Garma Festival: Nova Peris demands conventions on recognition

Nova Peris has called on Tony Abbott to back a ­series of indigenous conventions on constitutional recognition.

Labor senator Nova Peris. ‘This country has a problem with Aboriginal people.’ Picture: David Geraghty

Aboriginal senator Nova Peris has called on Tony Abbott to back a ­series of indigenous conventions on constitutional recognition, as the question of racial non-discrimination re-emerged as a flashpoint in the referendum debate.

The Labor senator launched an impassioned plea for the nation to confront its racist history during a panel discussion in northeast ­Arnhem Land yesterday at the ­annual Garma Festival.

Referring to the Adam Goodes booing scandal, and to her own grandfather who had “chains (placed) around his goddamn neck”, Senator Peris said shifting underlying prejudices took “enormous guts” but that some people were not willing to hear uncomfortable truths from leaders such as Goodes.

“He said ‘Enough is enough’ ... and when he spoke out the world said ‘Get back in your box, mate’,” Senator Peris told the Garma forum. “You can only move forward when you acknowledge the truth, and right now this country has a problem with Aboriginal people.”

Senator Peris drew a link ­between the Goodes saga and constitutional recognition, saying the nation would not achieve reconciliation until the past was squarely faced.

She told The Australian it was critical that Aboriginal people had the opportunity to play an active role in debating a referendum question during indigenous conventions. The Australian revealed at the weekend that Bill Shorten had written to the Prime Minister backing Patrick Dodson and Noel Pearson’s proposals for indigenous conventions, saying the plan was not in conflict with a communique issued by the leaders following a summit at Kirribilli last month which stressed the need for a “national discussion involving all Aust­ralians” on indigenous recognition.

The Opposition Leader said in his letter to Mr Abbott that he ­believed Aboriginal conventions could occur within the framework agreed following the July summit.

“I cannot stress enough the ­importance of this convention process,” Senator Peris said.

“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as well as the majority of other Australians, have made it clear that they are not interested in mere symbolic change. Meaningless and symbolic constitutional change is not the way forward.”

Her comments came as ­Gumatj elder Galarrwuy Yunupingu — the indigenous leader who was responsible for kicking off the recognition push in 2008 when leaders of his Arnhem Land clan presented a petition to then prime minister Kevin Rudd — made his first public comments in several years on the referendum debate.

Mr Yunupingu said at Garma that a racial non-discrimination clause in the Constitution should be “not negotiable”.

He predicted that drafting a final form of words to take to a referendum would be a lengthy process, and stressed the importance of indigenous consultation.