We need a treaty
MY name is Tarryn Love, and I stand before you as a proud Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong woman. My country is around the Warrnambool region.
Growing up in Teesdale as the youngest of four, I was naturally taught the importance of family, which remains the most crucial aspect of my life.
My role models — grandfather Uncle Ivan Couzens, Mum and Aunt Vicki — have all achieved remarkable things despite adversity. They show me that you have to live strong and proud, and are my first line of defence when I need support and reassurance.
Even when I was in primary school, I began to experience the interrogation of my Aboriginality and the constant need I felt to justify my culture.
The presumably innocent comments such as, “You don’t look or sound Aboriginal?”, or when I ticked the indigenous box on my NAPLAN in Grade 5, my teacher would ask, “Are you sure?” made me question who I was.
But falling back on a family proud of their culture, rather than being offended, I saw an opportunity to make a change and create awareness.
After Teesdale Primary, I started high school at Clonard College, and in year 10 moved to Geelong Grammar by receiving an academic and sports scholarship.
Throughout my secondary education, my knowledge on indigenous history expanded immensely.
I learned about the dark, true history of Australia, about the frontier wars and the violence acted upon my people, as well the ongoing activism for rights and our survival.
The more I learned, the deeper my passion grew. I also further established my own belief that Aboriginal culture is not just colour, but the intangible aspects of cultural connectedness transmitted through families and kinship systems.
After high school, I received the Indigenous Chancellor’s scholarship to Melbourne University, where I am now in my second year of a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in sociology and indigenous Australian studies, aiming to study law post-grad.
Alongside my studies, my other passions are footy — I play in the Geelong Cats VFL women’s team — and art. My sister and I run a small yet growing art business.
Through art, we can express and share our cultural knowledge.
But despite other avenues in my life, I always come back to my key passion for education.
I am learning more than history, and deeper into the systems and policy regimes deployed by the settler state in our current society and why indigenous issues persist.
In primary school, I did not understand it then, nor do I even fully now, but I am more aware that we were taught a “colonial fantasy” narrative.
That Australia began with European settlement on “Terra nullius” land belonging to no one. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people barely featured in this narrative.
Although education has improved even in the short time since I was in primary school, there is still so much more distance to go.
The presence of indigenous people is a constant reminder that we survived and, in itself, an act of activism.
We don’t need to scratch our heads thinking of new ideas to overcome indigenous issues. What Aboriginal people need is selfdetermination, representation, recognition and our land. A treaty!
As sovereign people who have never ceded our land, we continue to demand our rights to govern ourselves and an enhanced role in decision-making in Australia’s democracy. That’s why this year’s NAIDOC Week theme — Voice, Treaty, Truth — is so powerful and important.
Australia is one of the few liberal democracies around the world that still does not have any formal acknowledgment or arrangement with its indigenous minorities, and it is honestly not good enough.
Constitutional recognition, treaty, and truth-telling are essential keys to moving forward together as a nation.
I will reach out to as many people as I can and help them grow their understanding, because understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is when we can reach a state of true recognition, reconciliation and national healing. And education is the key to all of this.
Because my role models have paved the way, opportunities for a young indigenous woman like me to succeed are more present than ever. And my voice is larger than ever, and I acknowledge how important it is to seize that. So, I am demanding change. Keith Fagg handed over his column this week to Tarryn Love because he was so impressed by her words delivered at the Barwon Health NAIDOC Week recognition last month.