Australians follow journey of healing to southern Africa.

In Johannesburg in February the Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, Dr Barney Pityana, met a group of Australians. He had heard that last year nearly a million took part in walks for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. How had this massive people's movement developed, he wanted to know. Could something similar happen in South Africa?

An Australian Aboriginal replied. Johnny Huckle is well-known on the Australian music circuit. He grew up in the Aboriginal reserve on the edge of a country town, enduring the contempt with which many white people treated Aboriginals. Music became a useful tool to express his anger and hit back at the white community. Gradually his bitterness and despair led him into alcoholism.

`I didn't like the person I had become, with all my dishonesty and resentment,' he says. `Three years ago I had a dream, in which my ancestors asked me to turn away from all that was imprisoning me. That was the start of a journey which renewed my spirit. I found a whole new vitality.'

His personal healing coincided with a national initiative to heal the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. In May 1998 hundreds of thousands came together in a National Sorry Day, held so that non-Aboriginals could apologize to Aboriginal people for tragically misguided past policies. Aboriginal people responded by launching a `journey of healing' for all who have been harmed by these policies. Huckle decided to get involved. He and his partner, Helen Moran, have taken a Journey of Healing music tour to every State of Australia, singing to tens of thousands of people, particularly in Aboriginal communities. Their message is that no one need remain in despair; everyone can find the next step towards healing.

The Journey's approach is that, while government programmes have a vital role in healing, so too do ordinary people who get together across the racial divide, wherever they live; listen to each other; and take action together. The Journey offers three criteria as guidelines for action--recognition of the truth of what happened rather than the version too often found in history books; commitment to heal the harm done; and unity between the races in grappling with the problems. As the Journey of Healing song--written by Huckle and Moran--expresses it, `to trust again, we must take this journey together as friends'.

The Journey is one of several community initiatives which are now offering Australians a chance to build just and respectful relationships between the races. News of it reached southern Africa, where people of all races who are active with MRA decided to invite a group, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to speak about this work.

Our group spent six weeks in Zimbabwe and South Africa. We put together a presentation of dance, song and sketch, outlining the Journey of Healing and the personal experiences of healing undergirding it. This presentation was seen on Zimbabwean TV and by many live audiences including nearly 10,000 students. After every performance, people spoke to us about the conflicts and tensions they encounter between differing races and groups. As one South African said, `I want to be part of healing. You have shown me that I don't have to wait for the authorities to take the initiative. I can do something myself.'

In turn, we were inspired by much that we saw of interracial cooperation in southern Africa. It was moving to watch black and white together caring for AIDS sufferers and their children. In grappling with these huge problems, southern Africa may discover its own grassroots movement, bringing with it a new respect and appreciation between the races.