A need to formally recognise first people

THE moment for recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia's Constitution as the original inhabitants of this land is long overdue.

The two of us sometimes famously disagree about the best way to tackle many of the issues facing our nation.

One of us is a Tory, the other a democrat.

But from our different political traditions, both of us hold a deep conviction that there is a compelling case for indigenous recognition. It is an idea whose time has come.

The constitutional silence about the very existence of indigenous Australians over such a long history holds us back from a more united and productive future.

As do the sections that still give governments the power to treat any racial group within our community as lesser citizens, potentially able to be stripped of that most fundamental of rights -- the vote -- at the whim of any state.

In these two important respects, Australia's Constitution remains a colonial document entrenched in a modern 21st century society.

It doesn't need to be this way.

Both of us have been fortunate to see some of the places in this country where the deep early history of Australia -- the long sweep of the Aboriginal presence before European arrival -- is powerfully in evidence.

In the spinifex country of the east Kimberley, the great Gija artists paint stories handed down through hundreds of generations -- a living link for Australia to this land's ancient past and its unique original cultures.

And on the islands of the Torres Strait, the oral traditions keep alive knowledge about seafaring and survival, navigation by the stars and the keeping of law, which are also a crucial part of our country's distinctness.

These cultures have been buffeted by the impact of colonisation and dispossession.

But they are still standing.

And now, increasingly, more and more Australians are beginning to appreciate how important the survival of these cultures is to our nation's identity.

Part of keeping cultures strong is to reinforce the pride we feel in them. That's where constitutional recognition can help in a tangible way. It will be a chance for all of us to declare a simple fact of history.

By acknowledging that fact, by saying it needs to have a place in the nation's founding document, we'll be saying it is important to us all. Every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child can be inspired by the fact that they are descended from the oldest living cultures on the planet.

Recognition in the Constitution would affirm that we all share their pride in their story, in Australia's longer story.

It would send a message that we want a better future together.

A future in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people no longer feel that the early colonial decision to wilfully deny their presence still lingers with us.

There's something important about telling the truth about our past. There's a justice issue here.

But when we fix this at long last, there is also likely to be an economic and social dividend for us all.

When we formally recognise the first people of the land, we will be building the foundations of greater national unity.

How can that not help to make inroads in tackling the disadvantage and damage? How can that not help foster more indigenous innovation and enterprise and commercial success and economic independence?

When Ian joined the board of Jirrawun Arts, the Aboriginal artist Rusty Peters often talked of the need to work in "two way".

But most of Australia's last 230 years has been anything but "two way" it's been "one way".

Australia's constitutional safeguards delay change until there is strong evidence that it is desirable, irresistible, and inevitable. But the founding drafters did include a clause on how we change it. Self-evidently, they did not intend that it never be altered -- only that it be altered carefully.

If ever there was a case for amendment, surely it is this.

Ian Smith is a former Liberal adviser. Natasha Stott Despoja is a former leader of the Australian Democrats.