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Each year, Reconciliation Tasmania hosts events during National Reconciliation Week to offer connection, inspiration, and motivation for action and change.

With an emphasis on truth-telling, these events are an opportunity to hear from state and national leaders to explore how each of us can contribute to reconciliation in Tasmania.

In 2025, Reconciliation Tasmania will host three National Reconciliation Week events –

• Pataway / Burnie SOLD OUT – Tuesday 27th of May, 7am – 9am, Burnie Arts & Function Centre
• Launceston – Wednesday 28th of May, 7am – 9am, Tailrace Centre
• Nipaluna / Hobart – Tuesday 3rd of June, 7am – 9am, MyState Bank Arena

Anyone who purchases or donates a table for any of the three events will also receive access to a professional video from the events, during National Reconciliation Week, to enable you to share the event more widely within your organisation and/or your local community.

The 2024 event sold out – book now to avoid disappointment!

Speakers

Nipaluna / Hobart – Jim Everett-Puralia Meenamatta

Jim Everett-Puralia Meenamatta was born at Flinders Island, Lutruwita/Tasmania in 1942.  He is from the clan Plangermairreenner of the Ben Lomond people, a clan of the Cape Portland nation in North-east Tasmania. 

Jim left primary school at 14 years to start work.  His working life includes 15 years at sea as a fisherman and merchant seaman, Australian Regular Army for 3 years, and over 50 years formal involvement in the Aboriginal Struggle.  

He has a long history in the public service in Aboriginal Affairs, and has traveled Australia, and overseas visiting many remote Aboriginal communities.  Jim began writing poetry at an early age.  He wrote his first play, We Are Survivors, in 1984, and produced, directed, and acted in it.  His written works now include plays, political and academic papers and short stories. Jim has produced and been associate producer in many documentary films.  He is published in many major anthologies.

Jim lives on truwana / Cape Barren Island writing and maintaining involvement in cultural arts nationally.

Jim will be the keynote speaker at the NRW Breakfast in Nipaluna / Hobart on Tuesday 3 June.

Pataway / Burnie and Launceston – Thomas Mayo and Kate Warner

The speakers at our NRW Breakfasts in Pataway / Burnie on 27 May and Launceston on 28 May will be Thomas Mayo and Kate Warner.

Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander author who was born and raised in Darwin. After working on the wharves in Darwin and Sydney, he took on leadership roles within the Maritime Union of Australia. Thomas Mayo was elected as an Assistant National Secretary in 2023.

As a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, he has been instrumental in driving the national campaign for constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations peoples ever since.

Thomas Mayo’s books discuss First Nations people’s struggle for justice, recognition and equity. In 2024, The Voice to Parliament Handbook, written by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien, was named the Book of the Year as well as Social Impact Book of the Year and Non-Fiction Book of the Year of the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs).

Kate Warner is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania, where she served for many years before her appointment as Governor of Tasmania in December 2014. Throughout her term as Governor, Kate committed herself to advancing relations with Aboriginal people, looked for opportunities to acknowledge the truths of our history, and proactively took initiatives to demonstrate recognition of and respect for Aboriginal people.

In 2021, the Premier commissioned Kate, and her colleague Tim McCormack, to consult with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community to “find an agreed pathway to reconciliation”. In their report, Pathway to Truth Telling and Treaty, Kate and Tim shared their vision for Tasmania as one “where our Aboriginal people’s profoundly long and deep connections to Country are respected, where our unique Aboriginal heritage is cherished, where we properly understand what it really means for all of us to be Tasmanian and to gather together in peace, in pride and without shame.”

Thomas Mayo and Kate Warner will speak at our NRW Breakfasts in Pataway / Burnie on Tuesday 27 May, and Launceston on Wednesday 28 May.