Indigenous Policy and Dialogue Conference

New
Relationships, New Possibilities

Mick Gooda

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social
Justice Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

The John Niland Scientia
Building

University of New South Wales

18-19 November 2010

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With respect and gratitude I acknowledge that we have been allowed to sit on
the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation, and I thank the them for
privilege allowing us to do so. Thank you also to Michael West for your welcome
today.

My people are the Ghangulu from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland.

Michael, on behalf of my Elders can I salute your Elders, both past and
present, for your continued struggle for your country and your culture here in
the place where our colonisation began.

I also acknowledge my Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters here today, distinguished guests,
and conference participants.

Let me also acknowledge the esteemed founding Director of the Indigenous
Policy and Dialogue Research Unit, Professor Patrick Dodson and the Research
Director, Associate Professor Ms Sarah Maddison, Professor James Donald, Dean of
the Faculty of Arts and Social Services.

Finally can I also acknowledge Professor Mick Dodson, the founding Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

Thank you for inviting me to open your Inaugural Conference titled New
Relationships, New Possibilities.

When Professor Dodson first opened the Indigenous Policy Dialogue Research
Unit, he said:

Until, as a Nation, we reach a different plateau of maturity in our quest for
full nationhood we will continue to be diminished as a society and will
inevitably repeat the disasters of Intervention, increased public sector
domination over Aboriginal [and Torres Strait Islander peoples] lives, continued
removal of our children, high incarceration rates and increased destabilisation
on our traditional homelands.^[1]

During the Conference, we are asked to consider three questions:

• What might we do to create a more just and reconciled society?
  
• How might we create new opportunities to transform the relationship between
  Indigenous and non-Indigenous people?
  
• What are the implications for policy making in this contested space?
  

I believe the dialogue that will be had over the next couple of
days is extremely timely given the Governments recent announcement to put to a
referendum the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in
Australia’s founding document, the Constitution.

I firmly believe the time is right, here and now for the Australian people to
formally recognise of the special and unique place of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples hold in our nation.

The prospect of this referendum will provide us all with a great opportunity
to reframe and reset our relationship as a nation, and to establish new
relationships that open our hearts and minds to new possibilities.

By finally and formally settling and affirming the place of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples in our nation, all of us grow in stature.

But this referendum is not just about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples.

It’s not about looking back.

It’s about looking forward and moving forward as one, united nation.

So in order to get to this destination, we have much to do.

We will need
to shift our focus to those issues that are foundational to an agenda of hope.

An agenda that tackles the root causes of Indigenous health and social
inequality.

An agenda which at its core, aims to unleash the potential of Indigenous
Australians. That maximises the capabilities of each and every Indigenous
Australian.

Where Indigenous rights and interests are at the centre of Australian
nationhood and embedded in the institutional fabric of the country.

This will require an inter-generational nation-building exercise that will
include developing new narratives, institutions, practices, philosophies and
opportunities for a more just and inclusive Australia.

An exercise that builds the healthy relationships necessary for this agenda
of hope.

Relationships that are built on understanding, dialogue, tolerance,
acceptance, respect, trust and reciprocated affection. Not intolerance, a lack
of acceptance, a lack of dialogue, mistrust and a lack of respect and
understanding.

I believe that strong relationships will be essential at three key
levels.

We need to firstly develop stronger and deeper relationships between
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the rest of the Australia.

Educating the Australian people about our nation’s history will be
necessary if we are improve this relationship.

The benefit of raising people’s awareness to the reality of others
around them was evidenced when Kevin Rudd gave the National Apology in February
2008.^[2]

On that day there was a palpable sense of us coming together as a nation for
the first time. Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians sat together, held
each other and cried together. The nation took a great leap forward
together.

Unfortunately, we lost a bit of that momentum, but we now have an opportunity
to reinvigorate that momentum with the upcoming referendum.

This opportunity has the potential to:

• Improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,
  specifically by addressing the history of exclusion of our peoples in the life
  of our nation and increasing our self worth as citizens within Australia.
• Entrench the protection of human rights for all Australians within the
  Constitution.

And as a result,

• Ensure a solid foundation upon which to build a reconciled
  nation.

The prospect of this referendum will provide us all with a
great opportunity to reframe and reset our relationship as a nation.

Secondly, we need to develop stronger and deeper relationships between
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and all levels of government.

The relationship between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples have been badly damaged by the consistent imposition of
policies and legislation that are designed and implemented with the objective of
co-dependency and control - rather than independence and ensuring that we have
the ability to determine our own destinies.

The intervention is the most recent example of this. And it’s going to
take a lot of work to overcome the hurt and to fix the relationships that have
broken down as a result.

