The Association is vividly aware of the vital importance of public acknowledgment of situations of loss and grief which have an impact on an individual, their family or on the broader community. Recognition contributes greatly to raising community awareness and understanding of loss and grief, whilst at the same time sensitively demonstrating the importance of expressing grief and the role of rituals and symbols in healing, the need for justice and the journey of healing, whether for individuals or communities.

Australia is a nation founded on grief. For the indigenous peoples of Australia their grief has resulted from the loss of their cultural systems and the breakdown of tribal and family structures following the arrival of British colonialists. For the non indigenous, we are a nation of migrants. Beginning with the convicts forced to a foreign land, to the thousands from all parts of the world who left behind much in the hope of a better life for themselves and their families, to those who have come to Australia seeking refuge from war, torture or persecution. All have lost ties to family, homeland and identity. All have experienced loss and grief whether recognised or unrecognised. All have had to rebuild, redefine or reshape identity, roots, culture and hope.

These experiences of grief have shaped our national psyche and these experiences have presented challenges to us as individuals and as a nation. An individual's well being and healing cannot be isolated from its cultural, social, political and environmental context. Healthy individuals create and live within healthy families that build and live in healthy communities that lead to a healthy society. Acknowledgment of loss and grief in our lives and the challenges it presents contributes to a healthy society.

As a nation that is currently reflecting on what it means to be Australian, we are in a position to reflect on the past, the present and the shape of our future.

The Association has a role and responsibility to identify and make the links between the impact of losses at the collective level and our individual experiences of loss and grief. Our history has made our community rich and diverse in culture and subsequently we as a community are faced with the challenges of asking and answering question such as: How do we recognise, acknowledge and support each other in times of grief?

• How does culture facilitate healthy grieving and what happens when that culture is invalidated or marginalised?
• Why and what happens when an individual's loss and grief becomes a national loss and grief and how is it that an individual's situation and experiences can move a whole nation?
• How does the loss of the past affect the grief of today and how does our grief response today shape our future at the individual and collective level?
• How do we affect the changes necessary to facilitate healing through our grief and how do we use our grief experience to heal and grow as individuals and as a nation?
• What is reconciliation - recognition, acknowledgment, and restitution - a vital ingredient to healing and growth and paramount for a 'just response' at all levels - individual, family, community, society and nation.
• How do we honour our individual and combined loss and grief experiences in ways that commemorate, yet teach others in sensitivity and understanding?

It is essential to gain public and civic acknowledgment that grief affects everyone, because grief is a normal yet challenging experience that affects our whole lives. The Association is aware that many groups within the community wish to commemorate their specific type or situation of loss and grief, but clearly all individual and specific loss and grief situation share common features through grief to growth and healing.