Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow this parliament will table a report that will lead to what I hope will be a very courageous, brave, bold, visionary direction in terms of First Nations policy, representation and influence since 1967. I will not pre-empt the findings of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, but I do want to speak a little bit about the important journey we have been on to reach this point and the road we will travel towards the establishment of an Indigenous voice to the parliament.

I want to reflect on my story with the Yanyuwa and Garrwa peoples. I speak now so that I can encourage senators and members in the other place to prepare to look and listen to the importance of First Nations voices in this country. I am deeply honoured to work beside Senator Pat Dodson on this journey, along with Linda Burney, the member for Barton, and also Warren Snowdon, the member for Lingiari, as we have travelled across the country along with many other members of this committee. But I reflect on where I come from as a Yanyuwa-Garrwa woman in this instance—that is, as the Yanyuwa people we are known as li-Anthawirriyarra, which means our spiritual origin comes from the sea country. That means that our decisions, our debates, our happiness and our sadness come back to li-Anthawirriyarra, to our sense of spirit and place as First Nations people. We have what is known as the kujika, and the kujika is the songline, the journey, of our stories, of members of the clans of the Yanyuwa, the Rrumburriya, the Mambaliya, the Wuyaliya, the Wurdaliya. We are the clans of the li-Anthawirriyarra and we hold the kujika, the songline, very strongly. Everyone has a songline for the Yanyuwa. We all have a journey to walk.

This parliament has a journey with the First Nations people, and an ongoing journey, a part of the continuing journey of First Nations people in this country, and I ask senators and members to check with their spirit, li-Anthawirriyarra, when they come together to talk about empowering the voices of First Nations people in this country. It is significant that you use that not just to stand and talk with words that have no meaning but to stand and talk with words that come from the heart, because that is how First Nations people speak. That is the story we ask the parliament, the Senate, the House of Representatives, to hear, to empower our voices. And whilst, as Indigenous members of this parliament, we can be heard, there are thousands and thousands of First Nations people out there who need to be heard, and this process has been enormously important.

It's been 10 years since the issue of constitutional recognition was first raised. First Nations people have made clear that their preferred form of meaningful recognition is a voice to parliament, and we cannot ignore those calls. The convention brought together 250 First Nations delegates from around the country at Uluru, on Anangu land. Anangu mob have a name for their songline. They call it Tjukurpa. The Yanyuwa call it kujika. It was remarkable—the gathering on Anangu country. It brought the spirit and the strength of First Nations people together in their calls for their voices to be heard in this place.

Discussions at the convention built upon a discussion paper produced by the council and it reflected on the diversity of views raised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in consultative dialogues with the Referendum Council during the previous six months of last year. The majority resolved in the Statement from the Heart to call for the establishment of a First Nations voice in the Australian Constitution and a makarrata commission to supervise the process of agreement-making and truth-telling between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Makarrata is the meaning of two groups coming together after conflict. It's the space and time where there has been so much conflict that you need to come together. That is the Yolngu word—'makarrata'. We have another word in Yanyuwa. But the meaning is to come together after conflict, to sit down, to work through and to agree that peace and prosperity for both sides is the way forward. Truth-telling is equally significant as part of that. And I urge senators and members to think very carefully, and again, through the spirit, li-Anthawirriyarra, in preparation for these conversations.

We know that the previous Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and now the Scott Morrison government have not supported the voice to parliament, and that disappointment came two months after the announcement at Uluru. But what individual members of these two houses of the parliament have chosen to do—including members of the government and the Greens and Independents—is to come together, to walk together, to revive and keep alive the respect that is required for the voice. We will be able to speak in more detail once that is tabled.

It is certainly our priority for constitutional change, and there is a deeper message. For the people of the Northern Territory: we have seen and we have heard the conversations around constitutional rights. We saw the Wave Hill walk-off and the push for wage justice, followed by the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, followed by the Yanyuwa, who were the first under the Northern Territory land rights act to push for land. We know that the bark petition from Barunga, presented to Prime Minister Bob Hawke at the time, was an important statement then by First Nations people across the Northern Territory calling on this parliament to listen and to work and engage in a very sincere way with First Nations people.

That is all part of this journey—the history and the politics. The journey is the kujika. So I remind all members that this side of the house calls on you to talk with your heart when that report is tabled.