‘The rocky path will only become more difficult’: Leader wants more than basic rights

The rocky path towards reconciliation will only become more difficult without truth-telling and redress, Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner says, ahead of delivering a major speech in Cairns on Friday night.

Katie Kiss, a Kaanju and Biri/Widi woman who grew up in Rockhampton, will give the Mabo Oration in the far north Queensland city on the speech’s 20th anniversary this week.

Kiss took on the national role at the Australian Human Rights Commission after serving as executive director of the body supporting Queensland’s Path to Treaty.

Katie Kiss at The Bandarran Marra’Gu Gathering Strength summit in Brisbane in May. Credit: QHRC/Lewis James Media

That process, which included a truth-telling and healing inquiry, was halted by the Crisafulli government shortly after it was elected last year, with the LNP declaring its focus was on “better health, housing and education outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders”.

As she prepared to deliver her speech in Cairns, Kiss told this masthead that health and education were “vital areas of focus”, but more was needed.

“Firstly, reparations for the stolen generations is very different to providing for health and education – which are basic human and citizenship rights that we are entitled to, as are all Australians,” Kiss said.

“A redress scheme is a formal recognition of past injustices ... allowing survivors to access financial compensation, mental health services, and support to reconnect with family, culture and country.

“Without an explicit commitment to reconciliation through measures such as truth-telling and redress, then the long, rocky path towards reconciliation will only become more difficult.”

A redress scheme for survivors of the stolen generations was among 54 recommendations of the landmark 1997 Bringing Them Home report into the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children between 1910 and 1970.

With the announcement on Tuesday, following pressure from stolen generations survivors, that Aboriginal people removed from their families in WA before July 1972 will each be eligible for a payment of $85,000, Queensland became the only jurisdiction in Australia without such a scheme.

The Queensland government has signalled it will not change its position, saying instead it is committed to “practical reconciliation” through measurable improvements to health and education.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Fiona Simpson said this would be delivered through projects under the $108 million Closing the Gap Priorities Fund.

“The former Labor government spent almost $15 million setting up Path to Treaty – lawyers, staff, and symbolism – and only held one truth-telling hearing. Meanwhile, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of Aurukun, Kowanyama and Woorabinda cried out for desperately needed water infrastructure upgrades,” the spokesperson said.

“The Crisafulli government was very clear prior to the election on its intentions to move away from a path of division and uncertainty. It was a position put to Queenslanders, and one they ultimately voted for.”

Earlier this week, the state government announced $18 million for water infrastructure upgrades in Woorabinda, where residents have been boiling their drinking water since December last year.

On Friday, the Crisafulli government added a $285,000 investment to support the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages across the state.

with Rosanna Ryan

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