BIEPA Partnership contributes to recognition

I'd like to share with you the speech I made to those who gathered for the Changing the Narrative event on the 26th January...

My name is Richard Ogden and I’m the President of BIEPA, the region’s premier environmental protection organisation. I acknowledge the elders here today, and all the community who contribute with your presence. BIEPA is a partner in this important and wonderful initiative, and it’s a privilege and an honour to be invited to participate in these formalities with you today.

To put animals and birds, climate and nature first, we must all work together. No true success can come without the dedication and commitment of those whose people have cared for this country for thousands of years.

On this important day, I thank you. I thank you for joining hands and walking together. I thank you for handling the sleights and unfriendliness that comes to us if we insist on acknowledging the truth. This event is for everyone. We have a magnificent opportunity to lead by example. Yarun can be known for respect and inclusion, as I know firsthand, having been welcomed and included by this inspiring mob!

Video: everyone joins together in a rousing twilight stomp!

It has become fashionable to ridicule those who are “woke”. That’s because too many people in this world remain asleep. We have woken to the reality that human life can only survive if we wake up. We have woken to the truth that prejudice and exclusion is our enemy. We have woken to the reality that all people who live in Australia, whenever we have arrived, must take responsibility for our society and its ugly past. We can be proud if we walk together, that means we don’t ignore how we are privileged to be here, to be welcomed to share in the oldest continuing culture in history.

Thank you all for manifesting the confidence that as a society we can overcome ignorance, and we can face the past with honesty, and the future with hope. For now, let’s be glad that we are here together, that we are awake to the truth of the past, and that we will do what it takes to build a common future.

Thank you.