Fiona Wood: 'Life is no brief candle' 10 year Bali Bombings Memorial Service - 2012

12 October 2012, Canberra, Australia

Fiona Wood headed the burns unit at Royal Perth hospital. She and her team of sixty treated 28 victims of the Bali Bombings over that terrible week in 2002. She was Australian of the Year in 2005.

Distinguished Australians; all those Australians who 10 years ago distinguished themselves. All Australians, today is the day to look in to your heart, to look into your heart and find in it, the strength, the love and the human energy.

The strength of resilience, to face such horror, and to keep going, knowing there is a bright future ahead when we’ve seen the future of so many beautiful smiles snuffed away.

The love in their heart, that will offer that hand of friendship and forgiveness, and that energy to make sure that we all work, together, to make Australia a place we are proud of, a place we will share our privilege, we will make sure tomorrow is a better day.

As I look down that tunnel of time to that morning ten years ago when we heard the news, I saw many Australians doing many astonishing things.

From the Sari Club to the Sanglah hospital to tarmac at Denpasar into the Northern Territory’s triage centre that’s gone on to excel themselves year in and year out in this last decade.

To all the burns centres across Australia, to all the health facilities across Australia who stepped up to the plate. To all those Australians who helped people they didn’t even know, but what they did know was that they were in need at that time.

And of course it wasn’t just Australians as we have heard. Helping people was what we did. As a health professional it’s my educational training that puts me in that position of privilege, to help people when their life changes in an instant.

Hanabeth Luke assisting Tom Singer, who later died of his injuries

I felt it was a privilege to help those lives on that day, and I tried very hard with all of my colleagues across the country and count not just those who were suffering, and those injuries, but those around them cause we know only too well the horror of burns, and the horror that that entails and the pain.

And that that’s a drop in the ocean, and its like a pebble that keeps going, and those waves effect all those around, all those that care for that person.

So as I look back through that tunnel of time over 10 years I see some amazing things. I think it’s a very appropriate time for us to stand and thank and respect that loss of energy, but also to celebrate, to care, and to celebrate what we go forward with.

I remember one patient a triathlete, a young woman, whose injuries were beyond comprehension and the first thing she said when she came out of her coma was, ‘I’ll never run will I walk again?

I said you will walk, you will run, you will race.

And in 2008 she beat me in an iron man in Busselton. I only rode the bike, and she did the whole thing. And her bike time was faster than mine. And there wasn’t a dry eye in Busselton that day, as we hugged coming over that finish line.

Two weeks ago as I saw Phil Britten, explaining how getting out of the Sari club was so hard, and the pain of his injuries, but the pain of his recovery, was a mountain that was 10 times higher

I think the window to our world has been opened, and our community has seen and as a result they have helped. I think for me this 10 years is a time to say thank you, thank you to all Australians, all those distinguished Australians who facilitated the response.

All those Australians who distinguished themselves. And did extraordinary things. And all those in the communities, and individuals who went on to share that pain. And to support going forward.

So in the words of George Bernard Shaw, life is no brief candle, it’s a sort of flaming torch we have a hold of for a moment and we want to burn as brightly as possible before we hand it on to the next generation.

I see within those hearts, resilience that is inspirational. Love that is selfless. And an energy that as we work in our field to make sure that the quality of the outcome is worth the pain of survival, I see an energy across Australia, in all sorts of areas.

All you have to do is look for it. And to connect with it, and it will grow. So that we can pass on a history that we are proud of.

An Australia that we are proud of, borne on strength, resilience, love and raw human energy.

Doing the best we can for each other.

John Howard: 'You are not forgotten, your loss is not forgotten,' Bali Bombings 10 year service - 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/bali-remembered/2012-10-12/live-blog3a-bali-bombing-victims-remembered/4309196

Ten years ago, twenty million Ausralians in a sense extended their arms of comfort to those who had lost so much, on that terrible night, and who in other painful ways, were victims of a foul and evil act of mindless terrorism, that could draw no comfort or support, from any religious or ideological belief.

And today, a decade on, we renew that offer of comfort and compassion, and struggle to understand the continuing pain that so many of you must feel.

That terrible night and the days that followed tested the character of our nation, Australia.

 and it passed that character test with flying colours. We saw in those days, those two great qualities that our nation has; strength but also tenderness.

The gentle efficiency of those who medically evacuated in 37 hours 66 badly injured people.

And those who were responsible for this terrible deed may have hoped a number of things; they may have hoped that they would have driven Indonesia and Australia further apart.

Instead of that, they brought Indonesia and Australia closer together.

Within minutes of the explosions, the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police was in touch with you sir, then in charge of the Indonesian police, and the days and weeks that followed, the cooperation between Australian and Indonesian police meant that those responsible for committing this terrible act were brought to justice.

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Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono: 'Exactly a year ago, three bombs exploded on this beautiful peaceful island of God', Bali bombing memorial - 2003

12 October 2003, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Exactly a year ago, three bombs exploded on this beautiful peaceful island of God. Two-hundred-and-two men and women perished that evening. Never mind their nationalities. Never mind their race, religion, ethnicity or profession. They were our sons, our daughters, our fathers, our mothers, brothers and sisters, cousins, best friends, soul mates. And they were all innocents.

They all had happy plans to spend 'tomorrow' under the sun. They all had families.

But all were rudely taken from us by terrorists who wanted to make a senseless demonstration of their hatred for others.

To this day, we still do not understand why these loved ones had to meet such a tragic, undeserved fate. Many of us had been lost trying to search for answers and meaning to this nightmare.

But there is a time for shock and disbelief. There is a time for justice, a time for reflection, for remembrance. But there is a time to let go and to move on.

We let go knowing that we will miss them forever, and knowing that our lives will never be the same without the realness and sweetness of their physical presence in our daily lives.

We let go knowing that we will honour their memory by becoming a better person, by cherishing life even more, by striving to be happy, and by always promoting goodness over evil.

And we let go by promising them the best kind of justice of all we shall ensure that the noble values the terrorists hope to destroy will always remain dear to our hearts, and will bind all of us here even closer as a grand family of nations and peoples.

What are these values? Freedom. Religiosity. Tolerance. Diversity. Unity. Democracy. Compassion. Fraternity. And humanity.

These are the core values that define our civilised ways of life. These are the values that no terrorist bombs can ever take away from us.

It is only fitting that, as a Muslim, I should end with a verse from the Koran:

"Take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom."