Eileen Button remembers not being allowed into the local swimming pool for a school carnival when she was just 11-years-old in Kempsey, NSW. She says it was because she was an Aboriginal person. "Kempsey was one of the most racist towns in Australia," she said during the combined schools Reconciliation Week Walk at the Eden and Verge streets playing fields. "And to see it now, the change in it, is really wonderful". Much of that change is due to elders like Aunty Eileen. Her contributions include helping to organise the town's first Sea of Hands on the Kempsey Riverbank in 1999. She says being asked to attend a Reconciliation Walk and Sea of Hands planting, almost a quarter of a century later, was "the most important invite." "Schools need to recognise this sort of thing," she said. "I reckon once it's [publicised], other states will also do the same." Aboriginal Education Officer Kim Daley, who helped organise the walk for hundreds of local school students, drew inspiration from Aunty Eileen, who is also her mother-in-law. "It started with a bit of a yarn with me and Aunty Vicki, just sitting down having a cuppa, and she asked what we wanted to do for Reconcilliation [Week]," Aunty Kim said. "And then I remembered my mother-in-law Eileen Button and what she did with a Reconciliation committee back in 1999. "They did the Sea of Hands down at the riverbank... so I just went back to memory lane and thought that sounded like a good idea." She now hopes the success of the event in Kempsey will trigger a chain reaction. "You can see our voices have been heard because look at all the people here. This is the start of a journey now. [The] start of a journey for reconciliation." Principal of Kempsey South Public School Paul Byrne said he was "really rapt" at the turn-out, which was estimated to be around 1500 children and community members from around the Macleay Valley. "It's a real sign of strength," he said. ""We can show the Elders a bit of love and respect "And hopefully those emerging elders that we always talk about in the Welcome and Acknowledgement to Country, can get the knowledge and understanding they need to drive it into the future." National Reconciliation Week runs each year; 27 May to 3 June. This year's theme is "Be a Voice for Generations". IN OTHER NEWS:
