Speeches
Monday, 02 June 2025
Unveiling of the City of Burnside Tamikuru Sculpture
It’s Rod’s and my pleasure to join you today, during Reconciliation Week, for the launch of the Burnside ‘Tamikuru’ Sculpture.
The Burnside Civic Centre has many fond memories for me – from age 8 I lived in nearby Kennaway Street and, as a voracious reader, wore a path to the Burnside Library.
Today as Governor it is my privilege to walk, metaphorically speaking, with indigenous and non-indigenous South Australians.
It is a privilege but against the backdrop of our State’s foundational documents - the Letters Patent, the South Australia Act 1838, and the Proclamation itself – I feel a responsibility as holder of the State’s highest office, to do so.
Government House values highly its relationship with local Kaurna representatives, including Quahli, who has performed Welcomes to Country at our events, as well as Jeffrey, Merle and Lynette, whom I have the pleasure of meeting regularly through their work with the City of Holdfast Bay.
Initiatives at Holdfast Bay - including the ‘Tiati’ truth-telling exhibition at the Bay Discovery Centre and its reconciliation-focused Proclamation Day ceremonies - are testament to the inspiring relationship of strength, trust and understanding built between the Council and Kaurna over several years.
Friends,
The theme of this year’s Reconciliation Week is ‘Bridging Now to Next’, reflects the ongoing connection between past, present and future.
One of the most powerful bridges we have as human beings is art.
Art has the capacity to connect us across time, space and cultures, and I congratulate Allan Sumner on the creation of this sculpture.
Rod and I have long admired Allan’s art, which no doubt many of you have seen at the Morialta Adventure Playground, in Kensington Reserve, on football and soccer jerseys, and even on the sides of Adelaide Metro buses.
I am pleased to see the sculpture located here at the City of Burnside’s civic centre, the heart of Council’s activities and of the local Burnside community.
Alongside an increasing number of local governments, the City of Burnside now has a Reconciliation Action Plan, from which the commissioning of this sculpture has emerged.
It’s excellent to see the rich Kaurna culture of this land being acknowledged and celebrated with a range of initiatives, including those at the redeveloped Kensington Wama, or Kensington Reserve.
Once an important ‘spirit place’ and burial ground for Kaurna, it is the resting site of a senior Kaurna woman, referred to as a Queen in historical documents.
I thank Allan and the City of Burnside for honouring the Kaurna history of Kensington Wama and the broader region through the installation of this sculpture.
I am confident the artwork will draw the attention of many locals and visitors to the civic centre.
I look forward to following the Council’s continued enactment of its Reconciliation Plan, as we honour the rich Kaurna connection – past, present and future - to this land and bridge Now to Next.