Practical Reconciliation Research Articles

Can ASEAN Play a Leading Role in Resolving Myanmar’s Crisis?

On 2 March 2021 representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states convened a meeting to discuss the situation in Myanmar following the military coup on 1 February 2021 where the Myanmar civilian government was toppled by the military junta. The outcome of the meeting did not deviate from the bloc’s traditional response of non-interference; they strongly encouraged all parties concerned to seek a peaceful solution through constructive dialogue and practical reconciliation in the interests of the people and their livelihood.

Ubwiyunge Mubikorwa (reconciliation in action): Development and Field Piloting of Action-Based Psychosocial Reconciliation Approach in post-Gacaca Rwanda

Reconciliation is a “hazy” construct that calls for further systematic understanding efforts. The purpose of the present study was to illuminate and understand authentic and idiographic processes of interpersonal reconciliation between survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. An original interpersonal reconciliation approach termed action-based psychosocial reconciliation approach (ABPRA) was developed and implemented in two remote villages of Rwanda. Lived experiences of reconciliation dyads (consisting of survivors and their direct perpetrators) who participated in ABPRA were collected employing a postsession, semistructured interview. Thematic content analysis of the data revealed five major themes representing the beneficial impacts of ABPRA. This paper introduces an overview of ABPRA and reports the results from the field pilot study. The reporting features a collection of participant reported narratives highlighting the beneficial effects of ABPRA on their healing and reconciliation process. The paper concludes with the implications of the study to enhance further efforts to support the interpersonal reconciliation process in Rwanda. Key implications for practice The study explored the beneficial impact of a novel interpersonal approach to post-Genocide community reconciliation in Rwanda. The study illuminated the lived experiences of Genocide survivors and perpetrators engaged in the process of interpersonal reconciliation. The study developed a piece of research evidence for a practical, economical and sustainable interpersonal reconciliation programme.

Optimized-Eight-State CV-QKD Protocol Outperforming Gaussian Modulation Based Protocols

In this paper, an optimized-eight-state CV-QKD protocol is proposed significantly outperforming previously introduced discrete modulation (DM) protocols as well as the corresponding Gaussian modulation (GM)-based CV-QKD protocols for practical reconciliation efficiencies values in terms of both secret-key rate (SKR) and achievable distance. The proposed CV-QKD protocol also outperforms, in terms of SKR, the corresponding high-cost single-photon DV-QKD scheme, employing an array of multiplexed single-photon detectors, for several orders of magnitude. We also describe a generalized RF-assisted CV-QKD scheme with heterodyne detection applicable to arbitrary DM scheme, insensitive to the laser phase noise and frequency offset fluctuations.

Revisiting Rousseau’s Civil Religion

As divisive as the work undoubtedly remains, ‘On Civil Religion’ merits renewed attention. Possessing the courage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s convictions and contradictions both, it offers a flawed yet productive confrontation with still-enduring politico-theological tensions and, more broadly, a compelling case for the pedagogical value of provocation. By pressing these debates upon our collective attention, he alerts us, in no uncertain terms, to the vital role contentiousness plays in civic affairs. And in potentially fanning the flames of this still-burning fire, Rousseau’s ‘purely civil profession of faith’ provokes us once again to reconsider the theoretical and practical reconciliation of religious and political institutions, all while pushing us – insistently, at times even unreasonably – down a path towards some form of democratic rapprochement. ‘On Civil Religion’ therefore reflects a tense dialectic between piety and profanity, pessimism and idealism, civility and intolerance, civic-mindedness and individualism, reason and emotion. Yet in striking so many dissonant chords, it prods us even now to revisit the relationship between religious and civic institutions as they are, and envision how it might be.

Towards a practical stope reconciliation process in large-scale bulk underground stoping operations, Olympic Dam, South Australia

Towards a practical stope reconciliation process in large-scale bulk underground stoping operations, Olympic Dam, South Australia

Editor’s introduction

The concept of sustainability is gaining importance, not least in discussions about the succession to the Millennium Development Goals that have a timeline until 2015. While sustainability is a widely accepted leitmotif, the practical reconciliation of environmental protection and conservation with economic and social development remains a challenge for developing and developed countries alike.

IMPRACTICAL RECONCILIATION

This article examines the events and texts of the Huggins–Bell debate, in view of the revival of Bell's ‘everyone's business’ position in the current context of the Northern Territory Intervention. I argue that while there are disjunctures between the position Bell espoused and the measures taken in the Intervention, the Intervention's policy approach of ‘practical reconciliation’ shares the signature features of Bell's position. As in Bell's work, the discourses supporting the Intervention use an ideology/practice binary to defend the morality of intervention, refuse to treat issues of lateral violence and racism intersectionally, and claim to bolster the authority of Indigenous women while in practice undermining that authority.

Truth, Narrative, and Opening Space

This paper identifies the difficulties in confronting novel history from both a rigorous scientific and artistic literary perspectives and suggests a practical reconciliation—in the form of a discussion and metaphorical opening space—between the two apparent poles of historical understanding and their accompanying genres, types, and tropes.

