I was lucky that my connections with the Murri network alerted me that Wu Chopperen medical centre had organised a gathering last Wednesday to bring people together to watch the historic broadcast from Parliament House in Canberra of Kevin Rudd's apology on behalf of the Government and Parliament.
People stood around quietly, many with tears in their eyes, and there was sustained applause at the end of the speech.
Whilst I felt privileged to be one of the few non-indigenous people there - along with Cairns 1st election candidates Richie Bates and Kirsten Lesina - I couldn't help but feel sorrow at the lack of political leadership in Cairns.
Kevin Byrne and Cairns City Council could have organised a big screen in perhaps City Place and invited the general public to share this day with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Scenes from around the nation showed that people wanted to gather and be together in the celebration.
It was an opportunity lost for local reconciliation and for us publicly to acknowledge the past hurts before we move into the future with practical strategies to deal with ongoing Indigenous issues.
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