United Nations CSW62 Side Event : Wiyi Yani U Thangani Project

Thank you…

[Play video of Magnolia and then begin slide show of women’s photos] 

I want to acknowledge all of the indigenous people here today, from across the many nations of the United States and from the many countries and lands across this earth.

Forums such as this are vitally important to unite our global sisterhood. It is essential that we are visible in these spaces, and that our individual and collective voices are heard. In the same breath I acknowledge the non-indigenous women here who so often stand by our side in solidarity. Of note, my esteemed colleague, Kate Jenkins. Thank you for your words. We are quite literally solidarity in action, talking side by side today.

Our sense of equality as women, from diverse cultures and heritages, is only possible when ALL women are equal. And we will be equal, when all women experience a freedom without fear to fully express our identities and realise our aspirations not burdened by any state sanctions or forms of oppression and marginalisation. On our journey to achieve gender equality, if we leave anyone behind - any of our indigenous or non-indigenous sisters - we will all be left behind.

In the same vein of solidarity, I want to thank the Hon. Kelly O’Dwyer the Australian Government’s Minister for Revenue and Financial Services and the Minister for Women. Thank you Minister for inviting Kate and myself to be a part of the Australian delegation and for making it possible to talk about the work that I am doing with my team at the Australian Human Rights Commission: a project which I believe can offer inspiration and hope to indigenous women across the world. Wiyi Yani U Thangani, is a project named in my own language, Bunuba, meaning Women’s Voices.

The Australian Government has recognised the Wiyi Yani U Thangani project as fundamental to enhancing and realising the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls. The Government through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is supporting me and my team to conduct engagements over the course of 2018 in urban, rural and remote settings across Australia. The engagements are direct conversations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women and girls, designed to raise their voices from the ground to the ears and attention of the public and the Australian Government.

It has been over 30 years since the first time the Australian Government sought to hear the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls. In 1986, the landmark Women’s business: report of the Aboriginal Women’s Task Force was published.

Three decades later, Wiyi Yani U Thangani continues to build on the reports legacy. This is a unique opportunity in paving the way for a new and sustained relationship between Indigenous women and girls and the Australian Government, which will not end at a report. Together, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Government are leading the way globally in opening the space for indigenous women and girls to speak freely and safely on matters that affect them.

Wiyi Yani U Thangani is our women’s business mark two. The Australian Government is standing beside us, ready to listen to the diverse voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman and girls – their lived experiences, issues, strengths and aspirations. Their voices will guide and influence Australian governments to implement policies and practices that provide the conditions for positive change within our communities now and for generations to come.

In mid-2019 we will release what is set to be a vibrant and dynamic report setting forth the collective voices and stories of our women and girls. The report will have a solution-oriented focus, building on the strengths and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to overcome systemic issues and structural barriers, often in the face of great adversity. In laying the foundations for what we know can be a positive future, we will not shy away from extreme injustices faced by our women and girls today.

Many of the issues that we know are being experienced by our women and girls in one of the wealthiest nations on earth should be unheard of in 2018. We experience severe inequalities in health, education, and employment which have grown in a context of poverty. Cycles of intergenerational trauma have become entrenched, compounding societal wide harms, which disproportionately impact women.

Our deepest concern is that issues of harm and abuse are increasingly prevalent and in some instances, are on the rise. For instance, it has been reported that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the fastest growing segment of the prisoner population and are 21 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous women.  This is certainly contributing to our children being removed from their families and put into care at ever increasing numbers.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls should not have to consider this as their present reality. Our girls should not be looking at a future where the likelihood of incarceration is greater than a university education, and nor should our boys. Given this unacceptable present we have no option but to make real, positive and lasting policy changes and reforms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women and girls, today and for their tomorrow.

I want to be clear, that in overcoming these injustices, it is essential that we understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identities through the eyes and voices of women. It is only through a full appreciation of lived experience that we can confront and overcome the intersecting forms of oppression that pervade our communities. Oppressions that have been experienced along the lines of gender, race and class.

Raising the voices of women does not silence the voices of men. We must dispel this myth. Women’s and girl’s voices, thoughts and ideas contribute to the building and restructuring of stronger and healthier societies for both men and women. When women are stronger so are our men, our children, families and communities.

For all these reasons, the culmination of Wiyi Yani U Thangani is not a report intended for the shelf. By the time the report is released in 2019 we will be beginning phase 2 of the project. I hope to bring our findings and recommendations back to forums such as this, with a roadmap of how we and the Australian Government will respond and implement change. This work can be a guiding example for how gender equity in some of the most unequal spaces on earth can be achieved. We know that any less is not good enough.

