tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/indigenous-affairs-541/articlesindigenous affairs – La Conversation2024-02-05T09:44:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227272024-02-05T09:44:23Z2024-02-05T09:44:23ZHow Lowitja O'Donoghue’s activism and leadership changed advocacy on Indigenous affairs in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573665/original/file-20240206-27-l01akv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=318%2C541%2C3918%2C2274&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue. Her name and images have been used with permission.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lowitja Institute</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name and images of a deceased person.</em></p>
<p>In the many tributes that have flowed since the announcement of Lowitja O’Donoghue’s death on February 4 at age 91, many commentators have noted her leadership and commitment to public life over many years. </p>
<p>Of her many public roles, chairing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1990-2005) across the first six years of its life stands out. No other Indigenous leader has occupied a similar position before or since. </p>
<p>What can we learn from her leadership?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1754230239734141026"}"></div></p>
<h2>An activist and trailblazer</h2>
<p>Removed, marginalised and discriminated against from birth, in a country that refused to recognise her identity or aspirations, O'Donoghue’s political maturation came early when she moved to Adelaide to become a trainee nurse in the 1950s. </p>
<p>There she joined the <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/government-and-democracy/activism/aboriginal-activist-and-australian-year-lowitja-odonoghue">Aborigines Advancement League</a> and helped spearhead campaigns for civil rights. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-trailblazer-lowitja-odonoghue-dies-aged-91-222724">Indigenous trailblazer Lowitja O'Donoghue dies aged 91</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 1967 she joined the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs, <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/dr-lowitja-odonoghue-ac-cbe-dsg-fearless-determined-nation-builder/#:%7E:text=She%20campaigned%20during%20the%201967,the%20Council%20for%20Aboriginal%20Reconciliation.">rising to become regional director</a> from 1975-79. In 1977, O'Donoghue was appointed the <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/dr-lowitja-odonoghue-ac-cbe-dsg-fearless-determined-nation-builder/#:%7E:text=She%20campaigned%20during%20the%201967,the%20Council%20for%20Aboriginal%20Reconciliation.">inaugural chair</a> of the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) and subsequently appointed as chair of the Aboriginal Development Commission. </p>
<p>She was also <a href="https://about.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0026/15866/odonoghue.pdf">chair of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd</a> from 1982-90 and a founding member of the <a href="https://www.centreofdemocracy.sa.gov.au/milestone/council-of-aboriginal-women-of-south-australia/">Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia</a>. </p>
<p>In 1984, she was commissioned by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding to consult with Indigenous communities about a new consultative organisation to replace the NAC. A key recommendation of her report was the establishment of regional assemblies across Australia, a model that became central to ATSIC.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1753986818033229976"}"></div></p>
<h2>Inaugural chair of ATSIC</h2>
<p>O'Donoghue was regarded as the logical choice for inaugural chair of ATSIC. A statutory body, combining representative, advisory and administrative functions, ATSIC was unlike all previous representative bodies for Indigenous Australians. </p>
<p>She <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1665754658/view?partId=nla.obj-1676422687#page/n33/mode/1up">steered a board</a> of 17 regional commissioners, along with an extra two commissioners appointed by the minister. There were also between 600 and 800 regional councillors (including chairpersons) in 35 regions across Australia, prosecuting a national position while catering to regional concerns. </p>
<p>She liaised with a chief executive and the minister, and an administrative wing of about 1,000 public servants. She and the board administered 50% of the federal government’s budget in Aboriginal affairs, dispensing <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1463013825/view?partId=nla.obj-1465906441">something in the order of</a> 6,000 grants to about 1,500 incorporated Indigenous organisations by the mid 1990s.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/many-claim-australias-longest-running-indigenous-body-failed-heres-why-thats-wrong-209511">Many claim Australia’s longest-running Indigenous body failed. Here’s why that’s wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>O’Donoghue took to the task with gusto and hope. Her first order of business was steering a national Aboriginal response to the 1991 report of the <a href="https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/learning-modules/rights-and-freedoms-defining-moments-1945-present/118-1991-royal-commission-aboriginal-deaths-custody#:%7E:text=Its%20final%20report%2C%20tabled%20on,likely%20to%20be%20in%20custody.">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a>, which she described as the “most important social document of the 20th century”. She attended as many regional council meetings as she could and, in an historic cabinet meeting in 1991, was among <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/national-living-treasure-dedicated-to-improving-the-lives-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people-20210512-p57r7q.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed">a small group that presented a report</a> to Paul Keating on Aboriginal priorities.</p>
<h2>Negotiating Mabo</h2>
<p>Not long after this, O'Donoghue was required to steer ATSIC’s response to the Mabo decision. This was no small task, as it unleashed a torrent of discontent across Australia and resistance in many quarters. </p>
<p>O’Donoghue, ATSIC and other Aboriginal representatives developed a list of bedrock demands. Compromises were made, but under O'Donoghue’s determined steerage, ATSIC hung on to several demands, notably the retention of the threatened Racial Discrimination Act.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mabo-decision-and-native-title-74147">Australian politics explainer: the Mabo decision and native title</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This was a highlight of her career, not least because it demonstrated that ATSIC was no “toothless tiger” and showcased the acumen of a rising Aboriginal political sector. </p>
<p>Later, ATSIC pushed for the development of a social justice package in order to cater to “the dispossessed” – the majority of Aboriginal people unable to benefit from native title law. </p>
<p>After extensive community consultation in conjunction with the Reconciliation Council, an historic document was produced, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44655637">Recognition, Rights and Reform</a>, calling for institutional , structural, collaborative and co-operative change. </p>
<p>Social justice was predicated on moving from welfare to rights, from dependency to autonomy and from government assistance to self-determination. A major theme in the report was a desire to redefine Indigenous Australians’ relationship with governments. ATSIC measured all its programs in terms of social justice. With this document, they hoped to achieve it by 2001.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573666/original/file-20240206-19-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lowitja O'Donoghue was the first Aboriginal person to address the United Nations General Assembly in 1992, in Geneva.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lowitja O'Donoghue Collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Taking Indigenous advocacy around the world</h2>
<p>In O'Donoghue’s papers in the National Library of Australia are several large bound volumes of her published speeches during her time at ATSIC, the writing and delivery of which constituted an important part of her advocacy. Particularly impressive is the diverse audiences she pitched to: the Royal Institute of Public Administration, various industry and professional associations, business and economic forums, health professionals, politicians and public servants. </p>
<p>She always impressed on her audience the immense task of ATSIC, reminding them of its political and financial constraints, and arguing that it would take time to turn around 200 years of dispossession.</p>
<p>She regularly spoke at the UN. In 1993, the international year of the world’s Indigenous peoples, she spoke at the World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna. She told her audience not to underestimate the serious nature of human rights abuses in Australia, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/7860643">noting</a> that “as Aboriginal people we ask no more than the basic human right of being given the opportunity to determine our own future”. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8v2wy/big-gubba-business-the-making-of-the-united-nations-declaration-of-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-first-nations-resurgence-and-the-australian-connection">his PhD thesis</a> on Indigenous engagement with the UN, Indigenous scholar Graeme La Macchia shows how in the development of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, member states became anxious about words like self-determination. He shows how O'Donoghue held firm, arguing that nothing short of political self-determination and economic empowerment would suffice for the world’s Indigenous people.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1754021790836457736"}"></div></p>
<h2>A profound legacy</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/7860643">farewell address</a>, O'Donoghue described her time at ATSIC as intense, exhilarating and, at times, exhausting.</p>
<p>The final months of her tenure were marred by a hostile relationship to an incoming Coalition government looking to reform ATSIC, and a constant repetition of ATSIC’s alleged accountability crisis in the public domain, what she described as “the myth of the wasted millions”. </p>
<p>This did not detract from the fact that this Yankunytjatjara woman from Central Australia rose to become the longest-serving leader of the longest running Indigenous political organisation of the postwar era. </p>
<p>ATSIC was a pioneering institution, observed across the globe. We should know and remember her considerable contribution to this important part of our political history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222727/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Holland receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP230100714 - Policy for Self-Determination: the Case Study of ATSIC) with Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Associate Professor Daryl Rigney, Dr Kirsten Thorpe and Lindon Coombes.</span></em></p>An activist from a young age, it was in her role as inaugural chair of ATSIC that O'Donoghue changed advocacy on Indigenous issues.Alison Holland, Associate Professor, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159962023-10-19T09:25:35Z2023-10-19T09:25:35ZGrattan on Friday: Anthony Albanese had good motives but his referendum has done much harm<p>The National Anti-Corruption Commission the other day issued its weekly statement about its work program. The government legislated for the NACC late last year, it began operations on July 1, and it’s now going full steam. </p>
<p>What if Anthony Albanese had taken the same approach to the Voice? The Senate would have passed the legislation. The Voice could be operating right now. </p>
<p>Instead, the Voice is dead and reconciliation is, at least for the moment, a wasteland. In medicine they say “do no harm”. Albanese was well motivated, but a great deal of harm has been done.</p>
<p>The prime minister and others will say, the Indigenous people wanted a Voice in the constitution, not simply a legislated Voice. How could he ignore that, when he made his pre-election promise to pursue the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full?</p>
<p>It sounds a compelling argument. Except when you consider the result. Instead of getting something, the outcome has been to achieve nothing. </p>
<p>The destruction of the Voice has been a bipartisan saga over many years, since the Uluru Statement was put out in 2017. The Turnbull government tried to strangle it at birth by wrongly describing it as a “third chamber” of parliament (Malcolm Turnbull later changed his mind). The Morrison government rejected a constitutional Voice and never got around to a legislated one. Finally, the Albanese government has blown it out of the water. </p>
<p>The fact Albanese had the best of intentions is, unfortunately, irrelevant. This wouldn’t be the first disaster coming from a good heart. </p>
<p>Given that around six in ten people voted “no”, former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson is almost certainly right when he said this week, “there was never a time when there was a glimmer of hope this could get through”.</p>
<p>That’s regardless of the early positive polling, when the debate hadn’t started in earnest.</p>
<p>Australians almost never want to change the constitution, and many would not countenance a proposal that lacked enough detail and accorded one section of the community a particular constitutional place. </p>
<p>To blame lack of bipartisanship, mis/disinformation, and racism is kidding ourselves. The margin was too wide. </p>
<p>To think Peter Dutton’s support could have swung things is a very long stretch. The conservatives would have been divided, whatever Dutton did. </p>
<p>And yes, misleading information and conspiracy theories were flying around. But it’s insulting to suggest that so many voters were just duped. </p>
<p>Kos Samaras is a director of RedBridge, a political consultancy firm that undertakes research, including deep dives to tap people’s attitudes. Samaras is no right winger – he’s a former Labor operative, and a declared “yes” voter. His views on the intense focus on disinformation are worth thinking about. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/KosSamaras/status/1714760362808258756">He tweeted this week</a>: </p>
<p>“Why do some fixate on disinformation when digesting election results? </p>
<p>"1. It avoids self-reflection 2. It assumes everyone is interested in politics 3. It confirms a societal bias that people who do not agree with you are stupid, especially poorer folk 4. Some MPs, some media and the staffer class live separated lives from the lived experience of Australians. It helps to ignore this reality 5. It ignores the real reason disinformation works. It is believed if it aligns with a person’s voting intention and existing biases 6. It avoids having to alter campaign approaches that may force you to empower people who are culturally different 7. It helps with the sudden realisation that you belong to a minority. </p>
<p>"The fixation on disinformation also guarantees repeating the same mistakes next time.”</p>
<p>The Albanese government has legislation on the go to crack down on online “misinformation and disinformation”. But, as critics have pointed out, including constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey, a strong backer of the Voice, this carries significant dangers for freedom of speech. In fighting one problem, we should beware of creating another.</p>
<p>Racism reared its head during the campaign, and that was abhorrent. What proportion of votes racism drove, however, is another matter.</p>
<p>Racism should be always called out. Equally, it should not be exaggerated in the wake of this defeat. To explain the result as fundamentally the product of a racist Australia is likely to add to the despair some Indigenous people are feeling. </p>
<p>A central reason the Indigenous backers of the Voice campaign wanted it in the constitution was so a future (conservative) government could not abolish it. That insistence was understandable but had two flaws. </p>
<p>First, the plan had parliament possessing wide powers over the body’s structure, so a later government could have emasculated it to the point of near extinction.</p>
<p>The second flaw was this. If making the “perfect” (constitutional status) the enemy of the “good” (legislated only) was likely to end up where we are now, wouldn’t it have been better just to pursue the “good”? </p>
<p>Albanese apparently thought he could deliver the perfect, which is extraordinary for a politician with his experience. But plenty around him must have known this was unlikely and should have persuaded him to confront reality. And then he should have been straight with Indigenous leaders about what could be achieved. Instead he seemed almost intimidated by some of them.</p>
<p>Indigenous leaders are observing a week of media silence and contemplation. They too must feel the responsibility they carry. </p>
<p>Albanese says he is waiting to be advised by Indigenous people on where to from now. When the government said in the campaign it had no plan B, that seems to have been the case. It has not clarified its post-referendum position on treaty and truth-telling.</p>
<p>Given a fractious and difficult parliamentary sitting week, and internal Labor tensions over the Middle East crisis, the prime minister would be glad of the official Indigenous silence. </p>
<p>Politically, Albanese and the government want to move on quickly to other issues. Asked by a backbencher at Tuesday’s caucus meeting what they should say to constituents in the wake of the loss, the prime minister reeled off a list of the government’s achievements in education, health, employment and other areas.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the government issued a release announcing $30.8 million for health research “that listens to Indigenous communities”. It said the 26 research projects “have all involved First Nations people from the start, listening to the lived experience of people at every stage”.</p>
<p>There are a lot of Indigenous voices out there: when it regroups, the government will need to step up its efforts to work more effectively with them. In one encouraging result in a bleak week, an Essential poll reported more than six in ten people had agreed if the referendum failed the government should continue to work with First Nations communities to find solutions to the issues they face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the best of intentions, the prime minister’s determination to take Australians to a referendum on the Voice to Parliament has caused tremendous damage.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2143702023-10-15T05:09:19Z2023-10-15T05:09:19ZIf there is to be any healing after the Voice referendum, it will be a long journey<p>The result of the Voice referendum on Saturday was unexceptional if considered in light of the constitutional history of this country. </p>
<p>With a “yes”/“no” split likely to be about 40/60%, the defeat was no more or less resounding than several other proposals since Federation that became buried in contention, partisanship and opportunism. The “no” side’s clean sweep of the states has also occurred before – on a quarter of all referendum votes, in fact.</p>
<p>There will now be many a post-mortem, and many a “what if?” There will be an abundance of wisdom after the event. What if Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had offered bipartisan support? What if there had been a constitutional convention? What if the government had negotiated with the opposition over the detail? What if it had released a draft bill? What if the referendum were held next year? What if “yes” had run a different campaign? What if there had not been a cost-of-living crisis? What if there had been less lying?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1713128089914388813"}"></div></p>
<p>In truth, it is hard to imagine a counterfactual scenario that would have produced a different result. Even if Dutton had said “yes”, the Nationals would still have said “no”. Even if the Liberals and Nationals had both said “yes”, other elements on the political right would have said “no”, and both parties would have split. Indigenous opinion was clearly divided, whatever the proportion on each side.</p>
<p>The “no” side – and even the odd Liberal on the “yes” side – complains to whoever will listen about process, but there is no reason to believe some other pathway would have led to a better result. Dutton never indicated what alternative formulation would have satisfied him. </p>
<p>The “yes” case will have its critics, but it was never going to be easy to craft a message with broad appeal. The more than 96% of Australians who are not Indigenous were being asked to offer a concession to the fewer than 4% that the latter do not presently have. It was never going to be easy to make that case. </p>
<p>Settler Australians have often tended to equate equality with sameness. This sentiment is what they call egalitarianism and understand as democracy. For many, to create an Indigenous Voice was to foster inequality and promote division where they believe there should be unity. The “no” case’s claim that the Voice would create disunity was likely devastating in its effects. What many “no” voters want is unity on their own terms.</p>
<p>A referendum proposal begins as the diagnosis of a problem, an argument that the Constitution – drafted in the 1890s – can be made to work better. Governments don’t go to the people with a referendum for opportunistic reasons: it’s just too difficult. So, they tend to be genuine efforts to solve a problem. To get a “yes” vote, you need to get acceptance of both the authorised diagnosis of the problem and the solution being offered.</p>
<p>What was the problem to be solved here, and how was the Voice to help solve it? The “yes” leaflet I received as I went to vote identified three things the Voice would do. “Yes” would provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with constitutional recognition through a Voice. It would offer the means by which advice from Indigenous people would be listened to, leading to better government decision-making. And it would get better results for First Nations people in health, education, employment and housing, leading to a better life.</p>
<p>In other words, the Voice would provide Indigenous people with formal constitutional recognition and an opportunity to speak for themselves, and it would provide practical benefits to help “close the gap”. It seems like a simple message, but it also demands that voters accept several propositions. Let us take just two of them.</p>
<p>First, do Indigenous people need a further opportunity to speak for themselves? I believe so, but “no” voters might have taken the view that there were already Indigenous members of the federal parliament able to speak for Indigenous people. </p>
<p>And if they believed as much, the prominence of two of those members on the “no” side, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Lidia Thorpe, would have done little to persuade them that a Voice was needed. Price and Warren Mundine, a former Liberal candidate for parliament, were the de facto leaders of the “no” campaign. The prominent role of a few high-profile Indigenous people was, in my view, devastating to the moral and political authority of the “yes” case.</p>
<p>Second, while there are some white Australians still prepared to deny the existence of Aboriginal disadvantage, even those who acknowledge the truth of it needed to accept that the Voice would be effective in helping to close the gap.</p>
<p>Given the long history of policy failure in this area, that was a hard argument to make. The Voice, moreover, was to be advisory – a point that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, among others, repeatedly underlined in an effort to reassure non-Indigenous voters it would do little to change the existing political arrangements. People were being asked to support something important enough to call them to the polls, at the same time as they were told it was too modest a proposal for them to need to worry over.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-be-listening-the-long-history-of-liberal-innovation-and-failure-on-indigenous-policy-214960">'We should be listening': the long history of Liberal innovation – and failure – on Indigenous policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The “no” result will be deeply disappointing to many Australians, and most of all to those Indigenous people who have worked patiently for years to achieve constitutional change. There will be many broken hearts. These people have had to endure some of the very worst impulses at work in this country, and some of the nastiest instincts that disfigure its public life. That, too, is unexceptional in the history of this country.</p>
<p>If there is to be any healing, it will be a long journey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the end, the “yes” case failed to answer two basic questions: what was the problem to be solved, and how would the Voice help solve it?Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2156652023-10-15T03:32:39Z2023-10-15T03:32:39Z‘Lies fuel racism’: how the global media covered Australia’s Voice to Parliament referendum<p>In recent days, news organisations around the world have sought to explain to global audiences both the Voice to Parliament referendum campaign and the result. The picture they have painted of Australia is not exactly flattering. The BBC, for example, described the win for the “no” side coming after a “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67110193">fraught and often acrid campaign</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Page tear-outs with headlines from the websites of The Independent, Al Jazeera and the New York Times." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553806/original/file-20231015-17-c0kb6e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Headlines from The Independent, Al Jazeera and the New York Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Washington Post declared it a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/14/australia-voice-parliament-indigenous-referendum/">crushing blow</a>” for Australia’s First Nations people who “saw the referendum as an opportunity for Australia to turn the page on its colonial and racist past”.</p>
<p>Even the play-it-straight Associated Press declared the rejection of the Voice as a “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/australia-referendum-indigenous-voice-9a6677d343cc41a0648030a3e608c824">major setback to the country’s efforts for reconciliation</a> with its First Peoples”. Similarly, Reuters reported on fears the result “could <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/14/australia-rejects-indigenous-referendum-in-setback-for-reconciliation.html">set back reconciliation efforts</a> by years”. </p>
<p>Australia’s own media warned a “no” vote could be seen as evidence that Australia was a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/yes-or-no-australia-our-soul-is-on-trial-before-a-watching-world-20221201-p5c2s7.html">racial rogue nation</a>”. A crucial question, then, is whether this result will affect the way the world views Australia and potentially have an impact on Australia’s international relations.</p>
<h2>‘Uncomfortable fault lines’</h2>
<p>Much of the world’s attention over the past week has been focused on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Yet, the data we’ve been analysing from Meltwater, a global media monitoring company, showed a 30% increase in mentions of the Voice to Parliament in the mainstream news and social media in the week leading up to the vote. There were 297,000 mentions this past week, compared with 228,000 mentions the preceding week.</p>
<p>Much of this content was generated within Australia, but just before the referendum, there was an uptick in the number of “explainers” produced by global news organisations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Page tear-outs with headlines from the websites of the BBC and the New York Times." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553808/original/file-20231015-28-i9a7k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Headlines from the BBC and the New York Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The BBC, for instance, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67085710">reported</a> the historic vote had</p>
<blockquote>
<p>exposed uncomfortable fault lines, and raised questions over Australia’s ability to reckon with its past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/asia/indigenous-voice-australia-referendum.html">New York Times</a> wrote the referendum had </p>
<blockquote>
<p>surfaced uncomfortable, unsettled questions about Australia’s past, present and future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A number of pieces compared Australia unfavourably with other settler-colonial nations in terms of the legal recognition of First Nations people, including New Zealand and Canada. </p>
<p>Japan-based <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Australians-head-to-Indigenous-recognition-vote-3-things-to-know?ref=biztoc.com">Nikkei Asia</a> reported: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia is the only developed nation with a colonial history that doesn’t recognise the existence of its Indigenous people in the constitution. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/what-is-australias-indigenous-voice-parliament-referendum-2023-10-12/">An explainer</a> by Reuters similarly pointed out: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>First Nations people in other former British colonies continue to face marginalisation, but some countries have done better in ensuring their rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And in an interview with Reuters, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to development, Surya Deva, said the Voice debate had “exposed the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indigenous-reconciliation-stake-australia-votes-voice-2023-10-12/">hidden discriminatory attitude</a>” in Australia towards Indigenous peoples. </p>
<h2>Misinformation grabs headlines</h2>
<p>Some international media also pointed to the large amount of misinformation that had surfaced during the campaign. </p>
