Voice. Treaty. Truth.
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 1, 17 February 2023, page no. 11
On 26 May 2017, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from Indigenous nations across our country met at the base of Uluru. After days of dialogue, the delegates reflected on the insights garnered across this time. Before returning to their communities, they spent time penning, perfecting, and signing a 440-word statement – The Uluru Statement from the Heart.
This generous and heartfelt statement from First Nations people to the rest of Australia is an invitation to walk and work together to create a better future. It also provides a clear and practical path forward for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
A “yes” vote in the forthcoming referendum would be a huge step towards an enshrined First Nations Voice that could feed recommendations into Parliament and supervise a process for policy making on matters that affect Indigenous lives.
The statement (https://ulurustatement.org) makes a series of recommendations, or “invitations”, to the Australian people, asking for three sequential key reforms: Voice. Treaty. Truth.
Enshrining a Voice to Parliament in the Constitution would help to address the often unmet and pressing need for First Australians to have a say in the policies and decisions that govern their lives.
Unlike advisory committees in the past, a constitutionally guaranteed Voice is important for permanency and endurance. The demise of First Nations bodies set up in legislation (such as ATSIC and the more recent establishment and then defunding of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples) as political priorities change illustrate this point.
Since 2007, Closing the Gap data continues to show little to no significant change in outcomes for our people. The Voice proposal aims to achieve a reconciled and fair system on matters that pertain to us.
As Thomas Mayor, National Indigenous Officer of the Maritime Union of Australia, explains: “We have had established representative bodies in the past, but with changes of government, these bodies have been silenced. By constitutional enshrinement, the Australian people are saying to all future parliaments that this is something we want to last.”
Australia is the only Commonwealth nation without a treaty with its First Peoples. A treaty (or Makarrata) would be a legally binding agreement between the government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with clauses regarding sovereignty, self-determination, customary law, and land rights. Treaties are widely viewed as a way to foster empowerment, healing, and self-determination, and it is widely supported by First Nations peoples.
While many prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been speaking out about the need for a treaty for many years, our calls have gone largely unacknowledged by various Australian governments.
With progress being made in other states and territories, it is timely for Queensland to consider how a government Treaty commitment might look in our state, and what individuals, communities and organisations can do to support this process.
The Palaszczuk Government announced Queensland’s historic next steps, the Path to Treaty, on 16 August 2022. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said telling the truth about Queensland’s history was an important first step: “We stand together at an incredible moment of time in the history of our state,’’ the Premier said. “What we do next on the Path to Treaty will define our humanity, our sense of fairness, and the legacy we leave our children.”
Truth-telling is fundamental if Australia is to be reconciled. The growing drive to establish an Australian truth-telling process aims to promote awareness of the historical and ongoing impact of colonisation and the dispossession and trauma experienced by Australia’s First Nations, and to encourage all Australians to come together towards unity and equity.
Internationally, truth-telling about past injustices has long been used as a starting point for coming to terms with a period of conflict, upheaval, or injustice.
Reflecting on the above, Professor Megan Davis of the University of New South Wales said: “A nation cannot recognise people they do not know or understand. The Aboriginal experience in Australian history is critical to recognition. From pre-contact to invasion, from conciliation to the frontier wars and killings, from compulsory racial segregation to assimilation, from self-determination to the return to neo-paternalism, it is time now to make peace, and the Uluru reforms are the road map to peace.”
The Uluru Statement from the Heart states: “Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.”