Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS):

(a) is a cultural institution of international renown; and

(b) has been central to the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies;

(2) notes that on Monday, 15 October 2018 AIATSIS unveiled its Strategic Plan 2018-2023 in Parliament House;

(3) congratulates the dedicated team at AIATSIS for its ambitious strategic plan;

(4) commends the work of AIATSIS in helping to forge a national identity that embraces, celebrates and preserves the unique cultures of Australia's First Peoples; and

(5) encourages honourable Members to raise public awareness of the institute's collections and the great work being done by AIATSIS to assist and promote the study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and culture

I've been here before to talk about the amazing and important work that is being done by AIATSIS, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. AIATSIS has been absolutely central to the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies as a distinctive, unique and substantial field of study here in Australia. This work traverses many disciplines, including anthropology, education, art, health, linguistics—you name it. Through its work, AIATSIS has truly become a cultural institution of international renown, so it deserves to be better known here and for there to be better awareness of it amongst as many mainstream Australians as possible. In my work with AIATSIS, I have seen the intimate knowledge that First Australians have of these lands that connect all Australians to what are the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

This year, working together with the member for Indi and other colleagues, we've established a parliamentary friendship group to foster better collaboration and communication between AIATSIS and this parliament. Our hope is that, through this friendship group, we can raise greater awareness of the priceless collection of cultural and resource materials that are cared for by AIATSIS, and celebrate the dynamic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. The materials of AIATSIS are quite critical to recognising the immense knowledge and the diversity contained in Australian Indigenous languages and culture. Last month, AIATSIS came here to Parliament House to unveil their strategic plan for 2018 to 2023, and I was pleased to attend the launch event. It was really fitting, actually, given that one of their major focuses going forward is building engagement with governments and with a broader range of people right around our community. The member for Indi was at the launch; I'm pleased to see here in the chamber the member for Groom, who also attended the launch; and I'm also pleased to see the member for Dunkley here, given that he once worked at AIATSIS, some years ago.

Underpinning AIATSIS's strategic plan is a determination to be part of helping all Australians re-imagine what it means to be Australian, and to forge a national identity that embraces and celebrates the unique cultures of Australia's First Peoples. The vision of AIATSIS is a world in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's knowledge and cultures are recognised, respected, celebrated and valued. As the strategic plan highlights, AIATSIS occupies an incredibly important place in this capital and in our nation. It's a unique institution that works at the intersection between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, governments, the academy, and the cultural sector, along with the Australian and international publics.

AIATSIS is the only national institution with an exclusive focus on the stories of 65,000 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. The four priorities set out in its strategic plan are discovery, transformation, resurgence and extending its reach. Each of these priorities centres on the opportunities and possibilities of this time in the institute's history, as we are approaching AIATSIS's 60th birthday in the year 2024. Their strategic plan also sets out the underpinning commitments that define the institute and characterise its long-term approach to its work. Those commitments include AIATSIS's technical expertise and capability being sustained for national and regional impact; AIATSIS being characterised by an Indigenous voice in all that it does; AIATSIS being a financially sustainable organisation; and AIATSIS operating cohesively as a single entity, embodying the concept of yindyamarra—that's a Wiradjuri word meaning honour and respect; more broadly, it implies thoughtfulness, graciousness and kindness. The commitments also include AIATSIS being positioned to influence across a range of sectors, having an innovative and flexible institution, and also, as I mentioned earlier, being proactively engaged and being an outward-looking institution.

Since AIATSIS relocated to the Acton Peninsula here in Canberra in 2001, it's now in a prominent location. This has created a real opportunity to showcase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and the richness of the collections of AIATSIS in a manner never before possible. I commend the AIATSIS strategic plan 2018-2023 to the parliament.

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second that motion, and reserve my right to speak.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very proud to represent one of the largest discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in this country, Palm Island. Palm Island is home to the traditional owners, the Manbarra people. As Palm Island was used as a penal colony, it is also home to the Bwgcolman people, the Aboriginal name for 'one people'. There are approximately 47 language groups on Palm Island. Palm Island is a beautiful tropical island with a resident community that hovers between 3,500 and 5,000 people. The settlement has been known as Palm Island, the Mission, Palm Island Settlement or just Palm Community.

The history of Palm Island must be told to be believed. This year we celebrated the centenary of Palm Island. In a series of events throughout the year, we reflected on Palm's history, present day, and the future. The people of Palm Island are strong and resilient, and the truth of their story must be told. Palm Island has a bright future. The young people who are the leaders of the future have a vision for their communities. The Bwgcolman people have shown their endurance and resilience over the past hundred years. The Palm Island centenary celebration provided an opportunity for the people to speak truthfully about the past and the challenges and adversities that they have faced and overcome. As Palm Island looks towards a brighter future with the assistance of the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council, led by Mayor Alf Lacey, it is vital to share their stories with the broader community in order for us all to work together for better outcomes.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies does remarkable work in collecting stories and doing research on the island. For those who are unaware of AIATSIS, it is a world-renowned research, collections and publishing organisation. AIATSIS promotes knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, traditions, languages and stories past and present. The organisation cares for a priceless collection, including films, photographs, video and audio recordings, as well as the world's largest collection of printed and other resource materials for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies. AIATSIS undertakes and encourages scholarly, ethical, community based research in a variety of sectors, including health, native title, languages and education. This research has also been done on Palm Island. I believe the AIATSIS CEO, Craig Ritchie, said it best when he described the organisation, saying, 'For more than 50 years, AIATSIS, a national cultural institution, has been the nation's best-kept secret.' Recently, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies unveiled AIATSIS strategic plan 2018-2023. The plan is underpinned by a determination to help Australia forge a more inclusive national identity.

