They talk as if Aborigines somehow lie outside this vision of freedom which inspires white Australians and makes them proud of this as a place to live. When they talk about religious freedom, they rarely include Aboriginal religiosity in their discussion. So, that's our failing to my mind. The issue of reconciliation needs to be understood in the context of the demographic fact that Aborigines represent about two per cent of the Australian population. This is not America.
Aborigines are one of the smallest cultural and ethnic minorities in the larger Australian context.
If we can't find a pathway to reconciliation between the 98 per cent on the one hand and the two per cent on the other, than there is no hope for us. All we have to remember is that each one of us, on both sides of the fence, wants to be taken seriously. Each one of us wants to be heard. Each one of us wants our needs, our values, our points of view, to be taken into account. That is all reconciliation has ever been about.