For the first time in its history, Bacchus Marsh Primary School has raised the Torres Strait Islander flag during Reconciliation Week.
And when the poles that have been ordered arrive in the mail, school principal Ian Wren says the Torres Strait Islander flag will be flown permanently alongside the Aboriginal and Australian flags.
“It’s very important that we acknowledge our culture and history and that we acknowledge the traditional landowners,” Mr Wren said.
There’s one woman to thank for this – Melissa Baker. The Bacchus Marsh resident, who is of Torres Strait Islander background, told Star Weekly she was deeply offended by what she saw as a lack of acknowledgement for Indigenous communities during Reconciliation Week.
“I called the school on Tuesday [National Sorry Day] to ask about activities happening for Reconciliation Week, only for reception to ask me when Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week was,” Ms Baker wrote in an email.
Sorry Day is on May 26 as an introduction to Reconciliation Week, May 27 until June 3, each year. This week commemorate two milestones in the reconciliation story – the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum that gave First Australians the vote and the High Court’s Mabo decision on land rights.
National Sorry Day was first acknowledged in 1998 to remember the Stolen Generations.
Ms Baker told Star Weekly she was also wrongly informed by Moorabool council that the Torres Strait Islander flag had been flown at the Darley council offices on National Sorry Day, despite her bringing this to council’s attention twice.
Moorabool council has since apologised.
“We flew the Torres Strait Islander flag in Ballan on National Sorry Day and flew it all through Reconciliation Week,” chief executive Rob Croxford said.
“In error, the flag wasn’t put up at the Darley office until Wednesday and, on request, we flew the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal flags in the main street of Bacchus Marsh – where we don’t normally fly any flags – for Reconciliation Week.”
Ms Baker said it “hurt deeply” that the nation was commemorating reconciliation “and we don’t get any acknowledgement [in Moorabool]”.
“Acknowledgement means we can be proud of who we are. I see the flag and I can walk around with my head held high,” she said. “I am a Torres Strait Islander.”
