Reconciliation Week: Tyler Morris powerful guide to ending stereotypes

Tyler Morris, 14, of MacKillop College at Port Macquarie on the NSW North Coast, addressed his school's National Sorry Day Mass, which also featured several students performing an Aboriginal dance before their 1100 teachers and peers.

The event was organised by the college's Indigenous Coordinator Tristram Morris, to mark National Reconciliation Week.

Tyler's speech about living as an Aboriginal boy sends a message worth sharing with the wider community. It is copied in full below.

There are things that have damaging impacts to reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people today. One of those things is assumptions and stereotyping.

Sometimes non-Aboriginal people can have views about Aboriginal people, even if they don't know them or haven't had much to do with Aboriginal people.

Often these views are positive, though sometimes they are negative. People can take second or third-hand information or hear something in the media and presume that this information is completely correct, when often it is not correct.

One of the stereotypes we experience as students is the assumption that you aren't Aboriginal if you have light skin. Non-Aboriginal people can sometimes have an image of what they think an Aboriginal person should look like.

The truth is that all Aboriginal people look different and often today Aboriginal people have mixed ancestry with European influence.

To be Aboriginal in New South Wales there are three criteria that must be met. You must:

Skin colour, or what you like look, has no bearing on your Aboriginal identity.

Something we say is "you can add a splash of milk to your cup of tea, but it is still a cup of tea".

The judgement of a young person's Aboriginality by their non-Aboriginal peers, is something that happens often for younger Aboriginal people in school.

Aboriginal identity is much deeper than appearance; it's about our family connection or kinship, our connection to country; our community connection; our cultural beliefs and customs, our deep family history, our cultural practices and our strong cultural values.

Our Aboriginal identity is an integral part of who we are. It can be offensive when we are told that we are not Aboriginal by someone who may not know about our family history, our personal story or what it means to be Aboriginal.

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If you want to learn more about someone's Aboriginal identity, rather than challenging their identity, simply ask them more about it in a respectful way.

Some questions you may like to ask include:

Also remember, there is a lot of diversity in the Aboriginal population, just like with everyone else. It's important not to judge all Aboriginal people as the same.

When you hear an assumption or a stereotype about Aboriginal people, remember to ask yourself "does this actually sound true" and how would you feel if people said this about you and your family and community.

- Tyler Morris, McKillop Senior College