Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that we are on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. As an Yanyuwa Garrwa woman, it is incredibly significant to always be able to acknowledge the people on whose land we cross wherever we go. I also acknowledge all the First Nations senators here and the lands of their ancestors.

I want to thank every senator in this debate for their contribution—each and every one of you. One of the wonderful things that I sincerely enjoy about being here in the Senate, when we get it right, in the way we debate and put our case—it's important for our country. That's what I've heard over the last week. Sure, we've heard lots of other things going on here in this Senate, but when I focus on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 and listen to the debate of each of the senators I appreciate it.

In Yanyuwa we are known as li-Anthawirriyarra, which means our spiritual origin comes from the sea country. It means we listen. We listen with our ears, with our hearts. We know that we are imperfect creatures. We know that we have to constantly strive to be the better part of ourselves. And I see that here in this debate. There are those who are 'no', there are those who are 'yes', and there are those who are unsure, but all the while challenging each other to be the better part of ourselves throughout this. That is the tone that I ask that we keep and maintain throughout our journey towards the referendum—that we maintain that and we hold that.

In Yanyuwa we say gujingga, the sacredness of holding that story. This is our story. This is our story for this Senate, for this parliament and for the Australian people in 2023. Hold it with a great deal of sacredness. The gujingga—our songline, our map. The story that we are telling, we are creating. We talk about 60,000 years for First Nations people. For the Yanyuwa and Garrwa peoples, we know those stories have been passed down and they continue to be passed down. I share this with you from where I come from, from my heart.

I say thank you to each and every one of you, senators. You challenge us because we want to get this right. And we want to do it with dignity, respect and clarity. I also take this opportunity to thank Senator Patrick Dodson, the most amazing man certainly in all our lives but mine in particular. I just want to reach out to him right now and say: 'This is for you, Pat. You've walked with our country for so many decades, and you continue to do so with us now. You are right here with us. I respect your story as I share mine with the Senate.'

I thank Linda Burney not just as the Minister for Indigenous Australians but as an amazing woman—Wiradjuri people, her families. I thank those who have walked with us in the Referendum Engagement Group and the Referendum Working Group—all of you, and you continue to do so with a great deal of passion and patience. I know at times it's getting rough, but I say: hang in there and hold on, because when you walk with goodness, with your intent to be that, knowing that you're going to have ups and downs, then you keep that journey sacred.

Tonight on Yanyuwa country they're going to dance, and for the next three nights they're going to dance—the Yanyuwa, the Garrwa, the Marra and the Gudanji peoples—for the Malandarri Festival. I've asked them: 'Please, dance really strong for us so that I can feel this ground shake here on Ngunnawal country at Capital Hill.' Shake this place, my ancestors. Shake this place, my families. And you dance strong, because that is who we are. We have fought for four decades just to be recognised as Yanyuwa traditional owners in that part of the country. We know what it's like to fight. We know what it's like to keep persevering despite all the odds. We know what it's like to rise above another funeral, another death and the poverty. We rise with hope.

We may have what some in here may say is an imperfect road—you know: 'Is there enough detail?' 'Don't touch the Constitution. It's too precious.' 'It's too risky.' All of these things I've heard as reasons for why we shouldn't embark on this journey. But they still are not strong enough reasons to not try. We must try. We have to improve the lives for our people across the country, First Nations and all Australians. We will be a better country if we get this right. We will be a much better country. To inspire, to encourage and to be brave—that's what this time in Australia's history is about: to take the leap of faith, to be a better people, a better country, with all our faults, and to do it with dignity and to do it with determination.

People talk about not being united through this journey. We so want us to be united. We so want Australians to come out on the other side of this with that special feeling of knowing that they've contributed to a better part of ourselves, a better future.

You try working with your own language groups. We have over a hundred Aboriginal language groups in the Northern Territory. I try to work with all of them and more across Australia. But, if I focus on Borroloola and that region and the four language groups I've mentioned, in the four language groups we have the Yanyuwa, the Garrwa, the Marra and the Gudanji, and then within that we have the structure of the jungkayi—the protector, the keeper of country. And then we have the ngimirringki. The ngimirringki is the traditional owner. So whenever one group, for example, is not happy with the other group, we have to sit down; we have to work it through; we have to keep talking. We have to bring the jungkayi together and the ngimirringki together. And we sit, sometimes for days, to try and work it out, so that we come out on the other side of it feeling good and strong. We may not have found a decision that pleases everyone, but we will have found a way where we still keep walking. And that's what this journey is.

I call on all Australians: I may not think like you, and you may not think like me, and you may have come from Greece, from Italy, from Saudi Arabia, from the UK or from the US and made Australia your home. Well then, this is your opportunity to be a part of something special, to be a part of something historic. You may be a Muslim, you may be Catholic or Protestant—whatever your faith, this is your chance to be a part of something special; to create the Australia that we could have done, a long time ago, if we'd had the opportunity. Wherever you live across all the states—and I call on all of you, from New South Wales to Queensland, to the Northern Territory and across to Western Australia, over to South Australia, into Victoria and all you Tassie mob—every single one of you matters, and we need you. We need you to say 'yes'. We need you to walk with us, because we don't want to leave anyone behind, because we can be a better country. We must be a better country. In here, you hear all the ins and outs and the technicalities, and the legislation, or this law and that law. And that's okay, because that's what we are elected for, all these senators in here. But what the referendum is really about is you, the Australian people. Those that gathered on Anangu country called for Australians to walk with them. I reach out to you and echo that message too—a generous message; an invitation to walk in faith, with hope and with a great deal of love. And that means everyone—everyone.

We can do this. We should do this. We must do this.

To all those young Australians out there who I've talked to along the way: you know. You always say: 'This is a no-brainer.' To our young Australians: you give me so much hope. You inspire me, because you are our future. You are the ones that this will benefit more than most. You are the ones who can see a future that a lot of us might be too tired to see, might be too traumatised to see, might have had too many disappointments to see. But a lot of you young people see it differently. We also have to reach out to you and give you hope. We have to lift each other up.

I know there are those Australians, especially First Nations, who feel this may not be enough. I say to you: don't give up on us. We will get there too. Stay with us, and walk with us. It's hard walking in this system, in the Westminster system of parliament. But it's the only system we have to be able to try and influence in a better way.

Finally, I just want to say that it is the states and territories and the leaders of those areas, of those jurisdictions, premiers and chief ministers, who have supported Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney along the way. We know that much of that work, which is important work, will be done if we get the imprimatur of the Australian people when this referendum occurs.

In closing, I want to remember those who passed on the journey—our elders, in particular Yunupingu. And I want to read his daughter's words. About her dad, Binmila said that he:

… dealt personally with every Prime Minister since Whitlam. Many promises were made, but none were delivered in full. As a sovereign man of his clan nation, he was left disappointed by them all.

As his brother sang in a song treaty:

But promises can be broken Just like writing in the sand—

His daughter said:

Our father was driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people's place in the nation and the rightful place for Aboriginal everywhere.

Voice, treaty, truth: that is what we want the future to be for our country for all of us. Bauji Barra.