Let's walk together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

We’re calling the Camperdown campus of the University of Sydney nowadays the Gadigal campus, and I also lend my voice to respect to the people of this land, people of place and all those who have come before.

I first encountered the Older Women’s Network many years ago as part of the Women’s Reconciliation Network in the 90s. It was all part of the Australians for Reconciliation and we had some wonderful, magnificent older women. That’s something I really love, older women putting their voices for this.

I’ve been involved with Reconciliation for a long time and part of it for me is about the unfinished business of this land. It’s about being courageous enough to have a cold hard look at the Constitution and say ‘is this fit for purpose?’, “who was this thing made for?”. When you think about the Constitution, written in 1901, it was designed by White Anglo Saxon, primarily Protestant men. 

There was not a person of colour, not an Aboriginal person and there certainly wasn’t a woman. And if we look at the demographic of Australia today, I think common sense would say “well, we’ve changed, we’re a very different nation”.

On the Voice specifically, though, we have to be cautious. I’m seeing a lot of good people putting their hand up saying, ‘I don’t quite understand what this is about’ or ‘I don’t quite understand why they made the question like this’ or ‘do we really need to change it up for things to happen?’ and, “how will that change people’s lives on the ground?’. And a lot of the time I’m seeing people respectfully answering those questions.

So, I’m asking people to be very careful about their judgments of others who are asking questions, which 99% of the time is in all innocence of their desire to want to know more. I’m not seeing as much respect and love that should be expressed to people who are responding differently. I think as a nation we’re better than that.

We can have respectful discussions, we can have respectful disagreements and there will be some people whose minds will never be able to change either for or against, but there is a swathe of people in the middle who are asking the questions because they want to understand it better.

When you look at some of the debate that’s out there now, I don’t see that as being a bad thing. What I see as a bad thing is some misinformation that is informing some of the debate.

You know, I think it’s important that we try to take the hyperbole out of this argument. It is a deeply impassioned argument and it’s one of those arguments where for a very, very long time, Aboriginal people have not been recognised as the true sovereigns of this nation. And so for a very, very long time, the unfinished business of this land is like a festering wound, and this is a small step towards having recognition in the Constitution.

The other part of it is about the Voice to Parliament with structure to be confirmed. So, I don’t know why people would then put all this hyperbole around that, when it’s very simply about recognition in the Constitution and a mechanism to have a say in what happens to Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people and by Aboriginal people.

I’m a research scientist, that’s my background. One of the things that we learned a very long time ago, is that if you’re doing research, or service delivery to Aboriginal people, then creating that service, or that policy, or that programme devised in the central multistorey buildings, then applying it the same way across all communities you’ll get nowhere fast. Why? Well, number one, Aboriginal people have not been a part of that process.

The whole idea of one size fits all won’t work either and we have learned that for decades and decades. So, why on earth is there a discussion about how authorities can still make decisions about Aboriginal policy, practice and services and stuff that affects Aboriginal people without having Aboriginal people there. We know that all the evidence tells us that doesn’t work.

Being challenged and challenging with respect and love is the way we get the discussion happening and if people are upset about OWN’s position on The Voice, then it’s OK express that. Come to the meetings and allow yourself to be challenged on your opinion, as you challenge others on theirs. It’s not about being in solid agreement with each other. OWN has a real role of mentorship and yes, there’s always going to be people that feel disempowered and I’m really sorry, but let’s empower you, let’s hear you, let’s listen to you and let’s heal the things that drive us apart because this should not be driving us apart.

I was up at the Myall Creek massacre site some years ago and I had the privilege of doing a talk on the anniversary of the commemoration of the Myall Creek massacre (on June 1838, at least 28 Aboriginal people were massacred by a group of 12 Europeans at Myall Creek Station in Northern NSW). The people that brought the event together were a set of faith groups, as well as the people whose families were murdered, and people whose families were the people who committed the atrocities. 

They all love and respect each other, they all care for each other and they come together annually to pay respects to a beautiful memorial that’s being built at Myall Creek to commemorate the achievement of peace, of healing, to never forget what happened on that land, in the hope that it will never happen again. And I have never been to anything more powerful because in that audience were other people who had learned that their families were part of that massacre as well, and came for the first time.

There is a tremendous power in healing and there are voices that feel disaffected, there are voices that have not been heard and those voices are on all sides and I think it’s a real shame in Australia that we can’t sit down and say, ‘let’s find a way so we can all be heard’.

That’s what this is really all about if we try and stop making it complicated. Going back to the Uluru Statement, reading it out loud. Standing in front of the mirror, download it and read it out loud to yourself. Hear it with your own voice, that’s what this thing is about.

I think Australians have got a really good opportunity by opening their ears to this and having a voice, to be able to say, “hey, here’s some new knowledge’ and be reciprocal about this, and respectful about that and not just close the door because of a narrow mindedness and fear about what that could mean.

It’s way overdue, let’s get it done and move on to the next part – how we as Australians all come together on this ancient land and learn from Australia’s First peoples because there is a lot there to share.