 1 November and Saturday 2 November 2024 are going ahead.
These sessions are Community-led and are being hosted by the Minjerribah Moorgumpin
Elders-in-Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Quandamooka
Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation.
The Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry is unable to attend these sessions. It has paused its
current workplan until further information is available from the new Queensland government.
This pause aligns with the Inquiry's trauma-aware and healing-informed approach and is to
protect the wellbeing of participants and all Queenslanders currently engaged with the
Inquiry.
The information sessions will be held on Friday 1 November at 5pm and on Saturday 2 November at 10am. Both sessions will be at Dunwich Hall, 6 Ballow Road Dunwich.
Everyone is welcome to attend – Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islander people, and non-Indigenous people from the community.
The truth-telling sessions will be held at Minjerribah/Terrangerri from 9 to 13 December 2024.
