Melissa Gibson
Melissa Gibson started a long history in the delivery of human services by working as a volunteer in a youth refuge camp at the age of sixteen. She started her paid career as a psychologist and has worked with vulnerable individuals, kids and families.
She has been involved in social policy development and reform across a range of portfolios with both non-Government and Government agencies. She has experience with Commonwealth, State and intergovernmental relations through her work with the NSW Department for Women and the NSW Health Department. She worked as the Executive Director to the NSW Human Services Chief Executive Officers Forum for three years, assisting with their agenda of greater collaboration and co-ordination across the sector.
Melissa is currently the Director of Housing Policy and Partnerships in the NSW Department of Housing. Melissa goes home from work to a partner, two kids, two dogs and a burning desire for un-interrupted sleep.
What does a reconciled Australia look like to me?
The children and the young are the first to leap into the reconciled future of my imagination. Imagining a future without them is simply not possible.
In a reconciled future, our kids and young people will be as immersed in the richness of Aboriginal culture as they are with American culture today. Literary, artistic and cultural events (both mainstream and fringe) will shape their understanding about both the ancient knowledge and modern wisdom Aboriginal culture affords. Commercial radio and TV will have Aboriginal produced and presented programs and countless Aboriginal productions will be delivered to small and large screens across the nation via broadband.
In a reconciled future, kids will brag about 'keeping history alive' by studying an Aboriginal language or languages in schools, as some now do with Latin. Public resources to help maintain cultures such of those of the Greeks, Africans, or Vietnamese in our multicultural Australia will be retained, but the special claim to resources and support given the role of Aboriginal people as the first Australians will be unquestioned.
The notion of 'consultation' with Aboriginal communities will be almost as archaic as denying Aboriginal people the vote. Our kids will watch decision makers that control policy and service delivery come to the table in equal partnership with Aboriginal people. Aboriginal-controlled organisations will be working in partnership and sharing with Governments and business, sharing information, decision making and power.
In a reconciled future, these genuine partnerships will have brought about remarkable change in health, welfare, education and employment. The gap in relation to life expectancy will be rapidly closing, the performance of all kids at school will be reaching benchmarks, family violence will be dramatically reducing and both black and white kids will be graduating from TAFEs and universities to take their place as leaders in our economy. Our apology as a nation to the Stolen Generations and their descendants will have been offered long ago. The apologies healing of our nation’s spirit and its flow-on effect in areas such as health, education and economic participation will still astonish researchers across a range of professions.
Finally, the history our kids learn will be starkly different. It will focus on the time, respect and relationship-building it took to finally recognise the sovereignty of Aboriginal people through the development of the treaty. They would be encouraged to learn why it took white Australia such a long time to understand the special status of the custodians of this land without shame, but with open eyes and open hearts. Kids will wonder why there was so much resistance, predominantly from the white elders and decision makers, to genuine respect, empathy and reconciliation.
In a reconciled future, there will be no reference to black armbands.
Melissa Gibson