<p>The New York Times, which had extensive coverage of the campaign, reported the country had become “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/asia/indigenous-voice-australia-referendum.html">ensnared in a bitter culture war</a>” based on “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/07/world/australia/aboriginal-voice-disinformation.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-australia-aboriginals&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc">Trump-style misinformation</a>” and “election conspiracy theories”.</p>
<p>One blunt BBC headline explicitly linked misinformation to racism: “Voice referendum: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66470376">Lies fuel racism</a> ahead of Australia’s Indigenous vote”.</p>
<p>A Reuters explainer similarly reported on concerns that “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indigenous-reconciliation-stake-australia-votes-voice-2023-10-12/">racist and false narratives</a>” had sparked fears the Voice would be a “third chamber of parliament”.</p>
<p>Many outlets had compared the Voice to Parliament referendum to the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom. This referendum result, however, was less surprising and generally reflected the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-yes-campaign-is-generating-the-most-media-and-social-media-content-yet-it-continues-to-trail-in-the-polls-215145">polls</a>.</p>
<h2>How will this affect Australia’s relations?</h2>
<p>In a previous <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-might-the-first-nations-voice-to-parliament-referendum-affect-australias-international-reputation-213764">analysis piece</a>, we wrote that most mentions of the Voice in the international mainstream media and social media had been generated by the United States, followed by the United Kingdom. In the last week of the campaign, there was a 30% increase in number of media mentions of the Voice (9,100) from US traditional news and social media accounts, compared to the preceding week (7,000).</p>
<p>Yet, despite the negative tone of the coverage, it seems unlikely the result will substantially affect Australia’s relations with either country. Concerns about the shifting geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region have brought the three countries much closer in recent years. This was cemented further by the AUKUS pact. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-might-the-first-nations-voice-to-parliament-referendum-affect-australias-international-reputation-213764">How might the First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum affect Australia's international reputation?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the Asia-Pacific region, however, leaders have no doubt been watching the referendum, even if they will not immediately comment on the result.</p>
<p>China’s representatives might be quiet now, but there is little doubt the “no” vote will contribute to the strategic narratives that Beijing uses to blunt Australia’s criticisms of its human rights abuses on the international stage. </p>
<p>A measured interview with Indigenous academic and poet Jeanine Leane in China’s Global Times newspaper, for example, carried the headline “<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202310/1299758.shtml">Colonialism, white supremacy</a> loom over Australia’s aboriginal referendum”. This is, however, not entirely out of step with some of the other coverage emerging from Australia’s allies and partners.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1712320979274543517"}"></div></p>
<p>Indian security expert Ambika Vishwanath <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-australian-voice-referendum-matters-globally">argued</a> in a piece for the Lowy Institute: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it seems extraordinary that a country such as Australia, one that largely aligns itself with ‘Western’ norms and values of freedom and democracy and a liberal outlook on life, has yet to recognise the people that originally inhabited the continent for close to 60,000 years. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>New Delhi now has another avenue for pushback if Australia raises concerns about India’s domestic politics.</p>
<p>For some in the Pacific, the result will not come as a surprise. It may entrench views of Australia as a settler-colonial state unwilling to grapple with its past, including <a href="https://jacobin.com/2022/10/australia-foreign-policy-colonialism-pacific">colonialism in the Pacific</a>.</p>
<p>As the referendum is a domestic issue, it is unsurprising other governments’ leaders have not immediately commented publicly on the result. But this does not mean they’re not watching. The Australian government must now explain to the international community the “<a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/indigenous-voice-getting-ready-explain-world-if-australia-votes-no">substantive policy steps</a>” it is taking to close the gap in Indigenous disadvantage - a tough ask.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Strating receives funding from a La Trobe University Synergy grant for this project. She is a recipient of external grant funding, including from the governments of Australia, United States, United Kingdom, the Philippines and Taiwan.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from La Trobe University Synergy grant pogram to undertake this research.</span></em></p>Could the vote affect the way the world views Australia and potentially have an impact on Australia’s international relations?Rebecca Strating, Director, La Trobe Asia and Associate Professor, La Trobe University, La Trobe UniversityAndrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2151522023-10-12T19:02:11Z2023-10-12T19:02:11ZComing to terms with the past is more important than ever. The Voice referendum is a vital first step<p>This Saturday is the final day of voting in the Voice to Parliament referendum, which asks Australians to support recognition of First Peoples in the Constitution and enable First Peoples’ representation on relevant policies and programs.</p>
<p>Over the last several weeks, I have attended many events supporting and advocating for the Voice referendum. In these forums, my fellow Australians talk about the Constitution, the role of government and how power is exercised in modern democracy. Some have never read or thought about the Constitution before. </p>
<p>I’ve seen young First Nations lawyers explaining to a mixed crowd how the Constitution works, what is included in it and what a constitutionally enshrined Voice would mean. I have been invigorated by such sincere participation in understanding how our democracy works, and could work better. </p>
<p>This serious contemplation was getting underway at the Referendum Council’s Aboriginal regional dialogues I attended in 2017. With other Aboriginal people, we discussed what change could look like. I have supported the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and played my small part supporting the “yes” vote at my university and with my family and community. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-questions-answered-on-the-voice-to-parliament-200818">Your questions answered on the Voice to Parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How opinions have differed</h2>
<p>Debates around the Voice have presented three competing narratives to the Australian public. </p>
<p>The “yes” position addresses the outstanding business of the place of First Peoples in the life of the nation. This position is an offer of peace, to walk together towards settlement. It also believes that if First Peoples are able to work with and through government – with power devolved to local-level decision-making – the everyday experiences of the disadvantaged will be changed. </p>
<p>The Voice proposal is a modest, middle path. It’s a compromise position that was believed to have the greatest chance of gaining support from progressives, liberals and conservatives. </p>
<p>The “no” position refuses to acknowledge the unique place of First Peoples in the life of the nation and rejects any perceived “special treatment” based on either disadvantage or cultural difference. </p>
<p>A third, minority group is the so-called “progressive no” vote, which rejects the Voice referendum as an unacceptable compromise with limited utility as a mechanism to advance First Peoples’ rights. It argues Voice is not enough, and it’s time instead for recognition of sovereignty.</p>
<p>Each of these narratives draws from competing versions of the story of the nation’s past and future. We can see that understanding our history is more important than ever in addressing the politics of disruption and disinformation and the toxic social and political discourse that has dominated the campaign. </p>
<h2>Right-wing tactics of division</h2>
<p>Debate over the referendum has played out in a different way to other referendums and general election campaigns. The debate has often been discourteous, relying on a swarm of cruel, derogatory and racist social media posts. Some leading “no” campaigners have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/28/we-forgive-but-never-forget-yes-campaigner-rachel-perkins-responds-to-warren-mundine-on-uluru-statement?">presented</a> increasingly extremist and sensational views intended to dominate the news cycle and social media. </p>
<p>In many ways, the “no” campaign has followed patterns of right-wing campaigning from overseas, which is intended to destabilise the social relations, trust and confidence we have in one another and seed division. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-advance-and-fair-australia-and-why-are-they-spearheading-the-no-campaign-on-the-voice-209390">What are 'Advance' and 'Fair Australia', and why are they spearheading the 'no' campaign on the Voice?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Consider the Brexit debate in the UK, and or US Capitol insurrection and claims of a stolen election by former President Donald Trump. Each provided a platform for people to express white nationalist sentiments and their deep distrust in the institutions of democratic government. </p>
<p>The “no” campaign’s tactics have also sought to <a href="https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813">link</a> a host of disparate themes to the referendum, from climate change denial to anti-vaccination beliefs. The common theme is grievance against the perceived extension of the distrusted government into people’s lives. Disinformation has played a key role. </p>
<p>Other concerns have also been publicly raised about the Voice, such as that it would be a risk to <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-voice-to-parliament-would-not-force-people-to-give-up-their-private-land-212784">people’s private land</a>. These concerns are sincerely feared, but totally unfounded.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1711591404777140450"}"></div></p>
<h2>Difficulties confronting our history</h2>
<p>What sits beneath this right-wing rhetoric in Australia is the highly charged debate over the nation’s past and its future. </p>
<p>Contesting views about Australia’s history should not come as a surprise. Since historians became more interested in the telling of Australian history “from the other side” and writing First Peoples back into the nation’s story, it has been met with an equal measure of resistance and shock. </p>
<p>The ongoing difficulty of “coming to terms” with colonial histories can be attributed to a number of things: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>historical amnesia, disbelief or cultural differences over what counts as historical knowledge </p></li>
<li><p>the strategic use of “forgetting” to protect a social group’s self-image </p></li>
<li><p>and the belief that engaging in these difficult histories is somebody else’s responsibility rather than our own. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The Voice Referendum and Uluru Statement introduce a new nationalism underpinned by a different origin story: the process of a settlement between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians with a recognition of how our continent’s much deeper history can be a gift, or inheritance, to all Australians. </p>
<p>In this vision for the future, the worlds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders narrate the story of the country over much longer timeframes through an entirely different archive and knowledge system. </p>
<p>The idea of inheritance of a much deeper and longer history of country is less concerned with colonial settler-Indigenous relations. Rather, it is a transformed sense of history that extends over thousands of generations and speaks to place. </p>
<h2>Playing a role in the future of the nation</h2>
<p>The aim of the Voice is to strengthen democracy by meaningfully engaging with those who have the knowledge and expertise, in local conditions and contexts, to improve government decisions in Indigenous policy and programs. </p>
<p>The Voice proposal eschews a rights framework in favour of <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/its-our-country-paperback-softback">providing</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the impetus for a profound paradigmatic shift between Indigenous peoples and the state. While this “power of influence” on one hand seeks to improve policy and programs and services on the ground, it also seeks to shape a new and meaningful relationship between Indigenous Peoples and political institutions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a legitimate and important role for government to play in First Peoples’ lives, but this role can be improved by greater participation and local-level input in the design and implementation of policy and programs. </p>
<p>For too long, First Peoples have experienced the worst excesses of government and its various instruments – namely the police and judiciary. There’s a reason why many people hold a deep and abiding fear and suspicion of government. It has been responsible for many traumas:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the brutal dislodging of kinship connections </p></li>
<li><p>the taking of land without any legal basis or compensation </p></li>
<li><p>the violent dispersal of people from their land, which has rendered many destitute and without means to care for their families </p></li>
<li><p>the removal of people’s children, denial of basic services and assistance, and management of people’s lives by a cruel and underfunded protection board </p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/law/research/centres/castancentre/our-areas-of-work/indigenous/the-northern-territory-intervention/the-northern-territory-intervention-an-evaluation/what-is-the-northern-territory-intervention">empowering</a> of police and military to seize people’s community assets. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>And yet, the Voice referendum, supported by the overwhelming majority of First Peoples, seeks to improve the relationship with governments to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness of policies intended to improve lives. </p>
<p>At one Sydney “yes” rally, we walked from Redfern Park along Cleveland Street to Victoria Park. It was a massive turnout that far exceeded expectations. The mood was serious, yet joyous. People came from all over Sydney and brought their place with them – the crew from “The Shire” got a big cheer from the crowd. </p>
<p>This gathering was not looking for division, but rather a heart-filled yearning to come together as a community of people and play a role in the future of a nation that’s accepting of the fact it’s our country, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Norman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voice supporters are not looking for division, but rather a desire to play a role in the future of a nation that accepts it’s our country, too.Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154262023-10-12T01:54:24Z2023-10-12T01:54:24ZWhen it comes to Indigenous affairs, Australian voters’ opinions are complicated<p>The academic study of public opinion is a well-developed area. One foundational finding is that while the views of voters often seem contradictory and incoherent, these apparent inconsistencies have a pattern. </p>
<p>The views that voters express in opinion polls reveal that many voters, especially those disengaged from politics, understand key concepts such as “equality” and “disadvantage” in a very different way from political elites of both left and right. </p>
<p>The fact that public opinion does not align with traditional “left” and “right” viewpoints means that both progressives and conservatives have opportunities to gain majority support. The marriage equality plebiscite dashed conservatives’ dreams of a suburban “silent majority”. The Voice referendum seems likely to be disappointing for the left. The <a href="https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/ANUpoll-national-identity-042015_0.pdf">dynamics of both ballots</a> are similar.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ideology-in-america/F22017ACF5F39C3739E7C0E8D89501F8">key finding</a> from the study of popular ideology is that voters often express loyalty to general principles while also supporting policies that contradict those principles. </p>
<p>Often these general principles are conservative. For example, Americans worry about government being too large, but when questioned about specific government programs, will support their extension. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-polling-shows-no-voters-more-likely-to-see-australia-as-already-divided-214713">New polling shows 'no' voters more likely to see Australia as already divided</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australians have very <a href="https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/ANUpoll-national-identity-042015_0.pdf">high levels of patriotism</a>, but most are not aggressive nationalists. There are some left-wing general principles that attract strong majority support, such as equal opportunity and that immigration contributes to cultural enrichment. However, voters’ interpretation of these principles is not a left-wing one: affirmative action for women is <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/Trends-in-Australian-Political-Opinion-Results-from-the-Australian-Election-Study-1987-2022.pdf">very unpopular</a>, and although <a href="https://scanloninstitute.org.au/mapping-social-cohesion-2022">voters support multiculturalism</a> as an aspiration, they are much more doubtful about immigrant communities receiving government assistance to maintain culture and traditions. </p>
<p>Many aspects of the history of public opinion about Indigenous affairs, as chronicled in Murray Goot and Tim Rowse’s 2007 book <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/divided-nation-indigenous-affairs-and-the-imagined-public">Divided Nation</a>, are consistent with this pattern. The political right is often more divided on policy than the left, but it has been successful in maintaining a coalition based on an appeal to abstract principles. The success of the “no” campaign is a case in point.</p>
<p>In a liberal democracy, “equality” is a powerful idea, but its meaning is contested. From the 19th century, conservatives found to their surprise that formal political equality did not mean the disappearance of the social and economic inequalities they cherished. Conservatives have mostly championed formal political equality. </p>
<p>The campaign against the Voice has centred themes of equality against the special treatment of Indigenous people. The theme is almost 50 years old, going back to mining industry campaigns against land rights in the 1970s. </p>
<p>However, the idea of equality is also a tool against institutionalised racism. At the 1967 referendum, voters supported the idea of equality, even though the <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/divided-nation-indigenous-affairs-and-the-imagined-public">same voters</a> rejected social closeness to Indigenous people and had a low opinion of their character and abilities. </p>
<p>Supporters of “yes” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66470376">have complained</a> of the invocation of racist themes by some “no” campaigners. </p>
<p>However, since the 1990s, public attitudes to Indigenous claims have shifted from hostility to mild support. But in an Australia less racist than it has ever been, the Voice now seems destined for defeat.</p>
<p>The question is why were progressives unable to propose a convincing counter-narrative? The fact that initially the Voice attracted strong support suggests this was not inevitable. </p>
<p>Although “equality” is a deeply popular idea, voters do not understand equality as simple sameness. In other words, they do not support a narrowly libertarian view that past history and current cultural differences have no bearing on the entitlements of contemporary Australians. </p>
<p>Australian society is no longer, if it ever was, dominated by a culture of sameness. Voters recognise the claims of identity and difference, but only to a limited extent. As Goot and Rowse show, settlers have recognised the distinctiveness of Indigenous people, but they tend to understand it as applying only to some groups: those defined as “tribal”, remote, distinctive in appearance and so on. </p>
<p>They show that public support for land rights was higher when beneficiaries were defined in this sense. Both left and right have cited the disadvantaged position of Indigenous people in arguments for and against the Voice. But voters’ support for Indigenous specific programs is based less of perceptions of disadvantage than Indigenous distinctiveness.</p>
<p>Voters are sympathetic to identity claims when they are understood as something innate about individuals. However, they are less sympathetic when they are understood as the assertion of a collective political project. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-australia-will-we-wake-up-to-if-the-voice-referendum-is-defeated-on-october-14-214359">What kind of Australia will we wake up to if the Voice referendum is defeated on October 14?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Scott Morrison’s personal religiosity initially contributed to an image of authenticity that voters found attractive. But his attempt to grant legal privileges to religious schools in the form of exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation were unpopular. </p>
<p>The campaign for marriage equality appealed powerfully to ideas about the right to love. </p>
<p>Conservatives deviate from a libertarian script when they argue that the high number of Indigenous MPs means that that First Nations peoples are already represented, but this expresses the view of Indigeneity as a personal attribute rather than a political force.</p>
<p>The settler majority has come to accept Indigenous people as equal individual citizens of the nation-state. In some cases, they have supported special entitlements for some Indigenous people, rejecting a purely libertarian approach. </p>
<p>Early support for the Voice reflected this, but the decline in support for the Voice demonstrates settlers are resistant to the idea of Indigenous peoples as a collective subject entitled to a unified Voice. Australian democracy is not colour-blind, but it defines difference within a limited framework.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The decline in support for the Voice after initial strong polling demonstrates settlers are resistant to the idea of Indigenous peoples as a collective subject entitled to a unified Voice.Geoffrey Robinson, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149602023-10-11T19:06:33Z2023-10-11T19:06:33Z‘We should be listening’: the long history of Liberal innovation – and failure – on Indigenous policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552624/original/file-20231007-19-4viaai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the names and images of deceased people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>We have had compelling accounts from Indigenous activists of “<a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/long-road-uluru-walking-together-truth-before-justice-megan-davis/">the long road to Uluru</a>”. But another perspective on the Voice debate can also be gleaned from the political insiders – especially Coalition leaders – who engaged with Indigenous communities, learned from them, sought to develop consultative and policy solutions, yet failed to “close the gap”.</p>
<p>The furious opposition of the current Coalition parties to the Voice disowns their own history and an initiative that was arguably their own creation. So it is illuminating to explore their divergence from some of their former leaders who were passionate about trying to fix Indigenous disadvantage.</p>
<p>Paul Hasluck, journalist, historian, and diplomat was elected for the Liberals to parliament in 1949. Growing up in country Western Australia with Indigenous friends, he empathised with their connection to Country. </p>
<p>Curiosity stimulated his masters thesis, Black Australians, an account of 19th century relations between Indigenous people and colonists in Western Australia, published in 1942. He was appointed minister for territories in 1951.</p>
<p>He sought first to work with the states but faced resistance: they insisted they were already doing everything possible for “native welfare” and that it was a minor problem. Hasluck tried to bring change to the Northern Territory, hoping success would induce states to follow his lead. The difficulties were considerable: a department whose efforts were desultory, an administration that dragged its feet, a lack of bureaucratic and economic infrastructure in the Territory.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552612/original/file-20231007-15-v2l57o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck tried to introduce policies to ameliorate Indigenous disadvantage, but ultimately failed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/afternoon-light-podcast/william-sanders">Robert Menzies Institute</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hasluck persisted, aware of key factors driving policy failure in settler-Indigenous relations: racism, inequality, disparity in administration across states, inability to ameliorate Indigenous disadvantage, denial of agency. He sought to address this through cooperative federalism. </p>
<p>But his was a vision of assimilation, limited by inherited patterns of thought. It discounted the affiliations that tied Indigenous people to social and group identity. </p>
<p>Hasluck <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1891893">eventually understood</a> that he had been captured by tunnel vision. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My outlook on aboriginal welfare […] influenced by the evangelism of mid and late Victorian England […] placed emphasis on the individual. The individual made the choice and made the effort and as a result was changed. This influence […] meant that we did not see clearly the ways in which the individual is bound by membership of a family or a group.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Success in 1967 – but deep division remains</h2>
<p>In the 1950s and 1960s, widespread recognition of the need for change led to bipartisan support for and success in the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2017/May/The_1967_Referendum">1967 constitutional referendum</a>. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Harold Holt then established the Council for Aboriginal Affairs. His successor, <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-2408">Billy McMahon, signalled policy change</a>. McMahon said Indigenous peoples </p>
<blockquote>
<p>should be encouraged and assisted to preserve and develop their culture, their languages, their traditions and arts so that these can become living elements in the diverse culture of Australian society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>McMahon tried to bridge divisions in his Coalition by offering a Northern Territory Land Board that could grant 50-year leases to Indigenous groups that could prove a long and continuing connection with land, rather than the land rights Indigenous groups were demanding. The fallout was such that it sparked the establishment of the <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/aboriginal-tent-embassy">Aboriginal Tent embassy</a> in 1972.</p>
<p>So it was that Gough Whitlam picked up the baton, making land rights a centrepiece of Labor policy. Among his initiatives were the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) expunging state laws restricting the rights of Indigenous people. He also established <a href="https://antar.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Woodward-Royal-Commission-Factsheet-1.pdf">a royal commission</a> into land rights in the Northern Territory. The Whitlam government’s Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Bill (1975) was drawn from its recommendations.</p>
<h2>Fraser picks up where Whitlam left off</h2>
<p>However, it was Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who, in 1976, passed the Land Rights legislation that Whitlam had developed, but had been unable to progress in the Senate before his 1975 dismissal. He also passed the Aboriginal Councils and Association Act, allowing Indigenous bodies to register as corporations for community purposes. </p>
<p>This was the foundation for hundreds of Indigenous corporations, a springboard for community development that stimulated the emergence of Indigenous social entrepreneurs. Once a staunch assimilationist, Fraser had visited remote communities, met with impressive Indigenous leaders such as Galarrway Yunupingu, and now Indigenous policy reform became part of his broader Human Rights Agenda.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552614/original/file-20231007-23-f71u4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malcolm Fraser and Galarrwuy Yunupingu in Arnhem Land, 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/malcolm-fraser/during-office">National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fraser established an Aboriginal Development Commission, directed by Charlie Perkins, and a National Aboriginal Conference, (NAC) chaired by Lowitja O’Donoghue. His Administrative Appeals Tribunal (1977) and Human Rights Commission (1981) provided additional avenues for Indigenous scrutiny and appeal against decisions affecting them.</p>
<p>All of these were opposed from within the Coalition parties themselves. Their carriage required resolute action. They were radical initiatives in conservative circles. Yet, <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/malcolm-fraser-paperback-softback">reflecting later</a>, Fraser rued that he was too timid, that he should have acted on an idea raised by the NAC: to negotiate a treaty.</p>
<h2>Command and control rather than community engagement</h2>
