Published: 25 May 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THOMAS MAYOR: When people learn about the Uluru Statement from the Heart, they are likely to vote yes in a referendum – but Australians must first convince politicians to hold one
THE THEME FOR RECONCILIATION WEEK this year is More than a word. A theme that reflects the frustration many First Nations people feel with the continuing problems we face on our stolen lands, despite more than 20 years of reconciliation weeks. It is a theme that asks all Australians to take action.
And isn’t our frustration understandable?
For all the reconciliation breakfasts, lunches and teas; the concerts and special film screenings; the forums, T-shirts and marches over two decades, First Nations people remains disproportionately incarcerated and dying in custody; we are still expected to die around eight years younger; and many of our communities continue to live in poverty – poverty comparable only to third world countries.
If reconciliation is more than a word, then what must we do?
Let us start with understanding the definition of the word: reconcile. The word reconcile, means to reunite, to bring (back) together (again), to bring back friendly relations. If we were to translate this in to a First Nations word, the best would be Makarrata.
Makarrata may be familiar to you, because it is a process of “coming together after a struggle”, as called for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It is a Yolgnu word. As in the theme of Reconciliation Week this year, Makarrata is more than a word.
Makarrata expresses the desire for peace. Peace amongst ourselves, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and peace with those who have come more recently, whose ancestors haven’t been here for more than 60,000 years, like ours.
To achieve peace, a settlement must be achieved, deciding how the wrongs of the past will be recompensed, and how we can live together. And a settlement requires two important ingredients.
The first is the truth.
If First Nations people and the rest of the nation who benefits from our dispossession and oppression cannot agree about what we have suffered, then a settlement can never be achieved. Truth-telling is therefore vital.
But let’s not be lazy about this – let us ask ourselves a further question about truth-telling: how much truth telling do we need to tell, and to who, before we can negotiate a settlement?
More than 30 years ago, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody final report told many truths about systemic racism and widespread prejudice.
More than 20 years ago, the Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from the Families established agreed fact that forced assimilation and national scale cruelty has caused detrimental implications to Indigenous people that will last for generations to come. A truth that led to the National Apology.
And every year, for more than a decade, a Prime Minister has stood before parliament, lamenting yet another year of failing to close the gap.
Indeed, it is undeniable that there has been a lot of truth-telling to this nation already. And certainly, those who make the decisions – those with the power to reconcile – have failed. So the question becomes: why have we failed?
The reason we as Australians fail to achieve reconciliation is that we are missing that final ingredient toward a settlement; we are missing a voice for those who Australia must settle with – First Nations people remain politically voiceless.
We say we are voiceless because we are merely three per cent of the population in a democracy that fails us. Voiceless because every time we have established a national representative body from which we can speak from – coherently – our voice has been silenced by a hostile government.
We will never go to referendum unless we can convince the politicians to take the nation to a referendum so we can vote YES.
The proposal for a “Voice to Parliament” enshrined in the constitution is the missing ingredient to reconciliation. It is what we need to reach a peace settlement. It is what you need to be at peace as an Australian.
May 26, 2021 is the fourth anniversary of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and many of you have been walking with us for four years, and we have at least several more years to go in this campaign. If you stop walking with us, we will never arrive. Reconciliation will continue to be just a word.
Research for the From the Heart Campaign has shown that when people learn about the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and when they understand the importance of constitutionally enshrining a First Nations Voice, they are likely to decide to vote yes in a referendum.
So, I ask you to keep walking with us – keep sharing the words of the Uluru Statement, as well as essays and books on this subject by First Nations writers.
Finally, note this: we will never go to referendum unless we can convince the politicians – politicians who certainly know the truth – to take the nation to a referendum so we can vote YES.
Yes, it is time to give voice to the rightful custodians of these lands, so we can reach a settlement and be at peace with ourselves and these lands.
This reconciliation week, make it your resolution that you will make sure a politician hears from you, tell them that reconciliation is more than a word. Tell them reconciliation needs a voice.
