Dandenong’s Harmony Square hosted a welcome to country, smoking ceremony and didgeridoo performance to mark Reconciliation Week.
The Tuesday 29 May event also included an unveiling of new Aboriginal artwork in the Greater Dandenong Council chambers.
The painting appears on the council’s Reconciliation Action Plan.
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) runs from Sunday 27 May to Sunday 3 June.
The theme for this year’s week is Don’t Keep History A Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow.
It encourages people to learn more about Australian history hidden just beneath the surface.
The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.
NRW started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993, the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People.
In 1996, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launched Australia’s first National Reconciliation Week.
In 2000, Reconciliation Australia was established to provide national leadership on reconciliation.
Dandenong is home to about 500 Indigenous Australians and, as the base of the Dandenong and District Aboriginal Co-operative and the Bunerong Health Services, serves a 2000-strong Indigenous community across the South-East.