<p>John Howard’s policy initiatives were the next significant Coalition incursion into Indigenous conditions. He provoked Indigenous leaders by refusing to apologise for the actions of past governments. He abolished Bob Hawke’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) – the first legislated attempt to combine consultation and program management under Indigenous leadership – announcing the “experiment” in self-determination had failed.</p>
<p>His legislative response to the <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/research_pub/wik-coexistance-pastrol-leases-mining-nati-vetitle-ten-point-plan_0_3.pdf">Wik High Court decision</a> enabled him to amend the Keating government’s landmark <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/about-native-title">Native Title Act</a>, itself a response to the High Court’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mabo-decision-and-native-title-74147">Mabo decision</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, he endorsed the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), a remarkable attempt to address dysfunction and restore order in remote communities by mobilising army and police intervention where Indigenous responsibility had failed. Significantly, it was also Howard who first raised the prospect of Constitutional recognition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Ten years on, it's time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Howard had a clear rationale for each of these steps. Apology, Howard argued, could only be offered by the perpetrator of wrongs. ATSIC, despite research now confirming <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/video/fellowship-presentation-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-commission-toward#:%7E:text=In%2520this%2520Fellowship%2520presentation%252C%2520Associate,its%2520achievements%2520and%2520its%2520legacies.">the extent of its achievement</a> under the indomitable Indigenous public servants Lowitja O’Donoghue and Pat Turner, had later fallen under heavy scrutiny before being abolished in 2005. It was also subject to incandescent <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/the-end-of-big-men-politics/">critique by Indigenous leaders</a> and lost the faith of the Labor Party which had created it. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Sc_-wVvzdQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Wik decision, like Mabo, demanded legislative address. The NTER was a response to a <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/resources/ampe-akelyernemane-meke-mekarle-little-children-are-sacred-report-of-the-northern-territory-board-of-inquiry-into-the-protection-of-aboriginal-children-from-sexual-abuse/">devastating report of domestic violence and child abuse</a>, and had followed advice, and was supported, by influential Indigenous public intellectuals such as Marcia Langton and Noel Pearson. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/many-claim-australias-longest-running-indigenous-body-failed-heres-why-thats-wrong-209511">Many claim Australia’s longest-running Indigenous body failed. Here’s why that’s wrong</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It was these Indigenous advisers, too, who persuaded Howard to support Constitutional recognition. Nonetheless, major initiatives proceeded hurriedly, without explanation or consultation with the Indigenous communities affected.</p>
<h2>The Coalition’s reconciliation agenda leads to Uluru</h2>
<p>It is striking, if one leaves aside the inadequacy of Tony Abbott’s <a href="https://www.indigenous.gov.au/indigenous-advancement-strategy">Indigenous Advancement Strategy</a> (which again ignored the necessity of community engagement), or the Coalition’s outsourcing or offloading to states of Closing the Gap arrangements, that the next significant initiative was fostered by a bipartisan meeting on advancing reconciliation between Abbott (with Bill Shorten) and Indigenous leaders. </p>
<p>There followed a Referendum Council established by Abbott’s successor, Malcolm Turnbull, with a sub-committee of the same Indigenous leaders tasked with creating a dialogue on reconciliation with Indigenous communities nationwide. It led directly to the National Constitutional Convention that delivered the Uluru Statement in 2017. </p>
<p>The Uluru Statement then, responding to years of lobbying by those most closely engaged with Indigenous disadvantage, was developed by Indigenous representatives with the encouragement of successive Coalition administrations. </p>
<p>Yet it was Turnbull who declared that its proposal for a Voice referendum was not politically feasible. Turnbull has since <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/malcolm-turnbull-opens-up-on-his-changing-opinions-with-the-voice-referendum/video/86257acb8aaca03e967961d569277b8a">endorsed the current referendum</a>, arguing “a lot has changed since then […] the Indigenous community has backed this in for six years […] we should be listening to how they want to be recognised”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hsj0Yth5zew?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A Coalition trapped by ‘settler liberalism’</h2>
<p>Some of these engaged politicians looked back with remorse and saw how they had been constrained by their own political frameworks (Hasluck), hobbled by their colleagues’ policy priorities (McMahon, Turnbull), or too cautious (Fraser). </p>
<p>Above all, they recognised that their failure lay in not having heard what Indigenous communities told them. One might have expected the cumulative knowledge of these policy leaders to have influenced their peers. Yet what they had learned was rarely understood by their successors.</p>
<p>Partly it was a symptom of endemic short-termism. More significant, however, was another strand, exemplified by Hasluck’s rueful recollection: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/030437540102600201">“settler liberalism”</a> that takes its own commitment to a particular form of individualistic liberal freedom so much for granted that it is blind to collective forms of social relations, and to the structural and institutional consequences of colonisation. </p>
<p>Howard and Mal Brough, the minister who so energetically drove the NTER, were undoubtedly committed to better outcomes for remote communities. They were, unlike Hasluck and Fraser, not remorseful about <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-ask-us-come-and-see-us-aboriginal-young-people-in-the-northern-territory-must-be-listened-to-not-punished-199297">the trauma and dismay that is still evident</a> as a consequence of the intervention. Instead, they were frustrated that successors had not seen it fully developed to address dysfunction in the manner proposed. Their conviction is a manifestation of the persistence of settler liberalism, now so much embedded in the contemporary Coalition’s engagement in the Voice debate.</p>
<p>So here we are, cycling back decades while the remorse of Liberal innovators about the limitations on what they could achieve is forgotten. With it, settler liberalism is reincarnated as a salve that Hasluck, Fraser and others would have thought discredited in their day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Walter has received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past for research on which this article is based. </span></em></p>Many Liberal politicians have been passionate about redressing Indigenous disadvantage, but have come unstuck by the pitfall of ‘settler liberalism’.James Walter, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2106402023-08-03T20:03:11Z2023-08-03T20:03:11ZThe Voice is a simple and enduring idea with a past – and a promise<p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised an image in this article contains antiquated language.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The Voice is a simple idea. The proposed <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=LEGISLATION;id=legislation%2Fbills%2Fr7019_first-reps%2F0001;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fr7019_first-reps%2F0000%22;rec=0">amendment</a> to Australia’s Constitution is short and sweet.</p>
<p>Yet the referendum debate is at risk of inundation, and too often misses the point. While there are many things the Voice cannot do, there is one thing it can do. </p>
<p>It offers a permanent, public and culturally distinct way forward for Indigenous consensuses to develop and find their rightful place in national politics.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solicitor-general-confirms-voice-model-is-legally-sound-will-not-fetter-or-impede-parliament-204266">Solicitor-general confirms Voice model is legally sound, will not 'fetter or impede' parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The past as prologue to the present</h2>
<p>The Voice is rehearsed rather than radical. National Indigenous representative bodies have been on and off the agenda for 50 years. Australia has had three formalised national Indigenous representative bodies between 1973 and 2005. The history of this is significant.</p>
<p>Colonialism radically disrupted traditional governance. While country and culture remain a bedrock of Indigenous identities, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-voice-to-parliament-isnt-a-new-idea-indigenous-activists-called-for-it-nearly-a-century-ago-122272">from the 1920s</a> an Indigenous-led movement developed an agenda that favoured commonwealth over state power and lobbied for input at the national level. </p>
<p>This occurred alongside the Commonwealth’s increasing involvement in Indigenous affairs, a dynamic entrenched by the 1967 referendum. By 1967, the Commonwealth could not be seen to countenance the formulation of law and policy without Indigenous input. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540929/original/file-20230803-22531-koh01h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By 1967, Australian governments could no longer be seen to make policy decisions without input from Indigenous peoples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://museumofcaah.weebly.com/1967-referendum.html">Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian History</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>National governments needed a way to obtain advice from Indigenous peoples. Liberal Prime Ministers Holt, Gorton and McMahon all acknowledged this. </p>
<p>But it was Gough Whitlam who established the first such representative body: the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (1973–1977). Malcolm Fraser replaced this with the National Aboriginal Conference (1977–1985) and Bob Hawke legislated the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1989–2005). </p>
<p>At their core, these bodies involved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders choosing their own representatives to proffer advice to the Commonwealth. While the first two bodies were clipped, each collected Indigenous viewpoints and formulated national agendas. </p>
<p>A smattering of topics covered from the 1970s include land rights, treaty, recognition of colonisation without consent, police brutality, and the forced removal of children from their families. </p>
<p>Yet as much as government needed Indigenous input and advice, without constitutional entrenchment these bodies could be (and were) <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/before-the-voice-political-posturing-and-failed-ambition-20221213-p5c607.html">terminated</a> for political expediency. This insecurity was not just existential; it inhibited the potential of these bodies. </p>
<h2>The Voice as constructive</h2>
<p>Much debate about the Voice has focused on either party politics, or the desirability of the Voice in improving tangible outcomes. This has come at the expense of considering its potential to construct a “national” Indigenous politics, out of regional and sectoral voices. </p>
<p>Politics is protean. But, at its root, democratic politics is about governing society through representation and compromise. This means a representative Voice is also about constructing a system where mainstream government – executive and parliament – and wider society listens to Indigenous concerns. </p>
<p>John Howard’s <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/from-lucky-colonisation-to-misinformation-fears-former-pms-weigh-in-on-voice-debate/pemowjsrp">recent comments</a> against the Voice unwittingly highlight how it can be positively differentiated from previous representative bodies. He argued the Voice would not “produce anything other than regular stand-offs between what the Voice is asking for and what the government of the day is willing to do”.</p>
<p>Leaving aside disingenuous phrasing (the Voice we are voting on can only offer advice, there is no power to “stand off” against governments), the telling words are “what the government of the day is willing to do”. </p>
<p>Compromise is the essence of politics. If a government or parliament is not willing to accommodate reasonable positions of a representative Voice, then that is a failure of our politics. Not of the Voice. </p>
<h2>A core ‘no’ argument is a reason to vote ‘yes’</h2>
<p>The official <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/files/pamphlet/your-official-yes-no-referendum-pamphlet.pdf">“no” case</a> also unwittingly highlights a key reason to support the referendum, come October. In a classic conservative move, the absence of detail about the internal structure of the Voice is taken to be a reason to be cautious and vote “no”. </p>
<p>But that detail is not important to the principle of a national representative Indigenous body. Excess detail at this point would contradict the principle of parliamentary supremacy, of which conservatives are most protective. </p>
<p>Worse, it would pre-empt the right of Indigenous peoples to hammer out the balance between regional and urban voices or established Indigenous structures and an elective principle. </p>
<p>That is significant, given the 1970s bodies mentioned above were very much constructs of executive governments. Each of the three earlier bodies became, if anything, unduly sensitive to regionalism. Such diversity is important; but a “national” Voice cannot be just a confederation of local concerns. </p>
<p>The Voice proposal does not undercut or establish a body to talk over local voices. These voices were <a href="https://theconversation.com/regional-communities-were-central-to-uluru-statement-and-they-must-also-be-for-the-voice-to-parliament-206288">central</a> to its drafting, through consultation processes. </p>
<p>On the contrary, the 2021 Indigenous Voice Co-Design <a href="https://voice.gov.au/resources/indigenous-voice-co-design-process-final-report">Report</a> (which consulted widely to assay aspirations and models) plumps for two-way interaction between local, state and territory, and the national Voices.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/regional-communities-were-central-to-uluru-statement-and-they-must-also-be-for-the-voice-to-parliament-206288">Regional communities were central to Uluru Statement, and they must also be for the Voice to Parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An enduring idea</h2>
<p>The Voice proposal is simple. There are a thousand things it cannot do, and one significant thing that it promises to be.</p>
<p>As an embedded but flexible institution, it would channel an evolving national Indigenous politics, as a representative conduit of many voices speaking up to the behemoth that is the Commonwealth of Australia. </p>
<p>Importantly, it would also put an end to a long political process that has always intended to constitutionally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a way that is meaningful to them – through a constitutionally enshrined Voice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite all the arguments flying around the Voice offers one simple thing: a long overdue way for Indigenous consensuses to develop and find their rightful place in national politics.Laurel Fox, PhD candidate, The University of QueenslandDani Linder, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland, The University of QueenslandGraeme Orr, Professor of Law, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035742023-04-11T08:22:17Z2023-04-11T08:22:17ZView from The Hill: Julian Leeser shifts his own dial in the Liberal Party<p>The decision of Julian Leeser, who has resigned from the opposition frontbench to campaign for a yes vote on the Voice to parliament, is both principled and pragmatic.</p>
<p>Principled because only rarely in politics do we see people make a significant personal sacrifice for their beliefs. </p>
<p>Being shadow minister for Indigenous Australians and shadow attorney-general is well short of being a minister. Still, stepping down to the backbench and going against the overwhelming view of your party on a critical issue takes a good deal of political courage. </p>
<p>Who knows what happens down the track – different circumstances could see Leeser’s political career re-flower. But as of now, he has been willing to deliver a blow to his own chances of future advancement. </p>
<p>His position is pragmatic because, as the saying goes, he hasn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. </p>
<p>The man who received a copy of the Australian Constitution for his tenth birthday is obsessively finicky about that document. He believes the wording of the Albanese government’s proposed question for the referendum is flawed. Specifically, he thinks the new provision would be vulnerable to legal challenge. </p>
<p>He will try to get it changed. It is currently under examination by a parliamentary committee. But he knows significant alteration is extremely unlikely. That, however, is not going to prevent him from campaigning for a yes vote – because he judges the bigger cause is more important. </p>
<p>As he said on Tuesday: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe that through empowering people and by building institutions that shift responsibility and decision-making closer to people, we are more likely to shift the dial on Indigenous health, education, housing, safety and economic opportunity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among the various reasons Leeser will be an asset to the “yes” case is that he is personally close to leading Labor figures on the Voice, notably Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, and Patrick Dodson. He has worked with Dodson (who is currently on indefinite sick leave) in past years on constitutional recognition and a Voice. </p>
<p>Leeser’s personal position is somewhat similar to that of conservative legal academic Greg Craven, who has also been long involved with these issues. Craven doesn’t like the wording either, but says he will vote yes (although not campaign). </p>
<p>Leeser’s joining the yes case is a fillip for Anthony Albanese and a huge blow for Peter Dutton. For the opposition leader, the situation is diabolical. </p>
<p>Various prominent Liberals around the country are already on the “yes” side, and one would expect more to emerge. </p>
<p>Dutton’s parliamentary party is strongly against the Voice (with a few declared exceptions). But a number of frontbenchers won’t want to be campaigning for the “no” case, because that doesn’t represent their real position or because of political caution. </p>
<p>Whether or not they campaign, shadow ministers are bound to the party decision. So how will the shy ones handle invitations to community forums in the run-up to the vote? They can only plead “another engagement” so often.</p>
<p>The most prominent Liberal moderate, Simon Birmingham, who is opposition leader in the Senate, is in a particularly difficult situation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Dutton has to fill the positions of shadow attorney-general and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, which Leeser had held. </p>
<p>He needs someone with a law degree for the shadow attorney-general job. He could split the portfolios, although that would not be ideal, as the “no” campaign will partly rest on legal points. Paul Fletcher has legal qualifications and, like Leeser, is from New South Wales, so could be a possibility for the shadow attorney-general post. But the Indigenous position would not fit Fletcher, a moderate. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-the-high-cost-of-the-liberals-voice-rejection-for-both-peter-dutton-and-the-party-203419">Grattan on Friday: the high cost of the Liberals' Voice rejection – for both Peter Dutton and the party</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The now-chaotic situation in the Liberal Party comes after the huge rebuff Aston voters delivered in the recent byelection – and there, the Voice wasn’t even on the radar. </p>
<p>In other circumstances, the leader’s position would be in danger. That’s not the case at the moment. The problem is actually more serious. </p>
<p>The messages from Aston, and from Leeser’s stand on the Voice go to something much deeper: how the Liberal party is out of sync, on many fronts, with key parts of the modern Australian electorate, especially people under 40. (This point stands whatever the referendum result.) Getting back in touch requires a massive revamp of the party’s approach and there is little sign it is up to the task. </p>
<p>Leeser on Tuesday succinctly laid out the challenge for the “yes” case on the Voice, saying Australians who remained to be convinced fell into three groups. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first group are those who are opposed to the Voice – on philosophical and constitutional grounds.</p>
<p>The second group are those who support the Voice in principle – or who want to support it – but who in the vast majority of cases have genuine doubts and questions about the proposal that the government has put forward.</p>
<p>And the third group are yet to engage, but they too have questions and concerns.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can the “yes” campaign win over enough people from these groups, particularly groups two and three, for the necessary majority of the national vote and majority of states? </p>
<p>Impossible to know at this stage. But some voters will surely be reassured that such a cautious, conservative figure as Leeser, who has demonstrated personal integrity, is giving them permission to vote “yes”, and to not be too fearful of the consequences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stepping down to the backbench and going against the overwhelming view of your party on a critical issue takes a good deal of political courage.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955572022-12-22T19:08:23Z2022-12-22T19:08:23ZThe lie of aqua nullius, ‘nobody’s water’, prevails in Australia. Indigenous water reserves are not enough to deliver justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502509/original/file-20221222-13-v3xnh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5551%2C3700&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James D. Morgan/Getty Images </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the British colonised Australia they assumed terra nullius, “nobody’s land”, and aqua nullius, “nobody’s water”. In 1992, terra nullius was <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/mabo-case">overturned</a> – but aqua nullius remains.</p>
<p>Aqua nullius denies the existence of Indigenous peoples’ own water governance principles, laid down through ancestral “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2021.1880538">first laws</a>”. These customary laws are carried through songlines, trade routes and ceremony, embedded in a deep reciprocal economy of sharing. First laws guide the custodianship of living waters, with attention to intergenerational equity. </p>
<p>Living waters – from rivers, to ancient aquifers to wetlands – are sacred and alive. As the source of energy to animate Country, living waters are critical to Indigenous Peoples’ collective survival. The responsibility of caring for waters (and land) are a central concern of Indigenous Peoples – but this responsibility is thwarted by aqua nullius.</p>
<p>Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia have sought to distribute water rights to Indigenous people by establishing “Indigenous (or Aboriginal) water reserves”, setting aside a portion of water from the consumptive pool for Indigenous people’s future use. </p>
<p>In our <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1885/280411">new policy brief</a>, we unpack the benefits and limitations of these reserves. As it stands, the policy measure alone does not deliver justice for Indigenous peoples. A broader approach is needed.</p>
<h2>The right to water</h2>
<p>Indigenous people must be able to access water in their territories if they so choose. </p>
<p>A United Nations declaration <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">recognises the right</a> to water for Indigenous people. Yet First Nations water holdings in Australia and elsewhere are abysmally low. For example, Indigenous people or organisations hold <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2021.1970094">less than 0.2%</a> of surface water entitlements in the Murray Darling Basin.</p>
<p>In the struggle against aqua nullius, Indigenous people’s right to make decisions about water on Country is a priority. But importantly, when we talk about “water rights” for Indigenous people, the rights to access and use water is only one aspect. </p>
<p>The bigger picture problem is that the decision-making power over water remains with governments, and this power is not shared with Indigenous people. </p>
<p>We agree aqua nullius is unacceptable and must change. Establishing Indigenous water reserves is <a href="http://webarchive.nla.gov.au/gov/20160615062343/http:/www.nwc.gov.au/organisation/partners/fpwec">one option</a>, but it’s far from clear it will deliver what Indigenous communities need.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Jabiru walking in a wetland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502510/original/file-20221222-11-eeli7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Living waters – from rivers, to ancient aquifers to wetlands – are sacred and alive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous water reserves</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://depws.nt.gov.au/water/policy/water-allocation-policies">Northern Territory</a>, <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/firstnations/environment-land-use-native-title/water-reserves-licences/indigenous">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2020/11/Draft-Derby-Groundwater-Allocation-Plan-released-for-comment.aspx">Western Australia</a> have each introduced Indigenous water reserves into water allocation plans. </p>
<p>Water allocation plans define the consumptive pool – that is, how much water can be taken each year for consumptive purposes, such as for drinking supplies or irrigation. </p>
<p>There are at least 19 Indigenous water reserves across Northern Australia. This approach has not yet been adopted by other Australian states and territories.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A major limitation of Indigenous water reserves is their narrow scope. In the NT and WA, their overall purpose is to provide economic opportunities for Indigenous people. <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/firstnations/environment-land-use-native-title/water-reserves-licences/indigenous">Queensland reserves</a> generally provide water to help Indigenous people achieve both economic and social aspirations. </p>
<p>A focus on using water for commercial purposes risks other crucial items – such as ensuring sufficient water for Country and to maintain ecosystem health – falling off the agenda, upholding the unacceptable status quo.</p>
<p>This is what <a href="https://www.nintione.com.au/resources/rao/indigenous-peoples-right-to-the-commercial-use-and-management-of-water-on-their-traditional-territories-an-indigenous-water-policy-position-the-strategic-indigenous-reserve/">Indigenous organisations</a> have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13241583.2017.1348887">said repeatedly</a>, and what our <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1885/280411">new policy brief</a> reflects: that water for economic development is just one of many aspects to overcoming water injustice.</p>
<h2>A market-based lens</h2>
<p>There are two main reasons Indigenous water reserves should not be viewed solely through a market-based lens. </p>
<p>First, water in Indigenous reserves in the Northern Territory are only distributed when there is surplus water. The <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/274161/subdr131-water-reform-2020.pdf">Central Land Council</a> has stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>in the majority of cases where the SAWRs [Strategic Aboriginal Water Reserves] should be available, the water resources have been fully or over-allocated and there is no water available for SAWR. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, if there is no water surplus left, as determined by Australian governments, then the reserve is considered “notional”: in reality, non-existent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/terra-nullius-has-been-overturned-now-we-must-reverse-aqua-nullius-and-return-water-rights-to-first-nations-people-180037">Terra nullius has been overturned. Now we must reverse aqua nullius and return water rights to First Nations people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Second, land tenure rules and regulations are being used to determine the allocation to Indigenous water reserves. </p>
<p>For example, in the <a href="https://depws.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/457553/SWRC-Policy-Framework_A4_V1.pdf">Northern Territory</a>, Indigenous holders of non-exclusive possession native title (that is, native title that co-exists with other forms of land tenure, such as a pastoral lease) are ineligible for water reserves. </p>
<p>This splits native title holders into those with water and those without, based on native title rules, creating an unfair division. </p>
<p>Arbitrary rules about who is eligible for Indigenous water reserves does not respond to the injustice of land and water stolen or forcibly acquired from Indigenous nations. In response to this failing, the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/274089/subdr134-water-reform-2020.pdf">Northern Land Council</a> noted it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>has been disappointed that one of its key recommendations throughout the development of the [Aboriginal Water Reserve] was not adopted through the legislative amendment – that is, that eligibility should be broadened to encompass Aboriginal people and communities who have neither land rights nor exclusive native title.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Are there any benefits?</h2>
<p>In contrast with top-down and arbitrary water allocation planning policies, water reserves can also be established through Indigenous land use agreements. A negotiated agreement between Indigenous groups and Australian governments, potentially has more scope to respond to past injustice and deliver meaningful benefits.</p>
<p>This is because it’s a negotiated settlement intended to be between partners, rather than a top-down “one size fits all” process for an entire state or territory. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-its-time-to-talk-about-our-water-emergency-139024">Australia, it's time to talk about our water emergency</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One possible example is the Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation (YSRC) lease of water to sand mining company Perpetual Resources in 2020. It is the first agreement between the WA government and an Indigenous nation to establish a negotiated access to water with an Indigenous Water Reserve. </p>
<p>Chief executive of YSRC, <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2021/11/Landmark-first-lease-agreement-for-access-to-water-from-the-Yamatji-Strategic-Aboriginal-Water-Reserve.aspx">Jamie Strickland</a>, has stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This <a href="https://nit.com.au/21-02-2020/998/historical-yamatji-native-title-agreement-opens-door-to-unique-economic-opportunities">agreement</a> is the first of its kind and demonstrates how our Strategic Aboriginal Water Reserve can generate opportunities and economic benefits for the Yamatji Nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Missing details</h2>
<p>An holistic approach is needed to ensure water rights support living waters, the environment, and spiritual and cultural connections. If Indigenous water reserves are to benefit Indigenous people, then governments must listen and negotiate in good faith with Indigenous nations. </p>
<p>When applied in water allocation plans, Indigenous water reserves must be part of a cohesive and comprehensive approach – one that delivers sovereignty for water to Indigenous nations and responds to the gross injustice and lie of <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/publication/35022">aqua nullius</a>.</p>
<p>Importantly, Indigenous water reserves need to be one part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-its-time-to-talk-about-our-water-emergency-139024">bigger-picture approach</a> to water justice if aqua nullius is to be overturned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Water Justice Hub receives funding from the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL190100164.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Poelina is the volunteer Chair with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. She does not own, share or acquire any benefits from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. She is the Managing Director (Volunteer) of Madjulla Inc. Indigenous Not for Profit Organisation based in the Kimberley, WA. She is also a member of the Aboriginal Water Group (AWG) advising the WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulations; a member of the Commonwealth Aboriginal Water Interest; and of the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) inaugural First Nations appointment to its independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton receives research funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>In the struggle against aqua nullius, Indigenous people’s right to make decisions about water on Country is a priority.Kat Taylor, Water Justice Hub Research Fellow, Australian National UniversityAnne Poelina, Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame AustraliaQuentin Grafton, Australian Laureate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839872022-06-01T00:50:49Z2022-06-01T00:50:49ZCaring for Country means tackling the climate crisis with Indigenous leadership: 3 things the new government must do<p>The election of a new Australian government offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to promote the self-determination of Indigenous peoples to Care for Country. </p>
<p>Indigenous peoples have been leading Australia’s response to the climate crisis, such as by harbouring deep-time knowledge of the land and water, and managing the land through cultural burning. Yet climate change continues to erode our cultural heritage and threatens our ongoing connection to Country.</p>
<p>In its pre-election budget, the former Coalition government committed <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/indigenous-rangers-program-doubles-with-636-million-boost-20220323-p5a79w.html">A$636 million</a> to expand the Indigenous ranger program and Indigenous Protected Areas. The new parliament, with its greater hunger for climate action, can think even bigger and create a new, exciting and just agenda. </p>
<p>I have previously written about ways everyday Australians can support Indigenous people to <a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">heal Country</a>. Here, I lay out practical steps and big ideas that expand the realms of possibility in this new parliamentary era. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">'Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them': 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC's call to Heal Country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What Indigenous people have at stake</h2>
<p>Climate change and industrial development - dams, land clearing, mining, urban development and more - are bringing more native wildlife to the edge of extinction and are degrading the environment they, and we, rely on.</p>
<p>This environmental damage <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/news/News-releases/2021/Traditional-Owners-and-scientists-working-to-tackle-common-climate-challenge">impacts the ability</a> of Indigenous peoples to remain connected to Country, as our ancestors have before us.</p>
<p>Compounding this is the disproportionate impact <a href="https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448">bushfires</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/like-many-disasters-in-australia-aboriginal-people-are-over-represented-and-under-resourced-in-the-nsw-floods-178420">floods</a> and other disasters have on Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>For example, 6.2% of those affected by the recent flooding in regional areas outside Sydney were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, despite making up just 3.3% of the general population.</p>
<p>Adding to this is damage feral animals, invasive weeds, and unmanaged fire inflict on biodiversity, cultural values, and the overall health of ecosystems.</p>
<p>These crises disrupt Indigenous peoples ways of life. They degrade or destroy our cultural heritage and natural resources such as plants, grasses, native timber, and clean running water, which provide a basis for our peoples to practice culture.</p>
<p>In this way, Indigenous peoples have much at stake in a changing climate, perhaps more so than others, and in ways that are different to all others. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448">Strength from perpetual grief: how Aboriginal people experience the bushfire crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Caring for Country</h2>
<p>Indigenous peoples have enormous capacity to make Australia more resilient to the climate crisis, as we have an extraordinary database of cultural knowledge reaching back to ancient climate change events. </p>
<p>In Victoria, Gunditjmara people have kept knowledge of Australia’s <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/aboriginal-tale-ancient-volcano-oldest-story-ever-told">last volcanic eruption</a>, estimated to have occurred 37,000 years ago. While off the coast of Western Australia, Aboriginal groups maintain knowledge of camps their <a href="https://news.flinders.edu.au/blog/2020/07/02/aboriginal-artefacts-on-continental-shelf-reveal-ancient-landscapes/">ancestors occupied off the continental shelf</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uu9V7waH5f0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Deep History of Sea Country: Investigating the seabed in Western Australia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our peoples continue to draw on and apply this long history of knowledge to manage land and seascapes today.</p>
<p>Contemporary Caring for Country programs – ranger groups, Indigenous Protected Areas, and co-management arrangements – are now key elements in defending Australia’s biodiversity from further degradartion. </p>
<p>This includes developing extensive management plans to protect native species, managing invasive weeds and feral animals, and exploring economic development opportunities such as renewable energy investment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-best-fire-management-system-is-in-northern-australia-and-its-led-by-indigenous-land-managers-133071">The world's best fire management system is in northern Australia, and it's led by Indigenous land managers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Aboriginal ranger groups have also had a <a href="https://www.countryneedspeople.org.au/indigenous_protected_areas_saving_species">demonstrable impact</a> in reducing bushfires and protecting biodiversity throughout northern and central Australia using cultural burning. Indeed, Indigenous fire management here is one of Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-best-fire-management-system-is-in-northern-australia-and-its-led-by-indigenous-land-managers-133071">most effective</a> emissions reduction practices.</p>
<p>And during the 2019-2020 bushfires in western Victoria, Gunditjmara people and local fire authorities <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6772223/thank-goodness-it-worked-partnership-helped-stop-fire-and-protect-heritage/">worked together</a> to respond to a large bushfire, safeguarding both Gunditjmara and non-Indigenous values.</p>
<h2>Where to now?</h2>
<p>The significant increase in funding for Caring for Country programs in the pre-election budget was welcomed by all sides of politics. Now, with a new Labor government, we must ensure this immense and generational opportunity is not squandered. </p>
<p>Caring for Country programs are complex operations. What works for one community, at one point in time, may not work in others. Yet the programs I’ve observed generally share three common pillars:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Environmental management: restoring ecosystems for greater biodiversity and to mitigate against threats</p></li>
<li><p>Community development: ensuring we have the infrastructure, skills, capabilities, and funding to implement projects</p></li>
<li><p>Indigenous governance: supporting and resourcing groups to come together, discuss important matters, and make and enact decisions </p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/like-many-disasters-in-australia-aboriginal-people-are-over-represented-and-under-resourced-in-the-nsw-floods-178420">Like many disasters in Australia, Aboriginal people are over-represented and under-resourced in the NSW floods</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Expanding Caring for Country programs requires the knowledge and skills of these three interrelated pillars. This has traditionally been the strong point of a properly resourced federal <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/105584-indigenous-protected-areas-are-for-the-environment-portfolio-says-rose/">environment department</a>, one with collegial relationships with front-line Indigenous land managers.</p>
<p>This work also requires a “two-toolbox” approach: harnessing Indigenous and western science, and working together respectfully and collaboratively. These skills should be front of mind for a federal public service seeking to support Caring for Country.</p>
<h2>Time to think big</h2>
<p>As people uniquely impacted by – and with demonstrable knowledge and practices to mitigate against – climate change, Indigenous peoples must be at the table in all climate change talks. </p>
<p>We cannot allow climate change mitigation and adaptation to become another colonial process of dispossession and disempowerment. </p>
<p>Everyone stands to lose when Indigenous people are locked out of climate change discussions including, for instance, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-reports-still-exclude-indigenous-voices-come-join-us-at-our-sacred-fires-to-find-answers-to-climate-change-178045">recent reports</a> from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. </p>
<p>Excluding our voices will inevitably mean opportunities will pass us by, or negatively impact us, even when we’re expected to contribute our knowledge and skills to support larger climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. </p>
<p>Here are three practical ways the new parliament can address climate change and promote Indigenous self-determination and development simulatenously: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Formally recognising Caring for Country as a key pillar in Australia’s response to the climate crisis through policies and legislation</p></li>
<li><p>Committing <em>all</em> Australian national parks and protected areas to have some form of joint management with Traditional Owners within ten years</p></li>
<li><p>Drawing these and other opportunities together in a National Indigenous Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>These changes will take time. But supporting them will lay a foundation of stone and establish a generation of unbridled opportunity. </p>
<p>The door is open for an ambitious parliament to consider climate change and justice as tandem pursuits. Doing so opens opportunities to address climate change, heal Country and, perhaps most importantly, heal the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-reports-still-exclude-indigenous-voices-come-join-us-at-our-sacred-fires-to-find-answers-to-climate-change-178045">IPCC reports still exclude Indigenous voices. Come join us at our sacred fires to find answers to climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhiamie Williamson is a director of the environmental charity Country Needs People. Bhiamie co-chairs the development of the National Strategy for Just Adaptation through Future Earth Australia.
</span></em></p>We cannot allow climate change mitigation and adaptation to become another colonial process of dispossession and disempowerment.Bhiamie Williamson, Research Associate & PhD Candidate, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1635812021-07-08T20:12:19Z2021-07-08T20:12:19ZWill your grandchildren have the chance to visit Australia’s sacred trees? Only if our sick indifference to Aboriginal heritage is cured<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410257/original/file-20210708-15-1j4yz41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C5023%2C3359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trees have always been a point of conflict between colonisers and Indigenous people. </p>
<p>At the very beginning of European-Indigenous interactions, skirmishes broke out because colonisers were ignorant of protocols and the desecration of important Indigenous sites and habitats. In the 19th century, as frontiers pushed west into the Country of Wiradjuri, colonists were indifferent to the sanctity of marked trees.</p>
<p>As a <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145226802">news article</a> from the Daily Advertiser in 1941 reported: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The only carved tree […] unfortunately fell victim to the advancing tide of civilisation and was cut up and converted into railway sleepers that now possibly lie somewhere along the line between Yanco and Hay, or Leeton and Griffith. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most recently, the binary difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous systems were in the spotlight as Djab Wurrung custodians and activists fought to prevent the desecration of <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-open-letter-from-1-200-australian-academics-on-the-djab-wurrung-trees-149147">Djab Wurrung sacred trees</a>. Dozens camped to protect a 350-year-old Djab Wurrung Direction Tree, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-this-grandmother-tree-connects-me-to-country-i-cried-when-i-saw-her-burned-129782">Grandmother Tree</a> estimated to be 800 years old. </p>
<p>This conflict showed it is not necessary for a tree to be modified for it to be considered sacred. It also showed us this failure, centuries old, is one born from a conflict of ideas and beliefs between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.</p>
<p>This year’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">NAIDOC theme “Heal Country”</a> asks all Australians to take stock of the ongoing threat and desecration of Indigenous heritage — including sacred, cultural trees. This heritage not only holds value for Indigenous Australians, but for all Australians as a cornerstone of our national identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410258/original/file-20210708-23-1xivstn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wiradjuri scar tree located on the outskirts of Narrandera, NSW.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sentinels in ceremony, birthing and burials</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/our-story-is-in-the-land-indigenous-sense-of-belonging/11159992">Aboriginal ontology</a> captures the relationship between all worldly and spiritual phenomena, and relationship to Country.</p>
<p>Aboriginal people view the landscape and all things within it not as inanimate places or objects, but as sentient landscapes and entities with agency and metaphysical properties. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">'Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them': 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC's call to Heal Country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sacred trees are pivotal points in a nexus of interpersonal relationships between person-animal-plant, in person-person kinship, in identity and connection to place. They hold our ancestor stories, they are a direct link to our old people. </p>
<p>Trees transcend simple economics and sit at the centre of the sacred — they are sentinels in ceremony, birthing and burials.</p>
<p>In Wiradjuri Country, <a href="https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/events/exhibitions/2011/carved_trees/">carved trees</a> marked ceremonial grounds and burials. Burial trees were decorated with distinct diamond and scroll motifs, unique and powerful, and faced those buried.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1396966969182625792"}"></div></p>
<p>Economically, trees provided generations of Indigenous people with shelter, fibre, tools, food and material for canoe-making. </p>
<p>The common thread in Indigenous tree use is its sustainable practice. Rarely would a tree be felled purely for economic gain because its inherent value is realised for spiritual and broader ecosystem health.</p>
<p>Importantly, people-tree beliefs systems are very much alive in Aboriginal societies of southeast Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-open-letter-from-1-200-australian-academics-on-the-djab-wurrung-trees-149147">An open letter from 1,200 Australian academics on the Djab Wurrung trees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Scarred trees are still commonly made by Wiradjuri people. Species of eucalypt, particularly red gum, yellow and grey box are carved and, when their bark is soft, removed to make coolamons (wood or bark carrying container) and canoes. Red gums are manipulated while young, their branches interwoven. Commonly called ring trees, they are said to mark boundaries and line the banks of the Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River).</p>
<p>Wiradjuri women still perform the ancient birthing ceremony of returning a child’s gural (placenta) to Country. My daughter’s gural was returned to Country and buried at the base of river red gum sapling on the banks of the Marrambidya. </p>
<p>This is her place now, she is connected to this sapling. It will grow as she grows, and she will return to this spot for the rest of her life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410259/original/file-20210708-25-11ffctl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A practice coolamon cut with my daughter and partner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lillardia Briggs-Houston</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The threat of public indifference</h2>
<p>Sacred trees also stand at the intersection of Aboriginal heritage and environmental protection, activism and politics. Economic- and wildfire-driven deforestation represent omnipresent threats to sacred trees and Indigenous heritage more broadly. </p>
<p>But even more insidious is the threat of public indifference. It’s a sickness that has spread through our nation’s institutions and political systems. </p>
<p>This sickness shows a lack of respect for Indigenous culture and our humanity. Its symptoms take the form of ongoing desecration of our heritage and incessant dispossession of Indigenous people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410263/original/file-20210708-27-1i50hf5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Binyal (River Red Gum) ring tree boundary marker. They are often found along the Marrambidya</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unless there’s mainstream appreciation of Aboriginal culture and heritage, episodes like the destruction of <a href="https://theconversation.com/destruction-of-juukan-gorge-we-need-to-know-the-history-of-artefacts-but-it-is-more-important-to-keep-them-in-place-139650">Juukan Gorge</a>, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/what-do-these-sacred-trees-tell-us-about-aboriginal-heritage-in-australia-20201030-p56a0g.html">Djab Wurung</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/04/06/devastated-aboriginal-victoria-investigates-reports-damage-ancient-kuyang-stone">Kuyang</a> will continue, and the public conversation will remain divisive.</p>
<h2>The Riverina’s last sacred trees</h2>
<p>In a small township called Narrandera situated along the Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River), sacred Wiradjuri trees still survive. They represent a living continuum between the old ways and the new. </p>
<p>Most of this country along the Murrumbidgee has been consumed by Australia’s unquenchable appetite for land and water. Almost everywhere you look, there are expanses of land cleared to make way for intensive crop cycles. Miles of irrigation fed by the Marrambidya deliver water to thirsty crops and livestock. </p>
<p>The land clearing and deforestation in this part of Australia is staggering, and it doesn’t surprise me that our abysmal record qualified us as the only developed nation on the World Wildlife Fund’s global list of deforestation <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/how-australia-became-one-of-the-worst-deforesters-in-the-world/10452336">hotspots</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Koala in a tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410264/original/file-20210708-27-uvydbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murrumbidgee Valley is the Riverina’s only koala habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One exception where communities of old trees still stand is in the <a href="https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/murrumbidgee-valley-regional-park">Murrumbidgee Valley Regional Park</a>, which hugs the Marrambidya and provides a corridor sanctuary for flora and fauna. </p>
<p>It’s the most important ecological habitat in this part of Bidgee country, not only because of its remarkable biodiversity value (this is the Riverina’s only koala habitat) or heritage value, but more so because of its scarceness.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-this-grandmother-tree-connects-me-to-country-i-cried-when-i-saw-her-burned-129782">Friday essay: this grandmother tree connects me to Country. I cried when I saw her burned</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Here, some of the region’s last sacred trees and important Aboriginal cultural sites survive. </p>
<p>The two photos below show a shield tree and a stone core. These were both found in the same stretch of the Murrumbidgee Valley Regional Park.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410262/original/file-20210708-17-118rn9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Wiradjuri shield tree located in the Murrumbidgee Valley National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410261/original/file-20210708-21-1voarkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A stone core identified on a exposed surface in the Murrumbidgee Valley National Park. These are stones from which usable flakes, similar to a knife, are struck. They have distinct impressions made from these strikes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sacred trees used to be common throughout the Riverina, but are now found only in a handful of state forests, national parks, or in vegetation reserves hugging the region’s highways. Extrapolating beyond the fence line into farmland, one could presume they were once common throughout this territory prior to colonisation.</p>
<h2>A future for sacred trees</h2>
<p>We must ask ourselves some tough questions. What will the next two centuries of unrestrained economic and infrastructure growth mean for Aboriginal heritage? Will your grandchildren have the same opportunity to visit and sit with sacred trees on Country — to listen to them, to speak to them and to appreciate them?</p>
<p>The ongoing desecration of Aboriginal heritage and Country, particularly our waterways, directly traumatises Aboriginal people. When we are denied access to Country and our heritage is destroyed, it leads to poorer health, well-being and social outcomes for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-14/mayi-kuwayu-study-indigenous-health-on-country/9258364">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1411830911499264005"}"></div></p>
<p>This is not just an Indigenous issue, or only about Indigenous struggle. Indigenous heritage is an asset all Australians can enjoy, celebrate, and advocate for greater protection and sustainable management. Once gone, it can never be replaced.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>I acknowledge the Wiradjuri and all Indigenous people, their ancestors, elders, and youth, and advocate for their ongoing connection and right to access and protect Country.</em></p>
<p><em>I also acknowledge Lillardia Briggs-Houston, Wiradjuri, Gangulu and Yorta Yorta woman, for her advice and contributions to this piece.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448">Strength from perpetual grief: how Aboriginal people experience the bushfire crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob N. Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sacred trees are a cornerstone of our national identity. They transcend simple economics and sit at the centre of the sacred — sentinels in ceremony, birthing and burials.Rob N. Williams, Archaeologist & PhD Candidate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584202021-04-25T20:08:02Z2021-04-25T20:08:02ZWith Dutton in defence, the Morrison government risks progress on climate and Indigenous affairs<p>With Peter Dutton recently shifting into a more outward-facing portfolio as Australia’s new defence minister, we must begin to assess his past actions and statements through an international policy lens. </p>
<p>Placing someone like Dutton — a strong political partisan with a litany of controversial views — in the defence role has the potential to damage the department’s ability to achieve some of its long-term strategic objectives. </p>
<p>The defence portfolio is no longer concerned solely with Australia’s participation in conflicts overseas or our national self-defence. In recent years, defence has been forced to grapple with non-traditional security issues, such as climate change-related disaster relief, as well as the current pandemic. It has also put a concerted effort towards engaging more with First Nations communities.</p>
<p>These issues matter to our strategic allies, particularly those in the Pacific. Dutton’s climate change scepticism and attitudes toward First Nations people could prevent meaningful cooperation with many nations. </p>
<p>For the Pacific Islands, climate change is an existential security threat, affecting not just their economies, but their homes. To have any hope of engaging successfully with the region, the defence minister needs to be aware of the security threat climate change poses — and plan for the worst case scenarios. A destabilised Pacific puts Australia at risk.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-its-pacific-step-up-australia-is-still-not-listening-to-the-region-new-research-shows-130539">Pacific Islanders</a> are also increasingly critical of the lack of First Nations people in Australian politics and policy-making, seeing it as a barrier to relationship building. </p>
<p>Australia’s domestic politics influence its relationship with its neighbours. So it’s worth questioning whether Dutton was the right choice and if he could do more harm than good to Australia’s vital security alliances.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-its-pacific-step-up-australia-is-still-not-listening-to-the-region-new-research-shows-130539">Despite its Pacific 'step-up', Australia is still not listening to the region, new research shows</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why engagement with First Nations people matters to defence</h2>
<p>The defence department’s strong relationships with First Nations communities and organisations are important for a number of reasons. </p>
<p>First, there is the strategic benefit of recruiting more First Nations people to the armed forces — something the department <a href="https://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/docs/2016-defence-white-paper.pdf">made a priority</a> in its 2016 White Paper. The Australian Defence Force, as part of its commitment under its Reconciliation Action Plan, wants First Nations people to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-australian-defence-force-wants-to-double-indigenous-recruits-by-2025">reach 5% of total recruits by 2025</a> — well above population parity — and roughly in line with <a href="https://ctgreport.niaa.gov.au/employment">the federal government’s own employment targets</a>.</p>
