Hundreds of people have marched across Batemans Bay bridge for National Sorry Day on May 26.
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The march started at Korners Park on the north shore of Batemans Bay, travelling across the bridge to the Clyde River foreshore for cultural dances, a barbecue, singing and the raising of the Aboriginal flag.
Students from many local schools across Batemans Bay and Moruya were included in the march, which was led by Aboriginal group Muladha Gamara.
Local Indigenous woman Melissa Ellis said Sorry Day was a day of harmony, reflecting and healing - an opportunity to pause and remember the impact of government policies that encouraged and enforced the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, community and country.
"Today it is important to remember the people who were taken away," she said.
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She said Sorry Day was not about something hundreds of years ago in history but actions far more recent, and trauma was still alive in the community.
"It was not five, six or eight generations ago," Ms Ellis said. "It was as recent as my parents.
"I remember being told stories from family and elders in the community about the fear when government cars would come. Kids would get thrown over fences and told to run. People remember that with such vivid clarity."
Ms Ellis said there was hope within trauma, but to move forward, Australia had to acknowledge the pain of the past.
"There is absolutely hurt," she said, "there is pain, but there is also hope.
"All the people here today is just testament to how much Australia wants to move."
Deputy mayor Alison Worthington spoke of the significance of the national reconciliation week theme of 'be brave, make change'.
She challenged the crowd to acknowledge that though they were not responsible nor proud of the actions of their ancestors, they live under the legacy of those injustices.
"There is unfinished business in reconciliation that we all need to tackle," she said.
National Reconciliation Week 2022 runs from May 27 to June 3.