Margate Primary School planted a ‘Sorry Tree’ on Wednesday, May 21 ahead of National Reconciliation Week, which started today, May 27 and will run until Tuesday, June 3.
The Sorry Tree is a physical reminder of the mistreatment faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as a commitment to healing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The Margate Primary School Association raised money to purchase a blackwood tree for the planting.
The blackwood is local to the area and, according to palawa elder Uncle Rodney Dillon, the blossoms of a blackwood signal a new year.
Bronwyn Englert and Alison Orel of the South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation (SETAC) attended the planting, with Bronwyn giving a Welcome to Country.
Delivered as a song in palawa kani, many of the Margate Primary students joined in, repeating after Bronwyn at her encouragement.
A group of students then led an Acknowledgment of Country.
“We hope we can live together, now and forever,” they said.
“We hope the world will respect each other better in the future.”
Student Emma recited a poem she had written for National Sorry Day, which is observed across Australia to commemorate the Stolen Generations, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities.
National Sorry Day was officially observed yesterday on Monday, May 26.
palawa artist Dewayne Everettsmith’s song [italics] milaythina [end italics], which is entirely in palawa kani, was played over loudspeakers, with attendees encouraged to place their hands on the earth to ground themselves in the country.
Dewayne used to work at Margate Primary.
The planting ceremony was complete when the Margate Primary students deposited baskets of ‘sorry message leaves’ around the tree.
