How can non-Indigenous people be useful allies to Aboriginal people?

SUMMER MAY FINLAY offers useful suggestions on showing respect and support for Indigenous Australians

How can a non-Indigenous person be a useful ally to Aboriginal people? As a somewhat outspoken Aboriginal woman, it’s something I’m asked a lot.

And admittedly, it’s tricky – how do they avoid crossing that invisible line? The line that takes you from being in the Aboriginal good books to being on the shit list.

When Ed Sheeran was in the country, he wore an Aboriginal flag t-shirt that he’d purchased from the Tandanya Cultural Institute in Adelaide. He then opened his performances – to audiences of tens of thousands – with an Acknowledgement of Country.

This simple act is a great example of how to be an ally. He used his position to support us, and he did it respectfully. Big shout out to Ed Sheeran!

We need good allies. We are only three per cent of the Australian population. We can’t raise the profile of issues affecting us without our allies. But what does a good ally look like?

While I appreciate Ed Sheeran’s support, being an ally goes beyond wearing an Aboriginal flag and doing an Acknowledgement of Country (not everyone has the status and influence of a major international pop star). We get it.

Non-Indigenous people aren’t silently surrounded by Aboriginal culture like those of us who are Aboriginal. It’s unreasonable to expect people to understand all the nuances – politics, unconscious bias and cultural competency are some of the few that people can get wrong.

As a Yorta Yorta woman, it will take me a lifetime to understand what it means fully to be an Aboriginal woman. My mother is Aboriginal, and I have been surrounded by the subtleties of culture even before I was born.