Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: ‘We all belong to this place equally’

My Indigenous heritage taught me we all belong. Regardless of race or heritage, resilience, courage and loyalty to each other and this place must endure, writes Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

This great sunburnt south land – sweeping and ragged with droughts and floods, has a lot to do with who we are.

Whether due to our vast size, climate, terrain or some of our more dangerous fauna, the Australian landscape presents challenges at almost every turn.

But in looking these squarely in the eye, we became a people of resilience, of courage and loyalty – to each other and this place to which we all belong.

While survival here was not a given, not only did we survive, but we thrived.

All throughout our history we learned courage, looking beyond the challenges presented by our country, to the opportunities it offered in equal measure. We grasped them with our hands, feet and every other part of ourselves, never shying away from gruelling and backbreaking work, we dug in.

And what emerged? A thriving country, successful both in material riches and the character of our people.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says Australians have become a people of resilience, courage and loyalty.

Survival in this land meant that no man could be an island. Acutely aware and respectful of what our land was capable of, we committed to sticking up and around for each other.

It’s often been out of painful moments that the depths of our mateship and loyalty emerged triumphant and became part of our identity.

Moments like that are all too familiar for my home of the Territory. We have seen no shortage of trial and tribulation, knowing what it is to be confronted by powerful opposition – both natural and man-made. The merciless destruction of Cyclone Tracy imprinted on our hearts and minds for half a century now. And though some 82 years in the past, the encounter of foreign attack in the bombing of Darwin lingers long in our consciousness.

Yet those events demonstrated and strengthened the kind of people we had and were becoming.

Rising to the seismic task of rebuilding our communities and dedicated to walking alongside each other, holding each other up, never leaving each other behind.

And these values continue with us – we don’t back down from hard yakka; we’re loyal to our mates and we help each other out. We keep a level playing field, and value each person equally in the eyes of the law. We hold each other to the same standard and afford preferential treatment to no one.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price talks with residents of Ngukurr in the Northern Territory.

As my Indigenous heritage taught me, we all belong to this place equally. Regardless of race or heritage, your conception on this land means you belong to it. Everyone gets the opportunity to pitch in to this place we call home, and gets the loyalty of mateship in faithful return.

What our people endured and who they became has flowed down through the generations. Who they are has been imprinted in us. Like the red dust of the desert that has settled in me, what made our forebears succeed has settled in us.

Whether born here or voluntarily having bought in for better or worse, we should be proud of our inclusion in the magnificent tapestry that is our landscape and identity.

We know how important these values are to our thriving and success, and we must not take them for granted. In truth, while they have travelled down our lines of history, they are not guaranteed – they can be lost. So we must cling to our values and identity as we approach the coming challenges. And, if we ever forget, we need just to look up and look around, because this great sunburnt south land – sweeping and ragged with droughts and floods, has a lot to do with who we are.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians