Shining light of reconciliation

In November, Indigenous activist Patrick Dodson was awarded the 2008 Sydney Peace Prize. As a recipient of this award, he joins illustrious company that includes Secretary General of Amnesty International Irene Khan, East Timor leader Xanana Gusmão, former UN Commissioner for Human rights Mary Robinson, author and human rights campaigner Arundhati Roy, former Governor-General William Deane and diplomat and disarmament advocate Hans Blix.

The citation for the award notes Pat Dodson’s ‘courageous advocacy of the human rights of Indigenous people, his distinguished leadership of the reconciliation movement and a lifetime of commitment to peace with justice, through dialogue and many other expressions on non-violence’.

In 2001 Dodson became the foundation chairman of the Lingiari Foundation, an Indigenous organisation that pursues the advancement of Aboriginal rights, promotes reconciliation and develops Indigenous leadership.

When he gave the 1999 Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, he spoke of the dream of reconciliation:

'Millions of non-indigenous Australians have joined with us in the search for a better relationship based on equity and justice. Australians at every level of our society have put up their hands to be counted as supporters of a Nation that holds as its core value a society based on mutual respect, tolerance and justice.

‘This has been the approach many Aboriginal people have been prepared to adopt in seeking to achieve reconciliation between our peoples.

‘I have seen what can be achieved among our young Australians when they decide that the values of division and conflict promoted by previous generations are not the values that they seek to carry into the 21st century.’

Congratulations to a great champion of his people and an inspiring presence in our society.

Photo: The April 1975 edition of the Messenger featured the newly-ordained Pat Dodson on the cover. ‘Soon he will return to his Yaroo people’, the magazine said. ‘But not as Paddy Dodson, grandson of the tribe’s revered elder Paddy Djagween … it will be as Fr Patrick Dodson, the first Aborigine to be ordained as a Catholic priest.’