Richard Frankland at ANTaR NGO Forum, September 1st 2011
My great respect to the traditional owners, and of course to all of you that are here now.
What a tremendous and exciting opportunity we have been given. We have the opportunity to change the very cultural landscape in our country. Together we have an opportunity to plant and sew seeds of hope and vision that our children and our children’s children can benefit from.
Together we are going to try and change the very rules of our land, to make the core document of our nation, more inclusive.
So what is this core document, what is this constitution?
Constitution - it is the rules of the land, the rules the Government must abide by.
The youmeunity website describes it as:
“The Australian Constitution is the fundamental legal document which created the Commonwealth and the States and established our nation. It provides the rules for the government of Australia.” Youmeunity website.
To me it’s more than just rules, it is more than rules for the government. That’s what I want to talk about today. What else this document is and what it means and can mean to all of us.
The constitution to me is also about voice, when we have freedom we have voice and when we have voice we have responsibility. We have great responsibility with our constitution. This responsibility is a duty of care to all of us as Australians. It is a guiding hand as to who we were, who we are and very importantly who we can be as a nation. Wow.
To me the constitution is not only the rules of the land, but it is the very fabric of our nations cultural landscape. It is the essence of who we were as a people, it contributes to who we currently are as a people and it guides and encourages us as to who we must strive to be as a compassionate and insightful nation.
To me it can set a moral agenda. It can give us something wonderful as a nation to strive for. If this becomes the tone of our nations core document then it gives us hope.
However the constitution cannot do these things if it excludes the first Australians. And in it’s current form it excludes my people and gives no recognition to us as the first Australians, nor to our sovereign rights, nor to what was taken from us as a people and nor to our current and future contribution to the cultural landscape of Australia. In denying these past and present happenings and this current and potential contribution, our constitution in it’s current form denies the true identity of all of us as Australians. It denies not only who we are, but who we can be as a nation and who we can be as a people.
To put an end to this travesty of our nations character, we must be courageous and we must be visionaries in our proposed changes to our nations core document.
Why is this recognition of Aboriginal and Islander people, our history and our current happenings within this document so important?
It is simple, because it is the truth. It is the simple truth. For some people it is the uncomfortable truth. As a mature nation we can no longer live with a nursery version of our past or be blind to the horrific social happenings in our present. When we live like this it renders us incapable of finding effective solutions to the problems we face as a nation.
In being insightful, courageous and compassionate in the changes to our core document, we set the agenda for our future as a nation. We plant the seed on who we can be as a nation. We extend a hand of brotherhood and sisterhood to each other that the majority of Australians seek to do.
And why is it important that the sentiments of equality, justice and equitable voice are honoured in the core document of our nation?
As an Aboriginal Australian there were many times in my life when because of discrimination, because of inadequate laws and because of inappropriate Government attitude and behaviour, I did not feel welcome in this country. I like many Aboriginal people felt our rights, our sovereign rights were and are being condemned and assaulted. This is a reflection on the inadequacies of the constitution in it s current shape.
Changing the constitution is an opportunity for us as a nation. There is a question we must ask ourselves, do we have the courage to recognise the past for what it truly is, do we have the foresight to plant seeds here in the present and do we have the wisdom to empower our descendants with a document that shapes our nation for change that embraces us all.
Richard J Frankland
Peter Lewis at ANTaR Constitutional Recognition Forum, September 15th 2011
Let’s Re Think the Nation
Respects to traditional owners
“We hold [the land] neither by inheritance, by purchase, nor by conquest, but by a sort of gradual eviction. As our flocks and herds and population increase… the natural owners of the soil are thrust back without treaty, bargain or apology … depasturing licenses are procured from government, stations are built, the natives and the game on which they feed are driven back … the graves of their fathers … trodden underfoot.”
That’s not me saying this – this is a quote from Godfrey Charles Mundy who wrote about Australian society in 1852.
Ever since the lands and waters of what we now call Australia was invaded and colonised non-indigenous Australians have always had the fact of our inherited possession of stolen land imbedded in our psyche like a splinter in the mind.
But facts are stubborn things.
The violent manner in which the lands and waters of Australia were colonised without consent or treaty is a stubborn fact.
