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Indigenous Reconciliation

Published on: November 2022

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-129930

Indigenous Reconciliation

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (20:18:15):

Those of us who were fortunate enough to win the birth lottery and be born in Australia, or those who have come across the seas to join us, share this country with the oldest continuous living culture in the world. For more than 60,000 years our First Nations people have lived in extraordinarily diverse cultures in an astounding array of environments, speaking many hundreds of languages and dialects. They have a connection to the land and the sea through Dreamtime and an interrelation of all people and all things. They pass down the memory of spirit ancestors through stories, art, ceremony and songs. However, for many, the rich diversity of those origins was brutally ruptured by European settlement and the violent dispossession that marks our common history. While we have made great strides across our country to continue the cause of reconciliation, there is still much to be done. In my first speech in this place, I raised these issues and my commitment to ongoing reconciliation. Today, in my last speech of this term—hopefully I will have a future term—I raise these issues again.

Earlier this year in this place we marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the New South Wales apology to the Aboriginal people of Australia for what was the systematic separation of generations of Aboriginal children from their parents, families, communities and country. In my speech marking the anniversary, I commented that reconciliation is an ongoing journey, and that, while meaningful change has been made, future gains will require just as much, if not more, effort. There are many areas of social policy that we can continue to invest in to make meaningful gains for the advancement of our Indigenous people. We need to close the gap on education, health, domestic and family violence, mental health, incarceration and addiction—we hear so in this place frequently from many advocates across the Chamber. We also need to ensure that our First Nations people are constitutionally recognised with a Voice to Parliament.

Our Story

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was created after the Referendum Council led a series of regional dialogues with First Nations people from all corners of the country. These dialogues ensured that Aboriginal decision-making was at the heart of the process, and the stories gathered were presented to the First Nations Constitutional Convention at Uluru in May 2017 as . The convention endorsed the work of the dialogues and issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart to the Australian people. The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice will be an independent, representative advisory body for First Nations people. It will provide a permanent means to advise the Australian Parliament and Government on the views of First Nations people on matters that affect them. This is something that is supported by the New South Wales Government.

We need to work in partnership with our First Nations people, their communities and organisations, so that we can truly move forward in reconciliation but also make strong investments into these communities to continue working towards a truly equal society. In my own community of the North Shore, we have a deep and longstanding engagement with different Indigenous communities across New South Wales and across Australia. More than that, we have an investment and a love for social justice and the need to ensure that everybody is equally represented in our country and that everybody has equal opportunities. The rates of incarceration, of violence, of disadvantage are such that that is not currently what we see.

I want to join with all in this place and across New South Wales to support an Indigenous Voice to the Federal Parliament, and to do what we can to ensure that voice is enshrined here in New South Wales. I will finish by quoting the last line in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It reads:

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

We can all walk together towards a better future, and enshrining an Indigenous voice in the constitution is one of many steps we can take to achieving that future. Let us commit to the voice, to treaty and to truth.