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AN EVENING WITH JACKIE HUGGINS
A SPEECH BY
JACKIE HUGGINS
MEMBER
TO THE
RECONCILIATION COMMUNITY LEADERS MEETING
HAZELHURST REGIONAL GALLERY & ARTS CENTRE GYMEA, NSW
5 OCTOBER 2000 Mayor McDonell, Sutherland Shire Council Aboriginal Advisory Committee Chairman Michael Rolfe and members, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the welcome to country (Elizabeth). I acknowledge that we are on the land of your people. I respect the living culture of the Dharawal people, and the unique contribution they make to the life of the Sutherland region. It is most appropriate that you have chosen this beautiful venue and exhibition as the backdrop for our meeting on reconciliation tonight. It is always gratifying to see Aboriginal art and culture respected and appreciated, and exhibitions like this help the wider community to understand a little of this land’s ancient and continuing Indigenous culture. I am here to talk to you about the future of reconciliation in Australia from my perspective as a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and as an Indigenous woman. I will touch on the Council’s reconciliation documents, the relationship between reconciliation and a treaty, and discuss the soon to be established foundation, Reconciliation Australia. I will then be happy to answer any questions you may have. Less than five months ago, many of you may have been walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with hundreds of thousands of other Australians, eager to show their support for reconciliation. I was honoured to be a part of that event, and it will stay with me for the rest of my life. In a few short hours, 250,000 Australians poured across that divide to show there is a future for reconciliation in the hearts and minds of "ordinary" Australians. I use that term, "ordinary", as it is the Prime Minister’s favourite way of describing those Australians who do not accept the idea of an apology. I must admit that Corroboree 2000 gave me great optimism for future relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community. The event also filled me with hope for the future of the people’s movement for reconciliation. The last few months since that weekend in May have also given me hope for the Council’s reconciliation documents. Let me explain all this positivity. The people’s movement for reconciliation is as strong as it has ever been. I probably don’t need to remind you that after the Sydney walk across the bridge, 70,000 people in Brisbane, 40,000 in Adelaide and 20,000 or more in Hobart joined people’s walks for reconciliation. There were more walks in other areas across the nation. All those people who supported Corroboree 2000 were no doubt making a general statement of commitment. But they also knew in advance what the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was proposing in its Declaration Towards Reconciliation and the associated Roadmap for Reconciliation. With the Council ending its term on December 31 this year, we wanted to leave an agreed document that would give direction to that enthusiastic people’s movement. We believed that both documents would provide a clear sense of what needs to be done to achieve reconciliation in Australia. The Declaration details our hopes for a new way of communicating and operating in Australia. A way that values Indigenous people and their continuing cultures and works collaboratively to address disadvantage and unite the nation. As you would all know, we spent a lot of time consulting about the words in the Declaration, we had to bring along as broad a cross-section of the community as we could. I believe we have got it right. The Declaration should serve as our guide to this new way, while the second part of the documents is perhaps more practical. The Roadmap for Reconciliation lays out proposals for a new, more co-operative and more effective approach to building genuine reconciliation. It aims to dismantle those barriers to reconciliation: the stubbornly high levels of Indigenous social and economic disadvantage. For the next few months, until the Council ceases to exist on December 31, we will seek commitments from governments, businesses, organisations, communities and individuals to take some or all of the steps outlined in the Roadmap. We hope to see people take up the challenges in the Roadmap and make practical changes to help address Indigenous disadvantage, encourage Indigenous economic independence, respect Indigenous rights and sustain the reconciliation process. We don’t expect all organisations to be able to implement all aspects of the Roadmap, but we do expect them to try. Since Corroboree 2000, many people have told me that they will be implementing the Council’s documents in their own ways. Community groups are looking at ways they can recognise and promote Indigenous culture; governments and the private sector are looking at ways they can increase Indigenous employment and partnerships. I look forward to hearing these good news stories trickle through the media at the local, regional, State and national level eventually. After discussing our document, I will now move onto another document entirely – the idea of a national treaty. Many of you would have seen the call for a treaty during Corroboree 2000. Certain Indigenous leaders used that weekend to kickstart calls for a treaty between the Indigenous and wider community once again. The Council did not echo that call, and I will explain why. A treaty is historically important to our country. We are the only Commonwealth nation not to have a treaty between Indigenous peoples and those who came after them. Many people, from both the Indigenous and wider communities, think a treaty would put right a grave historic wrong. They believe it would recognise Indigenous sovereignty in Australia. Some may criticise the Council for not producing or promoting a treaty. Let me explain why we have not. