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

We're one step closer to finally recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation's founding document—here's hoping; fingers crossed—after the Senate passed the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 Bill this week. It's certainly the final hurdle here in the parliament. And although the 'yes' campaign has a long road ahead in the coming months, it's important to stop and reflect on how far we have come.

I am particularly mindful of this in the lead-up to NAIDOC Week, in the first week of July. Regardless of whether you support the Voice or not, or are undecided, NAIDOC Week is a time to simply pause and celebrate. It's an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. And, amidst a barrage of all sorts of stories, it's so important to pause and celebrate it. I certainly encourage you all to support and get to know your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through activities and events held across the country.

This year's theme for NAIDOC Week is 'For our elders'. Across all generations, elders play such an important role in our communities, families and our nation as a whole. Our elders are trailblazers and they carry important cultural knowledge through generations. They are our educators, community leaders and carers. They are our loved ones, whether they are biologically related or not. They're often at the forefront of staunchly making sure that their community concerns are heard loud and clear. They're always there to pick us up when we're down and often to bring us into line when needed, and the struggles of many of our elders help to move us forward. The equality and recognition we fight for is also found in their fight, despite the many challenges they face, including in the health and complex issues they manage in our communities.

I want to take this to talk about some of the elders who've influenced and impacted my life and pay my respects to them. Firstly, there's my great-grandmother, Dinah Norman Marmgawi, who is the leader of our people in the Yanyuwa clan in Borroloola. She's been around a long time. We don't know actually know how old she is. Her memories go back even to the stories of her parents and the Macassans and how the Macassans would trade with the coastal people of the north. They'd come in their canoes. We learned from them, through listening to the stories from my great-grandmother, the way the ropes were used. And we'd teach them about the particular trees they could use to make their ropes on their voyage. Then we learned from them about the sails that are used to make it that little bit easier so that you didn't always have to paddle. These were the things that were exchanged with the Macassans. The Macassans would stay with us sometimes from one season to the next. In the Top End, we have what many people would know as the wet season and the dry season.

As I've spoken about a few times in the Senate, we have the stories about the Macassans as they arrived to the area and the diplomatic exchange that would occur. They probably wouldn't call it diplomatic then, but when we make reference to that exchange, there was very clearly an international exchange between one country and another. There would also be intermarriages when the Macassans would stay with us from one season to the next before they ventured back to Macassar. It was only five to 10 years ago that a trip was made from Macassar to the Arnhem area to relive some of those stories. It was not just valuable for our elders in Australia but also important for the elders and the descendants of the Macassans to know that the relationship was there. I went to Macassar towards the end of last year. After the G20 Health Ministers Meeting in Bali, I flew to Macassar to have that cultural connection and reconnect with them about those stories and the importance of how that is a very real story of our country's history. I pay homage to my great-grandmother Ngowagi Dinah, in this year in particular, but always.

I'd also like to mention my grandmothers as some of the women in my life as we reflect on preparation for NAIDOC Week for our elders. My grandmother Nancy McDinny is an incredible artist, known for her artwork but also known for her passion for fighting for country, fighting for her families and fighting to know that when she's not around the young people have a future on country and have a future in the community and the region of the Borroloola area. Kurdi Maria Pyro, who, while raising seven children, worked hard to become a teacher and was perhaps one of our two qualified teachers as a local woman from there, has inspired me greatly and I certainly look to her still for much-needed advice at various times.

To Dad Noel Dixon, one of the longest-serving Aboriginal police officers in the Northern Territory: he served in the Borroloola region for decades and had to combine his role as a Garrwa ceremony man with how to work with all the families and clan groups and still try and bring about some peace and harmony between not only the clan groups themselves but also between police and the general community, in terms of trying to keep a bit of law and order. They were difficult times for him. I have no doubt that, if ever he were to write a book, many people would value the wisdom from his journey in having had to walk that road. It was a road of his choice, as he learned from others in his family about being able to serve the community both as a cultural lawman and working in his capacity as an Aboriginal police officer.

To Mum Miriam Charlie: she's one of my incredibly inspiring elders. On renal dialysis three days a week, she still wants to keep studying and learning and doing her artwork at Nungalinya College in Darwin. She lives in a hostel because she knows she has to be in Darwin to access renal dialysis. I'm hoping that, at some point when we do see renal chairs rolled out more in our communities, people like Mum Miriam Charlie will be able to return to country and have the facilities they require.

I also want to mention Mum Jeanette Charlie, who has raised so many children, along with her two children—one of whom now is a police officer like her dad, Noel Dixon. When my natural mother passed away, Mum Jeanette was next in line. My mother was one of 10 children to my grandparents, and Jeanette was there to keep us all going and keep us all on track. In our culture, you take on the children of your sister's children and their grandchildren to be their mentor, to be their guide and to continue to love them and teach them. I pay my respects to Mum Jeanette Charlie, who's raised so many other children—nieces and nephews and grandchildren—and continues to this day to want to see the best for them.

This NAIDOC Week is for our elders, and there are so many more I could talk about standing here all night, as I'm sure so many of us can about people who have inspired us and continue to do so. And I call on all Australians to use that week of NAIDOC Week as a really special time to understand and to reach out to more of the people close to you, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. Our elders are precious. I think of my dad's family and the McCarthys. My grandparents on the McCarthy side have also inspired me, and I will certainly treasure this time in NAIDOC Week.