7 DEC 2018 — From the team at Walking Together: Petition closes Monday 10 December.

In reflection of his participation in the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel noted that, “Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”

That was certainly our experience as almost 600 "Walked Together" through the streets of Melbourne last night.Collectively we called upon our elected leaders to work together to establish a just Treaty that recognises and acknowledges our First Nation's and ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people have a lasting voice in our national Parliament.

Panellists will examine the specific effects of the Holocaust in creating and perpetuating physical and psychological disability. The panel will also consider challenges experienced by those who have come to Australia from other war-torn countries. It will raise the possibility that the marginalisation and erosion of personhood of persons with disability in our own society and how the continuing acceptance of cruel treatments—of indigenous people, asylum seekers, the aged, people with dementia and members of LGBTIQ communities—draws on insidious precedents established during the Holocaust.

Dr Zeremariam Fre's acceptance speech at the 2018 Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Fellowship award was tremendously inspiring. Dr Berhan Ahmed, 2009 Victorian Australian of the Year, lovingly presented the award to Dr Fre for his extraordinary work in significantly advancing both the need for ecological care and the practices associated with it. Dr Fre’s has provided practical leadership in caring for, protecting and restoring the natural environment, and helped to develop innovative responses to contemporary environmental challenges.