Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Conference
New
Relationships, New Possibilities
Mick Gooda
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social
Justice Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission
The John Niland Scientia
Building
University of New South Wales
18-19 November 2010
With respect and gratitude I acknowledge that we have been allowed to sit on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation, and I thank the them for privilege allowing us to do so. Thank you also to Michael West for your welcome today.
My people are the Ghangulu from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland.
Michael, on behalf of my Elders can I salute your Elders, both past and present, for your continued struggle for your country and your culture here in the place where our colonisation began.
I also acknowledge my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters here today, distinguished guests, and conference participants.
Let me also acknowledge the esteemed founding Director of the Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Research Unit, Professor Patrick Dodson and the Research Director, Associate Professor Ms Sarah Maddison, Professor James Donald, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Services.
Finally can I also acknowledge Professor Mick Dodson, the founding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
Thank you for inviting me to open your Inaugural Conference titled New Relationships, New Possibilities.
When Professor Dodson first opened the Indigenous Policy Dialogue Research Unit, he said:
Until, as a Nation, we reach a different plateau of maturity in our quest for full nationhood we will continue to be diminished as a society and will inevitably repeat the disasters of Intervention, increased public sector domination over Aboriginal [and Torres Strait Islander peoples] lives, continued removal of our children, high incarceration rates and increased destabilisation on our traditional homelands.[1]
During the Conference, we are asked to consider three questions:
- What might we do to create a more just and reconciled society?
- How might we create new opportunities to transform the relationship between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people?
- What are the implications for policy making in this contested space?
I believe the dialogue that will be had over the next couple of days is extremely timely given the Governments recent announcement to put to a referendum the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia’s founding document, the Constitution.
I firmly believe the time is right, here and now for the Australian people to formally recognise of the special and unique place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold in our nation.
The prospect of this referendum will provide us all with a great opportunity to reframe and reset our relationship as a nation, and to establish new relationships that open our hearts and minds to new possibilities.
By finally and formally settling and affirming the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our nation, all of us grow in stature.
But this referendum is not just about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
It’s not about looking back.
It’s about looking forward and moving forward as one, united nation.
So in order to get to this destination, we have much to do.
We will need to shift our focus to those issues that are foundational to an agenda of hope.
An agenda that tackles the root causes of Indigenous health and social inequality.
An agenda which at its core, aims to unleash the potential of Indigenous Australians. That maximises the capabilities of each and every Indigenous Australian.
Where Indigenous rights and interests are at the centre of Australian nationhood and embedded in the institutional fabric of the country.
This will require an inter-generational nation-building exercise that will include developing new narratives, institutions, practices, philosophies and opportunities for a more just and inclusive Australia.
An exercise that builds the healthy relationships necessary for this agenda of hope.
Relationships that are built on understanding, dialogue, tolerance, acceptance, respect, trust and reciprocated affection. Not intolerance, a lack of acceptance, a lack of dialogue, mistrust and a lack of respect and understanding.
I believe that strong relationships will be essential at three key levels.
We need to firstly develop stronger and deeper relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the rest of the Australia.
Educating the Australian people about our nation’s history will be necessary if we are improve this relationship.
The benefit of raising people’s awareness to the reality of others around them was evidenced when Kevin Rudd gave the National Apology in February 2008.[2]
On that day there was a palpable sense of us coming together as a nation for the first time. Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians sat together, held each other and cried together. The nation took a great leap forward together.
Unfortunately, we lost a bit of that momentum, but we now have an opportunity to reinvigorate that momentum with the upcoming referendum.
This opportunity has the potential to:
- Improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, specifically by addressing the history of exclusion of our peoples in the life of our nation and increasing our self worth as citizens within Australia.
- Entrench the protection of human rights for all Australians within the Constitution.
And as a result,
- Ensure a solid foundation upon which to build a reconciled nation.
The prospect of this referendum will provide us all with a great opportunity to reframe and reset our relationship as a nation.
Secondly, we need to develop stronger and deeper relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and all levels of government.
The relationship between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been badly damaged by the consistent imposition of policies and legislation that are designed and implemented with the objective of co-dependency and control - rather than independence and ensuring that we have the ability to determine our own destinies.
The intervention is the most recent example of this. And it’s going to take a lot of work to overcome the hurt and to fix the relationships that have broken down as a result.
On the back of a history of failed policies to address the disadvantage and challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we must change the way we do business. We must be involved in decisions that affect us.