We are at a pivotal point in Australia with our First Nations people. We are at a pivotal point in Australia also where it is critical that we as a nation engage in a truth-telling process that will reveal our nation's real history. I believe, personally, that AIATSIS has a crucial role to play in this process. The organisation has incredible resources, collections, research and information about Australia's history and our current First Nations landscape. It is only right and fair that the organisation's next phase is to communicate, educate and engage with the wider community. To realise these aspirations, the organisation has set a series of initiatives as priorities for the life of the plan, which include a new state-of-the-art home for AIATSIS that is a national forum for transformational cross-cultural engagement and sharing; the songlines project, working with communities to secure song traditions; resources for the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and heritage in schools; a leading-edge, engaging web presence; and potential physical presence beyond Canberra. This is an ambitious plan, and rightly so in our current climate. AIATSIS is a national treasure, and I am proud to support the organisation and recognise the excellent work that they do for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the country in this place.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased today to be here to support this motion from the member for Brisbane. I note that the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies is a magnificent organisation that does a terrific job not only locally here in Canberra but for our Indigenous people, culture, languages and more across Australia. It aims not only to look at the history, culture and languages of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but also to strengthen the culture, traditions and knowledge—such as language—for generations to come. It supports and facilitates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural resurgence and is helping to reshape the national narrative.

Established in 1964, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, AIATSIS, focuses on preserving, enhancing and bringing awareness to as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional cultures, languages and traditions as possible, particularly to ensure that they are not lost and that they are maintained and enhanced for future generations. Fortunately, 54 years on, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies has proved the importance of continuing the story and vibrancy of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their part in Australia's history.

As the member for Brisbane mentioned, I formerly worked at AIATSIS, managing a team of six people on a research project for a number of months, covering Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory and Queensland. I learnt a lot in this role and it greatly helped to shape my understanding of Indigenous culture, languages and traditions and also of the important role AIATSIS has in influencing and informing government policy.

I congratulate AIATSIS also on the release of their strategic plan 2018-2023, which they unveiled in Parliament House on 15 October. Their strategic plan is ambitious, and I applaud them on the dedication and effort they have put into the development of it. I trust that from here on it will continue going from strength to strength.

Together with the Australian government, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies are furthering the understanding of Australian Indigenous cultures past and present through undertaking and publishing research, preserving the history of their remarkable collection and more. That includes, in my electorate of Dunkley, with the Boonwurrung of the Kulin nation. We are proud of our local Indigenous community. As many people would know, the percentage of our electorate made up by the Indigenous community is higher than the state average and, indeed, higher even than the national average. I am very proud to have supported locally the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation—for example, with a $50,000 grant recently through Landcare Australia as well as a stronger communities grant for Nairm Marr Djambana for a wet room and other resources—to help preserve our local Indigenous culture, traditions and community.

I note also the friendship created through the Parliamentary Friends of AIATSIS. With our co-convenors, this has resulted in great advocacy from and with the institute and more understanding by colleagues across the parliament and beyond. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies' plan has also outlined their strong plan going forward. That includes a new state-of-the-art home for AIATSIS that is a national forum for transformational cross-cultural engagement and shared learning; the Songlines project, which is working with communities to ensure and secure song traditions; resources for the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and heritage in schools; a leading-edge, engaging web presence and potential physical presence beyond Canberra; and more.

I congratulate all who are part of AIATSIS and those who are working with it to raise awareness of the great work that is being done. I note in particular some of the amazing work that I saw when working there, in the language space and in preserving the songs, languages and more, which I hope we can enhance and teach, going forwards, not only in Indigenous communities across Australia but in the wider community, so we can gain a better understanding of Indigenous languages, as well as of Indigenous cultures, right across Australia.

Lastly, I commend the work of AIATSIS and the way they're helping to forge a national identity that embraces, celebrates and preserves the unique culture and traditions of Australia's First People. I thank once again the member for Brisbane for moving this important motion.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Brisbane and other colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to rise in support of this motion. Today, I'd particularly like to call out the last part of the motion, which calls on our colleagues here in parliament to better understand the work of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies so that we can work together. Why it's so important for me is that as a member of parliament I have so much to learn, and I know my community is so keen to learn. If I could just put it in the context of a settled history that's 60,000 years old—that's mind-boggling: 60,000 years past. There's no reason to assume that we won't be a settled community for 60,000 years into the future. If you put that together and say, 'At the moment, we're in the middle of it,' we're now in an absolutely fantastic space to ask, 'What sort of nation do we want that brings our history with us and our unique understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories, language and culture?' and to make a nation that's proud of it. AIATSIS is exactly the organisation to help do it.