I thank the long-term commitment of the Australian Government in embarking on this exciting and profoundly meaningful journey in partnership with us. It is certainly not possible without you.

I can already foresee some of the road that this Project will travel.

From our sacred places to our urban centres, from our organisations, to office blocks and the halls of government, to our enterprises and businesses, and from our grandmothers and lawmakers, to our sisters in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer community and to leaders who stand and speak at the forums of the UN – I hope to highlight the diversity that exists for us all as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.

An example of this is playing in the background as I’ve been speaking. Over the course of my five-year term I will bring the voice of these faces and places to centre stage as often as possible. Because what I am saying only has meaning if they are heard and feel the possibilities and power of being heard.

Like the Yolngu woman we heard in opening - Magnolia Maymuru, an ambassador of Wiyi Yani U Thangani. She is a young, powerful and intelligent Aboriginal woman from the remote community of Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land in far Northern Australia. She is one of many indigenous role models in Australia and across the world who continue to challenge and change mainstream conceptions of who should occupy the public space and for what reason.  But she doesn’t occupy the main stage just to present an image of herself, she is committed to raising awareness about the strength and vibrancy of her remote community and culture, about the achievements of her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sisters, and is a strong advocate for education and learning in all forms.

Magnolia is representing the essence of this project, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women mean business, as individuals and as a collective. Not just in their professions, but in their commitment to culture, connection to their heritage, land and the intimate responsibilities they have for caring for their families, to their ties to place and people and their determination to achieve even when significant barriers lie in their path.

The story of our women is so much more than what the world today projects of us. It is so much more than the story of trauma and pain and the pervasive harms that inflict our communities. It is also a story of strength and of a dynamic contemporary existence.

It is clear that there are significant opportunities to grasp here, to ensure that our women are not just a footnote or an add-on for the latest policy or programme, but that our needs and aspirations and our voices are at the forefront of the Australian Government’s agenda – beyond the narrow frame of victimhood and dysfunction.

Listening to our women and girls can provide us with exciting initiatives, innovative ideas and solutions that emanate from lived experience for confronting and bringing down structural barriers. This project will challenge us to go further and do better. To see behind the crisis toward the many remarkable lives of women whose names are unknown to the public, whose tireless actions and achievements are quietly unfolding in the constant hum that drives our communities every day.

We know that by listening to these women we can replicate their strengths and open the space for enabling environments that support our women and girls to be all that they can be.

The cultural, social and economic opportunity cost of not doing this for all our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, their families, communities and the nation, is very significant.

Our sense of a strong and respected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity is fundamental to supporting our cultural life which in turn is vital to our health and wellbeing. The freedom to express who we are and practice our culture in all parts of our life is evidenced to alleviate health issues, to keeping children at home, in their communities and in school, it promotes resilience, it protects against ill health and psychological damage, and it is a predicate for post-school qualifications and for entering the workforce.

When we are feeling strong, powerful and equally respected to all other women and people across Australia, we prosper for ourselves, for our communities and for the nation. There is great benefit to the nation in building productive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural hubs which embrace the knowledge and experience of women across our regional, remote and urban communities.

Not only will it relieve financial stresses on our health and justice systems, but most importantly it will deliver the equality which is the birth right of our women and girls. And with equality, imagine the innovation, emerging economies and potential of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls that will be unleashed across our nation.

In the spirit of self-determination and a human rights based approach, Wiy Yani U Thangani will unite us from one far reach of the nation to another, it will raise our voices as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls, and we will be heard by government.

Today, in solidarity, women across cultures must unite for gender equity. We will achieve gender equality when all our voices are heard, when we all have respect and our diverse cultures and heritages are celebrated. We will be equal when all our indigenous girls look to their future and know that their opportunities are boundless.

There is much that remains to be done. Walk with me on this journey and we will do it and achieve it together.

Thank you.

1. Calla Wahlquist, Australia must address soaring female Indigenous imprisonment rate – report, The Guardian Australia (online), 15 May 2017. At. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/15/soaring-female-i… (viewed 7 March 2018).

2. Calla Wahlquist, ‘Indigenous children in care doubled since stolen generation’s apology’, The Guardian Australia (online), 25 January 2018. At https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/25/indigenous-child… (viewed 31 January 2018). 

3. Emilia Terzon, ABC news (online) 23 July 2016 At. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-23/miss-world-australia-magnolia-may… (viewed 7 March 2018).

4. Australian Government, Culture and Closing the Gap (2010) Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office of the Arts. At.  http://iaha.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/000214_cultureclosinggap… (viewed 8 March 2018).