<p>First Nations interests over land and sea are also of importance to defence. First Nations <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/natural-resources/landcare/submissions/ilm-report.pdf">retain control over, in some form or another,</a> more than half of this continent, with large portions in northern Australia. This region is of strategic interest to our national security, and defence has long understood this. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/peter-dutton-a-menace-to-multicultural-australia-59618">Peter Dutton: a menace to multicultural Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As recently as 2018, the Office of Northern Australia <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/defence-statement-for-northern-australia">noted the region’s role</a> as a focal point for Australia’s national security, including energy, resources, maritime, biosecurity, economic and trade, immigration, and border control. </p>
<p>Working to secure this area, the office said, involves developing strong relationships with First Nations communities and businesses to build the “capacity and capability of our defence industry across the north”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-value-of-diversity-in-the-defence-of-northern-australia/">As colleagues of ours have noted</a>, the government recognises that working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to build trust — and involving them in this project in the north — “will provide economic and security benefits to the region”. </p>
<p>Even as reconciliation and true First Nations justice remain elusive — especially with the absence of a constitutionally enshrined <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7195235/governments-process-for-first-nations-voice-shows-why-a-referendum-is-essential/?cs=14246">Voice to Parliament</a> — defence has been making strides in its engagement with First Nations people. The appointment of Dutton, who has a long history of disregarding us and our voices, could very much set these efforts back.</p>
<p>In 2008, for instance, Dutton was one of very few MPs who <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2018/08/22/very-difficult-time-linda-burney-warns-against-dutton-leadership">boycotted</a> the parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations. In the years following the Uluru Statement from the Heart, he has consistently mischaracterised a Voice to Parliament as a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/12/peter-dutton-rules-out-voice-to-parliament-labelling-it-a-third-chamber">third chamber</a>”. And as home affairs minister, he <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/a-very-bad-thing-peter-dutton-slams-high-court-s-aboriginal-aliens-ruling">criticised</a> a High Court ruling expanding First Nations rights as something which “essentially creates another class of people”. </p>
<p>All of these examples are indicative of someone who is not attuned to the wishes, views and cultures of First Nations people, and someone First Nations communities are unlikely to be happy working with. Can defence continue to pursue these important relationships with Dutton as minister?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-defence-portfolio-could-make-or-break-peter-duttons-political-career-159214">Why the defence portfolio could make or break Peter Dutton's political career</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>No room for climate change scepticism</h2>
<p>Moving beyond Australia, Dutton also falls short on climate change. The UN has <a href="https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/greatest-threat-global-security-climate-change-not-merely-environmental-problem">called</a> climate change the “greatest threat to global security”, and the ADF has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-25/australian-defence-force-angus-campbell-climate-change-speech/11543464">recognised</a> that deploying troops on numerous disaster relief missions simultaneously may stretch our capabilities and capacity.</p>
<p>It is important for our defence minister to be someone who not only believes in climate change, but also appreciates the security risks. </p>
<p>But here, too, Dutton’s past raises doubts about whether he is the person for this job. In 2015, he was caught making jokes about the risks of climate change in the Pacific. Discussing the Pacific Islands with then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Dutton <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-11/dutton-overheard-joking-about-sea-levels-in-pacific-islands/6768324">said</a> “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door”. </p>
<p>This was not a one-off remark from him. Dutton has been downplaying the effects of climate change for years. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/fact-check-peter-dutton-arson-250-charged/11971454">Last year</a>, he said the 2019-20 bushfires were caused by arson, giving little weight to the effects of climate change in Australia’s natural disasters. </p>
<p>This attitude runs counter to the ADF’s increasing recognition of the effects of climate change. </p>
<p>The 2016 Defence White Paper, for instance, <a href="https://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf">highlights</a> the role the ADF plays in emergency responses to natural disasters in Australia, such as bushfires and floods. We saw this last year during the Black Summer bushfires — defence provided vital support to communities through its <a href="https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/lreynolds/media-releases/operation-bushfire-assist-concludes">Operation Bushfire Assist</a> response. </p>
<p>By installing Dutton in the defence role, the Morrison government risks setting the department and the ADF’s work back many years. Without a proper understanding and appreciation of the threat of climate change, defence will be unprepared to handle the increasingly serious challenges we face.</p>
<p>While Dutton’s statements and actions by themselves do not disqualify him from serving as defence minister, it’s important to look at the totality of his political career and whether he can fulfill the defence department’s — and Australia’s — strategic goals. </p>
<p>For whatever reason Dutton was placed in the defence portfolio, he will have to reconcile his personal views and previous policy decisions in pursuit of Australia’s broader security agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Blackwell is a member of the Australian Greens. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Clayton is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p>These issues matter to our strategic allies, particularly in the Pacific. Dutton’s climate change scepticism and attitudes toward First Nations people could have a damaging effect.James Blackwell, Research Fellow (Indigenous Policy), UNSW SydneyKate Clayton, Graduate researcher, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1406242020-07-01T20:10:49Z2020-07-01T20:10:49ZIn My Blood It Runs challenges the ‘inevitability’ of Indigenous youth incarceration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342877/original/file-20200619-41221-1mr5mx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">In My Blood It Runs/ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains references to deceased people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In 2019, Dujuan Hoosan travelled from Garrwa country in the Northern Territory, to Geneva where he addressed the <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/9/11/the-speech-12-year-old-dujuan-delivered-at-the-un-human-rights-council">United Nations Human Rights Council</a>. </p>
<p>As he sat by his father’s side, he stated the purpose of his visit: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I come here to speak with you because the Australian government is not listening. Adults never listen to kids like me, but we have important things to say.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dujuan, in identifying himself as a “kid like me”, signalled to the world his disempowerment as an Aboriginal child by the Australian state. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/358942768" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As one of the youngest people ever to address the UN, as a powerful child healer in his own community and as the subject of the documentary film <a href="https://inmyblooditruns.com/">In My Blood It Runs</a>, Dujuan is exceptional. </p>
<p>But as an Aboriginal child much loved by his family, alienated by the education system, and under the purview of child welfare and Northern Territory youth justice, Dujuan’s story is all too common.</p>
<h2>The education system</h2>
<p>At one point in the film, Dujuan’s teacher reads Eve Pownall’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30171752-the-australia-book">The Australia Book</a>, published in 1952. The cover features illustrations of imperial soldiers and a naked Aboriginal man and child. The teacher reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now this one isn’t a story. It’s information, or non-fiction. It’s fact. The Australia Book. It’s about the history of our country. At Botany Bay, Cook landed for the first time in the new country […] On an island in Cape York he raised the English flag and he claimed for the English country the whole of this new land.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout the film we witness the disjuncture between Dujuan’s sense of self as a strong Aboriginal child against his mounting disillusion with school. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/captain-cook-discovered-australia-and-other-myths-from-old-school-text-books-128926">Captain Cook 'discovered' Australia, and other myths from old school text books</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He is increasingly forced to disengage rather than comply with an education system he experiences as inherently problematic. Like many Aboriginal children and young people – and by extension their families – Dujuan is disciplined for his non-compliance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344490/original/file-20200629-155330-40hlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dujuan becomes disengaged by a curriculum which he experiences as exclusionary of his worldview as an Aboriginal child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood It Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Families are disciplined through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/cashless-welfare-card-38351">suspension of welfare payments</a> and threatened with the <a href="https://nit.com.au/systemic-racism-in-australian-child-protection-systems-must-be-addressed/">removal of children</a>. </p>
<p>Families are told if their kids don’t go to school, it is inevitable their children will end up in prison.</p>
<h2>The criminal justice system</h2>
<p>In this moment where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/02/australia-still-turns-a-blind-eye-to-aboriginal-people-dying-in-police-custody">Black Lives Matter</a> gains global traction, it is vital we remember Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people make up a <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-custody-chapter-9-juveniles">significant proportion</a> of people who are detained and die in prison and police custody. </p>
<p>The 1991 <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-custody-report-summary">Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody</a> signified a watershed moment in the national sensibility around the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice system. The Commission investigated 99 deaths; 27 were <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/30.html">under the age of 24</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">Why are so many Indigenous kids in detention in the NT in the first place?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2018, on any given night in Australia, Aboriginal young people made up nearly <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/juv/128/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2018/contents/summary">3 in 5</a> young people in detention, despite constituting only 5% of the population under the age of 25. </p>
<p>In May 2019, all children and young people in detention in the Northern Territory <a href="https://territoryfamilies.nt.gov.au/youth-justice/youth-detention-census">were First Peoples</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344491/original/file-20200629-155330-xt51ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In My Blood It Runs captures Indigenous children’s awareness of a racialised divide between rich and poor in the town of Alice Springs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood it Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783318794295">my research</a>, I have found the incarceration and deaths in custody of Aboriginal young people is overwhelmingly framed in policy and the media as “inevitable”. </p>
<p>This “inevitability” is directly tied to whether a young person is compliant with the demands of the school system – a system often experienced as violent and exclusionary. </p>
<p>In 2018, two Noongar teens aged 16 and 17 drowned in the Swan River <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/12/drownings-of-boys-in-perth-being-treated-as-death-in-police-presence">attempting to escape police</a>. The two young men were <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/swan-river-deaths-a-tragic-tale-of-two-truants-trying-to-reform/news-story/4bbaf3886ed78a8880adff4576f9a8a8">labelled truants</a>, their failure to attend school implied as an underlying reason for their death.</p>
<h2>Questioning narratives</h2>
<p>Directed by Maya Newell, in collaboration with the Arrernte and Garrwa families it represents, In My Blood It Runs challenges the way Aboriginal young people’s educational disadvantage and engagement with the criminal justice system is understood as inevitable. </p>
<p>The film represents Dujuan’s life as full, complex and dignified. It counters the dehumanising way Indigenous young people are often depicted as statistics; as criminal and almost (if not already) as at-risk; as educationally deficient.</p>
<p>The film reveals the violence of the education and criminal justice systems. But it also shows how families navigate through, negotiate with, and refuse to comply with these systems.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344492/original/file-20200629-155316-4uqdk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family is central to this story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maya Newell/In My Blood It Runs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The punitive and assimilatory state intervention into the lives of Aboriginal young people is the problem – not Aboriginal young people themselves. The focus needs to shift from <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/final_report_133_amended1.pdf">locking up our kids</a> to supporting <a href="https://childrensground.org.au/">on-the-ground initiatives</a>, keeping young people safe and families together. </p>
<p>In knowing the importance of a future where Aboriginal children and young people are free of state violence, Dujuan closed his address to the UN:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My film is for all Aboriginal kids. It is about our dreams, our hopes and our rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>In My Blood It Runs is currently in <a href="https://inmyblooditruns.com/screenings/">select cinemas</a>, and airs on Sunday, July 5 at 9.30pm on ABC and iView.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilly Brown belongs to the Gumbaynggirr people of the mid-north coast of New South Wales.</span></em></p>This new Australian documentary follows 12-year-old Dujuan Hoosan from Garrwa country to Geneva.Lilly Brown, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1394662020-05-27T08:58:52Z2020-05-27T08:58:52ZRio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337897/original/file-20200527-20223-1p8n620.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C20%2C1017%2C495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Juukan 1 and 2 in June, 2013</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pkkp.org.au/">Puutu Kunti Kurrama And Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the expansion of its iron ore mine in Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-26/rio-tinto-blast-destroys-area-with-ancient-aboriginal-heritage/12286652">blasted</a> the Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 – Aboriginal rock shelters dating back 46,000 years. These sites had deep historical and cultural significance. </p>
<p>The shelters are the only inland site in Australia showing human occupation continuing through the last Ice Age. </p>
<p>The mining blast caused significant distress to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama traditional land owners. It’s an <a href="https://skugal.org/blast-destroys-one-of-countrys-oldest-known-aboriginal-heritage-sites/">irretrievable loss</a> for future generations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1265472431772188672"}"></div></p>
<p>Aboriginal cultural heritage is a fundamental part of Aboriginal community life and cultural identity. It has global significance, and forms an important component of the heritage of all Australians. </p>
<p>But the destruction of a culturally significant Aboriginal site is not an isolated incident. Rio Tinto was acting within the law. </p>
<p>In 2013, Rio Tinto was given ministerial consent to damage the Juukan Gorge caves. One year later, an archaeological dig unearthed incredible artefacts, such as a 4,000-year-old plait of human hair, and evidence that the site was much older than originally thought. </p>
<p>But state laws let Rio Tinto charge ahead nevertheless. This failure to put timely and adequate regulatory safeguards in place reveals a disregard and a disrespect for sacred Aboriginal sites. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337899/original/file-20200527-20245-hbjl86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The destruction of a significant Aboriginal site is not an isolated incident.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pkkp.org.au/">Puutu Kunti Kurrama And Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not an isolated incident</h2>
<p>The history of large developments destroying Indigenous heritage sites is, tragically, long.</p>
<p>A $2.1 billion light rail line in Sydney, completed last year, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-is-a-tragic-loss-sydney-light-rail-construction-destroyed-heritage-site-20190322-p516qk.html">destroyed a site</a> of considerable significance. </p>
<p>More than 2,400 stone artefacts were unearthed in a small excavated area. It indicated Aboriginal people had used the area between 1788 and 1830 to manufacture tools and implements from flint brought over to Australia on British ships.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-ways-western-australia-can-improve-aboriginal-heritage-management-54819">Four ways Western Australia can improve Aboriginal heritage management</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/27/the-rocks-remember-the-fight-to-protect-burrup-peninsulas-rock-art">ancient rock art</a> on the Burrup Peninsula in north-western Australia is under increasing threat from a gas project. The site contains more than one million rock carvings (petroglyphs) across 36,857 hectares. </p>
<p>This area is under the custodianship of Ngarluma people and four other traditional owners groups: the Mardudhunera, the Yaburara, the Yindjibarndi and the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo. </p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/BurrupPeninusla/Report">Senate inquiry</a> revealed emissions from adjacent industrial activity may significantly damage it. </p>
<p>The West Australian government is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/29/australia-lodges-world-heritage-submission-for-50000-year-old-burrup-peninsula-rock-art">seeking world heritage listing</a> to try to increase protection, as the regulatory frameworks at the national and state level aren’t strong enough. Let’s explore why.</p>
<h2>What do the laws say?</h2>
<p>The recently renamed federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is responsible for listing new national heritage places, and regulating development actions in these areas. </p>
<p>At the federal level, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (<a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/epabca1999588/">EPBC Act</a>) provides a legal framework for their management and protection. It is an offence to impact an area that has national heritage listing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-problem-with-aboriginal-world-heritage-82912">Australia's problem with Aboriginal World Heritage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But many ancient Aboriginal sites have no national heritage listing. For the recently destroyed Juurkan gorge, the true archaeological significance was uncovered <em>after</em> consent had been issued and there were no provisions to reverse or amend the decision once this new information was discovered.</p>
<p>Where a site has no national heritage listing, and federal legislation has no application, state laws apply. </p>
<p>For the rock shelters in the Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto was abiding by Western Australia’s <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/wa/consol_act/aha1972164/">Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972</a> – which is now nearly 50 years old. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1265226523167977472"}"></div></p>
<p>Section 17 of that act makes it an offence to excavate, destroy, damage, conceal or in any way alter any Aboriginal site without the ministerial consent. </p>
<p>But, Section 18 allows an owner of the land – and this includes the holder of a mining licence – to apply to the <a href="https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/acmc">Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee</a> for consent to proceed with a development action likely to breach section 17. </p>
<p>The committee then evaluates the importance and significance of the site, and makes a recommendation to the minister. In this case, the minister allowed Rio Tinto to proceed with the destruction of the site.</p>
<h2>No consultation with traditional owners</h2>
<p>The biggest concern with this act is there’s no statutory requirement ensuring traditional owners be consulted. </p>
<p>This means traditional owners are left out of vital decisions regarding the management and protection of their cultural heritage. And it confers authority upon a committee that, in the words of a <a href="https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/getmedia/11dd5b41-fcf9-4216-a1ac-06ece672c087/AH-Review-Position-Comparison-for-Aboriginal-People">discussion paper</a>, “lacks cultural authority”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/separate-but-unequal-the-sad-fate-of-aboriginal-heritage-in-western-australia-51561">Separate but unequal: the sad fate of Aboriginal heritage in Western Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is no statutory requirement for an Indigenous person to be on the committee, nor is there a requirement that at least one anthropologist be on the committee. Worse still, there’s no right of appeal for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/20/traditional-owners-rally-against-changes-to-wa-aboriginal-heritage-act">traditional owners</a> from a committee decision. </p>
<p>So, while the committee must adhere to procedural fairness and ensure traditional owners are given sufficient information about decisions, this doesn’t guarantee they have a right to consultation nor any right to provide feedback. </p>
<h2>Weak in other jurisdictions</h2>
<p>The WA Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 is <a href="https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/aha-review">under review</a>. The proposed reforms seek to abolish the committee, ensuring future decisions on Aboriginal cultural heritage give appropriate regard to the views of the traditional Aboriginal owners. </p>
<p>NSW is the only state with no stand-alone Aboriginal heritage legislation. However, a <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/aborigines-land-and-national-parks-in-nsw/02-97.pdf">similar regulatory framework</a> to WA applies in NSW under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.</p>
<p>There, if a developer is likely to impact cultural heritage, they must apply for an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit. The law requires “regard” to be given to the interests of Aboriginal owners of the land, but this vague provision does not mandate consultation. </p>
<p>What’s more, the burden of proving the significance of an Aboriginal object depends upon external statements of significance. But Aboriginal people, not others, should be responsible for determining the cultural significance of an object or area. </p>
<p>As in WA, the NSW regulatory framework is weak, opening up the risk for economic interests to be prioritised over damage to cultural heritage. </p>
<h2>Outdated laws</h2>
<p>The federal minister has discretion to assess whether state or territory laws are already effective. </p>
<p>If they decide state and territory laws are ineffective and a cultural place or object is under threat, then the federal <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/aatsihpa1984549/">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984</a> can be used. </p>
<p>But this act is also weak. It was first implemented as an interim measure, intended to operate for two years. It has now been in operation for 36 years. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-rock-art-is-threatened-by-a-lack-of-conservation-32900">Australian rock art is threatened by a lack of conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://ymac.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Extracts-from-Evatt-Review-of-the-Aboriginal-and-Torres-Strait-Islander-Heritage-Protection-Act-1984.pdf">a 1995 report</a> assessed the shortcomings of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. </p>
<p>It recommended minimum standards be put in place. This included ensuring any assessment of Aboriginal cultural significance be made by a properly qualified body, with relevant experience.</p>
<p>It said the role of Aboriginal people should be appropriately recognised and statutorily endorsed. Whether an area or site had particular significance according to Aboriginal tradition should be regarded as a subjective issue, determined by an assessment of the degree of intensity of belief and feeling of Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>Twenty-five years later, this is yet to happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Hepburn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s a devastating loss, but the destruction of a culturally significant Aboriginal site is not an isolated incident. Rio Tinto was acting within the law.Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1266832019-11-10T18:58:02Z2019-11-10T18:58:02ZThe government is committed to an Indigenous voice. We should give it a chance to work<p>Over the past decades, Indigenous Australians have fought to have our voices heard. Too often, decision-makers across the country have failed to hear us and work genuinely with us. They’ve failed to commit to having decisions driven by those best-placed to inform and influence the outcomes needed to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. </p>
<p>That’s why <a href="https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/wyatt/2019/voice-indigenous-australians">the announcement</a> by Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. The minister has essentially said it’s time to hit pause and rework how we approach Indigenous policy-making in Australia. </p>
<p>He’s asked us to help guide this process, and we have welcomed the opportunity because we genuinely feel this is a once-in-a-generation chance to recast how decisions are made, how governments engage, and most importantly, how governments can listen to what’s really needed in Indigenous communities and affairs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-indigenous-voice-will-be-to-government-rather-than-to-parliament-126031">Proposed Indigenous 'voice' will be to government rather than to parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For this process to work, we all need to accept that what has come before hasn’t represented a silver bullet. And the design of this process acknowledges there isn’t necessarily one out there. </p>
<h2>Moving forward from the Uluru Statement</h2>
<p>When the Uluru Statement from the Heart <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/UluruStatement">was presented in 2017</a>, it was a significant moment – a collective of Indigenous Australians saying the status quo had failed them and there was a need for their voices to be better heard and represented. These sentiments complemented the consultations and formation of the <a href="https://nationalcongress.com.au/about-us/">National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples</a> in 2010.</p>
<p>We remain committed to the intention of the Uluru Statement, but we must acknowledge the process failed to define what a voice would look like, which is why more work must be done. The Referendum Council <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/event/first-nations-regional-dialogue-in-uluru.html">report</a> also made a number of recommendations and acknowledged that more consultation would be needed to develop an appropriate model for a voice.</p>
<p>Both these processes introduced a number of new ideas for government to consider. While many of us have been talking about them for years, we must also acknowledge that no government – Coalition or Labor - was ever going to adopt and implement all recommendations overnight. </p>
<p>Appropriately, the Coalition government <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/03/02/pat-dodson-co-chair-new-indigenous-parliamentary-committee">established</a> a parliamentary joint select committee, led by Labor’s Pat Dodson and the Liberals’ Julian Leeser, to examine the recommendations and advise on the way forward.</p>
<p>The Coalition government elected to adopt a policy of co-design to develop an Indigenous voice. In other words, implementing a process that is a genuine partnership between government and Indigenous Australians and implementing the first recommendation of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Former_Committees/Constitutional_Recognition_2018/ConstRecognition/Final_Report">joint-select committee’s report</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-says-voice-must-be-in-the-constitution-121380">Albanese says Voice must be in the Constitution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What we are doing now is what government took to the election. This was the process outlined in the report, which is why there should be no surprises on the path forward.</p>
