Aboriginal Way www.nativetitlesa.org Issue 67, Winter 2017 A publication of South Australian Native Title Services Above: NAIDOC SA March 2017. More photos page 4. Time for a First Nations Voice and Makarrata? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander It was organised by the Referendum Commissioner attended the Uluru that we have a voice which will be heard people from around Australia have Council as a new step in the constitutional Convention and she says that a forever,” Dr Oscar said during her 2017 called for constitutional change to reform process. Members of the constitutionally enshrined body giving Mabo Lecture. create a First Nations Voice and Referendum Council involved in the Indigenous people a voice is crucial. the establishment of a Makarrata process included Noel Pearson, Pat Thomas Mayor is Secretary of the Commission for truth telling and Anderson and Professor Meagan Davis. “The Mabo decision entrenched the NT branch of the Maritime Union and treaty making. recognition of the rights of Aboriginal was elected to the Uluru Convention The statement attempts to reconcile and Torres Strait Islander peoples in The Uluru Statement from the Heart many different Indigenous people’s views representing his region. He is on the was the result of the Uluru First Nations Australian law and created a policy on the shape of constitutional reform. Working Group chosen to carry forward environment for agreement making. Convention, which was the culmination the proposals from the Convention. of a series of First Nations Regional Dr June Oscar, Aboriginal and It is only logical that we advance our Dialogues held across the country. Torres Strait Islander Social Justice rights to be constitutionally accepted so Continued on page 2 Inside: Celebrating the landmark 1967 Referendum 3 25 years since Mabo decision 6 Sorry Day 20 years after the Bringing Them Home report 12 Jack Buckskin on why our languages matter 14 Constitutional reform push now for a permanent First Nations Voice and Makarrata Continued from page 1 He says the Uluru representatives were deliberately seeking a permanent voice to the Australian parliament. “The discussion about the voice is that it needs to be in the constitution because, like ATSIC was abolished, this wasn’t a call for the reforming of ATSIC, but ordinary legislation can be scratched out, just by the decision of the government of the day. “It’s important that voice is something that’s in the constitution, that gives a voice that cannot be removed,” he said The Working Group’s website 1voiceuluru.org says that it is likely that that voice would be an elected First Nations national representative body, and that it would be empowered to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a Above: Dr June Oscar and Uncle Ossie Cruse at the Uluru Convention. voice in laws that affect them. During the Uluru Convention, a small involvement, participation and making “Importantly getting a couple of The second key part of the Uluru group of delegates and their supporters informed decisions. Because they were hundred people into one Convention Statement was to call for a Makarrata walked out of talks, saying that it was presented with options and insights to talk specifically about what we want Commission. Makarrata is a Yolgnu a flawed process. and perspectives on a very legal and in regards to constitutional change word meaning ‘a coming together complex issue. Victorian delegate, Lydia Thorpe, told was a really unique opportunity for our after a struggle’. NITV that agreement among delegates “There were debates, there were generation and I thought that it had to According to 1voiceuluru.org, the was no longer possible. challenges. There were people hearing be grabbed with both hands,” he said. Makarrata Commission would have each other out. And there was a large “We as sovereign First Nations people The Referendum Council provided their two roles: supervising a process of group of people who came from reject constitutional recognition. We final report on the consultations to the agreement-making, and overseeing communities where they thought that do not recognise occupying power or a process of truth-telling. this process wasn’t the process that Prime Minister and Opposition Leader their sovereignty, because it serves to would deliver what they wanted. on 30 June 2017. Mr Mayor says that the Makarrata disempower, and takes away our voice,” Commission would play an important she said. “So many however of the participants The Prime Minister and Opposition role in moving forward, including saw this process as the delivering Leader released the Referendum The Uluru Statement from the Heart considering issues of Treaty. the vehicle to be able to have the Council’s report on 17 July 2017. was formulated in the days following conversation – with the government, In line with the Uluru Statement from “The Makarrata Commission would be the protest by those delegates. with the Australian people, on this very the Heart, the Referendum Council somewhat of an umpire, with a frame According to Dr Oscar the Convention important issue of constitutional reform work about Treaty making that makes recommended only one change to the was designed carefully to take all views for our voice post the 67 referendum,” sure that the negotiations are fair, and Constitution be proposed – that a First into account. said Dr Oscar. representative and also be an umpire that Nations Voice to Federal Parliament would assist our people to find the best “I think most people felt like they had Mr Mayor said that the Uluru Convention be created. For further information visit possible results,” he told Aboriginal Way. some real good opportunities for was a challenging but important process. www.referendumcouncil.org.au Uluru Statement from the Heart We, gathered at the 2017 and Torres Strait Islander peoples who We are not an innately criminal people. Makarrata is the culmination of our National Constitutional were born therefrom, remain attached Our children are aliened from their agenda: the coming together after a Convention, coming from all thereto, and must one day return thither families at unprecedented rates. This struggle. It captures our aspirations points of the southern sky, make to be united with our ancestors. This link cannot be because we have no love for for a fair and truthful relationship with this statement from the heart: is the basis of the ownership of the soil, them. And our youth languish in detention the people of Australia and a better or better, of sovereignty. It has never in obscene numbers. They should be our Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait future for our children based on Islander tribes were the first been ceded or extinguished, and co- hope for the future. justice and self-determination. sovereign Nations of the Australian exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly We seek a Makarrata Commission to continent and its adjacent islands, How could it be otherwise? That peoples the structural nature of our problem. supervise a process of agreement- and possessed it under our own laws possessed a land for 60 millennia and this This is the torment of our powerlessness. making between governments and and customs. This our ancestors sacred link disappears from world history We seek constitutional reforms to First Nations and truth-telling about did, according to the reckoning in merely the last two hundred years? of our culture, from the Creation, empower our people and take a rightful our history. according to the common law from With substantive constitutional change and place in our own country. When we have In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 structural reform, we believe this ancient power over our destiny our children will ‘time immemorial’, and according to we seek to be heard. We leave base sovereignty can shine through as a fuller flourish. They will walk in two worlds and science more than 60,000 years ago. camp and start our trek across expression of Australia’s nationhood. their culture will be a gift to their country. This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: this vast country. We invite you to the ancestral tie between the land, Proportionally, we are the most We call for the establishment of a First walk with us in a movement of the or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal incarcerated people on the planet. Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Australian people for a better future. 2 Aboriginal Way, Winter 2017 Celebrating the landmark 1967 Referendum On May 27, Australia celebrated “Increasingly people began to understand “Throughout history rights for many Dr Jackie Huggins is the co-chair of the 50 years since the successful that Aboriginal people ought to matter, people have rarely be won without a National Congress of Australia’s First 1967 Referendum, which ought to be counted,” he said. fight. Just about every right that Peoples. As a child, Jackie helped her acknowledged Indigenous people Aboriginal people have gained in this mother hand out how to vote cards in “The referendum count wasn’t just a as citizens of the nation for nation have been won not granted. Brisbane for the ’67 referendum, symbolic gesture, but the symbolism of it the first time and allowed the The referendum’s resounding yes came Federal Government to make laws alone was nevertheless very powerful. “As a young child I saw the struggles about because of tireless advocacy specifically for Indigenous people. and I saw the campaign unfold, which “It was the beginning of something which by Aboriginal activists, including many I still clearly remember,” she told At a dinner hosted by the department is ongoing today. The beginning of the South Australians,” he said. Aboriginal Way.