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SPEECH BY
ALMA STACKHOUSE
MEMBER
AT THE FORUM
CREATING A RESPONSIBLE WORLD IN
SIENA COLLEGE WEDNESDAY 30 AUGUST 2000 Thank you [special guests acknowledged] Students of Siena College, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to represent the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation at such a forward looking forum. By asking me to speak, I think you’ve shown that you are already aware of the importance of some of the things I’m going to talk about. But before I begin, I’d like to note that I’m speaking to you on the country of the Wurundjeri people, the original owners of this land. I acknowledge the living culture of the Wurundjeri people, and the unique contribution they make to the life of the Melbourne region. The Wurundjeri are one of many thousands of Indigenous cultural groups that lived in, and cared for, this continent for thousands of years before European people arrived just over two centuries ago. The experiences of those many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures have varied enormously over the last two hundred years. But it’s safe to say that none of them have remained untouched by the impact of European culture. There lies a clue to why we actually need this wonderful process of reconciliation that Australia is currently embarked on. I want to talk a little about that need before I discuss the work of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and offer a few thoughts about where reconciliation is heading in the 21st century. You can trace the need for the process right back to 1788, when the British began the long process of colonising the continent we now call Australia. On the 26th of January 1788, the British claimed sovereignty over the whole of mainland Australia. By doing that, they put their own Common Law (as it’s called) above the traditional laws and customs of all the Aboriginal peoples who occupied the land when they arrived. As the most important part of that claim, they denied the existence of any form of Aboriginal ownership of land. For British purposes, Australia was terra nullius – a land without owners. That was the original and most basic cause of the need for reconciliation. The need grew stronger as each new Indigenous community was disrupted. Their people were taken from their traditional lands, their children were taken from their mothers, they were punished for using their own laws, cultures and languages. And their physical health was devastated by new diseases brought in with the settlers and convicts from another part of the world. In time, the need took on another dimension. As the European way of doing things began to dominate, it became possible to see just how badly off Indigenous people were, as measured by the Europeans’ own yardsticks. It wasn’t only the effects of settlement on health, of course. We now know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are easily the most disadvantaged group in our society in terms of housing, education and employment as well. And along with all that, we have the indefensible situation where Indigenous people – kids in particular – make contact with the criminal justice system at a level that’s way out of proportion. These injustices, these inequities, made up a real need for something to be done to repair relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider society. Most non-Indigenous Australians didn’t even recognise that need until well into the 20th century. The cultural arrogance – the superiority complex, if you like – that created the legal fiction of terra nullius was still to be seen in the practice of separating Aboriginal children from their mothers. That tragic practice, that led to what we now know as the Stolen Generations, was still going on in your own grandparents’ lifetimes. In the last generation or so, the old cultural superiority complex has slowly given way to a realisation of the terrible harm that European settlement has wreaked upon so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. That realisation, in the end, led to the establishment of the formal reconciliation process. In 1991 many of the links, between the history of cultural, economic and physical mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and the present pain of social and economic disadvantage, were spelled out in detail for the first time. That was in the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The very last recommendation of the Royal Commission was that the nation should attempt a formal process of reconciliation, and that’s where the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation comes into the story. Soon after the Royal Commission reported, Federal Parliament voted unanimously to set up the Council, with a fair spread of Indigenous and non-Indigenous members and a fair spread of people from different walks of life. Now we’re nine years down the track, and the Council has only a few more months before we go out of existence on January the first next year – the Centenary of Federation. So what has the Council, and the nation, actually done so far in its quest for reconciliation? I think one of the most important decisions the Council has made was back in 1993, when it decided to set up and support a genuine People’s Movement for Reconciliation. When people in local communities get together to hear each other’s stories, to understand each other’s cultures, to work through the issues that concern them – then they’re paving the way for real reconciliation in their own backyards. From small beginnings in 1993, there are now hundreds of local reconciliation groups all over Australia, quietly but thoroughly creating understanding where there was