The lack of any formal and therefore legal (in English law or First Peoples’ law) transfer of land and waters to the colonizers is another stubborn fact.
The fact that other British colonised countries did seek consent and treaty, even though they were often unjust and ignored.
And the failure of our Constitution in 1901 to acknowledge the humanity of the First Peoples is a stubborn fact.
In fact one of the first laws we passed in the then new nation of Australia was to prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from voting.
Too often some of our politicians when speaking to the nation offer us flattery in their speeches rather than calling us all to aspire to higher ethical and moral goals.
They merely seek to keep us in “carefully nurtured ignorance”.
But ignorance is not bliss.
It reminds me of when my wife and I were looking for house in the Dandenongs near Melbourne.
We found a lovely home with a beautiful view of mountains and valleys and were considering to make an offer when we decided to do an architect review of the house as a precaution.
And then our dream was confounded by a stubborn fact – termites, termites in the floor boards, termites in the walls, termites even in the stumps.
It was not to be; the house was without solid foundations, just a façade.
A beautiful lie.
We have no solid foundation as a nation – we are a nation built on porous stumps.
Our nation is also a beautiful lie – we’ll not so beautiful when you look beyond the cultured facade.
And until we face these stubborn facts we will never mature as a nation and we inheritors of stolen land will never have honour.
Termites, like stubborn facts, will continue to attack our stumps, our foundations.
Despite these facts there is still evasion and obfuscation.
Our nation’s vision is too often reflective of the original preamble to the Act of British Parliament which established our nationhood – that preamble was basically about the colonies of Australia deciding to make a deal to become a nation.
And we have been primarily a nation of deal-makers ever since.
But where are our ideals?
Where is our vision?
This year is the year of talking about constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Peoples.
And yes it is one of the products of a deal made between the Labor Party and the Greens and the Independents so that the Labor Party could be the government.
The You Me Unity Expert Panel is seeking submissions until the end of this month on the best way to amend the constitution so that it recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and then in early December comes up with its recommendations to whoever will be Prime Minister at that time.
Let’s consider what that word recognition means.
To re-cognise is to re-think and I think it is time to re-think the nation and have a real and open conversation about our foundations.
We should talk not only about recognition in the preamble of the rights and status of First Peoples, but also about removing the remnants of the white Australia policy from its provisions and ensuring that the Commonwealth cannot legislate to the detriment of First Peoples or any peoples.
Did you know that if our Premier – Big Ted – decided to prevent Anglo-Saxon descendents from voting in State elections, Section 25 of the constitution would mean that they would be prevented from voting in the Federal Election as well?
In fact under Section 51 – the Commonwealth government can make specific laws for every racial group.
That’s why the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975, can be so easily bypassed such as in the NT Intervention.
The White Australia Policy is not dead – it’s still alive and kicking, kicking the usual people.
You’d think that in the 21st Century we could have a non-racist constitution that provides for equality and acknowledges the history, status and inherent rights of Australia’s First Peoples.
We should also consider an amendment which would enable the making of binding agreements and treaties with the First Peoples and create an agreement-making framework to protect local/regional and state treaties that may arise in the various levels of government.
We should also talk about whether we just need to start again.
Because the stubborn fact that there has been no ceding of sovereignty means that we should actually start with the treaties before we get to the constitution.
But if the Commonwealth had that agreement making power we could start aright.
The question is whether we have the vision and courage as a nation to talk about it.
But I have hope – because the stubborn facts of our unjust and unsettling ‘settlement’ without consent or treaty will continue to bore away on the foundations in this nation until we do have proper acknowledgment of the rights and status of the First Peoples.
I have hope because there are a growing number of people who no longer want their children’s future built on the myths of terra nullius and no longer want to be merely the inheritors of stolen land.
Re-thinking the nation - that’s what re-cognition should be about.
It may seem a difficult task in these politically toxic times but it’s the most important task we face as a nation if we want our nationhood to be characterised by our vision and ideals.
As my friend Aboriginal activist, film-maker, singer-songwriter and author, Richard Frankland often says – if we deal with this properly then one day we may build a nation we can all be proud of.
A nation whose foundations rest solidly on the ground – based on the sacred connection, custodianship, rights and status of the First Peoples and based on a united vision of justice and human dignity.
Thank you