<p>On the question of constitutional enshrinement, many are right to be upset that this government has ruled out putting the voice in the constitution. But this is the political reality of today. It doesn’t diminish the opportunity that we have before us to make long-lasting substantial and enduring change. </p>
<h2>How the process will work</h2>
<p>There are two stages to the co-design process that will unfold over the next year. </p>
<p>The senior advisory group, which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/30/marcia-langton-and-tom-calma-to-lead-indigenous-voice-advisory-group">we will co-chair</a>, will oversee two separate processes. </p>
<p>First, a local/regional co-design group will look at what local and regional structures are currently in place across Australia. It will examine what’s working and where we can find improvement, and importantly, how we can better harmonise these models to ensure we have the best forms of engagement possible. </p>
<p>As part of this, Minister Wyatt has made it clear there won’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. Every community has different needs, so there will be different answers to the question of how we can help. We also know states and territories have existing processes in place. Their integrity will not be undermined.</p>
<p>At the same time, a <a href="https://www.niaa.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/indigenous-voice">national co-design</a> group will look at models for an Indigenous voice to government. </p>
<p>This process should be welcomed. The minister has not ruled anything in or out. And we are committed to presenting him with a range of models to give our people a voice to address the needs of Indigenous Australians in relation to employment, education, health, housing, culture and land rights, to name just a few. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-ken-wyatt-juggles-identity-and-politics-126205">Grattan on Friday: Ken Wyatt juggles identity and politics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Following this first phase, models and options will be put to the Australian people for consultation and feedback. </p>
<p>Everyone will have the opportunity to assess a range of models that have been developed by Indigenous Australians from across Australia. </p>
<h2>Focusing on common ground</h2>
<p>We don’t know what a voice, or voices, will look like yet. </p>
<p>But for the first time, we have a government that is acknowledging the need for an Indigenous voice and is committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to give them that voice, through a process of genuine co-design.</p>
<p>The critics who are deriding this process haven’t even given it an opportunity to work. This is their opportunity to work constructively with those of us who have toiled for decades to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. </p>
<p>If we don’t collectively grasp this opportunity, it may not come around again for a long time. </p>
<p>So let’s focus on the common ground – the need to finally work together and put behind us decades of underachievement in Indigenous policy-making. </p>
<p>The opportunity for a voice is now. </p>
<p>We’re prepared to lend ours to this process – and encourage everyone to join with theirs. We can be united together for all Australians and a better future for the generations of Indigenous Australians to come. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Marcia Langton and Tom Calma are the co-chairs of the Voice Co-Design Senior Advisory Group.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Marcia Langton is a voluntary, unpaid member of the Public Education Campaign Committee of the Uluru Statement from the Heart managed by Gilbert & Tobin Lawyers on a pro bono basis.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Tom Calma AO is co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and a member of University Chancellors Council.</span></em></p>We have welcomed the opportunity to guide the co-design process because we feel this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recast how decisions are made in Indigenous affairs.Professor Marcia Langton, Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies, The University of MelbourneTom Calma, Chancellor, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1202302019-07-11T12:35:13Z2019-07-11T12:35:13ZGrattan on Friday: When it comes to Indigenous recognition, Ken Wyatt will have to close multiple gaps<p>If the Morrison government manages to get a referendum passed to give Australia’s Indigenous people constitutional recognition, it will be truly remarkable.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously taken little interest in this area, at least publicly. And he would have done something that proved beyond Tony Abbott, for whom it was a cause.</p>
<p>Morrison and his minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, would have stared down conservative colleagues, cut a deal with Labor, and persuaded enough Indigenous leaders to get on board.</p>
<p>Finally, the government would have overcome the public’s inherent negativity towards referendums.</p>
<p>It would, one might say, be another miracle.</p>
<p>But miracles are rare and on present indications this one will be extraordinarily hard to land.</p>
<p>We are yet to see how seriously committed Morrison will be to the recognition push. For a chance of success, he’ll need to put his back into it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-government-proposes-an-indigenous-recognition-referendum-this-term-119998">The Morrison government proposes an Indigenous recognition referendum this term</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>His appointment of Wyatt, a man of Noongar, Wongi, and Yamatji heritage, was a statement in itself. The nomination of recognition for early attention was a surprise – and another indication that we have yet to get a grasp on Morrison as prime minister (as distinct from campaigner).</p>
<p>There has been much talk about his lack of an agenda, but the unveiling of a couple of significant priorities - industrial relations and now Indigenous recognition – suggests there might be more there than we suspected.</p>
<p>It’s important to be clear about what Wyatt – who outlined his proposals in <a href="https://www.kenwyatt.com.au/ministerial-news-indigenous-australians/2019/7/10/transcript-national-press-club-address-walking-in-partnership-to-effect-change">a speech on Wednesday</a> – is saying. </p>
<p>The government’s ambit hope is to put a referendum for recognition during this parliamentary term. But this will only happen if two conditions are met: it can get consensus on the content of what would go into the constitution, and there’s a high probability of a favourable outcome. The latter means winning not just the overall vote but the vote in four of the six states. Both content and potential support will present major problems.</p>
<p>What of the timetable? If the government really wants to give constitutional change a red hot go, there is a case for pushing it hard and quickly. Support doesn’t necessary build as time passes; beyond a certain point, it can erode.</p>
<p>But judging whether and when there would be sufficient likely public backing for a Yes vote would be tricky. Post May 18, everyone has become rather chary of <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/worse-than-the-trump-polling-fail-how-did-the-federal-election-polls-get-it-so-wrong">polls</a>. And things could quickly change in the final countdown.</p>
<p>History shows the voters’ penchant to say No. Despite the triumph of the 1967 referendum to give the federal government power to make laws for Aboriginal people and count them in the census (carried overwhelmingly in every state), referendums generally fail. Only eight have been passed - the last in 1977.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listening-with-our-ears-and-our-eyes-ken-wyatts-big-promises-on-indigenous-affairs-120165">Listening with 'our ears and our eyes': Ken Wyatt's big promises on Indigenous affairs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Formulating the question will be an extremely challenging hurdle to climb over.</p>
<p>A constitutional change that acknowledged Australia’s First Peoples but didn’t go much beyond that would be easiest to get through government ranks and the popular vote.</p>
<p>It is hard to see either Indigenous leaders or Labor accepting just that.</p>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders in their <a href="https://www.1voiceuluru.org/the-statement">2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> called for “the establishment of a First Nations voice enshrined in the constitution”.</p>
<p>But the indications are a voice would not be part of the government’s constitutional model. Wyatt does want a voice at the national level, but he is vague about its form, and the official line is that Morrison has “no plans” for the voice.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.billshorten.com.au/_labor_will_establish_a_voice_for_first_nations_people_tuesday_27_november_2018">Labor was committed</a> at the election to putting into the constitution a voice – which would be an input to the political process, not any sort of third chamber of Parliament – and the ALP would come under attack from Indigenous leaders if it walked away from this.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/treaty-when-dodson-warns-of-betrayal-and-airbrushing-of-indigenous-ambition-20190711-p52656.html">Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald</a> on Thursday, Labor’s Pat Dodson, shadow assistant minister for reconciliation and constitutional recognition (and an Indigenous man dubbed “the father of reconciliation”) declared: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We either deliver the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full or continue down the failed path of soft reconciliation measures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney (also Indigenous), who is working closely with Wyatt and will do some travelling with him, may be more flexible than Dodson. Nevertheless she said after Wyatt’s speech: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are at a point in our development, in our history where a voice to the parliament absolutely has to be entrenched in the Australian Constitution.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Morrison has had talks with Anthony Albanese to pursue bipartisanship on Indigenous issues and the Labor leader was optimistic on Thursday that a successful recognition referendum in the next three years was “absolutely realistic and doable”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constitutional-reform-made-easy-how-to-achieve-the-uluru-statement-and-a-first-nations-voice-116141">Constitutional reform made easy: how to achieve the Uluru statement and a First Nations voice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, a member of the review panel Abbott set up to examine possible pathways to constitutional recognition, says that while he’s sympathetic to what Wyatt is undertaking,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>finding the necessary national unity to avoid hurt and disappointment will be far from easy. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>One huge problem, Anderson believes, will be getting Aboriginal people to come together on an agreed model.</p>
<p>Those in the Coalition party room and in the right wing commentariat who are critical of the move for recognition will use the spectre of the voice as a scare tactic.</p>
<p>The recognition issue will be one test of whether the right, though tamed since <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-government-says-no-to-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-86421">Malcolm Turnbull’s overthrow</a>, will seriously arc up within the Liberal party in this term.</p>
<p>But Wyatt has attracted enthusiasm from some colleagues. NSW Liberal John Alexander was quick to declare </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m with Ken on this, he has my full support for the process he has initiated and I hope it can conclude with a successful referendum vote and form of voice we can all be proud of.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of particular importance, many big corporations, including mining companies, <a href="https://www.iag.com.au/australian-organisations-welcome-federal-government-referendum-pledge">now have progressive positions</a> on Indigenous affairs and will swing in behind the move. Wyatt has indicated he would be looking to them to help carry the debate, particularly in his home state of Western Australia, where a referendum would potentially be a hard sell.</p>
<p>He’d be encouraged by sentiments such as from Woodside, which said the company was </p>
<blockquote>
<p>proud to give our support to this process as we continue to walk together with courage towards a reconciled Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-ken-wyatt-on-constitutional-recognition-for-indigenous-australians-120167">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Ken Wyatt on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As with same-sex marriage, indeed probably more so, the corporate world is talking up an important social issue and prodding the politicians to act.</p>
<p>If Morrison has to retreat on Indigenous recognition, it is unlikely to make a great amount of difference to him. It won’t affect the outcome of the next election.</p>
<p>For Wyatt the issue has quite another dimension. This is a fight for his people. The stakes are personal, and must feel frightening high.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It would be another miracle if the Morrison government managed to have a referendum passed to give Australia’s Indigenous people constitutional recognition.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1201652019-07-11T06:49:17Z2019-07-11T06:49:17ZListening with ‘our ears and our eyes’: Ken Wyatt’s big promises on Indigenous affairs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283640/original/file-20190711-173338-1jxvpsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In his first major policy address, Ken Wyatt noted how previous governments have failed Indigenous Australians with a 'top-down, command and control approach.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rohan Thomson/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently, I <a href="https://theconversation.com/ken-wyatt-faces-challenges-and-opportunities-as-minister-for-indigenous-australians-117896">wrote</a> that Ken Wyatt’s appointment as the minister for Indigenous Australians was a momentous occasion in Australian history. The appointment showed the government is committed to doing things differently when it comes to its responsibilities and obligations to Indigenous Australians. </p>
<p>It is still incredibly early days, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-government-proposes-an-indigenous-recognition-referendum-this-term-119998">Wyatt has delivered</a> his first major speech at a significant time – in the middle of <a href="https://www.naidoc.org.au/">National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC)</a> week. </p>
<p>For Indigenous communities, the speech held much promise and provided key details on what the Morrison government’s approach to Indigenous affairs will look like over the next three years. This is major turning point that could result in real change after years of little progress. </p>
<h2>New language on Indigenous affairs</h2>
<p>Perhaps most significant was the rhetoric Wyatt used – it mirrored the language long used by many Indigenous Australians, but notably lacking in previous government addresses on these issues. Wyatt noted how previous governments have failed Indigenous Australians, acknowledging how even the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>most well-intentioned modern policies and programs have still tended to take a top-down, command and control approach.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wyatt echoed legitimate concerns with the way the government approached its Indigenous policies in the past, noting that it had been as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if Aboriginal people didn’t know what they needed or wanted. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He further noted that dominant attitudes toward Indigenous affairs had ignored “proud members of one of the world’s longest-lived civilisations,” pretending as if they </p>
<blockquote>
<p>had nothing to say, no wisdom to offer, about what would help their families thrive and their communities flourish.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The significance of a cabinet minister, especially one responsible for Indigenous affairs, highlighting these aspects of Australian history and society is massive. The change in comparison to earlier ministers who ignored or dismissed these truths is remarkable. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1148846983987073024"}"></div></p>
<h2>The Constitution remains key</h2>
<p>Another major shift for the Coalition government: there is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/26/indigenous-voice-proposal-not-desirable-says-turnbull">no longer a disregard</a> for the <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> and a First Nations voice being entrenched in the Constitution. </p>
<p>While Wyatt demurred on specific details, emphasising a “consensus option,” he did otherwise commit to a referendum within three years. This is another significant step toward implementing the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/what-is-the-uluru-statement-from-the-heart-20190523-p51qlj.html">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a>. </p>
<p>It is important to note that the <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/report_attachments/Referendum_Council_Final_Report.pdf">final report</a> of the Referendum Council, as well as the bi-partisan, parliamentary <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/constitutionalrecognition">Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition</a>, both affirmed that a First Nations voice as called for by the Uluru Statement was the most sensible and widely supported option for reform. </p>
<p>Also supporting the conclusions of the Referendum Council and the Joint Select Committee, Wyatt emphasised that “the constitution remains key.” Both found that current representative mechanisms for Indigenous peoples were not working. And both agreed that only a First Nations voice would provide the type of representation required to empower Indigenous peoples and communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283642/original/file-20190711-173355-1qeaqoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Referendum Council advised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to hold a referendum on establishing a voice to parliament in 2017, but Turnbull rejected the recommendation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Miller/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A move away from top-down policy</h2>
<p>Wyatt touched on many other issues that are important to Indigenous communities and are aimed at bringing more local input to policy-making.</p>
<p>On the issue of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/11/truth-telling-80-say-past-injustices-against-indigenous-people-should-be-recognised">truth telling</a>, he poignantly recognised that without truth </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there can be no agreement on where and who we are in the present, how we arrived here and where we want to go in the future. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>More details were also provided on the role of the new coordinating agency called the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/news-centre/indigenous-affairs/prime-minister-announces-new-national-indigenous-australians-agency">National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA)</a>. The NIAA aims to coordinate efforts across all levels of government and Indigenous communities to allow Indigenous peoples to empower themselves. </p>
<p>Wyatt specifically indicated that he doesn’t intend policy to come from the NIAA or his office. Rather, policy actions are to be supported by all levels of community and the state and territory governments to enable communities to own their own policy actions. </p>
<p>This is continued movement away from what Wyatt described as the history of
“a top-down, command and control approach” that has failed Indigenous Australians. </p>
<p>Wyatt emphasised this by saying that his intention is “to have genuine conversations, not only with Indigenous leaders and peak bodies, but with families, individuals and community organisations so that I can hear their voices.”</p>
<p>This addresses the long history of Indigenous peoples not being listened to and rather being told what will happen. Wyatt noted again that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the most important thing that I and the agency will do is to listen – with our ears and with our eyes. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>One area of concern</h2>
<p>The speech also raised the priority issues of youth suicide, the revival and maintenance of Indigenous languages (with a pledged A$10 million), and the expansion of programs aimed at supporting Indigenous businesses, such as the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/economic-development/indigenous-procurement-policy-ipp">Indigenous Procurement Policy</a>, which provides incentives for Indigenous businesses to grow. </p>
<p>Wyatt also reemphasised the creation of the new position of a national suicide prevention adviser to coordinate and advise on already announced funding and increased support service delivery. </p>
<p>It is still early and only time will tell whether these actions will help, but at least one area of the speech raises concern: Wyatt’s commitment to revamp the the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/employment/cdp">Community Development Program</a> aimed at employment, training and development for Indigenous communities. By creating community advisory boards, Wyatt claimed that the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>CDP has been reformed to ensure communities have a say in the way the programme is run.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The problem, however, hasn’t just been how the program is run. Many have been advocating for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-indigenous-employment-gap-is-widening-and-we-dont-know-how-to-fix-it-101728">abolishment of the CDP</a>, rather than its reform. </p>
<p>Too many Indigenous people in the program work significant hours for less than minimum wage and face punitive punishments for non-compliance with regulatory requirements. This includes being fined for failing to show for work, which impacts the participants’ ability to purchase life necessities. </p>
<p>In attempting to force participants into work, the CDP fails to understand the challenges of remote communities and, as such, unfairly discriminates against Indigenous people. The CDP is effectively a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-07/remote-work-for-the-dole-improves-one-per-cent/10789476">“work-for-the-dole” </a>program that punishes poverty rather than empowering communities. </p>
<p>Overall, Wyatt’s speech continued to build on the early optimism surrounding his appointment. His notable change in rhetoric from previous governments and his commitment for early action to build on reforms, such as the Council of Australian Governments’ <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/partnering-indigenous-australians-close-gap">partnership agreement</a> with peak Indigenous organisations to close the gap in health, education and employment opportunities and the <a href="https://pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/indigenous-affairs/indigenous-advancement-strategy-evaluation-framework">Indigenous Advancement Strategy Evaluation Framework</a>, are welcome. </p>
<p>Most importantly, Wyatt’s recommitment to constitutional reform moves the nation one step closer to achieving those important reforms of voice, treaty and truth from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. As Wyatt noted, this is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>too important to get wrong, and too important to rush. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the crucial thing to remember is how far we have come since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-government-says-no-to-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-86421">Turnbull government’s response to the Uluru Statement</a> from the Heart, just two short years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie Synot does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ken Wyatt’s promise of a referendum on constitutional recognition within three years marks a dramatic shift from the Turnbull government’s rejection of the Uluru Statement of the Heart.Eddie Synot, Senior Research Assistant, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1201672019-07-11T03:07:50Z2019-07-11T03:07:50ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Ken Wyatt on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians<p>The first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, says on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-government-proposes-an-indigenous-recognition-referendum-this-term-119998">government’s proposal</a> to constitutionally recognise Indigenous Australians: “I’m optimistic about achieving the outcome because if the words are simple, but meaningful, then Australians will generally accept an opportunity to include Aboriginal people in the Constitution.”</p>
<p>But he concedes Indigenous leaders would not take the same minimalist approach he is advocating for, but says it is “pragmatic”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I want is to see us make some gains. Later on as we mature as a nation, then we can have another debate of what the next phase is.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He admits getting support for the constitutional referendum in his home state of Western Australia would be difficult but he would be looking to the big mining companies – which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/31/bhp-and-rio-tinto-to-join-push-for-indigenous-voice-to-parliament">have been supportive</a> of the Uluru Statement of the Heart – to help make the case there. </p>
<p>As for issues affecting Indigenous communities, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-losing-so-many-indigenous-children-to-suicide-114284">high youth suicide rates</a>, he says there is “a sense of futility for some young people. The issue of broken relationships. The way in which young people have expressed the need for their culture to be valued”.</p>
<p>On the way forward, he is looking into “support structures that need to go into place on the ground” and thinks “there is a way that we can have some of this with existing resources”.</p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="http://pca.st/BVa3#t=3m34s">here</a> to listen to Politics with Michelle Grattan on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear it on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Politics with Michelle Grattan.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p>
<p><strong>Image:</strong></p>
<p>Rohan Thomson/AAP</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ken Wyatt says he is "optimistic about achieving [constitutional recognition] because...Australians will generally accept an opportunity to include Aboriginal people" and that he will work with "naysayers".Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1178962019-05-30T02:56:49Z2019-05-30T02:56:49ZKen Wyatt faces challenges – and opportunities – as minister for Indigenous Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277113/original/file-20190529-171415-1e2vyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The appointment of Ken Wyatt as the first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians is a significant moment in the nation's history.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ken Wyatt is the first Indigenous cabinet minister in the history of the Commonwealth government. That he was also the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives when elected in 2010 as the member for Hasluck, WA, and is now the first Indigenous person to be minister for Indigenous Australians, makes his appointment especially significant. </p>
<p>Wearing his Noongar kangaroo skin <em>booka</em>, the significance of this appointment should not be understated. The short history of Indigenous participation in Australia’s political community is one of exclusion. But that exclusion was never the result of a lack of Indigenous persistence and ability. </p>
<p>Australian society was structured on the exclusion, or limited inclusion, of Indigenous people. Laws targeted Indigenous people for special treatment based on biological and sociological beliefs in their racial inferiority. These attitudes permeated Australian society throughout the protection and assimilation eras. These laws set effective limits on the participation of Indigenous peoples in Australian society. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constitutional-reform-made-easy-how-to-achieve-the-uluru-statement-and-a-first-nations-voice-116141">Constitutional reform made easy: how to achieve the Uluru statement and a First Nations voice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australian society has come a long way since the days of oppressive exclusion. But we still bear the heavy burden of a history of torment and powerlessness. Perhaps more than any other member of cabinet, Ken Wyatt will feel the weight of history, hope and expectation as he faces the challenge of Indigenous affairs. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison seems aware of the significance of this appointment. An example of this awareness is the name change from Minister for Indigenous Affairs to Minister for Indigenous Australians. This fits the narrative of social cohesion that Morrison has deployed to emphasise Australian unity in response to calls for Indigenous constitutional recognition. This rhetoric has persisted despite many emphasising that Indigenous constitutional recognition would unify and enhance Australian democracy rather than challenge it. </p>
<p>The Indigenous affairs portfolio has had a long and troubled history. Nigel Scullion’s tenure as minister was plagued by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/02/nigel-scullion-gave-indigenous-funding-to-his-former-fishing-lobby-group-to-fight-land-claims">significant issues</a> and dissatisfaction from within the Indigenous community. Multiple reports have been scathing of the Commonwealth’s policies, especially its flagship <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/indigenous-advancement-strategy">Indigenous Advancement Strategy</a> (IAS) and <a href="https://ctgreport.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2019.pdf?a=1">Closing the Gap</a> (CTG). </p>
