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‘Enough of this charade’: We’ve been fringe-dwellers in our own country too long

We will be able to once and for all deal with the “torment of our powerlessness”
We will be able to once and for all deal with the “torment of our powerlessness”

Two weeks ago, Anthony Albanese spoke at the Garma Festival on the lands of the Yolngu nation in the Northern Territory. He promised to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, including its call for the establishment of a First Nations voice to parliament protected by the Australian Constitution.

The Prime Minister’s speech was a powerful call to action from the nation’s leaders, a call we have been waiting for since the release of the Uluru Statement five years ago. Back then, in 2017, our call for a national body through which our voices may be heard was not met with such courage, commitment or clarity.

I was the chair of the Referendum Council alongside Mark Leibler. I oversaw and participated in every single dialogue across the continent. I heard every word that the people spoke. I witnessed the aftermath of Uluru too.

Indigenous leader Pat Anderson. “We want to deal with our powerlessness, our continuing disadvantage, our absence from the tables where others make decisions which affect our lives.” Picture: Rohan Thomson
Indigenous leader Pat Anderson. “We want to deal with our powerlessness, our continuing disadvantage, our absence from the tables where others make decisions which affect our lives.” Picture: Rohan Thomson

Before the report was written and published the debate ran wild. Some dismissed the work of the Referendum Council as overreach even though we had not delivered a final report. All kinds of things were said by all kinds of people, many of whom had obviously failed to read the statement from the delegates at Uluru, much less attempted to understand it. And certainly never bothered to read the Referendum Council report. There was so much misinformation it made one’s eyes water.

Enough. This time must be different.

We need all of us to engage our heads and our hearts, and inform ourselves about the real issues. A First Nations voice to parliament enshrined in the Constitution is no need for panic. The PM has said on a couple of occasions that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a generous offer to the Australian people. And it is. Let’s unpack what the statement is all about and some of the why it is important.

Over a very long working life and based on my long experience, I can say that we, First Nations peoples, have nowhere else to go. What is on the table for us all to discuss is the constitutional enshrinement of a First Nations voice to parliament. The inclusion of a voice to parliament in the Constitution will provide the protection this voice needs in order for us to work with successive governments.

A child rides a bike at Mutitjulu, the indigenous community on the far side of Uluru, Northern Territory. Picture: Jason Edwards
A child rides a bike at Mutitjulu, the indigenous community on the far side of Uluru, Northern Territory. Picture: Jason Edwards

We want to deal with our powerlessness, our continuing disadvantage, our absence from the tables where others make decisions which affect our lives. For us, for generations, the Nation State has sat at our kitchen tables with its legs under the table with ours, interfering and intervening in all aspects of our lives, while at the same time knowing very little or nothing at all about us.

Yet the Nation State doesn’t hesitate, it is always confident it knows better than we do about our lives and what we need. For most of my life we have remained fringe-dwellers in our own country, on the outskirts of town, so to speak. We have certainly been on the outskirts of the political life of the nation, largely external to the decision-making and public policies of the day which directly affect us.

The voice will be enable us, once and for all, to sit as equals with the government of the day and begin to deal with the challenges of all of the disadvantage that continues to plague us today. The voice will enable the nation to address this continuing disadvantage many of our families and communities suffer today. We, at the receiving of this disadvantage, might have an idea or two to begin to address this.

Generations of us have tried to influence, educate, cajole, explain, justify ourselves to successive governments in order to continue getting our organisations properly funded and the needs of our families and communities met.
Generations of us have tried to influence, educate, cajole, explain, justify ourselves to successive governments in order to continue getting our organisations properly funded and the needs of our families and communities met.

Yes, committees of us have been set up over the years with a view to working closely with government, with the implication that with our input we would influence those decisions that affect us. I and many others have sat on these committees for decades always hopeful we might achieve something, and sometimes even compromising ourselves in the hope of some advancement for our communities, some gain, some chance that we might truly be heard.

This has not happened.

We are given polite space to voice an opinion and then the government of the day or the agency that may have set up the committee goes ahead on their predetermined track, based on the premise that somehow or other, they know better than us about what is good for us. They then can say, “oh yes, we involved the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”. And leave it at that, implying that those of us who were on that committee or that board are fully in favour of those decisions.

Generations of us have tried to influence, educate, cajole, explain, justify ourselves to successive governments in order to continue getting our organisations properly funded and the needs of our families and communities met. Sometimes we get some wins when we meet a sympathetic bureaucrat, or a minister or someone who has some power and clout. Advances have been made.

But we have always had to rely on the goodwill of the bureaucrat or the personality of the minister of the day. Then they move on and we have to start all over again. Whenever there is a change of government we all have to troop to Canberra, again, explaining, justifying who we are as if nothing has gone on before that bureaucrat or that minister or prime minister, was there. And always begging, justifying who we are and why we need these funds and services.

And let me tell you, no one in the constitutional dialogues wanted more bureaucracy. They are suffocating under the weight of bureaucracy, especially that imposed upon us since 2014 and the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. Read the Australian National Audit Office reports about this. Anyone who works in Aboriginal affairs knows this.

Aboriginal affairs has frequently been a football to be kicked by anyone with whatever latest idea they may have, mostly by those who have not even stopped long enough to learn about what might have happened before.

'First Nations voice on First Nations issues is critically important'

We, on the other hand, have had to deal with this, try to make it work, whatever “it” might be. The endless fads of the bureaucracy, “new arrangements”, “shared responsibility”, “co-design”. We have no choice but to play along because the fate of our organisations, communities and families hangs on those decisions. There is little real progress here but a lot of heartache for those of us who have been part of this charade, generations of us, always hoping something might be achieved by us taking the chance.

Enough. Enough of this, and no more. We are not going to continue justifying ourselves to successive governments. That ends here with the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the leadership of the courageous current Prime Minister, and a successful referendum.

Minister Linda Burnery embraces Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the Garma Festival in July.
Minister Linda Burnery embraces Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the Garma Festival in July.

If we have a voice that will speak for all of us from the smallest, most remote community or collection of families to remote towns, rural towns and communities, large urban centres and cities, we will truly be able to be part of decision-making and policies that affect us. We will also be able to bring to this table our ideas and solutions to the issues of poor water supply, expensive food, children in prison, the structural causes of domestic violence and so on and on. We will be able to once and for all deal with the “torment of our powerlessness”. This will lead to better government, better decision-making.

There is nothing hidden here in this ask, it is what it is, simple, pragmatic, non-threatening. The commonwealth came to us 11 years ago and said: What is meaningful constitutional recognition to you?

We asked to be heard. We ask for a voice. And it’s time, well overdue, really.

Our shared history has brought us here. At Uluru in 2017 we invited Australians to walk with us in a journey of the Australian people for a better future. A genuinely shared future is possible with a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice to parliament.

Pat Anderson is an Alyawarre woman known nationally and internationally as an advocate for the rights and health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She is co-chair of the Uluru Statement.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/enough-of-this-charade-weve-been-fringedwellers-in-our-own-country-too-long/news-story/02177ee71bbb300379b82b83da06a7b7