During National Reconciliation Week 2025, I had the privilege of introducing a transformative cultural awareness workshop as FACCI's Western Australia head of chapter. What emerged from this gathering of business leaders would challenge our understanding of reconciliation through powerful narratives connecting Aboriginal Australia's enduring wisdom with unexpected stories of cultural resilience from across the globe.
I opened the session by welcoming participants not to one country, as we usually do, but to two lands, acknowledging both my Breton heritage that shapes part of my own story and the Whadjuk Noongar Boodja where we gathered. Through these parallel stories, I wanted to welcome everyone to the cultural differences that make us human, and to explore what becomes possible when we truly listen to each other's experiences.
A Personal Reflection on Cultural Silencing
I went on with a deeply personal story that would frame our entire discussion. My grandmother Alice had passed away just four weeks prior at age 96 in Brittany, her native land. As a child, she was punished at school for speaking Breton, our historical local language. Walking through her village, people would scold her for singing traditional songs. They wanted to silence her language, her culture, her very way of being.
Yet Alice never stopped singing, quietly, privately, but persistently. She understood something profound that would echo throughout our workshop: when we lose a language, when we lose a culture, we lose ways of understanding. When we silence a culture, we lose solutions we didn't even know we needed. But when we truly listen, when we make space for different ways of being, that's when real connection happens.
When Alice took her final breath in Brittany, on her bed lay something extraordinary: an Aboriginal artwork created by Murdie Nampijinpa Morris, born in 1930 at Rabbit Flat in the Tanami Desert. Two women who never met, born on opposite sides of the world, yet connected through their shared commitment to preserving what others sought to erase.
Alice's story, whilst nowhere near the scale or systematic nature of what Aboriginal peoples have endured, reminded just us that cultural suppression has touched communities across the globe. Her quiet resistance taught me that keeping your roots alive isn't about living in the past; it's about being fully human in the present.
Walking Together: Understanding Australia's Oldest Culture
Jonathan Ford and Danny Ford OAM from Kambarang Services then took participants on a journey through country, welcoming us to the land cared for by Noongar people for thousands of generations. Their "Walking Together" presentation immediately established the stakes: we aren't just discussing history, but the ongoing reality of the world's oldest continuing culture.
"Aboriginal people first settled in Australia at least 65,000 years ago," Jonathan Ford explained, sharing recent archaeological evidence from Kakadu National Park that confirms colonisation occurred much earlier than previously thought. "Aboriginal culture is said to be the oldest continuing culture in the world and is much more sophisticated than was previously thought."
The presentation explored complex kinship systems, sophisticated land management practices, and cultural protocols that sustained Aboriginal societies across diverse environments for millennia. This wasn't simply survival, it was the development of intricate social, spiritual, and technological systems that allowed communities to thrive across the continent's varied landscapes.
Historical Context and Contemporary Understanding
The Fords methodically outlined how the Terra Nullius doctrine, the legal fiction that Australia was "nobody's land", provided the framework for what would become one of history's most comprehensive campaigns of cultural suppression. Captain James Cook's 1770 declaration that Britain could claim ownership and settle the country established three possible approaches: claim ownership, seek permission, or invasion. History shows which path was chosen.
"British colonists did not follow these rules and instead acted as if they were settling an empty land," the presentation revealed. This wasn't oversight; it was deliberate policy with devastating consequences that continue to reverberate today.
The scale and systematic nature of what followed was unprecedented. By the early 1900s, government policies explicitly aimed at creating "a uniformly white Australian culture" were systematically implemented. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1905 in Western Australia gave the Chief Protector unprecedented power, including the authority to remove Aboriginal children from their families, a practice that would continue into the 1970s.
Between 1910 and 1970, conservative estimates suggest one in three Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families. Known as the Stolen Generations, this systematic removal was designed to "breed out the colour" and destroy Aboriginal cultural transmission between generations. The breadth and intensity of these policies far exceeded the cultural pressures faced by minority communities elsewhere, representing a coordinated attempt to eliminate an entire way of life.
The workshop confronted participants with the historical reality of Australia's past by examining documented government policies and their impacts on Aboriginal communities. The 1948 United Nations Convention outlines specific acts that constitute attempts to destroy national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups, and the presentation detailed how various Australian policies aligned with these criteria through killing, causing harm, inflicting destructive conditions, preventing births, and transferring children.
These weren't isolated incidents but coordinated government policy spanning over a century. The last Aboriginal mission (government-controlled settlement or reserve where Aboriginal people were confined and their movements restricted by law) in Western Australia didn't close until 1973, within living memory of many workshop participants.
Resistance and Resilience : The Mimosa's Lesson
Despite these overwhelming challenges, Aboriginal peoples never ceased fighting for recognition and rights. The workshop highlighted key moments of resistance: Yagan's leadership against early colonisation, the 1834 Pinjarra Massacre that claimed up to 80 Pinjarra Noongar lives, and modern legal victories like the 1992 Mabo decision that finally overturned Terra Nullius.
This extraordinary resilience, maintained against such systematic oppression, speaks to the strength of Aboriginal culture and identity. Like my grandmother Alice who quietly preserved her Breton songs despite much gentler pressures, Aboriginal peoples found ways to maintain their connections to country, language, and ceremony even in the face of policies designed to eliminate these entirely. The scale of their resistance and survival, however, represents something far more remarkable, the preservation of the world's oldest continuing culture against one of history's most comprehensive attempts at cultural destruction.