<p>The 2017 review of the IAS by the <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/indigenous-advancement-strategy">Australian National Audit Office</a> was particularly scathing. The report found a culture of arbitrary decision-making, a lack of transparency, poor record-keeping, a lack of oversight and accountability, no access to review of decisions, and a significant number of submissions having been lost. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/close-gap-report-our">reviews of CTG</a> were also scathing. Reports emphasised a continued failure to make significant inroads in targeted outcomes, despite over a decade of policy action. </p>
<p>Most striking, though, has been the clear frustration of the Indigenous community with a government that has ignored Indigenous peoples and worked according to dated and paternalistic practices. </p>
<p>This frustration resulted in the formation of a coalition of peak Indigenous bodies. This coalition in turn was able to obtain a <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/sites/default/files/communique/coag-statement-closing-the-gap-refresh.pdf">negotiated partnership</a> with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) announced in December 2018. </p>
<p>COAG acknowledged a need for actions to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>align with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ and communities’ priorities and ambition as a basis for developing action plans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is important recognition of the desire of Indigenous peoples to control their own affairs through community-controlled delivery of service programs. COAG also recognised that “to effect real change, governments must work collaboratively and in genuine, formal partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as they are the essential agents of change”.</p>
<p>These policy concerns are part of the broader place and understanding of Indigenous peoples within Australia. This foundational issue informed the <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> and its sequenced priorities of voice, treaty and truth. Fully aware of the difficult history and challenges ahead, the Uluru Statement from the Heart asked all Australians “to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future”. </p>
<p>The second anniversary of the Uluru statement has coincided with Wyatt’s appointment, National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week. This timing has provided a unique opportunity to reflect on the importance of Wyatt’s appointment, successes to date, challenges ahead, and the acceptance of that invitation from the Uluru statement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-indigenous-community-deserves-a-voice-in-the-constitution-will-the-nation-finally-listen-107710">The Indigenous community deserves a voice in the constitution. Will the nation finally listen?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Wyatt faces a significant challenge. That cannot be denied. Any increased expectations on him because he is Indigenous should be tempered. </p>
<p>The challenge is bigger than the Indigenous affairs portfolio, as recent reports into Indigenous affairs have addressed. Solutions require partnerships across government, ministerial portfolios and the community to be successful. The challenges are not simply those of Indigenous peoples and the minister for Indigenous Australians. This is the responsibility of all Australians. </p>
<p>It is hard to say what Wyatt’s first priority as minister should be, as there are so many issues demanding attention. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-losing-so-many-indigenous-children-to-suicide-114284">Indigenous youth suicide</a> and the much maligned <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-indigenous-employment-gap-is-widening-and-we-dont-know-how-to-fix-it-101728">Community Development Program</a> stand out. But the relationship between Indigenous peoples and other Australians, including the respect and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, remains front and centre of the work ahead. </p>
<p>Wyatt brings a notable difference to the Indigenous affairs portfolio. He is experienced, having served as a senior public servant and as an MP since 2010. He has been minister for aged care and Indigenous health. He has also been involved in and is supportive of major reform agendas being called for in Indigenous affairs – implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and achieving meaningful partnerships with Indigenous Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie Synot participated in the Uluru Dialogue in Cairns and Yarrabah 24-26 May to commemorate the second anniversary of the Uluru Statement from the Heart convened by the Indigenous Law Centre UNSW and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council. </span></em></p>While the new minister has the chance to make a real difference, unrealistic expectations of him should be tempered- real change will take not just the whole government, but the nation.Eddie Synot, Senior Research Assistant, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156332019-05-09T20:08:27Z2019-05-09T20:08:27ZMore First Nations people in parliament matters. Here’s why.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273467/original/file-20190509-183103-qjvxyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=584%2C60%2C2756%2C1995&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">MP Pat Dodson could be the next minister for Indigenous Affairs if Labor wins the federal election, a first for a First Nations person.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>First Nations people in Australia face structural barriers to political participation. The institutions of government remain predominantly white, and almost 60 years after being given the <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/Indigenous/milestones.htm">right to vote</a>, very few Indigenous people <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1718/Quick_Guides/IndigenousParliamentarians">have been elected</a> to parliament in a system dominated by two major parties. Candidates who do stand for election are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/04/black-parents-should-have-greater-aspirations-for-their-children-than-to-be-prime-minister">subjected to racism</a> and open discrimination. </p>
<p>But things are beginning to change for the better. The 2016 election resulted in the <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n4149/pdf/ch27.pdf">highest-ever number of Indigenous members of parliament</a> with Ken Wyatt (Liberal, Hasluck) and Linda Burney (Labor, Barton) elected to the House of Representatives, and Patrick Dodson (Labor, WA), Malarndirri McCarthy (Labor, NT) and Jacqui Lambie (Jacqui Lambie Network, Tasmania) in the Senate. (Lambie was later <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2017/11/14/tearful-indigenous-senator-jacqui-lambie-resigns-over-dual-citizenship">forced to resign</a> under <a href="https://theconversation.com/citizenship-scandals-same-sex-marriage-and-foreign-interference-dominate-the-messy-politics-of-2017-89225">Section 44</a> of the constitution due to dual citizenship.) </p>
<p>The 2016 federal election campaign also saw a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2016/06/13/d-day-indigenous-election-candidates">record number</a> of First Nations candidates, with 17 standing for election, including 11 pre-selected for one of the major parties. For the upcoming election, that record has been broken, with at least 22 candidates counted on the <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/indigenous-candidates-have-canberra-on-their-radars/">IndigenousX website</a>. However, only eight of these are running for the major parties, and even fewer in winnable seats. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constitutional-reform-made-easy-how-to-achieve-the-uluru-statement-and-a-first-nations-voice-116141">Constitutional reform made easy: how to achieve the Uluru statement and a First Nations voice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another sign of progress: Wyatt was appointed minister for Aged Care and Indigenous Health in 2017 – the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-18/wyatt-to-become-australias-first-indigenous-minister/8191448">first Indigenous MP to be promoted to the ministry</a> – and Burney and Dodson currently serve on the frontbench of the opposition. If Labor is elected, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/father-of-reconciliation-pat-dodson-to-be-indigenous-affairs-minister-under-labor">Dodson will be named Indigenous Affairs minister</a>, another first for First Nations people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273497/original/file-20190509-183109-19qprs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous MPs Linda Burney and Malarndirri McCarthy bless members of the Labor party during a welcome ceremony at the start of a caucus meeting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous candidates to watch</h2>
<p>In the House of Representatives, <a href="https://www.kenwyatt.com.au/">Wyatt</a> is recontesting the marginal seat of Hasluck in WA, and <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/linda_burney">Burney</a>, the ALP shadow minister for social services, is recontesting the safer NSW seat of Barton. In the Senate, <a href="https://www.malarndirrimccarthy.com.au/">McCarthy</a> and <a href="http://www.patrickdodson.com.au/about">Dodson</a> will also likely be re-elected.</p>
<p>Other candidates to watch include Liberal Warren Mundine, who has been controversially “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-23/nsw-liberals-slam-warren-mundine-decision/10738076">parachuted</a>” in to contest the NSW seat of Gilmore. Mundine was national president of the ALP in 2006-7 and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-23/who-is-warren-mundine/10739026">previously contested elections for Labor</a>. In this election, he is running against a strong ALP candidate in Fiona Phillips, the Nationals’ Katrina Hodgkinson, and Grant Schultz, who lost his pre-selection to Mundine and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-07/federal-election-2019-how-fight-for-gilmore-became-so-confusing/11064064">is standing as an independent</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1124966572660002816"}"></div></p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-27/labor-coalition-turn-eyes-to-nt-seats-election-race-lingiari/10722518">NT</a>, two First Nations candidates are competing against ALP member Warren Snowdon in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2019/guide/ling/">Lingiari</a> – Jacinta Price for the Country Liberal Party and George Hanna for the Greens. (Price <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/greens-stand-by-nt-candidate-after-post">has called for Hanna to be dropped</a> by the Greens after he posted a racially insensitive meme about her on social media.)</p>
<p>Most other First Nations candidates face long odds to win their races.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, Susan Moylan-Coombs is <a href="https://nit.com.au/susan-moylan-coombs-on-daring-to-enter-politics-challenging-tony-abbott-and-dreaming-of-a-greener-future/">running as an independent</a> in Warringah against Tony Abbott, but is overshadowed in media coverage by independent Zali Steggall. In Wentworth, Dominic Wy Kanak is running again <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/i-believe-in-the-people-of-wentworth/">for the Greens</a> against high-profile candidates Kerryn Phelps and David Sharma.</p>
<p>Likewise, Labor’s Jana Stewart has little chance of unseating Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in the safe Liberal seat of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2019/guide/kooy/">Kooyong</a>.</p>
<p>At least eight more Indigenous candidates are standing for the Senate, but their chances of election are also not strong. Former Senator Jacqui Lambie is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-23/federal-election-2019-can-jacqui-lambie-make-it-to-senate/11029754">recontesting</a> in Tasmania for her Jacqui Lambie Network. And former Senator Joanna Lindgren is standing for the <a href="https://www.conservatives.org.au/joanna_lindgren">Australian Conservatives</a> in Queensland after losing her seat in the 2016 election as <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/federal-election-2016-new-hope-versus-old-hate-in-queensland-senate-battle-20160524-gp2zjf.html">Coalition candidate</a> against Pauline Hanson.</p>
<p>Respected Ngarrindjeri elder <a href="https://greens.org.au/sa/person/major-moogy-sumner">Major Moogy Sumner</a> is on the Greens ticket in South Australia, but his chances are very slim. And Tania Major, who is well-known in Queensland for her work with Noel Pearson’s Cape York Institute and was Young Australian of the Year in 2007, is <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/our-people/our-people/tania-major/">standing for the ALP</a> in Queensland. After a bitter pre-selection, though, she has been relegated to fourth on the ticket and is unlikely to be successful. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1126299575684173825"}"></div></p>
<h2>A balancing act for many</h2>
<p>Research shows that First Peoples face “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2010.517180">representational dilemmas</a>” once in parliament, as they are forced to manage expectations of diverse First Nations communities, while also serving the needs of non-Indigenous constituents and supporting their party’s overall policies. </p>
<p>While the support of a major party is often critical to getting elected, the challenges of obeying party discipline once in parliament can be deeply frustrating. In 2014, Wyatt <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feature/barefoot-kid-bush">notably persuaded</a> the Liberal Party room to reverse its decision to soften racial vilification laws by threatening to cross the floor of parliament. Two years later, he indicated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/07/ken-wyatt-leaning-towards-supporting-a-review-of-section-18c">he would be open to reviewing the language in the act</a>.</p>
<p>Wyatt has also been unable to convince his party to move forward on constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples and has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/11/ken-wyatt-says-mps-could-legislate-indigenous-voice-to-parliament">forced to defend the Coalition government’s lack of progress</a> on Indigenous issues. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273492/original/file-20190509-183096-ppyvxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ken Wyatt hugging Linda Burney after her maiden speech to parliament in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why representation matters</h2>
<p>In the same way that Julia Gillard’s rise to prime minister prompted more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00344893.2015.1023098">women to take an active interest</a> in politics, the visible presence of First Nations MPs can encourage other Indigenous candidates to stand for election, recognising the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/18/for-some-of-us-voting-is-an-indignity-that-is-a-choice-between-the-lesser-of-racists">power and everyday impact of the decisions made by parliamentarians</a>. This may help lift the <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/sites/default/files/ANAO_Report_2015-2016_06.pdf">chronically low levels of Indigenous voter enrolment and turnout</a>, and support efforts by the Australian Electoral Commission to <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024085/toc_pdf/Reportontheconductofthe2016federalelectionandmattersrelatedthereto.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">increase participation</a>, particularly in remote areas. </p>
<p>Another critical element of Indigenous representation in parliament is the diversity of viewpoints it brings to policy-making. First Nations MPs have frequently spoken of their own personal histories and life experiences in debates, especially in their first speeches. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KsIDfVbZOU0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pat Dodson’s first speech to parliament.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their connections with First Nations communities are also vital in holding the government accountable. McCarthy and Dodson have <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/patrick-dodsons-takedown-of-appalling-demonstration-of-ignorance-by-nigel-scullion-20161021-gs7vzu.html?js-chunk-not-found-refresh=true">played a critical role</a>
in questioning Nigel Scullion, the current minister for Indigenous Affairs, in Senate estimates hearings about the impact of government policies on Indigenous communities. In 2016, for instance, Dodson said Scullion showed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An appalling demonstration of ignorance about the criminal justice system and its interface with Indigenous peoples, about existing cultures in prisons, within police departments.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>First Nations representation in parliament has also had a policy impact. Burney has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8500.12360">observed</a> that First Nations MPs actively work together across the party divide to raise issues of importance to Indigenous communities, including <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/constitutionalrecognition">constitutional recognition</a>. </p>
<p>Within the Labor Party, they have formed a First Nations caucus, which has played a significant role in developing policy. Dodson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/08/pat-dodson-says-labors-indigenous-policies-will-be-a-watershed-for-the-nation">credited</a>
the caucus with the development of Labor’s “<a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/a-fair-go-for-first-australians/">Fair Go for First Nations</a>”
platform, which includes enshrining an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution and creating regional assemblies to get First Nations input on policy-making. Dodson says the ALP wants to be the “<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6106430/labor-to-reset-indigenous-relationship/?cs=14231">party of choice</a>” for First Nations people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-major-parties-indigenous-health-election-commitments-stack-up-115714">How the major parties’ Indigenous health election commitments stack up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The significance of the role played by these First Nations MPs in changing the policy agenda, even in opposition, cannot be overstated. The Coalition government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy, cashless welfare card and remote employment program have come under sustained and informed criticism by Indigenous members of the opposition and remain important issues in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/20/unfinished-business-what-the-parties-offer-indigenous-voters-in-the-2019-election">this campaign</a>. </p>
<p>And importantly, despite the Turnbull government’s rejection of the demands of the <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a>, the issues of “voice, treaty, truth” remain on the agenda, thanks to the unstinting efforts of activists and supporters both outside and inside parliament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Perche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Few First Nations candidates have succeeded in getting elected to parliament, but it is clear that when they do, they can make a substantial difference.Diana Perche, Senior Lecturer and Academic Coordinator, Nura Gili Indigenous Programs Unit, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140882019-04-05T01:15:56Z2019-04-05T01:15:56ZIt’s time for Indigenous nationhood to replace a failing colonial authority<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267026/original/file-20190402-177171-l5jzd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C22%2C3808%2C2405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The future lies not in better policy, or even a new government, but in the exciting resurgence of Indigenous nationhood.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Millenius/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the nation gears up for another federal election, both major parties are taking a position on Indigenous affairs. And it looks like First Nations peoples are set to be disappointed once again. </p>
<p>For the coalition it will mostly be <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/dodson-demands-details-on-morrisons-plan-for-indigenous-voice/news-story/c5aa61633151b212935de98133cf37d6">business as usual</a>: paternalism, intervention, and the disastrous Indigenous Advancement Strategy. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s 2019 budget commitment to investigate models for the proposed Voice to parliament was met with scepticism, given Malcolm Turnbull’s claim the proposed <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-government-says-no-to-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-86421">Voice</a> threatens parliamentary sovereignty.</p>
<p>The Uluru Statement <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/UluruStatement">called for</a> the creation of a First Nations Voice to parliament and a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/makarrata-explainer-yolngu-word-more-than-synonym-for-treaty/8790452">Makarrata Commission</a>. The Voice would be enshrined in the Australian Constitution, and the Makarrata Commission would supervise a truth-telling and agreement-making process formed between governments and Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1113712093092405248"}"></div></p>
<p>Beyond this new budget allocation, there has been no sign of the Coalition acting on the <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a>. </p>
<p>Labor, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.gedkearney.org.au/media/speeches/labors-roadmap-for-a-voice-to-parliament/">has promised</a> to establish the Voice to parliament and to then seek to enshrine the Voice in the Constitution. With seemingly more progressive policies in Indigenous affairs, Labor would appear to be the far better option for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.</p>
<p>But how much will really change for Australian First Nations under a Labor government? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been disappointed before. </p>
<p>For instance, while the Rudd government did deliver the long-overdue apology to the stolen generations, Labor also continued the paternalistic approach to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/factbox-the-stronger-futures-legislation">welfare quarantining</a>, which started under Howard.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-government-was-wrong-to-reject-an-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-86408">Why the government was wrong to reject an Indigenous 'Voice to Parliament'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The reality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is that no party will deliver on Indigenous aspirations. It’s time for radical change on Indigenous policy. </p>
<h2>Resisting autonomy</h2>
<p>Governments of all flavours in Australia have resisted the one thing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want, and the one thing that has made a difference elsewhere: the ability to control and manage their own lives.</p>
<p>The Uluru Statement demanded structural reform in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. But the Voice to parliament proposal continues to centre the Australian parliament in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples because it would have an advisory, rather than a decision-making, function. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-textbooks-still-imply-that-australians-are-white-72796">History textbooks still imply that Australians are white</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This means while the demand for Indigenous advice might be constitutionally enshrined, there can be no promise any future government would follow that advice. Government would still be making the decisions that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives and futures.</p>
<p>Many scholars, activists, and analysts – Indigenous and settler alike – maintain a degree of faith in liberal settler governments, or at least a belief that working with government is the only viable political option. </p>
<p>This is a view to which I subscribed for many years, but which I can no longer hold. </p>
<p>From the decade-long failings of the Closing the Gap approach to the soaring rates of incarceration and <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/royal-commission-detention-and-protection-children-northern-territory">child-removal</a>, it is clear the current system is not working and causing harm to Indigenous peoples.</p>
<h2>Indigenous nationhood</h2>
<p>As I’ve written in my new book, “<a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/politics-government/The-Colonial-Fantasy-Sarah-Maddison-9781760295820">The Colonial Fantasy</a>”, meaningful change can only occur if future reforms consider a more radical restructuring of the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Australian state.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-people-how-to-misunderstand-their-science-23835">Aboriginal people – how to misunderstand their science</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The future lies not in better policy, or even a new government, but in the exciting resurgence of Indigenous nationhood. </p>
<p>In lots of ways, big and small, First Nations in Australia are turning away from the state as the answer to their claims. <a href="https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-social-and-political-sciences/resources/videos/refusal-resurgence-renewal">They are instead</a> drawing on revitalising culture and languages, prioritising connections to land, and nurturing their autonomy. </p>
<p>This is no small task. Replacing colonial authority with revitalised, self-governing relationships might seem to be an aspiration beyond reach. </p>
<p>How could such a radical restructuring take place? How could it be possible for Indigenous nations to reconstitute and govern themselves? Would the settler state simply abandon Indigenous nations to their own fates? </p>
<p>There are no easy answers to any of these questions, and they must be determined community by community, clan by clan, nation by nation, by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples themselves. But there are answers to be found. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-australians-the-key-to-a-strong-constitution-1640">Indigenous Australians the key to a strong Constitution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The crucial factor is that for First Nations peoples to recover from the multiple harms of settler colonialism, there must be change in the terms of the relationship. First Nations must take control of the structures, systems and services they need, free from the control and interference of the settler state. </p>
<p>This does not mean governments are off the hook. Treaties or other forms of agreement ought to see reparations made that will support greater Indigenous autonomy. </p>
<p>But decisions must be in Indigenous hands. We must let go of the idea that tweaking a policy, or changing a government or even creating a new voice in settler institutions, will come anywhere close to the radical rethink that First Nations so urgently need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Maddison has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a past chair of the board of GetUp and is a member of the Greens. </span></em></p>For First Nations peoples to recover from the multiple harms of settler colonialism, they must take control of the services they need, free from the control and interference of the settler state.Sarah Maddison, Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, Co-Director, Indigenous-Settler Relations Collaboration, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1063452018-11-30T03:48:20Z2018-11-30T03:48:20ZWhy Tony Abbott’s appointment as Indigenous envoy was a diplomatic blunder and policy failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246133/original/file-20181119-44280-1l39pmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Abbott's previous policies on Indigenous issues were characterised by funding cuts, exclusions and silencing – all of which makes his role as envoy highly questionable to Indigenous communities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This piece is part of a series on race and racism in Australia. The series examines this complex and incendiary topic, and the role it plays in contemporary Australia. You can read the rest of the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/race-and-racism-62794">here</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>When Indigenous Referendum Council member Megan Davis stood on the red sands close to Uluru and read the <a href="https://www.1voiceuluru.org/the-statement/">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> in May 2017, she was enacting a tradition steeped in Indigenous cultural and political significance. </p>
<p>It was not just a response to politicians’ requests to consult the Indigenous community on constitutional recognition, it was a powerful political act, enshrined in a message carried by elders and subsequently inscribed in art. </p>
<p>Following substantial months-long consultations, Davis, as envoy of the people, delivered a message to the nation concerning the resetting of “inter-tribal” relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was an act of Indigenous diplomacy solemnised in song, dance and ceremony. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246135/original/file-20181119-44280-d1p59i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Megan Davis has called the government’s rejection of constitutional recognition ‘gutting’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Eve/Yothu Yindi Foundation handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The history of Indigenous envoys</h2>
<p>Historically, such ambassadorial moments were the glue of politics and negotiations between Indigenous peoples. They built cohesion and peace, facilitated inter-community exchanges and allowed for the settling of disputes. </p>
