The Uluru Statement from the Heart
We, gathered at the 2017
National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.
How could it be otherwise?
That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
SAMANTHA HARRIS, model
“I’ve felt mixed emotions of anger and sadness watching these events unfold in the media. What happened to George Floyd and what is happening in America as a whole highlights minorities being fed up with how they are treated, especially by the police.
“It has also made me think about our own country and what my people have historically dealt with on a daily basis, with the numbers of deaths in custody continuing to rise and mistreatment by law enforcement being a constant threat. We think of law enforcement as a way of protecting all people against injustice, but we need to work harder to provide this without prejudice.
It just makes me very saddened that, in 2020, racism and unjust treatment of minorities continues.
“I hope this pushes more people to educate themselves and change their mindsets of racism. There is only one human race and we need to push education further to create this unity. I would love racism to be a thing of the past and not part of our future.”
NARELDA JACOBS, Studio 10 reporter and 10 News First presenter
“My heart has bled as I’ve watched events unfold in the US and at home in Australia. I’ve shed tears at the gut-wrenching scenes in America and shed many more as some Australians denied the same injustice was happening here. Along with grief, anger and dismay, I’ve also felt overwhelming hope. The Black Lives Matter rallies around the country saw respectable, reasonable and selfless Australians stand in solidarity. Tens of thousands making a conscious, calculated decision to show Aboriginal people they care and will walk together to create a better future.
“As Australians, we owe it to each other and our nation’s future to educate ourselves. The onus shouldn’t be on Indigenous people to prove we are discriminated against. The proof of racial profiling is all around us. I challenge Australians to observe the way others are treated and ask themselves whether race plays a role.”
STAN GRANT, journalist, author and filmmaker
“There are great dreams in our world, dreams of perpetual peace, dreams of freedom and liberty. These dreams are the dreams of democracy but democracy is failing. Around the world it is crumbling in the face of rising authoritarianism. It is being hollowed out and corrupted and we are losing faith. The Uluru Statement should be a cry for the soul of democracy; to rescue us from the weight of history. It will not be silenced. Will Australian democracy be big enough to hold us all? It is the test of our age.”
BROOKE BONEY, Today show entertainment reporter
“The Uluru Statement speaks to the heart of what it means to be human – to be in control of one’s own destiny. There is a lot of dignity in selfdetermination, and when this statement was issued to the Australian people, it was intended, as Professor Megan Davis so eloquently put it, ‘as an invitation to walk with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a movement of the Australian people for a better future’ ... When we move through a genuine reconciliation process, we will all be more free and this will be a unifying moment for every Australian. The Uluru Statement from the Heart lies at the heart of what it means to be Australian.”