In stark contrast to these stories of cultural destruction, the workshop has been concluded with an unexpected lesson from botany tracing the remarkable journey of the mimosa tree from Australia to France; a story that perfectly illustrates what becomes possible when cultural exchange is guided by respect and understanding rather than domination.
Indeed, the golden wattle's journey began with 18th-century botanical expeditions by explorers like James Cook and Nicolas Baudin. Of approximately 1,300 Acacia varieties worldwide, nearly 1,000 are endemic to Australia, representing extraordinary biodiversity that would captivate European botanists. For Aboriginal peoples, these trees held deep cultural significance, used for everything from traditional medicines and tools to food sources and ceremonial purposes across the continent's diverse landscapes.
French scientists like Jacques-Julien Houtou de La Billardière carefully documented and welcomed these Australian natives, taking time to understand their needs and creating conditions for them to flourish in their new environment. The mimosa's successful adaptation to the Mediterranean climate demonstrated what authentic cultural integration looks like: the tree was welcomed, understood, and given conditions to thrive. Its unique properties were celebrated rather than suppressed, creating mutual benefit for both the adopted home and the transplanted species.
Moving Beyond Stereotypes
The workshop emphasised that true reconciliation requires dismantling the stereotypes that prevent genuine relationship-building. Aboriginal peoples today are incredibly diverse, living in urban settings, remote communities, and everywhere in between. Many Aboriginal people have healthy, fulfilling lives whilst others face ongoing challenges directly linked to historical and contemporary discrimination.
"It would be fair to say that most Aboriginal people aspire to having safe healthy and happy lives for themselves and their children where they are in control and that wider society positively embraces Aboriginal culture and their unique place in Australia," the presentation emphasised.
The Fords shared practical pathways for businesses seeking authentic engagement with Aboriginal communities. They emphasised that understanding the full context of Aboriginal history and its ongoing impacts creates a solid foundation, whilst avoiding the paralysis of guilt or defensiveness that can prevent meaningful action. From this understanding comes the ability to move forward constructively, focusing on present opportunities for positive change and genuine partnership rather than remaining trapped in past grievances.
Building authentic relationships requires demonstrating genuine pride in Aboriginal achievements and celebrating the remarkable resilience that has sustained the world's oldest continuing culture through unimaginable challenges. This means actively seeking out and responding positively to Aboriginal leadership, recognising the expertise and innovation that Indigenous communities bring to contemporary challenges, and understanding that these relationships open possibilities that benefit everyone involved. Perhaps most importantly, it means moving beyond passive support to actively standing against racism and discrimination whenever they arise, rather than remaining silent bystanders when our voices and actions could make a difference.
The Business Case for Cultural Understanding
For FACCI members, the workshop highlighted, I believe, that cultural awareness extends far beyond compliance requirements: it's about recognising that authentic engagement with Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives can lead to innovations, solutions, and opportunities that benefit everyone involved.
Many Australian companies are now developing Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs), demonstrating their commitment to fostering respectful relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These structured frameworks provide practical pathways for organisations to contribute to reconciliation through relationships, respect, and opportunities. Legal firms like Jackson McDonald, our workshop hosts, bring valuable expertise in navigating the complex legal and regulatory frameworks that support these initiatives whilst ensuring organisations can implement meaningful change with confidence.
Just as the mimosa brought new beauty and economic value to France whilst maintaining its Australian essence, businesses that genuinely engage with Aboriginal communities often discover possibilities they never knew existed. This requires investment in understanding, respect for traditional knowledge, and commitment to mutual benefit rather than extraction.
The mimosa teaches us that successful cultural exchange doesn't require one culture to dominate another. Instead, it shows what becomes possible when we create conditions for different ways of understanding the world to coexist and cross-pollinate, each maintaining their distinct character whilst contributing to something larger and more beautiful.
Building Bridges Forward
As National Reconciliation Week reminds us, the goal isn't to erase differences but to build bridges of understanding and respect. The stories shared in this workshop, from systematic cultural destruction to the surprising success of an Australian tree in France, illustrate both the devastating consequences of cultural suppression and the extraordinary beauty that emerges when different traditions are allowed to thrive together.
For business leaders, the lesson is clear: when cultures connect authentically, everyone benefits. The question isn't whether to engage with Aboriginal communities and knowledge systems, but how to do so with the respect, understanding, and commitment to mutual benefit that allows all parties to flourish.
As professional organisations, like FACCI, continue to facilitate these crucial conversations, we carry these lessons forward: that resilience can survive even the most systematic attempts at destruction, that authentic cultural exchange enriches everyone involved, and that our differences aren't obstacles to overcome but sources of strength and innovation waiting to be discovered.
It was deeply moving to have the privilege of introducing Danny and Jonathan Ford, who carry knowledge that has survived despite everything. They came to share not just information, but an invitation to connect, to understand, to see this place and each other with new eyes. We truly had the privilege of listening and learning from voices that matter most.
Their presentation reminded me of the words I had shared during my opening remarks, quoting an Aboriginal proverb that Queen Elizabeth II once used in 2021 to open The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting: "We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home." May we pass through this place leaving more bridges than walls.
And as my grandmother Alice taught us: when cultures connect, humanity sings.
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It's important to note that the historical information presented in this workshop reflected the perspectives and experiences shared by Kambarang Services. FACCI, as a business organisation, does not take positions on complex political or legal matters, but believes in the importance of understanding different viewpoints and fostering respectful dialogue between all members of our community.