Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I firstly acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and pay my respect to their elders past and present as the foundation of this discussion about the celebration of NAIDOC Week. I want to thank in particular my esteemed colleague the member for Berowra for bringing this motion on and to acknowledge the critical role that NAIDOC Week plays in the celebration of our national life and culture. While it was only a couple of weeks ago, the spirit that sits behind NAIDOC Week is not something we need contain to the week; it's something that we can celebrate year round as part of the ongoing continuum of our country. That is what we are ultimately celebrating in NAIDOC Week—not a moment, not a day, but the continuation of a culture that has survived for more than 65,000 years on, let's face it, one of the most arduous and challenging continents on earth and against the backdrop of European settlement and its consequences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

That's why the theme of 'Always Was, Always Will Be' is such a critical theme. It's about that continuum. While there may have been moments of disruption, we celebrate the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as the previous member remarked, as the first explores, the first navigators, the first engineers, the first farmers, the first botanists, the first scientists, the first diplomats, the first astronomers, the first artists, the first owners, the first cultivators, the first contributors and the first celebrators of the earth that sits beneath our feet. That is something that we should celebrate critically for one week, but it is also something that we should celebrate year round—because it's part of our journey as a country. And while we go through discussions about what should be in the Constitution or about other legislative proposals for recognising the critical role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and for not just making sure they have their voice to our nation's parliament but also addressing the historical injustices that have confronted them. We must always recognise that continuum and that the objective is not to have separate mobs but to have one mob where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders recognise the contribution that all Australians make and that we recognise the contribution that they make.

I was particularly touched many years ago when I went to a RECOGNISE dinner where this point was made critically by the incredible Indigenous leader, and daughter of another incredible Indigenous leader, Rachel Perkins. She's always been both pragmatic and romantic, and I say that as a compliment, about the role that we all have in the continuum of this country and its future. We should do so, because there is so much that we—all Australians—can learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders through their arts, their culture, their cultivation and their respect for this land. One of the issues we all must confront is the consequences of denying culture, particularly the erosion of languages. Languages are not just the pathway to communication. Sitting behind them are so many of the values and the stories that pre-existed codification through modern European settlement. Some of them survive in art works, but we must keep them alive today.

NAIDOC Week is also an opportunity to celebrate the incredible contributions of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have made their contribution to the success of our country. I know the member for Berowra referred specifically to William Cooper, who is one of the most significant people in our country, regardless of their indigeneity. It adds greater weight because of the specific challenges that Indigenous Australians were focusing on at the time for him to have been bold and courageous enough to stand up for people across the world and to say, 'No more—this is not the type of conduct that we will accept.' Of course, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have made their way into this parliament and have made an incredible contribution to this parliament as well. I always remember the first Indigenous senator, Neville Bonner, from the great state of Queensland, who has been followed by other Indigenous leaders who represent all communities in this parliament.

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