|
 Top
Story
|
|
|
THE BIG READ: Looking back, looking forward
Thursday, 4 February 2010
ISSUE 194, February 4, 2010: The last five years has been a whirlwind for former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma. In a speech delivered at the Yabun festival last week, Mr Calma reflects on the highs of his tenure, but insists there is still a long road ahead.
By Tom Calma
COMMENT
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunties and all of the children and youth here today.
I particularly welcome our youth who will be our leaders and elders of the future.
I begin today by paying my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the Traditional Owners of the land where we gather today.
I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.
The message that is given through the Welcome to Country, particularly the welcome of Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales, is appropriate for us all here today because it reminds all Australians that we are on Aboriginal land.
Land that was, that is and always will be Aboriginal Land.
It is particularly important to remember this today when many Australians celebrate the colonisation of this country.
As we all know, the affects of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across this entire country have been devastating and continue to effect our human rights, our standard of living, and our ability to determine our own futures.
That is why we as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples come together on what has been named "Australia Day" to celebrate our resilience and our survival.
We call it Survival Day.
On this day we reflect on the struggle and the success of our elders; those who have come before us; and many of whom are still with us and continue the fight; who have ensured a legacy of opportunity for our people.
This includes but it also goes beyond those of us who are in newspapers and on the television.
This recognition goes also to those community members who represented the fight in their local communities, on their traditional lands and through their leadership in preparing the next generations to continue on where they left off.
They fought hard for our people to be recognised as human beings on our own lands.
They fought hard for our people to be paid the same amount of money as non-Indigenous people and to receive that money in our own hands and to not be managed by the Protector, the missionaries or the government.
They fought hard for our people to have access to legal aid, housing, health, and education.
They fought hard for our land rights; to overturn the doctrine of terra nullius; and to have our traditional laws and customs formally acknowledged by a legal system that is not designed to provide for the rights and interests of the original owners of this land.
And they fought hard to establish Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations at the local, state, national, and international levels that were and are designed to promote and support our self-determination.
It is inspiring to see so many of our children and our youth here today, because they are our future.
This legacy will be handed to them; and we each and every one of us here today have a responsibility to make sure that the legacy left to us and the sacrifices made to achieve this have not been made in vain and the opportunities available to us are not squandered or wasted.
It is a great honour for me to have been asked by Cathie Craigie at the Gadigal Information Centre to give this year's Kevin Cook Lecture.
Of course the Kevin Cook Lecture was given for the first time at the 2009 Yabun Festival - just last year - by my good friend Bev Manton, Chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC), an organisation that Kevin was actively involved in establishing and led as the first chairperson.
I also thank Tranby College for hosting the annual lecture.
Tranby is another organisation that Kevin was instrumental in, and he committed much of his career to ensuring its success and continued relevance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I had the honour of being involved with Kevin through his years at Tranby and I acknowledge his contribution to Indigenous education.
Unfortunately, in recent years, Tranby like many of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education institutions has fallen victim to reduced government support and have had to rely on funds raised through alternative support such as the Friends of Tranby.
It is an even greater pleasure for me to be here today, given that my term as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner comes to an end in three days on the 31 January 2010.
I am grateful that one of my last duties in this role is to come and be with my mob on such an important day on Australia's calendar. The title of this year's Kevin Cook Lecture is Looking Back, Looking Forward.
I have been asked to reflect on my term as the Social Justice Commissioner and to highlight some of the achievements of the last five and a half years as well as to consider some of the challenges that we face in the coming years.
As I said last Friday, at the launch of the annual Social Justice and Native Title Reports in Redfern, undertaking my role as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner has been a great privilege.
I have been fortunate enough to work around the country with and for my people on a wide range of issues, some of which were hard issues to deal with, while others ignited my pride as an Aboriginal man.
While there are too many to list here today, some of the highlights of my term as the Social Justice Commissioner include:
• The development of the Close the Gap Indigenous Health Equality Campaign;
• The Government's formal support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• Most recently, the establishment of a national representative body for Indigenous peoples, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples;
• And while I am the eternal optimist, something I, and I'm sure the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people never thought would happen in our lifetimes, the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
National Apology to the Stolen Generations
As a nation we were relieved and inspired by the Prime Minister's Apology to the Stolen Generations.
Something that was long over-due. As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples we cried with tears of sadness and tears of joy, and we exhaled.
Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, came together to witness one of the greatest acts of compassion in our country's history.
And I was extremely humbled when I was asked by the Stolen Generations peak bodies to deliver a response on behalf of Stolen Generations members and their families to the Prime Minister's historic national Apology on 13 February 2008.
In the words of the Prime Minister in his Apology to the Stolen Generations and their descendants, "the time has come for our nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and moving forward with confidence to the future".
The Apology was the first step towards creating an Australia that is inclusive and embracing of its First Peoples.
However, we have a long way to go before we can stand in this country as equals, and this will take commitment from Governments at all levels and ongoing efforts by our people to achieve true justice, equality and reconciliation.
