The Cherbourg and South Burnett councils have vowed to walk the journey of reconciliation together, launching a set of eight ‘yarning benches’ to be placed across the region.
Representatives of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council and South Burnett Regional Council met with Indigenous elders at the Cherbourg Ration Shed Museum on Tuesday, 26 August to unveil the new seats.
The eight benches each feature a unique piece of artwork by renowned Cherbourg painter and Kabi Kabi man Maurice Mickelo with the designs depicting native animals like a turtle or an echidna eating ants, as well as images of the bunya pine with its nuts and a man with a spear.
Each bench also features a plaque with QR codes for the websites of Cherbourg’s and the South Burnett’s councils and the Ration Shed Museum and is adorned with the Cherbourg town slogan of ‘Many Tribes, One Community.’
The benches will be placed at key locations in each of the South Burnett’s six major towns as well as Cherbourg. Kingaroy will host two seats while Murgon, Wondai, Blackbutt, Nanango and Proston each receive one; the Ration Shed Museum in Cherbourg will also get one bench.
Locals as well as visitors to the Burnett region – no matter their background – are invited to take a seat on the benches and share their stories with one another.
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council deputy mayor Gordon Wragge told the assembled crowd that the idea for the reconciliation benches came from fellow local Tyrone Murray, who owns and operates Crow’s Barbershop in the neighbouring South Burnett town of Murgon.
Mr Murray recounted how he and his clients made frequent use of a bench placed on the Lamb Street footpath outside of his business to sit down and have a yarn.
When the seat was first moved then taken away altogether – with the barber hearing that a council decision was allegedly behind the move – he hatched the idea to bring Cherbourg and the South Burnett closer together via similar benches across the region.
“It sort of broke me,” Mr Murray said.
“I was just going to give up on my dream, but I had a talk with Uncle Bruce [Simpson] and he said we’ll get these reconciliation chairs.”
CASC resolved in October of 2024 to source funding for the bench project, with mayor Bruce Simpson saying the notion of a local, shared space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike fit his council’s commitment to “having those real yarns about moving forward.”
“Reconciliation is about the ongoing process of building the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australia,” Mayor Simpson said.
“It’s things like these initiatives that make it happen.
“Together we can make our community, our region and our Australia great. We can reclaim our history and our stories,” Cherbourg’s mayor added.
“That’s how far we’ve come today in regards to everything,” CASC deputy mayor Gordon Wragge said of the project.
“Reconciliation plays a big role. I know Cherbourg will roll out the red carpet for people – but we want people to help us roll it out. We’re going to move mountains.”
The South Burnett Regional Council wholly embraced the idea of the reconciliation benches, with all six sitting councillors as well as mayor Kathy Duff attending Tuesday’s unveiling ceremony.
The SBRC’s councillors playfully staked their claims on individual seats arguing the images depicted suited their respective communities best. Councillor Heath Sander soon after floated the idea of using Mr Mickelo’s bench artworks to fashion special divisional shirts, enabling each council representative to wear and display their town’s reconciliation seat designs.
“We feel very honoured to receive these chairs in the name of reconciliation [and] (…) putting [them] out across the region to contribute to the ongoing conversation about build[ing] relationships,” said South Burnett mayor Kathy Duff.
“Mayor Bruce [Simpson] and I have a wonderful relationship. We are stronger when we work together and walk together.”
Wakka Wakka elder and chair of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council Elders Advisory Group, Uncle Eric Law AM, agreed with the councils of both regions in calling the reconciliation bench project an important stepping stone for bridging the Cherbourg-Burnett as well as Indigenous-non Indigenous gaps.
“I don’t think we can ever forget the hardship our ancestors went through,” he said.
“We can’t stay there and let that consume us, but we can learn from it – take that with us into the future. It becomes part of what we need to do to be able to survive.
“I thank council for working with us on trying to make this place the best it can be,” Mr Law said.
“This [the benches] is a pragmatic and a tangible part of what reconciliation is all about. The rest of it is up to us as individuals.”
The planned locations of the eight reconciliation benches are as follows:
• Murgon: near the post office on Lamb Street
• Wondai: undercover at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery
• Kingaroy: one at O’Neill Square and one in the Glendon Street shared zone
• Blackbutt: at the skate park on Morris Street
• Nanango: at Ringsfield House
• Proston: in front of Emma’s Coffee Shop on Blake Street
• Cherbourg: Ration Shed Museum, near the Pottery Hut