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation never had a mandate to create a treaty. When it was established by a unanimous vote of federal Parliament in 1991, Council was asked to consult Australians about whether a document or documents of reconciliation would advance the cause of reconciliation. It was then asked to recommend the form and content of such a document or documents to the government of the day. Council has gone beyond the call of duty by actually producing those documents to the nation and to the greatest assembly of national leaders in May of this year. You might recall that my Chairperson, Dr. Evelyn Scott and Deputy Chairperson, Sir Gustav Nossal clearly stated after Corroboree that the long journey to reconciliation cannot "jump stages". They meant that people must not interpret the huge show of support at Corroboree as support for a treaty for fear of alienating a majority of Australians. I agree with their position, not just as a Council member but as an Indigenous woman and a historian. Personally, I am in favour of action that brings about a resolution between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider community. I support an honourable agreement that settles the past and speaks about respect, recognition, understanding, truth, justice and human rights. The question of a treaty is perceived by some as a threat to the fabric of Australia’s national structures, while at the same time it is a symbol of Indigenous aspirations to control our own destinies. While it will be difficult to explain and negotiate a treaty, these difficulties cannot deny the legitimacy of debating the issue on the national policy agenda. Nor can they deny the rights of Indigenous peoples to pursue a treaty as part of our own agenda. The treaty debate will continue towards resolution on a longer timeframe because it is a vigorously contested element of the public policy agenda. That should not detract from the value and desirability of the range of options for local or regional documents of reconciliation based on the Council’s documents. The Council considers that such documents provide positive opportunities for reconciliation both practically and symbolically. The Council therefore believes that, while the treaty debate will undoubtedly continue, the nation should acknowledge that agreements between Indigenous communities and various sectors of the wider community, formalised in a document or documents, will help the process of reconciliation. I firmly believe a treaty is not the cure for the ills of this nation’s race-relations. It certainly is a symbolic step, and we need symbolism. But we need to address Indigenous disadvantage first. How can we have reconciliation when there is so much for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to catch up on? We still have the poorest health, the worst education, the worst unemployment, the worst housing, the worst levels of contact with the criminal justice system. Talk of a treaty will not change all that right now, nor, perhaps, in the future. The treaty debate is legitimate and must be had – but it must be had in a way that engages the broader community and therefore gains broad support. If Australians were to pursue a treaty, we would have to engage in a huge public consultation and education campaign. So many people – both from the Indigenous and wider communities – do not understand what a treaty would mean. Without a sustained education campaign, the enemies of reconciliation would use that ignorance to obscure and confuse the discussion of a treaty. They would have all the ammunition they would need to end the treaty idea for another several years. We should heed the words of the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, at Corroboree 2000: "Aboriginal reconciliation will be most effective and persuasive if we have the strength and the wisdom to speak more quietly, more tolerantly and more constructively to our fellow Australians who are yet to be convinced." Before the Council goes out of commission at the end of this year, we aim to put in place a framework for settling the "unfinished business" of reconciliation. This includes the matters of self-determination, traditional law and constitutional reform. We hope to clear the way for negotiated outcomes on the issues left to us by our shared history since the British Crown took this country from its original owners. We will also be leaving behind an independent foundation, Reconciliation Australia, that will provide national leadership for the reconciliation movement from 1 January 2001. This body will play a key role in the National Strategy to Sustain the Reconciliation Process launched by the Council. Reconciliation Australia will be an independent body and Council hopes it will be funded and supported by all sectors of the Australian community. Fundraising for the foundation started well, with over $70,000 raised by a gold coin donation from those walking for reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on May 28. While I can’t tell you much more about the Foundation, I can say that Council will be signing off on our final proposals for the Foundation at our October meeting. The foundation’s Board will be announced towards the end of the year, hopefully in November. We will launch the foundation with Council’s final report in December. I hope I have given you an indication of the Council’s vision and work for its final months. Thank you for inviting me to be here with you tonight, and please feel free to ask me any questions. Thank you.
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