Year nine student Tess Booth is among more than 1,000 students who have taken step towards confronting her town's traumatic Indigenous history.
Elders sang songs as Ms Booth and 1,500 students from 15 schools in the Macleay Valley on New South Wales' Mid North Coast today took part in a Reconciliation Week walk at Kempsey's Eden Street Field.
Learning about the region's history from Dunghutti elders was an invaluable experience for Ms Booth.
"We go on trips with them and they're able to tell us a lot about Reconciliation Week and how to treat each other as equals," she said.
"I think it's a really great experience that we get to learn as much as we do and that there's a lot more opportunities for us now."
Between 1924 and 1970 the region was home to the Kinchela Boys Home, where hundreds of young boys belonging to the Stolen Generation were subject to severe physical and psychological abuse.
The site has now been transformed into an Aboriginal corporation with the same name that supports the Indigenous community.
For Kempsey South Public School teacher Vicki Willoughby, it is vital that the region's younger generation is connected to that confronting past.
"The community [has] just become so disconnected and we're like, 'What can we do as a school?'," she said.
Ms Willoughby, a proud Wiradjuri woman, said the school regularly worked with the Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation to undertake events like today's walk and to educate students about local Indigenous history.
"We're having those conversations with the kids and we're including the elders in those conversations," she said.
"The local elders are massive. They're at the forefront of everything we do.
"We want to be able fill capacity in the kids to be able to show a little bit of resilience when they're out in the community."
A key part of the reconciliation walk on Thursday was elders and students connecting with each other.
"It's about coming together and healing together," Ms Willoughby said.
Recognising the past
Dunghutti elder Uncle Bob Smith said the day provided an opportunity for generations to work together on paths toward reconciliation.
"It's a matter of everybody recognising those injustices of the past and then working together, which is what we see here today.
A former teacher in the area, Uncle Smith said he hoped those involved in the walk would be empowered.
"Getting that insight into what was, what is and what can, and it's up to them how they become a part of that," he said.
"They are the ones that can make the difference from here on and that's what we need to recognise."
While it can be a difficult process, Kempsey South principal Paul Byrne says learning and confronting the past can create a positive outlook.
"That's our job at the moment; we're the caretakers of those emerging leaders," he said.
"If we can instil in them all of those deep truths and deep knowledge about where we've come from, hopefully they'll have everything they need to put together a really wonderful future."