<p>As messengers, envoys were critical to this diplomatic mesh. Carefully selected, they were highly respected members of their tribes. They often possessed the ability to speak different dialects and were skilled negotiators. They were the <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4235825;view=1up;seq=10">bearers of important information</a>, such as the deaths of leaders, appointments of successors and important gatherings and ceremonies like marriages, burials, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corroboree">corroborrees</a> and initiations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-recognition-in-our-constitution-matters-and-will-need-greater-political-will-to-achieve-90296">Indigenous recognition in our Constitution matters – and will need greater political will to achieve</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Given their significance, it is little wonder that many Indigenous peoples described former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s recent appointment as special envoy in Indigenous affairs as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-29/indigenous-leaders-voice-anger-at-tony-abbott-envoy-role/10179436">deeply disrespectful</a>. </p>
<p>On every level this was an act of egregious political misjudgement, as many Indigenous people have <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/indigenous-leaders-blast-morrison-s-special-envoy-offer-to-abbott-20180827-p5003k.html">been quick to note</a>. </p>
<h2>Why Abbott’s appointment was controversial</h2>
<p>Not only was Abbott’s appointment hasty, ill-planned and unsolicited, it lacked a key requirement for the role - the wider support of his own community. </p>
<p>Beyond lacking all merit, Abbott’s previous policies on Indigenous issues had been characterised by funding cuts, exclusions and silencing. His <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-04/analysis-how-not-to-spend-$5-billion-in-taxpayers-dollars/8240968">Indigenous Advancement Strategy</a> was <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21473&LangID=E">criticised</a> for its destructive consequences to governance within Indigenous communities. Someone who had caused such injury and grief in the past, stripped communities of their capacity for self-determination and seemed so lacking of respect in their own community was largely unwelcome. </p>
<p>There were some, however, who were willing to give Abbott the benefit of the doubt and saw an opportunity in his role. </p>
<p>For them, his task was clear. In accordance with tradition, he needed to come with models and messages of agreement-making and considered responses to the Indigenous peoples’ own message, as conveyed by the Uluru Statement. He needed to bring news of progress on <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-recognition-in-our-constitution-matters-and-will-need-greater-political-will-to-achieve-90296">constitutional recognition</a> and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/makarrata-explainer-yolngu-word-more-than-synonym-for-treaty/8790452">Makaratta Commission</a> – the Indigenous-inspired body to facilitate agreement-making and help reset relations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-way-to-recognise-an-indigenous-nation-in-australia-101189">A new way to recognise an Indigenous nation in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He needed to engage in dialogue, be open to consultations, and most importantly, listen. </p>
<p>As Dennis Walker, the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority chair, <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2018/10/24/envoy-abbott-to-receive-mixed-reception-from-sa-aboriginal-leaders/">believed</a>, Abbott would come to listen to Ngarrindjeri about their concerns: economic development, stable governance and developing better relationships with non-Indigenous political leaders. For Jeffrey Newchurch, the Kaurna Nation Cultural Heritage chair, Abbott’s visit <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2018/10/24/envoy-abbott-to-receive-mixed-reception-from-sa-aboriginal-leaders/">presented an opportunity</a> to discuss important issues affecting them, like burials, social cohesion and how to build good intergovernmental relationships. </p>
<p>Yet, this is not how Abbott saw his job. Disregarding cultural protocols, he arrived with dictates and outsider rules, and a specific agenda aimed at <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/08/30/abbotts-indigenous-envoy-focus-school-attendance-outdated?cid=inbody:making-it-up-as-they-go-along-burney-on-abbotts-envoy-plan">improving school attendance</a> and performance in remote communities. </p>
<p>Even in this, his apparent lack of knowledge, a critical trait of the position, was apparent. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/projects/rural-and-remote-education-inquiry">Over a decade’s</a> <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/social-justice-reports">worth of reports</a> <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/indigenous-affairs/understanding-family-perspectives-school-attendance-remote-communities-evaluation-remote-school-attendance-strategy">into remote schooling</a> have overwhelmingly stressed the connection between education, language and culture, and the importance of family and community involvement for children. Education programs succeed when Aboriginal people are the architects of their own policies and services. Partnerships between the people and governments must be based on local priorities, and these must be mutually understood. </p>
<p>The proposals Abbott arrived with - <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-01/tony-abbott-touring-remote-indigenous-communities/10454144">more police in the communities and learning in English</a> - only demonstrated his ignorance. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1062192831668858880"}"></div></p>
<p>Abbott’s ignorance was compounded by the impropriety of another white elder of his tribe. Earlier this month, news broke of Indigenous Affairs minister Nigel Scullion’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/15/minister-approved-460000-indigenous-funding-for-fishing-and-cattle-groups">approval of grants</a> to a fishing industry lobby group from a fund intended to address disadvantage in Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>Scullion <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/07/nigel-scullion-offered-to-fund-dispute-over-indigenous-land-claim-fishing-group-says">transferred significant sums</a> to the Northern Territory Amateur Fisherman’s Association to pay their legal fees in disputes over Aboriginal land claims. </p>
<p>As the former Indigenous affairs minister, Dr Jak Ah Kit, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/03/indigenous-groups-call-for-investigation-into-scullion-fund-stoush">said</a>, this was totally against the rules. Aboriginal elders are skilled negotiators of their resources, particularly their fisheries. There had been no consultations or efforts to negotiate with them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246137/original/file-20181119-44255-18fqq88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has defended his dispersal of grant money to a fishing lobbying group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chloe Erlich/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diplomatic blunder and policy failure</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/indigenous-leaders-blast-morrison-s-special-envoy-offer-to-abbott-20180827-p5003k.html">appointment</a> of Abbott as special envoy was more than a diplomatic faux pas. It was a diplomatic blunder and a policy failure. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://politics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-426">foreign policy parlance</a>, a diplomatic blunder results from a judgement blinded by bias and ignorance, while a policy failure is caused by behaviour that is both costly and has undesirable and unanticipated consequences. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abbott-is-quietly-failing-on-his-pm-for-aboriginal-affairs-promise-26948">Abbott is quietly failing on his 'PM for Aboriginal affairs' promise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Abbott’s bias and ignorance are palpable and demonstrable. And the policies he pushed — more police in the communities and learning in English — <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-06-25/over-policing-to-blame-for-indigenous-prison-rates/1332486">would be costly in the human and economic sense</a>. Investing in policies that aren’t wanted and don’t work will do nothing to reset intergovernmental relations.</p>
<p>Abbott and the federal government would do well to learn from the examples of deliberative and democratic governance demonstrated by the Indigenous political negotiations leading up to the Uluru Statement. </p>
<p>These negotiations demonstrated how politically astute Indigenous elders are. The network of regional dialogues were not about political platitudes of the sort Abbott said to the Anangu – “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/11/02/tony-abbott-says-thank-you-putting-invasion">thanks for putting up with the invasion</a>” — but a recipe for action. </p>
<p>Abbott could also learn from the likes of Megan Davis, whose diplomatic credentials, by contrast, are impeccable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Holland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The proposals Abbott has pushed as envoy - more police in Indigenous communities and learning in English - demonstrates his ignorance and unsuitability for the job.Alison Holland, Senior Lecturer in Australian History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/962742018-05-24T20:06:59Z2018-05-24T20:06:59ZFriday essay: William Ricketts Sanctuary is a racist anachronism but can it foster empathy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218750/original/file-20180514-178749-1y4wrvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A sculpture of William Ricketts looms over those of Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara men at the sanctuary in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Haych/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September 2003, an article in The Age <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/11/1063268515100.html">reported the miserable conditions</a> a group of Central Australian Aboriginal artists were enduring while housed in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne. Cold, hungry, ill and isolated, the artists were producing paintings for one of Melbourne’s Aboriginal art galleries. It is unknown whether these artists were aware of fellow Central Australian Aborigines frozen in time in a nearby sanctuary.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218751/original/file-20180514-178757-1ucdhoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gushy mawkishness: a statue of a child at the sanctuary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">r.reeve/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://visitdandenongranges.com.au/activity/william-ricketts-sanctuary">William Ricketts Sanctuary</a>, or as the eccentric “Bill” Ricketts would have preferred it to be called, “The Forest of Love”, is a curious and somewhat disturbing anachronism that remains a popular drawcard. According to the information panel at the entrance to the sanctuary, now managed by Parks Victoria, it is a “place of beauty and tranquillity”. Visitors enjoy this ambience as they wander along a network of meandering paths beneath majestic mountain ash trees on a steep hillside. </p>
<p>Scattered here and there, and in the occasional alcove, is an assortment of 92 ceramic sculptures. These mostly comprise bearded Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara men, fewer women, many children, an assortment of native fauna, and Ricketts himself in various poses. In one, his torso emerges from the body of a kangaroo. Another is a sacrificial scene in which Ricketts and an Aboriginal elder appear suspended side-by-side on crosses. And in another, both he and an Aboriginal elder swirl out of the rock itself.</p>
<p>“It’s so peaceful here,” I recently overheard a visitor say to a staff member at the information centre, who responded: “Everyone says that.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218035/original/file-20180508-34021-1kas2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Aboriginal elder suspended on a cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alister Coyne/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eccentric beliefs</h2>
<p>Ricketts lived in austere conditions at the sanctuary from 1934 until his death in 1993 aged 94. A technically accomplished ceramicist, he used his considerable skills to express in sculptural form his eccentric beliefs, at the heart of which were concerns that today are more mainstream. Espousing sensitivities well ahead of his time, Ricketts railed against what he saw as ever-increasing, wide-scale environmental destruction. He also took an interest in Aborigines and was an early advocate for Aboriginal rights.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218234/original/file-20180509-185500-1soioyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Ricketts photographed in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond those with specialist interest (anthropologists, for example) and policymakers, concern for Aboriginal welfare in mid-20th-century Australia was not one of great public agitation. Taken alone, these two motivations of Ricketts were in many ways laudatory. However, how he fused both concerns into his holistic beliefs and his representations of himself as the hero – or at least the personal and spiritual embodiment of those beliefs – is problematic.</p>
<p>At its most basic, Ricketts’ philosophy arose from a belief that “All life is one”, and that the earth itself was the source of all of life’s flora, fauna, humankind—animating <em>numen</em>. The clay out of which Ricketts formed his sculptures not only allowed him access to this; the artist believed he too was of the earth: “I just have to touch the earth and I touch myself … I am the true essence of … life, the earth, the clay”. </p>
<p>Over time Ricketts came to believe he had risen above the status of his own humanity and was now a transcendent being. His narcissism extended to believing that he had been “called to the defence of the Aborigines and the continent”. As he explained: “My creator worked through the Australian Aborigine to get hold of me.”</p>
<p>Ricketts made a number of trips to Central Australia to experience life with Aborigines and, perhaps more primarily, to have access to life models for his sculptures. His first excursion was to Ernabella in the late 1940s. The visit was characterised by misunderstandings and tensions. Among various issues was the failure of the Anangu people to act in accordance with the role Ricketts had imagined them fulfilling.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218746/original/file-20180514-133183-1r4eed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The figures displayed in the damp, cool, ferny, mossy Dandenongs hillside are incongruously modelled on Central Australian Aborigines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brian Yap/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At best they regarded him with suspicion. In the mid-1950s Ricketts <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33614752-whitefella-dreaming">again pilgrimaged to Central Australia</a> and spent time based in Alice Springs, Haasts Bluff and Utopia. Again there were various difficulties, but ultimately these were more successful ventures than his earlier experience at Ernabella, not the least reason being the greater Aboriginal propensity for tolerating eccentricities. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, even at Ernabella as elsewhere, Ricketts found the life models he sought. The Aboriginal figures displayed in the damp, cool, ferny, mossy Dandenongs hillside are incongruously modelled on Central Australian Aborigines. </p>
<h2>‘Real people’</h2>
<p>The sanctuary’s audio tour assures visitors that the “faces are all real people, who allowed Bill to model their likeness in clay”. The twin sculptures looming over the entrance path are described in the “tour” as “Pitjantjatjara clansman emerging as a flowing of spiritual life from the earth, permitting you to enter this sacred place”. </p>
<p>The slippage from “sanctuary” to “sacred” is revealing, for by what process and how did this public reserve become sanctified? And should it be Pitjantjatjara clansman permitting entry or, more appropriately, members of the local Wurundjeri-balluk and Wurundjeri-willam clan groups?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218037/original/file-20180508-34018-1tpj6li.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The faces of sculptures are said to be all ‘real people’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Travelling Pooh/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the sanctuary, on numerous kiln-fired clay plinths, Ricketts explains his convoluted beliefs. Among these are his sense of himself as an Aborigine and, if not presently, he certainly once had been. Near one of the figures of himself and close to where his ashes are buried is a plinth that reads in part:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My past Aboriginal tribal life indivisibly linked to my present life and timeless future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another plinth proclaims “Rebirth I return to the point of origin in self in the Alchera”, <em>Alchera</em> being a contemporary variant of the Arrernte word “<em>Alcheringa</em>” which references the Dreaming (<em>Altyerrenge</em> in today’s orthography). Yet another plinth proclaims: “To melt and become as the living waters running and singing a flow of life in my Dreaming”. </p>
<p>In the sanctuary’s DVD presentation Ricketts asserts he is “of the lyrebird totem”. The audio tour’s explanation of yet another figure of Ricketts equates his ostensible suffering — over environmental devastation among other things — with the suffering of the Aborigines.</p>
<h2>Philosophy steeped in primitivism</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218036/original/file-20180508-34006-4adua1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sculpture of Aboriginal children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brian Yap/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Giving physical form to the gushy mawkishness of “all life is one”, several sculptures feature different animals in various ways, on, entwined around or surrounding the human figures.</p>
<p>Another example of Ricketts’ guiding mushiness was that, “The beautiful unity of all mankind is the early years of childhood”. These two animating principles give context to many of the sculptures, as well as highlighting so much of what is problematic about them. </p>
<p>Although Ricketts’ holistic philosophy imagined or intended no disrespect — in fact the contrary — the explicit linking of Aborigines with nature provides further endorsement of earlier racist ideologies that posited Aborigines as belonging with the animals rather than with humans. Furthermore, another racist epithet described Aborigines as childlike, a people guided by emotion rather than reason, and intuitive not rational. </p>
<p>Ricketts’ philosophy is steeped in primitivism, and his exemplar is Australian Aborigines. The belief is that modernity and civilisation have stripped away core elements of our humanity, elements that are still retained and discernible in those peoples living in a so-called state of nature. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218754/original/file-20180514-178734-furqao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sculptures explicitly link Aborigines with nature.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brian Yap/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unconcerned with the subtleties of cultural variation, the very few Central Australian Aborigines Ricketts encountered on his pilgrimages were held to be representative of all Aborigines. He afforded Aboriginal cultures and people no independent integrity. Instead he made them actors in his personal crusade and costumed them accordingly. It is no mitigation that Ricketts also saw himself as at one with the birds and the bees so to speak. </p>
<p>To the extent that Ricketts used Aborigines to help him realise his own convictions, an argument of exploitation can easily be made. However, with notable exceptions, few private citizens in mid-20th-century Australia were advocating on behalf of Aborigines, and few were arguing that virtue rather than vice was the hallmark of their cultures. Ricketts was doing so.</p>
<p>Which brings us to today. Just as Ricketts railed against deforestation and other ravages against the natural environment, it would be easy to rail against Ricketts’ sculptural representations of Aborigines and the causes he bent them to. There’s any number of dime-a-dozen postcolonial theories and a grab-bag of deconstructionist implements in the cultural studies toolkit that would permit a readily theorised censoriousness. </p>
<h2>Sanguine contemplation</h2>
<p>Answering the straightforward question of “what on Earth are these Central Australian Aborigines doing in the Dandenong Ranges?” would be one place to start a rigorously theorised exposure of rampant and self-indulgent exploitation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218756/original/file-20180514-178743-8v2wy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sculpture of Ricketts and a winged figure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another pertinent question would be: “Why has this not already been done?” The same theories and toolkit would readily also provide answers to this. Only the censoriousness here would extend beyond Ricketts to encompass societal unconscious bias – if not racism that allows people to overlook what is staring them in the face. </p>
<p>Perhaps though, and notwithstanding the fact that the sculptures are problematic, they might provoke more sanguine contemplation. Popular with children whose parents take advantage of the free entry during school holidays, could the sculptures and their incongruous setting prompt a more nuanced consideration of Aboriginal affairs? </p>
<p>The capacity of viewers (and readers) to bring discernment to what they are seeing and reading is too often ignored. The contrast between these idealised images, with their utopian underpinnings, and the range of other representations and media reports about Indigenous Australians is sufficient to prompt wonder, a curiosity to know more. </p>
<p>The sanctuary should recognise and respond to this. In doing so, it should do something more than offer an unmediated hagiographic representation of Ricketts and his sculptures.</p>
<p>Signage and audio tour narrative contextualising the work and explaining its fit within exploitative discourses such as primitivism would help add nuance and relevance, and increase understanding. </p>
<p>Marcia Langton and Bruno David have provided <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/13591835030082002">one of the sanctuary’s very few scholarly critiques</a>. Notwithstanding the sanctuary’s contradictions, they observe that “the maudlin, romantic style of Ricketts’ authorship enables … [his] dose of nostalgic racism to be swallowed with a measure of safe, sanitised Utopian idealism”. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, for all its strangeness, it is possible that the sanctuary promotes an image of Aboriginality that fosters an empathy that might resonate round the family dining table. Far more so than any alienating and hectoring missive explaining what racists we all are for failing to grasp the “violence” — a faddish label favoured by those portending the consequences of words and images — to be found there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mitchell Rolls does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A mossy sanctuary in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges houses 92 sculptures, mostly of Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara men, women and children. They are steeped in primitivism, yet the park is a popular tourist attraction.Mitchell Rolls, Senior Lecturer, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916482018-02-12T05:50:13Z2018-02-12T05:50:13ZAustralia is missing the Closing the Gap employment target by decades<p>Australia is missing its target to halve the unemployment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia by several decades, according to the latest <a href="https://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2018.pdf?a=1">Closing the Gap report</a>. </p>
<p>The report also highlights many other problems with current Closing the Gap targets. For instance, the unemployment target misses other aspects of economic life, such as income. The targets need to be rethought so that they address economic well-being and more closely guide strategy and policies on the ground. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-the-gap-results-still-lag-as-shorten-pledges-compensation-fund-for-stolen-generations-91633">Closing the Gap results still lag, as Shorten pledges compensation fund for Stolen Generations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The unemployment rate for Indigenous Australians is going down. But <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/2016%20Census%20Community%20Profiles">2016 Census data</a> show that it will take until 2031 to halve the gap, and until about 2051 to close the gap entirely. Even New South Wales, which leads Australia on this measure, won’t meet the target until about 2026.</p>
<p>One reason why some states are doing better in tackling the unemployment gap is that different opportunities are available for urban and rural Australians. In <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4714.0%7E2014-15%7EMain%20Features%7ESummary%20results%20for%20States%20and%20Territories%7E10001#QUEENSLAND">2014/15</a>, only 5% of the NSW Indigenous population lived in remote areas. This compares to 21% nationally, 79% in the Northern Territory and 19% in Queensland. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206136/original/file-20180213-44660-plomwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the Indigenous Procurement Policy, 3% of all federal procurement contracts go to Indigenous businesses. This is a big part of the federal government’s plan to achieve the employment target. </p>
<p>However, while there may be some success stories, a <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2017/12/rr35.pdf?">recent report</a> also warned that “the policy’s target measurement system greatly exaggerates its success”. </p>
<p>For instance, in 2015-16 Indigenous suppliers won 2.9% of government contracts but these contracts accounted for only 0.94% of total procurement spending. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radical-rethink-of-closing-the-gap-required-despite-some-progress-86203">Radical rethink of Closing the Gap required, despite some progress</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The latest Closing the Gap report highlights the continued importance of Indigenous leadership in this space and the need for government to actually listen and truly partner, rather than just talk about it. </p>
<p>Only through empowerment and ownership by Indigenous Australians will we see serious improvements against a revised Closing the Gap framework, or any other standard for that matter. Mere rhetoric is not, and never will be, enough. </p>
<h2>Tremendous gains yet to be made</h2>
<p>While Closing the Gap focuses on hitting a target employment rate, there are other aspects to economic well-being that are not considered. </p>
<p>The framework fails to address the <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-not-closing-the-gap-on-indigenous-employment-its-widening-89302">widening gap in weekly personal income</a> between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, for example. This shows that even if employment rates are improving, Indigenous Australians are still earning comparatively less.</p>
<p>Economic well-being also collides with other facets of well-being in a number of ways. For instance, an adequate income means earning enough money to access quality health care and education. But it’s also important to derive satisfaction and meaning from employment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-the-gaps-between-indigenous-and-non-indigenous-australians-arent-closing-91561">Three reasons why the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians aren't closing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also no clear strategy for how the targets filter down into ground-level approaches that are evidence-based and actually work. The federal government’s <a href="http://www.indigenous.gov.au/indigenous-advancement-strategy">Indigenous Advancement Strategy</a> tried to link activities to outcomes that aligned with the Closing the Gap targets, but was <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/indigenous-advancement-strategy">found</a> to have performed poorly across a number of areas.</p>
<p>Without a stronger evidence base and a clearer strategy for how the targets are meant to inform on-the-ground policies and programs, <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/supporting/better-indigenous-policies/better-indigenous-policies.pdf">we simply don’t know</a> which approaches to amplify and which to abandon. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-the-gap-on-indigenous-education-must-start-with-commitment-and-respect-91630">Closing the gap on Indigenous education must start with commitment and respect</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The current process to <a href="https://closingthegaprefresh.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resources/ctg-next-phase-discussion-paper.pdf?a=1">refresh</a> the Closing the Gap targets and framework is under way and might consider some of these issues. However, it already faces problems with poor consultation and partnership. </p>
<p>This is ironic, given the repeated sentiments of the last ten years of Closing the Gap reports that relationships are being strengthened.</p>
<p>Although the latest report has shown that some areas are improving, there are many more metrics that show little or no change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Staines consults to the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. </span></em></p>Australia is on track to meet its ‘Closing the Gap’ employment target, but more than a decade late.Zoe Staines, Research Consultant; Research Assistant, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.