Close the Gap
The Indigenous Health Equality 'Close the Gap' Campaign is a real example of this happening.
In April 2007, 40 of Australia's leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous health peak bodies and human rights organisations joined forces to launch a campaign to "Close the Gap" on health inequality.
The campaign responded to the recommendations made in my 2005 Social Justice Report to achieve health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within 25 years.
The report examined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health inequality within the framework of the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.
The report highlighted that it is simply not credible to suggest that one of the wealthiest nations of the world cannot solve a health crisis affecting less than 3 percent of its citizens. It called for:
• A solid commitment by all levels of government,
• A timeframe and a plan of action for achieving equality of health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people within one generation, including providing equal access to primary health care for Indigenous Australians within 10 years.
Less than a year after the launch, we saw the historic signing of a Statement of Intent between the Australian government, the opposition, Indigenous and non-Indigenous health peak bodies and the reconciliation movement to work together to close the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030.
A fundamental feature of the XXXClose the Gap Campaign has been the leadership provided by the Indigenous members made up of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and other national Indigenous peak bodies representing our Indigenous doctors, nurses, dentists and psychologists.
Indigenous leadership has been integral to the campaign.
And it is a testament to the success of the campaign that "closing the gap" is now the language used by all Australian governments and the wider public to refer to the inequality in health and other social indicators as they affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
One way that you can support the XXXClose the Gap campaign is to participate in the National Close the Gap Day on Thursday, April 2 this year.
The day gives people the opportunity to show their support for closing the 12 to 17-year life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' ability to access the right to health is of course one of the fundamental human rights outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
I won't say too much on this topic now as I will be launching a booklet on the Declaration produced by Amnesty International straight after I finish here.
During my term though, I have had the privilege of working with a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country who have been actively engaged for the past 20 years with Indigenous peoples from all over the world on the development of a United Nations document that promotes the protection and the full realisation of the rights of the world's most vulnerable peoples - Indigenous peoples.
As Social Justice Commissioner, I worked with those members to lobby the Howard government to secure Australia's support for the declaration when it was adopted in the United Nations General Assembly in 2007.
Unfortunately, and to the international shame of our country, Australia was one of only four countries - along with New Zealand, Canada and the USA - that voted against the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As with Howard's concerns over apologising to the Stolen Generations and compensating native title holders for the loss of our lands, he would not come to the table and vote for the declaration, worried that it would provide a legal loophole for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to challenge the sovereignty of this nation.
This is despite the fact that the declaration provides clear provisions for the certainty of the sovereign state.
It was therefore another watershed moment in my term as commissioner when the change of government in the 2007 election resulted in the Australian government issuing a formal statement of support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in April last year.
The declaration provides a set of internationally endorsed minimum standards for ensuring that government's relationships with Indigenous peoples are based on mutual respect, partnership and consultation and recognises the unique and collective nature of the rights of Indigenous peoples internationally.
The principles embodied in the declaration are consistent with the aspirations expressed by the federal Government through the National Apology, the 'Statement of Intent to Close the Gap', and in supporting the establishment of a new national Indigenous representative body.
National Congress of Australia's First Peoples
Another achievement during the past five years that I am personally very proud of is the establishment of a new national Indigenous representative body - the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples.
Since the government announced its intent to abolish ATSIC in 2004, I have consistently voiced my concerns and considered issues relating to the need for a national Indigenous representative body as well as monitoring the post-ATSIC "new arrangements" for the administration of Indigenous Affairs.
In response to these calls, the newly elected Australian Government invited me in late 2008 to convene an independent Steering Committee.
This committee can be proud of what they have achieved over the past twelve months, and I thank each and every one of them for their time, their dedication to this process and their commitment to the self-determination of our peoples.
The Steering Committee was charged with running consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and putting forward a proposed model for a new representative body to the federal government for consideration.
The committee's report - 'Our future in our hands' - was launched at the National Press Club in August of last year and the federal government has accepted the recommendations of this report.
This is a public document and you can get copies of the report on our website or from the Australian Human Rights Commission office here in Sydney. Alternatively you can obtain a copy of the community guide on the National Congress from the desk at the back of the room.
The establishment of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples will mean that for the first time since the abolition of ATSIC more than five years ago, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will have a national representative voice that represents us on key national issues.
The model presented by the Steering Committee has been developed with the inputs and guidance of all those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country who participated in the community consultations, participated in focus groups or made a written submission.
In particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people identified a number of important roles and functions for the new national representative body, including:
• Advocacy
• Formulating policy and advising government
• Reviewing government programs
• Negotiating framework agreements with governments
• Monitoring (rather than implementing) service delivery by governments
• Conducting research and contributing to law reform processes, and
• Representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at the international level.
The National Congress will provide a forum to set national policies and directions for advocacy and lobbying in relation to policies underpinning government service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It will involve unprecedented channels for the participation of Indigenous organisations, peak bodies and individuals.
While in its initial development phase, its independence from government will be promoted by the fact that it will be a private company limited by guarantee. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people alone will be responsible for the governance, decisions and conduct of the organization - a first for a national representative body in Australia but similar in structure to representative bodies of Indigenous peoples in other countries.
