Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak to this very important motion today, I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past, present and future. I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful and beautiful first peoples of my community, the Dja Dja Wurrung, and in my contribution today I would like to speak about some of their journeys and the exciting moment in history that we are in in that we have settlement in our community.

This motion acknowledges that it is 50 years since the Australian people voted by an overwhelming majority for the Australian constitution to be changed to finally acknowledge our first peoples of this nation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as full citizens. This occurred before I was born, but it is a moment in history that even my parents discuss. They discuss what the debate at the time meant. For many people in this place, like fellow members of parliament, it means so much more. It means that for the first time their families were acknowledged as Australians.

When you share those stories and experiences with school children, they find it really hard to believe that in our country's history we have our first Australians, Aboriginal people, that lived here in a time when they were not even recognised as Australians. It's part of those teachings and learnings that need to continue to ensure that we do never forget and that we continue to move forward in reconciliation. In this motion we also acknowledge the 25th anniversary of the High Court Mabo decision, a decision that changed the direction of our country and made a significant step forward on the path of reconciliation.

But there is still unfinished business for our nation. There is still a lot of work that we need to do. We cannot declare that the job is done whilst it is still more likely that a young Aboriginal man will end up in prison than at university. That is something that we all must take responsibility for. The job is also not done on health—the fact that people who are Aboriginal Australians are more likely to have kidney failure and any number of illnesses—and is still not finished on education, numeracy and literacy, while people in the country and in the regions still do not have access to decent quality health and education.

In this place we still have a job to do. In my own community of Bendigo we have the remarkable BDAC service, the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-op, who work collectively and collegiately with a number of health and education services to deliver support to our local Aboriginal people. One of the beautiful things that occurs when they speak at formal events is that, whilst they may live in Bendigo, which is Dja Dja Wurrung country, they acknowledge their ancestors and their birth place. It is not uncommon for their comments to start with 'I am a proud Yorta Yorta woman'—that is just to the north of the Dja Dja Wurrung nation. This is a small way that they acknowledge their history. It's a moment for all of us white folk in the room to remember that so many Aboriginal Australians were displaced.

I mentioned at the beginning of my contribution that in the state of Victoria, in Bendigo, we actually have settlement. A recognition and settlement agreement between the Dja Dja Wurrung clans and the state of Victoria was made in 2013. It was the first settlement of its kind to be made. It meant that the four claims that were before the Federal Court were ceased. It is also a recognition of what our state parliaments can do. Under the leadership of former Attorney-General Rob Hulls the Victorian government became the first government to create this process and opportunity for our first peoples to pursue through state parliament, through negotiation, recognition and settlement agreements. It was one of the first events that I went to as the federal member for Bendigo and I will never forget the tears, the joy and the excitement of the Dja Dja Wurrung elders and their descendants; the look on Rodney Carter's face; the clap and celebration from Aunty Julie when the land was formally handed over with the symbolic moment of passing soil from the state government to themselves.

Since settlement, we have seen a number of achievements and a number of milestones. It was an important milestone for the Dja Dja Wurrung people and for the Victorian government. It recognised them as the traditional owners of this country and acknowledged the history of dispossession and how that had affected their people. These are some of the comments that the elders made at that time:

Our Agreement allows for continued recognition, through protocols and acknowledgements and Welcomes to Country …

It also provides us with some legal rights to practice culture and access and use our land and resources, and to have a say in what happens on our Country. The Agreement gives us Aboriginal title of some of our traditional lands, including the right to actively managing Country.

It includes several state parks that they are now responsible for managing. There have been so many wonderful things that they have been able to do since settlement, but there are some I wish to highlight, like the Ulumbarra Theatre. 'Ulumbarra' is a Dja Dja Wurrung word that means 'gather together'. That is the name of the new Bendigo theatre, funded by the former Labor government and state government. It was symbolic that it be named Ulumbarra straight after settlement. It is also home to scarred trees, in recognition. These were saved from the redevelopment of the Ravenswood interchange. The first performance at Ulumbarra was actually a work commissioned by the City of Greater Bendigo, performed to tell the Dja Dja Wurrung story. One of the saddest points of the night was when many locals in Bendigo said, 'This is the first time that I have seen, learnt and heard about the local Dja Dja Wurrung story.' I say it is sad because many of them were in their 40s, their 50s and their 60s. It was a lesson to all of us that we needed to do more to learn more about our first peoples' stories.

More recently, we launched the Dja Dja Wurrung tram. Whilst this tram will not help fix literacy levels and will not help improve the shocking rates of health and disease that we have amongst our Aboriginal people, it is symbolic because it helps our local Dja Dja Wurrung tell their story of what happened when our town—a mining town—was mined for gold. As we sat on the tram and it travelled through Bendigo, local Dja Dja Wurrung elders could talk about what happened to their country when it was mined for gold. A local Dja Dja Wurrung artist was commissioned to paint the tram and to help tell the local story.

There's so much that I could talk about, and I don't feel like this speech has done justice to the amazing work that has been achieved by our Dja Dja Wurrung nation and their elders. But in my final comments I will include a few words from Aunty Julie. Aunty Julie was the Citizen of the Year in 2017 for Mount Alexander. She said in her speech:

The true invaders, I believe, were the landed gentry, the squatters and the pastoralists. Often the term 'settlers' is used to describe these people but I see them as the true invaders … Then came disease, massacres, poisoning, and dispossession of our land. Of the whole Dja Dja Wurrung nation in the Mount Alexander Shire, which numbered around 2,000 before invasion, only 70 were left on Country by 1863. In less than 30 years nearly a whole nation of proud people was decimated by greed. This is part of the history which must be understood, not dwelled on, but understood, so that we as a people can understand and move forward.

And she invited all of us to share that journey with her.

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