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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-06-05 Daily Xml
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National Reconciliation Week

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:10): I acknowledge we meet on Kaurna land, particularly so as my contribution today is about events in Reconciliation Week, a national celebration of Indigenous people and achievements starting with National Sorry Day on 26 May and ending this week with Mabo Day on 3 June.

With Governor Kevin Scarce and Mrs Scarce and a large number of community leaders and an enthusiastic audience, I attended the 2014 Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration at the University of Adelaide sponsored by the Don Dunstan Foundation, Reconciliation SA and the Adelaide and Flinders universities. This year's eminent speaker was Patrick Dodson—a man who needs no introduction throughout Australia. His speech (which I have obtained from the Don Dunstan Foundation) was entitled 'Rights, Recognition and Reconciliation'. The following quotes will bring you some of the flavour of his thinking as he began his speech. He said that when he was writing his speech, he was in his homeland where the seasons were changing and flowers were blooming. He continues:

…the long grass was beginning to dry and die off, signalling the salmon were running, and the set of tasks and obligations for our people in managing country ticked over into the next part of the cycle, the season of Wirralburu.

Such management of country is guided by a deep knowledge of the land that has sustained civilisation in the harshest continent on earth over millennia—by sophisticated and clever design, rather than any imagined fluke or coincidence. And yet regrettably many Australians remain less than familiar with stories like this of our nation's origins, and of the remarkable achievements of the first Australians. I suggest that one of the underlying reasons this unfamiliarity persists is in part because modern Australia's founding document, the Constitution of Australia, continues to remain silent about this history of occupation.

So tonight I want to speak to you about the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the once in a generation opportunity that we have to address this silence.

I want to talk a little about the recommendations of the Expert Panel and urge our political leaders and the committees charged with deliberating further on the model of recognition and assessing public readiness to be bold, and to have courage and confidence in the Australian people. I ask that they do not give us cause to walk away from this moment of promise.

I also want to put the struggle for rights and recognition into some perspective and acknowledge the dedication, leadership and resilience of my fellow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, whose determination has brought us this opportunity at long last.

I want to speak briefly to the handful of doubters who seek to bring fear where there is need for none. And I want to recognise the growing movement of mainstream Australians who understand the rareness of the opportunity before us, and who are working together for this chance to make Australia a better place for all of us. One that will improve our international standing and respect if we get it right. No doubt our derision if we don't.

He went on to say a bit further in his speech:

It is also heartening to watch the passion and commitment of the next generations of young campaigners for this recognition referendum—younger leaders like Tanya Hosch and Jason Glanville and Shannan Dodson along with Charlee-Sue Frail and Pete Dawson and all of their many contemporaries who are helping to build the movement of recognition.

In summing up he said:

I return to where I began—to the task of finding our common ground ever more firmly as a nation.

If the country can come together around our Indigenous heritage, and our ongoing place in the heart of the national identity—no longer forced to live constitutionally outside the Common Gate—we can then responsibly look to building a better society.

It will be an honouring of those Australians who sought constitutional change for the better in the past. A service to ourselves and each other as an act of unity and reconciliation. A service to future generations of Australians. An opportunity to repudiate terra nullius and co-create a new narrative for the modern Australian-nation-state; and a moment of truth for all of us to celebrate with great pride.

The other thing I want to mention today which was of use was the Aboriginal Veterans Commemorative Service that I went to on Friday, 30 May at the Torrens Parade Ground, which was by that wonderful memorial dedicated last year on 10 November. The history behind that wonderful site—which is the first national memorial to Australian and Torres Strait Island servicemen and women in the country—is well known.

There was a great number of people present, all paying homage to people such as Private Gordon Naley, Captain Timothy Hughes MBE MM, Leading Aircraftsman George Tongerie, Private Frank Clarke (who gave a marvellous address to the gathering), Marine Engineer Lewis O'Brien—a senior Kaurna man who is well-known throughout Adelaide who gave us a welcome to country before the event—and WRAN Marjorie Tripp who unfortunately was unwell and unable to be with us at the ceremony and we do hope she is feeling better. MC David Rathman introduced Karl Telfer for a traditional smoking, chaplain David Harding was there and the Marion City Band provided music.

A large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants in the defence program were in attendance. This was aimed at boosting Aboriginal membership in our defence forces. We wish them well in their career and look forward to hearing of their future endeavours. At the end of the event a DVD called—

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