Just the other day I received a lovely letter from a 73-year-old non-Aboriginal Tasmanian
          woman, full of kindness but also with a vision.

          Her kindness was in seeking advice on changing her will to fund a scholarship for future
          Aboriginal legal students. Her vision was one of reconciliation. She lives next to a conservation
          zone. She said in a PS to her letter:

                    Hope the pelicans helped to ease your heart. I witnessed a riotous
                    event one day. A pelican paddled in with a seagull on its back. The
                    seagull hoped off at one stage and the pelican continued on its way.
                    Realising he was alone, the pelican turned and paddled back to the
                    gull. I could almost hear him saying, ‘Hey are you coming or not?’
                    The gull hopped back on and the twosome continued on their
                    navigation of the area.

          In my home country, an event witnessed in the natural world such as this is can be read as a
          vision of spirit, or rai. The pelican gliding across the water is like the spirit of reconciliation,
          black and white together moving forward. The seagull is in some ways like the governments of
          the day, forever changing, coming on and off the process, flying off to scream loudly before
          one day returning and joining the voyage, navigating towards a new future. This future is our
          future, if we have the courage and will. Otherwise, as the Irish saying goes, ‘Bigots and
          begrudgers will never bid the past farewell’ and we will be trapped in our history.

          Thank you once more to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
          Studies for the opportunity to speak to you today, and thank you for hearing my views.

          Kulia!

Patrick Dodson  AIATSIS- Wentworth Lecture 2000

           
Patrick Dodson

          Patrick Dodson, a Yawuru man, was born in Broome, Western Australia, in 1948. He
          was sent to boarding school in Hamilton, Victoria, and then trained for the priesthood.
          He was ordained in 1975 and served as a priest in the Northern Territory for the next
          five years. He left the priesthood in 1981 and worked for the Central Land Council in
          Alice Springs. In 1988 he became Deputy Chairperson of the Aboriginal Development
          Commission. In 1989 he became a member of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal
          Deaths in Custody and in 1991 was appointed inaugural chairperson of the Council for
          Aboriginal Reconciliation.

          Mr Dodson is a highly respected Indigenous leader, known to many Australians for his
          significant and continuing contribution to the reconciliation process.

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/corporate/docs/wentworth2000.htm