Effective participation in decision making has been confirmed as essential to ensuring non-discriminatory treatment and equality before the law, and recognises the cultural distinctiveness and diversity of Indigenous peoples.
Effective participation in decision making will also be crucial to resetting the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Australian Government.
Human rights provide governments’ with a set of minimum legal standards which if applied equally to all people establish a framework for a society to foster dignity and equality of all citizens.
We have available to us in Australia one of the most important documents that sets out our human rights as Indigenous peoples – and it is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.[3]
The Australian Government has indicated, most poignantly through the National Apology that it seeks in good faith to re-set the relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples based on partnership and mutual respect.[4]
It is the Declaration that will provide the necessary guidance to government to develop new narratives, practices, philosophies and opportunities.
It is
the Declaration that provides us with a roadmap to resetting the relationship
between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Governments of
Australia.
The Declaration should also form the platform upon which a
truly reconciled Australia is built.
The next step for the Australian Government is to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to develop a coordinated approach to achieving the ends of the Declaration. This will require that the full implementation of both the Declaration’s spirit and intent is achieved in Australia.
The third relationship that requires attention is the relationships between ourselves as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: at the community, family, organisation and individual level.
I’ve been working in Indigenous affairs for nearly 30 years. I am not, nor should anyone else be, surprised when there are disagreements. They are a natural part of relationships.
However, at times these disagreements can get very personal and very hurtful. And the hurt can end up affecting the whole community.
The notion of ‘lateral violence’ - the name given to behaviours such as harassment, bullying and intimidation of those who may disagree with a particular stance or position someone else may be taking - says said that this is often the result of disadvantage, discrimination and oppression and that it arises from working within a society that is not designed for our way of doing things.
It’s a well argued phenomenon around the world that oppressed people will eventually internalise this oppression and turn on each other.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most vulnerable group in this country. The challenges we have overcome and the potentially diabolical challenges to our cultures and livelihoods we are yet to face – for example climate change and globalisation, to name only a couple - will require us to work together.
Therefore, it is imperative that we create enabling and nurturing relationships within our communities that are so pivotal to the agenda of hope that I spoke of earlier.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recognise that improving our own relationships is a real issue. And one we need to address.
For example, the work being done in places like Cairns and Yarrabah with the Family Wellbeing Empowerment Program - which is designed specifically to overcome community conflict through building support within families and communities - shows us that when given the right opportunities, people are prepared to challenge and defeat these behaviours.
Governments cannot and should not intervene to fix our internal relationships.
But governments can work with us and our communities as enablers and facilitators. And they can also work to remove existing structural and systemic impediments to healthy relationships within our communities.
Our agenda of hope can only be sustained when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are able to achieve our potential - able to realise our personal and collective capabilities. And only then we will be in a position to move towards a truly reconciled Australia.
In contemplating the dialogue and conversations that will take place over the next two days, I would like to leave you with some thoughts that I think reflect what these two days are about.
My friend, Glenn Pearson, from Perth who, when asked what type of future he’d like to see for us, put it like this. It’s a vision that I share and I want to share it with you:
Glenn said:
“I want me and my children - and you and your children – to grow really, really old together – having led fantastic lives that have allowed us to make a lifetime contribution to the health and wellbeing of the broader community and our families.”
“I want to know that when we were tested by life’s challenges, that we pulled together to face them as a people; that we drew upon the best of what we had, to find positive solutions to the things that have tested us along the way.”
“I want to know that, purposively, we took on those things that we felt do not reflect what we want in a fair, honest, respectful and harmonious society.”
“I want to learn to hold and to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history as an essential part of the Australian story because we see ourselves as part of it – connected to it, proud of it and centred by it.”
I want a truly reconciled community: a truly reconciled Australia.
And I want that we all want it.
I look forward to seeing what we are able to achieve over the next two days, and I look forward to working with you in the future to achieve a truly reconciled Australia.
Thank you.
[1] P Dodson, So What? Lecture,
Dialogue and Nation Building in Contemporary Australia, University of New
South Wales, 20 August 2009.
[2] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates (Apology to Australia’s Indigenous
Peoples), House of Representatives, 13 February 2008, p172 (Kevin Rudd,
Prime Minister). At http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr130208.pdf (viewed 10 November 2010).
[3] United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GA
Resolution 61/295, UN Doc: A/61/L.67
(2007).
[4] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 13 February 2008, p 171
(The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister).
