Sea of hands Jonfal Julie

Sea of Hands

The Sea of hands is one of ANTAR 's activities.
ANTAR =Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation.

The Sea of Hands is a symbol of the people's movement and reconciliation between Aboriginals and white Australians.
Australians planted hands in the ground because
they wanted to apologize to Aboriginals because English people killed many aboriginal children and colonized them. Aboriginal people were the first population live in Australia with Torres Strait Islanders.

British colonisation began in 1788 when the First Fleet ( 11 ships) arrived in Botany Bay. Botany Bay is a bay in Sidney. The Europeans brought diseases which killed the natives.

The colors of the hands are yellow, red, black, blue, green and white because they represent the colors of the Aboriginal flag, the Australian flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag.

This photo represents the first Sea of hands on the 12 October 1997.

There were 70 000 hands installed in front of Parliament House in Canberra.

500 volunteers helped planting the hands.

After this, I believe Aboriginal people forgave to Australians but they did not forget what happened during British colonisation.

I think the Sea of Hands is a great idea and a powerful symbol.

If you want to create your hand, you can go to this site: http://seaofhands.antar.org.au/