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Torres Strait Islander peoples

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Say "Yes" to Yessie — A Visit to Masig in the Spirit of Truth and Reconciliation

Dear Prime Minister Albanese, On behalf of Reconciliation Queensland, I write to you during National Reconciliation Week to support the open letter you have received from Mr Yessie Mosby — a Traditional Owner from the Kulkalgal Nation and one of the Torres Strait 8 — and the Archbishop of Brisbane, The Most Rev’d Jeremy Greaves. We join our voices with theirs and with many across the nation in asking you to respond with a resounding ‘yes’ to Yessie’s heartfelt and culturally significant invitation to visit his home, Masig,” says Reconciliation Queensland CEO Erin Lang

Video Torres Strait Islander traditional owner and an Archbishop in navy t-shirts on the shore of a beach Video

Torres Strait 8 spokesperson and Archbishop Jeremy call upon Prime Minister Albanese to say “yes” to Yessie during National Reconciliation Week

“We want to walk with our prime minister around the island of Masig to show off its beauty, discuss its vulnerability, share about its bush medicine, eat dinner from the ‘garage’ together, and so Yessie can offer you Wongai fruit and a horned helmet shell,” say Torres Strait 8 spokesperson Yessie Mosby and Archbishop Jeremy Greaves

"Torres Strait 8" Traditional Owner Yessie Mosby showing Archbishop Jeremy Greaves the impacts of climate change, including the shrinking shoreline and where the ancestral resting places were previously located before being washed away, at his family’s property on Masig on Saturday 11 May 2024
National

Torres Strait 8 traditional owner and Archbishop Jeremy call upon the prime minister to say “yes” to Yessie during National Reconciliation Week in an open letter

Archbishop Jeremy and Torres Strait 8 spokesperson Yessie Mosby have today invited the prime minister to meet them on the Torres Strait Island of Masig to witness the devasting impacts of climate change on the low-lying island

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Archbishop Jeremy Greaves on Torres Strait Islander 4MW (Meriba Wakai) Radio

“Seeing for myself just how serious the issue is in some places and the damage that has been done and the struggle for people to get people to listen and particularly Government to commit to proper funding to help with the…seawalls and sandbags and to do that properly…We saw the coastal erosion and heard stories about where the beach used to be and the houses that are no longer there because the land has become so eroded. In a couple of places we saw where the bones of ancestors had been washed out to sea,” says Archbishop Jeremy Greaves in his 4MW Radio interview with Aunty Jen Enosa