We must speak up on reconciliation, Be brave and finally make the change
The Voice to Parliament must be enshrined in the Constitution during the next term of parliament, writes
THE 2022 National Reconciliation Week theme, “Be Brave, Make Change’’, is a call to action to all Australians to respond to the five dimensions of reconciliation: historical acceptance; institutional integrity; race relations; equality and equity; and unity.
As we face an election amid challenging times, it is difficult deciding who should run this country for the next three years.
The reconciliation dimensions underpin the work reconciliation councils undertake, highlighting the need to acknowledge the past as we look to the future.
We can’t let the noise of war, economic issues and daily life in our modern democracy overshadow the continuing journey of reconciliation.
Historical acceptance asks us to look back at our history of how this country was settled/invaded, beyond 1788 and to really understand the deep time that Australia’s First Peoples nurtured in a spiritual, political and environmental context. There was a government among the 500 nations that thrived on these lands we call Australia, there was ownership and management of lands through controlled burning, maintaining strict systems of lore, agreements over hunting and animal taking, agriculture and aquaculture that all nations respected and upheld.
Institutional integrity asks the question: Why are Australia’s first peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the oldest living civilisation on the planet, continually excluded from our founding document, the Australian Constitution? This question is key.
Unity asks Australians to really understand who we are as a multicultural nation built on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land, each of us with cultural backgrounds from across the globe.
Many refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and those still in detention after arriving “illegally’’ on boats before the imposition of the Sovereign Borders policy, come from war zones. Violence displaced these people, as it did our First Peoples. The pillar of unity challenges each of us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes so we can understand their story.
Equality and equity are principles we often pride ourselves on. However, our First Australians have only been able to vote since 1967, and 50 years later equity still remains an aspiration for many.
Dispossession, stolen generations and policies of
assimilation under White Australia have impacted deeply on First Nations peoples, and there remains much work in applying equity to ensure opportunities are made equal. Pressure needs be applied to our next government, particularly in ensuring that the Voice to Parliament is enshrined in the Constitution in the next term of parliament.
Race relations addresses the prevalence and impact of racism that is commonplace in our society, as witnessed nationally by the abuse Adam Goodes received from the “sheep’’ in the grandstands, cowed by a war dance and perfection on the field from a champion athlete and leader.
A young Tasmanian expressed their view on reconciliation at a recent event at the Launceston Library: “We should just become one big Australian team, not separate people.’’ Aistis Adams, age 6.
Rabia Siddique, an Australian criminal and human rights lawyer and retired British army officer, led a hostage rescue in Iraq in 2008, and subsequently won a sexual discrimination claim against the British Government over her treatment by her “superiors’’, who failed to acknowledge the role she played in the rescue.
In an International Women’s Day address in Hobart this week she challenged each of the 300 attendees to stand up, be brave and make change, challenge racism and discrimination, and to not ignore the deep insult many people face daily as unconscious bias or outright ignorance.
Reconciliation is a call to action and the five dimensions lay out a challenge to grow up as a nation, and to welcome the gift of the Uluru Statement of the Heart into our hearts, minds and our parliament.
A legislated voice to government is not what our First Nations leaders asked in the Uluru Statement from the
Heart. They have called for more than just “recognition’’ in the Constitution’s Preamble, the main goal of the “recognise’’ movement. A legislated Voice to Parliament is weak and subject to the whim of our political parties. Aboriginal members of parliament are also subject to the whim of their party policies.
The enshrined Voice to Parliament in our Constitution is a historical offer of reconciliation from First Nations Peoples and it was gifted to the Australian people, not to parliament, not to government. This is the choice that Australian people face now — listen and respond to the gift that First Nations people have offered in the Statement from the Heart to unite this nation for their call for a Voice, treaty and a truthtelling Makarrata Commission. It is now time to end this silence.