Walk to better future
‘SORRY’. One word, but powerful. Fifteen years ago today, Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the Stolen Generations and their families. For the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on First Nations people.
Saying “sorry” was important because it formally recognised the well-known and well-documented atrocities carried out against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
We have an uncomfortable shared history in this country. One that we need to be honest about.
A history of invasion and dispossession that has meant that First Nations peoples continue to disproportionately experience disadvantage in almost every metric as a direct and enduring result of colonisation.
It’s convenient and easy to think that this was something that happened a long time ago. But the reality is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples were only granted the right to vote 56 years ago.
As Paul Keating reminded us in his speech at Redfern: “We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.”
The truth is, the National Apology did not and could not right all of the wrongs of the past.
It was however an important step in helping our nation begin to heal. Now, we’ve been given another opportunity to help our country reconcile.
In 2017, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates from all points of the Southern Sky gathered in Mutitjulu and put their signatures to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It reaffirmed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the first sovereign nations of this continent and its adjacent lands with a connection to country over more than 60,000 years – never ceded.
Importantly, it made clear the first step must be the enshrinement in our Constitution of an Indigenous Voice. A modest request that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples be consulted about issues and policies that affect them.
As Prime Minster Albanese so beautifully said: “The Uluru Statement is a hand outstretched, a moving show of faith in Australian decency and Australian fairness from people who have been given every reason to forsake their hope in both.”
At the same time here in Queensland, the Palaszczuk government is now on a formal path to Treaty signing a Statement of Commitment with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This means the Treaty process will be enshrined in our state’s law.
In the words of Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk: “What we do next on the Path to Treaty will define our humanity, our sense of fairness, and the legacy we leave our children.”
Voice, Treaty and Truth have been a long time coming for many and there’s still a process to come.
I am writing this opinion piece because I’m lucky to be given a platform and position where my voice is heard. If you go back to my first speech, you will read that my earliest memory of politics was watching the Rabbit Proof Fence in my grade 7 class.
It was the first time I understood how laws and policies could have a direct impact on people’s everyday lives, in that case for the worse.
I’ve had the privilege in my role as a minister seeing government change for the better. Delivering land justice by rightfully returning areas of our state’s environment back to Aboriginal ownership, doubling the size of our Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger program through to working in partnership with Traditional Owners caring for country.
Is there room for improvement – absolutely.
However, I am optimistic about our future.
Because sometimes we need to have the audacity of hope.
Like the Prime Minister, I believe our country, state and city is ready for this reform.
As the Uluru Statement concluded: “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.”
I’ll be joining this movement and voting yes.
I hope you do too.