Over time, it will seek to grow investments so that it can be truly independent of government.
Fundamentally changing the national landscape for Indigenous affairs, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples will begin operating in 2010.
It is proposed that the National Representative Body have four main components:
* A National Executive: That will be the operational and governance arm of the organisation;
* A National Congress: Initially comprised of a maximum of 128 delegates with voting rights, contributing to a national collective perspective rather than to simply represent the organisation or state/ territory that has nominated them. It will include a National Peak Bodies Chamber, a Sectoral Peak Bodies/ Expert Chamber and a chamber dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and individuals;
* An Ethics Council; and
* An Administrative or Executive Support Unit.
As many of you would be aware the membership of the inaugural Ethics Council has been recently announced.
The Ethics Council will be comprised of six Indigenous people of high standing, with one chair, and a gender balance among their members.
The council will initially serve a two-year term in order to bed down the processes for the new organisation.
This will mean it is in place for the initial two sessions of the organisation's National Congress.
The Ethics Council will be responsible for applying a merit-based process to shortlist candidates for election as members of the National Executive and then be responsible for ensuring the ethical conduct of representatives of the organisation.
I can safely and proudly say that the National Congress represents a new way of thinking and a new manner of engagement between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and governments.
It is about creating a genuine partnership with government and across society:
• With shared ambition, so we are all working towards the same goals and not at cross purposes.
• With mutual respect, so we are part of the solutions to the needs of our communities instead of being treated solely as the problem.
• With joint responsibility, so that we can proceed with an honesty and an integrity where both governments and Indigenous people accept that we each have a role to play, and where we each accept our responsibilities to achieve the change needed to ensure that our children have an equal life chance to those of other Australians.
• With respect for human rights, that affirms our basic dignity as human beings and provides objective, transparent standards against which to measure our joint efforts.
Let the new representative body set the vision for our people's future, provide the guidance to achieve this and advocate for understanding for the consequences that flow from our status as the First Peoples of this nation.
My hope is that a new national representative body will operate in such a way as to inspire and support our people, while also holding governments accountable for their efforts, so we may ultimately enjoy equal life chances to all other Australians.
The first step on this road is mutual respect and a partnership not just between us, governments and the broader community - but also amongst ourselves.
A national representative body is an essential component to achieve the long overdue commitments to "closing the gap."
I have also been asked to provide some insight into what I think will be some of the challenges that we as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will be faced with in the coming years.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that any of the highlights that I have talked about here today will in themselves deliver overnight solutions.
But they do lay the foundations and form a strong framework to begin to work together to address the unacceptable disparity in life chances, opportunities and outcomes of the First Peoples of this land.
Just because we have received an apology from the Australian government for their past abuses and violations of our human rights, this will not stop systemic racism that is born into the attitudes of some in this country.
Just because we have the 'Close the Gap' campaign, this will not provide overnight solutions to the poverty we face as a result of the dispossession of our peoples from our lands and waters and the denial of basic services and infrastructure in our communities.
And just because our government has offered its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not mean that they have the understanding or the capacity to fully implement it in a practical way that ensures our culture and identity are fully respected.
The right to participate in public life, the right to be involved in decisions that affect us and our social, cultural and economic development - our self determination - is central to the rights contained in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
But these rights mean nothing if we are not united in the struggle to achieve this and actively and effectively engaged in opportunities to contribute to these debates.
These rights mean nothing if we are our own worst enemies.
As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Peoples of this land, who have been blessed with a legacy of determination, resilience and survival, we have to come together, as those before us did when they fought for our citizenship rights, our land rights, our human rights.
And as we all know, not everyone agreed with each other, different groups had different priorities and different ways of doing business, as we do today.
But when it mattered they came together and fought together for the common elements of their arguments - our basic human rights.
Not everyone is going to agree with the model developed for the new representative body, nor are they going to agree with those who will be selected in various roles.
However, we all continue to fight for our basic human rights, and unless we stand together on these fundamental basics that are exactly the same for each and every one of us - a quality of life and respect for our human rights - we will never overcome the challenges we face no matter what they are.
And the fight of those to date, including people like Kevin Cook and many others over the past 220 plus years, will have been in vain.
We will have wasted those opportunities.
So I stand before you today as a proud Aboriginal man, with three days to go until I complete my term as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
I want to thank every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person that I have had the privilege to work with over the years, and particularly those who each year have offered their contributions to the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission and the annual Social Justice and Native Title Reports.
I have been humbled to serve you and to contribute to our progress as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
I leave you today with an old saying that I'm sure many of you have heard me say many times.
From self-respect comes dignity, and from dignity comes hope.
Thank you.
• This speech was delivered for the Kevin Cook Memorial Lecture at the Yabun Festival in Sydney on January 26th 2010. Tom Calma is a Kungarakan and Iwaidja man and the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Mick Gooda took over his role earlier this week.
* A NOTE TO OUR ONLINE
READERS:
|
|
|
|
Breaking News