Homes North staff joined with residents to take part in Armidale’s annual Reconciliation Bridge Walk, held on Sunday 28^th May to celebrate National Reconciliation Week.

Armidale’s walk across Stephens Bridge is inspired by the Sydney Harbour Reconciliation Bridge Walk where 300,000 people walked in support of National Reconciliation Week to reflect on two significant anniversaries:

• 27^th May – 50 years since the 1967 referendum when 90 per cent of Australians voted to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise them in the national census
• 3rd June – Commemorates the High Court of Australia’s landmark Mabo decision in 1992, which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land—a relationship that existed prior to colonalisation and still exists today. This recognition paved the way for land rights or Native Title.

Homes North acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the traditional owners of the land upon which we work and live across the New England North West, and we pay our respects to elders past and present.