ignorance, co-operation where there was antagonism. This community-based commitment has spread through churches and other faith groups, into workplaces and a variety of other organisations that deal with people. The People’s Movement for Reconciliation is now a powerful force within Australian society. If we needed proof of that fact, the dramatic events of Corroboree 2000 surely provided it. I for one was truly inspired by the huge display of support for the whole notion of reconciliation when that mass of humanity –250 thousand Australians of good will and serious commitment – surged across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, May the 28th. They were supported on the day, and in the weeks that followed, by similar huge turnouts in towns and cities around the nation. Seventy thousand people walked in Brisbane, 40,000 in Adelaide, and in Hobart 20,000 – an incredibly high proportion of that city’s population – walked for reconciliation. All those hundreds of thousands of people were telling the world that Australia is in the midst of re-defining itself as a truly just and tolerant nation. They were also telling our political leaders, our institutions, and our communities that they want the unfinished business of reconciliation to be done. When they walked, the people were getting behind the the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation’s two Documents for Reconciliation, which we published a couple of weeks before Corroboree 2000. Council has devoted much of the last two years to the preparation of these documents. When we produced draft documents last year, we subjected them to a massive round of public consultation to ensure that what we finally proposed would reflect the views of the Australian people. We analysed thousands of items of feedback. (In that regard, I must say that the document we received from last year’s National Youth Reconciliation Convention was one of the best-argued and best presented submissions the Council received.) The better know Declaration Towards Reconciliation, with its inspiring words and unifying sentiments, is a celebration of what this country has achieved on the path to reconciliation since the Council started work nine years ago. And it provides a fresh and more powerful focus on what still needs to be done to reach the point of genuine reconciliation. The less well-known Roadmap for Reconciliation sets out a practical, serious agenda of unfinished business I really commend the Roadmap to your study, because no matter what the Council achieves in its last few months, there will still be plenty to do in coming years and perhaps even decades. As young people today, you will be in the chair, as it were, as the nation completes its journey to true and lasting reconciliation. And I believe you are better equipped than any previous generation of Australians to understand the issues and take the nation forward. Council’s own social research shows that young people – in this case those in the 18 to 24 years age group – are significantly more aware of, and positive about, key reconciliation issues than their older counterparts. I think this is partly because of the major improvements we’ve seen over the last decade in how our schools teach the shared history of Australia, and give students some understanding of the Indigenous perspective on that history. I’m sure that is happening here at Siena, and I hope that all of you will carry that understanding through into your further studies and your adult lives in the community. I’ll close now with a bit of information about what the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation is doing in its last few months of existence. We’re essentially trying to consolidate partnerships between Indigenous communities and key institutions that have the power to act on the agenda we set out in the Roadmap for Reconciliation. We’re seeking fresh commitments from governments, education and health systems, business organisations, church groups and so on – to advance the cause of reconciliation. Formally, under the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act of 1991, we’re required to report our final recommendations – on the documents and all other matters we were asked to deal with – to the responsible Minister. The Minister is required to table our report promptly in both Houses of Federal Parliament. That means that before the end of this year, the ball will be in the court of our national Parliament. The Parliament, therefore, will have time to decide whether next year’s celebrations of the Centenary of Federation can include a genuine, uplifting celebration of our progress towards reconciliation. The Parliament will have an opportunity to inspire all Australians with a fresh vision for our second century as a federated nation. But whether or not our national leadership grasps this wonderful opportunity, our journey towards genuine reconciliation will continue. It will continue at the grassroots of our society, among individuals and organisations in local communities and in the regions. It will continue in the many institutions within Australia’s structure that have grasped the meaning of reconciliation and what it can do to take the nation forward. This firm belief that reconciliation will triumph at ground level is one of the reasons why I was delighted to accept your invitation to be here today. Your realisation, that achieving real reconciliation is part of the requirements for a responsible world, is in itself a step forward for your school, your community and the nation. It reinforces my faith that the Australian people will see it through. We will complete the journey together to reconciliation. Thank you.
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