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1 Committee Secretary Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Parliamen Committee Secretary Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Parliament Inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy I, Jodi Steel, wish to make a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy. I make this submission as an individual citizen. I hold tertiary qualifications in Engineering and in a career of more than 30 years have served in the Royal Australian Air Force and worked in academia and the private sector. My work and life experiences have taught me the importance of culture, leadership and diversity to successful outcomes for individuals, organisations and communities. I believe it is time for us as a nation to embrace fully our heritage and the diversity of our citizens, to discern with courage a clear and renewed understanding of our past and who we are now, to find common purpose and to work together. My submission addresses the following aspects: • The Uluru Statement from the Heart. • Our national narrative. • Our national social contract. • Decline in public trust of political processes and representation. • The Public Service. The Uluru Statement from the Heart I believe Australia’s Nationhood, National Identity and our democracy can be vastly improved by accepting the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We need only look to the powerful words of The Statement to identify what is missing from our national identity: A First Nations Voice enshrined in the constitution, and a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and Truth-Telling to the nation, supervised by a Makarrata Commission. The Uluru Statement from the Heart clearly expresses ‘With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.’ A First Nations Voice I support the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ‘from all points of the southern sky’ deserve a Voice that will be heard. A First Nations Voice will improve our social cohesion by empowering Indigenous peoples to work with government cooperatively – this way, the best possible policy and legislation will emerge – this is the roadmap to closing the gap. It is the roadmap to improving our democracy. It will create a new unity that will prove fundamental to a proud national identity. 1 Constitutional reform to include a First Nations Voice will improve our democracy. First Nations have a special place in this nation, ignored at the founding of our Federation in 1901. The effect of this – First Nations voicelessness – for First Nations people is detrimentally affecting our nation's social cohesion. Indigenous incarceration and suicide rates, along with the immense gap in life expectancy compared with non-Indigenous Australians are examples of this. We should heed what is sought in the Uluru Statement from the Heart: ‘We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.’ Establishing a First Nations Voice in the constitution will be the binding social fabric that brings us together. Inclusion of First Nations Voices will give us a unique cultural identity that we can be proud of – more than 60 000 years of continuous culture. At the very least, this Voice should speak on matters that affect the rights of our First Nations peoples, as stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), which Australia has ratified. In reference to point f. the extent to which nation states balances domestic imperatives and sovereignty and international obligations, we have an obligation both internationally and domestically to adhere to UNDRIP, and the proposals in the Uluru Statement would deliver on these commitments. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ culture is significantly different from our Westernised national culture, and is poorly understood (if at all) by most Australians. David Gulpilil’s 2016 film Another Country patiently explains important differences between the two cultures and provides a clear illustration of why many Government programs have failed First Nations communities. Giving First Nations peoples a Voice in matters that affect them greatly increases the likelihood of successful and meaningful outcomes. We would also make real and material the recognition in the overwhelming ‘yes’ vote in the 1967 Referendum. Makaratta Experiences in my professional and personal life have taught me the value of facing situations and learning from them what we can, even – and perhaps especially – those that have been very uncomfortable. For example, a strong feature of RAAF and aviation culture is infused with ‘brief the mission, fly the mission, debrief the mission’: to learn and improve. If not, air travel would not be the safe mode of transport it is now. Our Western linear construct of time and the notion that we can ‘rule a line under’ an event and ‘move on’ fails to recognise an essential human truth: that we carry our past with us. This is beautifully expressed by 20th Century author and poet, Kahlil Gibran: ‘Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream. 2 … But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all other seasons’ (p80-81) This notion of timelessness is more consistent with our First People’s understanding of time, as explained in a story conveyed in McKenna’s Quarterly Essay ‘Moment of Truth’ (2018). By ignoring and failing to learn from our history, we essentially deny a part of ourselves. To be fully ourselves as individuals and as a nation, we must face our past and take the opportunity to grow. As such, I support a Makaratta – a coming together after a struggle – for truth telling and to supervise the making of agreements with governments. I believe that facing together the impact that colonisation has had on our First Nations – honestly and with openness and courage – has great power to heal divisions in our nation, for those forgiven and those forgiving. Not all stories are of conflict. There are also stories of cooperation. A deeper understanding of our history will help build a richer sense of identity that will enable us to take our place in the world with greater confidence in who we are and what we stand for. My work and community experiences have taught me the importance of diversity in learning, solving problems and generating ideas. Our world is increasingly complex, and many of the challenges we face require the skills of multiple disciplines. In listening openly to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we have the potential to learn from a very different culture, fresh perspectives and wisdom discerned over 60 000 years. We can also learn from the process that led to the Uluru Statement, drawing together so many diverse voices. We often believe that groups of people we don’t know well will have a single perspective, such as expecting that all Christians have a single view on any particular topic. Yet as we meet more people from those groups, we realise that they hold a variety of views, just like the groups we feel ‘at home’ in. Our diverse First Nations peoples, through a process of talking and listening have found common ground and a way to express their desires through the Uluru Statement. In spite of the difficulties they have faced since white settlement, it is a generous statement, inviting us to walk together. How can we ignore such a generous invitation? Our cultural identity – national narrative National narratives – the stories we tell ourselves and others about ourselves as a nation - can build social cohesion and cultural identity by providing examples to citizens of the values and experiences that are important to us, that bring us together. They allow us to laugh at ourselves, to keep things in perspective, and help us strive for our better selves. They also define for us – consciously and subconsciously – social norms and what constitutes merit. However, narratives that too narrowly represent our population can cause people to feel excluded and unvalued. They can close our minds to opportunities, to different models of leadership and limit our view of what is of value. These overly narrow narratives undermine social cohesion and can discourage people’s engagement in our civic and public life. Perhaps our most prominent national narratives are of the larrikin, steely toughness or ‘sporting legend’. These narratives are primarily about Caucasian males, although we are starting to recognise female sporting legends. We also have narratives about the bush, even 3 though most of our population is concentrated in cities on our coastline. We are those things – and we are more. Some national narratives – like our infamous ‘cutting tall poppies down to size’ – hold us back as a nation. From my professional experience in the innovation sector, entrepreneurs in Australia frequently receive feedback telling them why they or their idea will fail, as a consequence of this narrative. In other countries, entrepreneurs are typically encouraged to ‘have a go’ and learn along the way, or are given feedback on how to improve their idea. Our approach leads to aversion of risk, of not taking a chance, and yet so much learning arises from doing, whether we succeed or fail. This has delayed and reduced our success in this sector that creates wealth and employment for many other countries.
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