Unveiling the Past—Preparing the Conditions for Human Beings to Live in the Midst of One Another Again? A Response From Living in Northern Ireland

AbstractThe need for structures that arrest and cut the slide into the vortex of inhuman actions, one to another, have their necessary place alongside the need to acknowledge harm done, make reparation and promote a more restorative, healing future together (Consultative Group on the Past. Report of the Consultative Group on the Past. 2009). Acknowledgement and remembrance are essential. Such new rituals encourage a culture of not hiding the violence; they also embolden citizens, groups, and institutional representatives—at a distance of time from the events—to stand against any such actions being tolerated again. This response to Lingis draws on extensive practical experience in practical reconciliation work since 1965, including directing a residential reconciliation centre and a small sanctuary facility for people intimidated from their homes (The Corrymeela Centre, 1978-85); doctoral and post doctoral research and developmental practice in conflict resolution and peace education (1985-) as well as being an associate academic member of the pilot Northern Ireland Victims and Survivors Forum (2009-2011).

Muslim Modernities: Expressions of the Civil Imagination * Edited by AMYN B. SAJOO * Liberalism and Islam: Practical Reconciliation between the Liberal State and Shiite Muslims * By HAMID HADJI HAIDAR

For all its complicity with empire, Enlightenment continues to be promoted as the defining norm of human history. It forms the backbone of the ideology of ‘the West’, the identity of the real and the rational that marks the end of history. For its champions, it exists beyond the constraints of time and clime altogether. ‘Enlightenment Rationalist Fundamentalism’, insists Ernest Gellner, ‘claims transcendence twice over: (for) being beyond and outside a culture or any culture, and being beyond and outside this world.’ (Postmodernism, Reason and Religion [London, 1992] pp. 81–2). It is this transcendentalized perception of the modern regime that makes it virtually impossible to see Islam in historical, existential terms. Little wonder that in popular discourse, Islam now appears as a phantom without a human face. It defines the West, sets limits to the expansion of the European project, provides libertarians with compelling reasons for self-acclaim, solves the...

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into the Curriculum: Responses of Science Teacher Educators

In many parts of the world, concerns to enact a practical reconciliation between indigenous and coloniser populations are finding their expression through various action plans and formal social initiatives. At base, such initiatives require the acknowledgement of both colonial injustices and the awareness of and respect for the strength, wisdom and holistic integrity of displaced/colonised know- ledge systems. In the Australian context, draft national curricula in five areas—English, Maths, Science, History and Art—all reflect a concern to incorporate local indigenous knowledge and perspectives into each respective syllabus. While there have been attempts to attach aspects of indigenous knowledge to various strands of individual State curricula in the past, the present national concern would require something of a reconceptualisation of what constitutes, for example, Science as currently taught in schools. This paper presents initial findings from a larger research project that aims to identify the concerns and opportunities presented by a rethinking of the nature of Science as a result of the national curriculum process. Here, the reactions to and ideas of arguably central figures in any successful re-orientation of 'official knowledge' in school-based teaching—teacher educators are presented by way of suggesting challenges, possibilities and imperatives for the genuine incorporation of local in- digenous knowledge into the formal school Science curriculum.

PROSPECTS FOR ‘CLOSING THE GAP’ IN SOCIOECONOMIC OUTCOMES FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS?

Practical reconciliation’ and more recently ‘closing the gap’ have been put forward as frameworks on which to base and evaluate policies to address Indigenous disadvantage. This paper analyses national‐level census‐based data to examine trends in Indigenous wellbeing since 1971. There has been steady improvement in most socioeconomic outcomes in the last 35 years; a finding at odds with the current discourse of failure. Evidence of convergence between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous outcomes, however, is not consistent. For some outcomes, relatively rapid convergence is predicted (within 25 years), but for the majority of outcomes, convergence is unlikely to occur within a generation, if at all.

Access and Conscience: Principles of Practical Reconciliation

There are many situations in which conflicts arise between health care professionals who have religious objections to certain medical services and their employers or patients who want them to provide those services. The services that are generally controversial include delivery or support of abortion, sterilization, contraception, assisted reproduction techniques (ART), withdrawal of life support, withdrawal of nutrition and hydration, autopsies, or assisted suicide.

Perspectives on Reconciliation & Indigenous Rights

This paper provides an overview of discourses of the movement for national reconciliation prevailing within the Australian socio-political context since the inception of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1991, to the national apology delivered by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13th February 2008. It provides an framework for the various discourses of reconciliation, by exploring and analysing the accrued meanings to such terms such as ‘genuine’, substantive or ‘true’ reconciliation; the Howard’s Government’s ‘practical reconciliation’ and the Rudd government’s great attempt at ‘symbolic’ reconciliation in the national apology to Indigenous Australians. In the changing political context in Australia today this paper revisits the debates on reconciliation, and endeavours to locate the movement solidly within a human rights framework that includes first nation rights. This requires an examination of the roots of the reconciliation movement including community attitudes to reconciliation and the nature of the peoples’ movement as well as the differing perspectives of policy makers, politicians and of course, Indigenous peoples. It asks crucial questions about the progress of reconciliation and the type of reconciliation mainstream Australians will accept. In truth therefore, was the ‘National Apology’ a grand symbolic gesture by mainstream Australia to maintain the status quo and divert our eyes from the more searching questions of the ‘unfinished business’ of ‘substantive’ reconciliation which encompasses first nations rights for Indigenous peoples.

On the significance of saying “sorry” – politics of memory and Aboriginal Reconciliation in Australia

2007 marked the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum. Back on May 27th 1967, more than 90% of Australian eligible voters said “yes’ to two changes of the Australian Constitution considered discriminatory to Aboriginal people. This event is often considered as the first stage of Reconciliation in Australia. 2007 also marked the 10th Anniversary of the release of the Bringing Them Home Report that highlighted the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their family as part of an assimilation policy. From 1997, the issue of an apology became a sine qua non condition to Reconciliation. It was an important element of the recommendations the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation submitted to Parliament in 2000. But, Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, in office for more than ten years, refused to say the word “sorry” on the basis that Australians of today are not responsible for the actions of the past and that guilt is not hereditary. His focus was on what is called “practical reconciliation”. Some changes are now on the way as Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, who defeated him at the last federal election in November 24th 2007, has promised to make a formal apology to the stolen generation. Why is it important to say “sorry”? At a time of dramatic developments in Indigenous Affairs, this paper deals with the significance of an apology for Reconciliation in Australia.

Beyond “Practical” Reconciliation: Intergroup Inequality and the Meaning of Non‐Indigenous Identity

The long‐standing policy of “practical reconciliation” between Australian Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous people has actively disregarded the need to redress past injustice as the basis of current intergroup inequality. While this approach has received extensive critique from reconciliation scholars, its implications for Non‐Indigenous involvement in reconciliation have been neglected. When Indigenous disadvantage is divorced from its social and historical context it is also more likely to be seen as having little to do with “us” as Non‐Indigenous Australians. In contrast, when inequality is seen as stemming from the past and present reality of intergroup relations, and as such shapes the meaning of Non‐Indigenous identity, it will be seen as more illegitimate, in need of change, and is more likely to motivate political engagement in the reconciliation process. The current study tests and finds support for this idea. Importantly, controlling for the contributions of perceived legitimacy of inequality and need for social change, Non‐Indigenous identity meaning continued to significantly predict intentions to vote and engage in political action in support of reconciliation.

Talking about Indigenous Gambling and Economic Development in Australia, the US and Canada

This essay examines gambling as one thread of a broader fabric of economic relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. How do these relationships shape the ways gambling is promoted, experienced, regulated and talked about in Australia?; what are the implications of this for the governmentality of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians?; and how are political and cultural processes of racism and white possession involved in and reproduced through these relationships? What follows is a comparative analysis of discourses on Indigenous gambling in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. The aim of this comparison is to imagine alternative figures, which might inhabit the intersection of Indigeneity and gambling, to that which currently prevails in the national imagination: the Indigenous problem gambler and target of practical reconciliation policies.

Aboriginal and Non—Aboriginal Australia: The Dilemma of Apologies, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

This article presents a qualitative study of the indigenous Australian perspective on reconciliation with nonindigenous Australia, with a focus on the role of an apology for the oppression and violence perpetrated by nonindigenous Australians, and forgiveness on the part of indigenous Australians. A brief historical analysis of the relationship between Aborigines and waves of settlers is presented to demonstrate the extent of the wrong that was perpetrated against Aborigines and the need for social as well as practical reconciliation in the current context. It is argued that negotiated forgiveness is a concept that is pertinent to the discussion of reconciliation, because it requires a dialogue between the parties and ultimately for the wrongdoer to accept accountability and responsibility for offending actions, thereby opening the door for forgiveness and, ultimately, possible reconciliation. It is suggested that a first step in the required reconciliation dialogue is an apology, but the issue of who sho...

Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

<i>Jindabyne</i>’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

Perceptions of Reconciliation and related Indigenous Issues among Young Residents of Shepparton

It has been argued that reconciliation between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians requires non‐Indigenous Australians to change their attitudes. Some suggest that this process is occurring and that younger people hold more positive attitudes towards Indigenous Australians. This paper explored the perspectives of 86 young people from Shepparton, Victoria in relation to reconciliation and related Indigenous issues. The study found that young participants' views of reconciliation varied, and while some supported reconciliation, many opposed a national apology and indicated that they were not very informed about or interested in Aboriginal issues. Many distinguished between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Aboriginals based on behaviour. Their talk was embedded with notions of special privilege, ‘sameness’ and social hierarchy but excluded attention to cultural difference. Findings suggest that these young people have embraced discourses of sameness, individualism and ‘practical reconciliation’ and that they are reluctant to reflect on their position of White privilege.