On the back of a history of failed policies to
address the disadvantage and challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples, we must change the way we do business. We must be involved in
decisions that affect us.

Effective participation in decision making has been confirmed as essential to
ensuring non-discriminatory treatment and equality before the law, and
recognises the cultural distinctiveness and diversity of Indigenous peoples.

Effective participation in decision making will also be crucial to resetting
the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the
Australian Government.

Human rights provide governments’ with a set of minimum legal standards
which if applied equally to all people establish a framework for a society to
foster dignity and equality of all citizens.

We have available to us in Australia one of the most important documents that
sets out our human rights as Indigenous peoples – and it is the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples.^[3]

The Australian Government has indicated, most poignantly through the National
Apology that it seeks in good faith to re-set the relationship with Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples based on partnership and mutual
respect.^[4]

It is the Declaration that will provide the necessary guidance to government
to develop new narratives, practices, philosophies and opportunities.

It is
the Declaration that provides us with a roadmap to resetting the relationship
between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Governments of
Australia.



The Declaration should also form the platform upon which a
truly reconciled Australia is built.

The next step for the Australian Government is to work with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples to develop a coordinated approach to achieving
the ends of the Declaration. This will require that the full implementation of
both the Declaration’s spirit and intent is achieved in Australia.

The
third relationship that requires attention is the relationships between
ourselves as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: at the community,
family, organisation and individual level.

I’ve been working in Indigenous affairs for nearly 30 years. I am not,
nor should anyone else be, surprised when there are disagreements. They are a
natural part of relationships.

However, at times these disagreements can get very personal and very hurtful.
And the hurt can end up affecting the whole community.

The notion of ‘lateral violence’ - the name given to behaviours
such as harassment, bullying and intimidation of those who may disagree with a
particular stance or position someone else may be taking - says said that this
is often the result of disadvantage, discrimination and oppression and that it
arises from working within a society that is not designed for our way of doing
things.

It’s a well argued phenomenon around the world that oppressed people
will eventually internalise this oppression and turn on each other.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most vulnerable group in
this country. The challenges we have overcome and the potentially diabolical
challenges to our cultures and livelihoods we are yet to face – for
example climate change and globalisation, to name only a couple - will require
us to work together.

Therefore, it is imperative that we create enabling and nurturing
relationships within our communities that are so pivotal to the agenda of hope
that I spoke of earlier.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recognise that improving our own
relationships is a real issue. And one we need to address.

For example, the work being done in places like Cairns and Yarrabah with the
Family Wellbeing Empowerment Program - which is designed specifically to
overcome community conflict through building support within families and
communities - shows us that when given the right opportunities, people are
prepared to challenge and defeat these behaviours.

Governments cannot and should not intervene to fix our internal
relationships.

But governments can work with us and our communities as enablers and
facilitators. And they can also work to remove existing structural and systemic
impediments to healthy relationships within our communities.

Our agenda of hope can only be sustained when Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people are able to achieve our potential - able to realise our personal
and collective capabilities. And only then we will be in a position to move
towards a truly reconciled Australia.

In contemplating the dialogue and conversations that will take place over the
next two days, I would like to leave you with some thoughts that I think reflect
what these two days are about.

My friend, Glenn Pearson, from Perth who, when asked what type of future
he’d like to see for us, put it like this. It’s a vision that I
share and I want to share it with you:

Glenn said:

“I want me and my children - and you and your children – to grow
really, really old together – having led fantastic lives that have allowed
us to make a lifetime contribution to the health and wellbeing of the broader
community and our families.”

“I want to know that when we were tested by life’s challenges,
that we pulled together to face them as a people; that we drew upon the best of
what we had, to find positive solutions to the things that have tested us along
the way.”

“I want to know that, purposively, we took on those things that we felt
do not reflect what we want in a fair, honest, respectful and harmonious
society.”

“I want to learn to hold and to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander culture and history as an essential part of the Australian story
because we see ourselves as part of it – connected to it, proud of it and
centred by it.”

I want a truly reconciled community: a truly reconciled Australia.

And I want that we all want it.

I look forward to seeing what we are able to achieve over the next two days,
and I look forward to working with you in the future to achieve a truly
reconciled Australia.

Thank you.

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^[1] P Dodson, So What? Lecture,
Dialogue and Nation Building in Contemporary Australia, University of New
South Wales, 20 August 2009.

^[2] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates (Apology to Australia’s Indigenous
Peoples), House of Representatives, 13 February 2008, p172 (Kevin Rudd,
Prime Minister). At http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr130208.pdf (viewed 10 November 2010).

^[3] United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GA
Resolution 61/295, UN Doc: A/61/L.67
(2007).

^[4] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 13 February 2008, p 171
(The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister).