Terry O’Connell: What Matters?

The February 2024 session was with Terry O’Connell one of the original practitioners introducing and institutionalising restorative practice in Australia.

Terry says:

"I ran my first informal process in June 1973 in response to a troubled young person who assaulted me [as a police officer]. Rather than charge Gary, I met Gary and his mum at the police station only to discover Gary was grieving from his dad’s death. In October last year I met Gary again in Queensland [as part of a documentary on my story].

Some of the questions I will attempt to speak to in my talk:

• What influenced my thinking and practice that led to the development of a conference script and two sets of restorative questions?
• Where should our conversations about all things restorative start?
• What has restorative justice/practice contributed to day-to-day practice?
• Given that empirical evidence shows that relationships make the ‘greatest difference’ , what is the connection with restorative practice?

However the key question that underpins my talk is ‘what matters?’.

Our collective challenge is to locate restorative in an explicit practice framework so that it offers a common language and practice with universal application in everyday life.”