Saturday 9 May was a magnificent autumn day in Canberra. I stood outside the old Parliament House, just in front of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Bob Hawke stood up on those historic white steps, as had David Smith when he read the proclamation dismissing the Whitlam Government at the behest of Sir John Kerr on 11 November 1975.
This time the crowd was benign, delighted to hear Hawke, the only person to have been Prime Minister in the old and new Parliament Houses, open the Museum of Australian Democracy — with his distinctive larrikin touch and a call for an Australian republic to take effect at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
John Williamson sang, espousing 'Waltzing Matilda' as the true national anthem against the backdrop of his preferred Australian flag featuring the kangaroo and the Southern Cross.
The day was reminiscent of 9 May 1988, when Queen Elizabeth, further up the hill, opened the new Parliament House. The big difference was the place of Aboriginal Australia in the proceedings.
Back then, four years prior to the Mabo decision, Aboriginal Australians were still protesting for land rights. While Michael Nelson Tjakamarra escorted Queen Elizabeth down to his mural in the forecourt, Aboriginal Australians and their supporters were chanting, 'What do we want? Land Rights. When do we want it? Now.'
Church leaders had asked our parliamentarians to acknowledge the need for reconciliation during the bicentenary year. After the disrupted opening of the new Parliament House, the Coalition parties in opposition withdrew their support for the first resolution in the new Parliament House that acknowledged the need for reconciliation.
Twenty-one years on, traditional owner Paul House made a speech on the steps of the old Parliament House welcoming everyone to his country.
He spoke about his ancestors including those who were marginal to the opening of that building in 1927. Jimmy Clements was the only Aboriginal person there and he definitely had no speaking role. House insisted that reconciliation entailed recognition of the distinctive place of Aboriginal Australians in the life of the nation.
For me it was a week of Aboriginal reminiscences, and not all evoked hope of progress.
Earlier in the week, I had accompanied Aboriginal lawyer Tammy Williams to Yarrabah, an Aboriginal community outside Cairns. We met with the mayor Percy Neal (pictured with Williams and Frank Brennan), who spoke of