I'm so pleased to be here today and to be one of the co-chairs of this friendship group, because I know my electorate of Indi needs all the help it can get, not because we're desperate but because we're so keen to continue the work that has already been done—such as Bright P-12 College, which is teaching the local Dhudhuroa language as a year 12 subject and has an exchange program with Wadeye in the Northern Territory. I get invited up there to music festivals, the football game they play and the gathering of local Aboriginal people that takes place. There's a lot happening, but we have a long way to go before we have a better understanding of the settlement history of the last 200 years so that we can move forward into a different future.

What I know about north-east Victoria is that Governor Gipps was very keen to get settlement happening in the country areas. He forged a route from Melbourne that eventually went to Sydney, which is now the Hume Highway. He built white settlement towns and eventually bridges on each of the major rivers in my electorate, from Benalla on the Broken River to Wangaratta on the Ovens and Albury on the Murray. With those settlements came serious dislocation for the people who lived there. The white settlers brought their animals, built their towns and did what they had to do. I've heard a famous story of Lady Franklin's trip up the highway and its consequences for the local Indigenous people when the army and the colonisers came through in great numbers.

Consequently in my electorate of Indi it is very hard to understand that settlement history and find the traditional owners. We have two recognised Aboriginal groups, which is how Victoria works, but while the maps as we know them in theory cover north-east Victoria, the local people say they are not accurate in the description of the people who live there. We need to better understand our history, talk with the local communities and bring that history together. I call on the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies to come to my electorate and work with us on our history, our culture and particularly our languages so that not only one school does local languages in year 12 but that, as we progress into this next 60,000 years in front of us, all our schools will begin and continue to teach our traditional Australian languages. We will become proud of not only our culture but also our history. We will learn the lessons of 60,000 years and then weave it into the future.

In bringing my comments to a close: I love your strategic plan, I love how you've presented it and I love its design and its clarity. What it gives me, as a member of parliament, is a chance to work in partnership with you to do some of the things that I know you want to do, collaborating with communities and government. Member for Brisbane, I'm looking forward to continuing to partner with you on this to do lots more activities and to bring to the floor of the parliament what a wonderful institution this is and, much more importantly, how we need to integrate our traditional cultures into the future of this great nation.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too thank the member for Brisbane for bringing this important motion before the House today. I am very pleased to stand in support of this motion, which highlights the significance of the work of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies—or AIATSIS, as many of us know it. AIATSIS occupies an incredibly important role and place in our nation. It's a unique institution that sits at the nexus between First Nations peoples, the government, the cultural sector, academia and the broader Australian and international communities. AIATSIS is a critical national cultural institution—very deserving of additional support and resources from the government, I'd suggest. Its critical role in the protection, preservation and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage can't be understated. The Australian story is indeed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander story, and that story is, of course, 65,000-plus years of continuity. We are in that incredibly unique place in the world where we have the world's longest continuing cultural practice. Sometimes that is taken for granted in Australia, and the work of AIATSIS reminds us why that should never be the case.

AIATSIS is responsible also for providing significant leadership and undertaking the premier Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research that is taking place in Australia. It maintains the most extraordinary collection of work, both academic and non-academic. In fact, as a young anthropologist, I spent many, many hours in AIATSIS reading collections that are so precious and require a place like AIATSIS to ensure their safekeeping. One of the great things that I admired at the time as a young researcher was that AIATSIS had some very strong protocols around who should access, and for what purposes, those cultural materials. Later in life, as an anthropologist undertaking my field work in Fitzroy Crossing, I submitted much of my work into the mapping of the Bunuba land boundaries and culture, and that sits within the AIATSIS institution. Again, there is a very strong regime of protocols around that, where permission must be sought from traditional owners in order to access that information. It's not owned by me. I might have been the person writing it at the time, but it is, in fact, owned by the traditional owners, and AIATSIS have always respected and enforced the wishes of the traditional owners in that regard. So I've always had the utmost respect for the work of AIATSIS, both as a student and later as a researcher in my own fields.

AIATSIS also, of course, has attached to it a magnificent publishing house, the Aboriginal Studies Press, and has published really outstanding works in Australia promoting First Nations cultures. There is such a rich body of material there now for Australians to learn what is, as I said, that national narrative for Australia, which is 65,000-plus years in age. The collection plays a really key role in recording languages and oral histories, and those are really precious documents that sit within that institution. There is some great work being done on the reclaiming of endangered languages, of which there are many in Australia. I'm very pleased that the Awabakal, Worimi and Dhanggati peoples in my area have all been very active in restructuring and re-creating languages. I absolutely encourage all members to take time to learn about the work of AIATSIS and promote it in your electorates.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.