Mayor's Proclamation Day speech 2024

Niina Marni,

I am proud to stand here as the Mayor of Holdfast Bay to mark the day we know as Proclamation Day.

This day – the 28th of December – is a day of both commemoration and reflection. Of reckoning with our past, as well as imagining a better future.

As I stand here among you all, Elders, dignitaries and citizens, under Patha Yukuna – the Kaurna name for crooked gum - I am prompted to reflect on the reconciliation journey the City of Holdfast Bay has been on over the past few years.

I am proud of what we have achieved together, but also recognise the work has only just begun.

In particular, I want to acknowledge the Kaurna community and Kaurna Elders; among them Senior Kaurna Elder Lynette Crocker, Uncle Jeffrey Newchurch, Aunty Merle Simpson, and Uncle Frank Wanganeen, with whom we have been walking on this journey. Through their generosity, patience, willingness to challenge us and do great work together, much has been achieved.

But walking forward together calls for an honest reflection of where we have come from. To give voice to truths that have been silenced for too long.

On this day, 188 years ago, Governor Hindmarsh read the Proclamation Document to those assembled, like Her Excellency the Governor has done today.

Within this document, and as set out by King William the fourth in the Letters Patent, Governor Hindmarsh formally recognised that Aboriginal people inhabited this land and possessed rights that needed to be recognised.

Such recognition did not occur in any other part of Australia. Indeed, the concept of terra nullius – nobody’s land - prevailed elsewhere, and was only overturned in Australian law as recently as 1992.

However, despite the reading of the Proclamation Document at this place 188 years ago, Aboriginal rights were not recognised in any ongoing and meaningful way by the new settlers of the Province of South Australia.

Instead, Aboriginal people have had to fight for close to two centuries to have their voice heard and their story told.

Today they continue the fight to revive their language and culture, a cultural connection that existed here for hundreds of years prior.

This journey has taken perseverance, courage and resilience.

The City of Holdfast Bay has been working with Kaurna representatives for more than a decade now to build a relationship based on respect, listening, acknowledgement of the past, and genuine reconciliation action.

The significance of this day, of this site, and of this tree in the history of South Australia’s colonisation, gives our Council a high-profile opportunity to demonstrate that our understanding, our collaboration and our actions have come a long way in recent years.

In 2019, Council supported the repatriation of eleven Kaurna Old People, whose remains were returned from the South Australian Museum and London’s Natural History Museum.

This project was led and guided by the Kaurna community, with Council playing the role of support and resource.

The remains were re-buried on Kaurna Country, on land currently owned by Council, with Council negotiating the appropriate permissions.

In the same year, the Kaurna community challenged Council to develop an exhibition together at the Bay Discovery Centre.

The outcome, Tiati Wangkanthi Kumangka, or Truth Telling Together, is a must-see exhibition that challenges the colonial South Australian history books.

In 2020 it won the Australian museum sector's most prestigious award, the MAGNA, proving that smaller museums and the local governments who run them are able to be agile and achieve things that larger institutions may struggle to do.

Most importantly, both of these collaborative events and projects gave our communities the chance to embrace each other, to learn from each other, to face the truths of the past together and to build new foundations for the future.

On Proclamation Day in 2023, Council proudly supported the work of Firesticks, a national Indigenous cultural network, and the Kaurna Firesticks Team.

Three Signal Fires were lit along the Holdfast coastline, reviving a cultural practice that was a form of communication for First Nations people across Australia.

It is documented that as colonial ships arrived in 1836, Aboriginal groups along the coast sent plumes of smoke from signal fires to alert one another of a significant event.

Revival of cultural practices such as signal fires are an important part of sharing knowledge between Kaurna Elders and younger generations, ensuring that culture remains continuous and strong.

The strength of the partnership between Kaurna and Council in realising this initiative last year was recognised by a 2024 Local Government award.

While the fires are not taking place again today, behind the scenes Kaurna continue to work on an expanded vision for the signal fires event to mark future Proclamation Days.

We as Council look forward to collaborating and supporting Kaurna in this endeavour.

More generally, the City of Holdfast Bay remains committed to embedding consultation and genuine dialogue with Kaurna in the way we do our work as a council.

The path of reconciliation can be complex, but through developing trust, holding space for truth-telling, and building genuine friendships, our reconciliation journey continues and strengthens each year.

In attending this ceremony, each of you here today has also contributed to the strengthening of our reconciliation journey.

We thank you for walking with us, and challenge each of you to consider how you and your communities can also work to give voice to truths that have been silenced for too long.