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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-02 Daily Xml
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National Reconciliation Week

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:36): Today, in Reconciliation Week, I want to begin by acknowledging that we meet on Kaurna land and pay my respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples—the First Nations of the Australian continent, custodians of the land and water for more than 40,000 years, the oldest living culture in the world.

At the Florey electorate office, we had a modest flag-raising ceremony last week to mark Sorry Day and the beginning of Reconciliation Week. Along with Aunty Shirley Peisley, Father Tony and Tea Tree Gully Mayor Kevin and Mayoress Karen Knight, we reminisced on the work we have undertaken with many wonderful people associated with the Florey Reconciliation Task Force for well over 20 years now. Tomorrow is Mabo Day, commemorating the High Court decision overturning the principle of terra nullius in June 1992, which preceded Keating's famous Redfern speech in December of that year.

In acknowledging the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage in a week when mass protests around the world have followed the death of George Floyd in the USA, and even after the 1991 royal commission, 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody have occurred here in Australia since 2008. I want to tell the house about the great sadness in many hearts about these issues and following the news of the destruction of the Juukan Gorge in WA. I refer to the article in The Guardian on 31 May for the information I now put on record:

Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologised to traditional owners in Western Australia's north after destroying a significant Indigenous site dating back 46,000 years, saying it is urgently reviewing plans for other sites in the area.

Rio detonated explosives in part of the Juukan Gorge last Sunday, destroying two ancient rock shelters, which has devastated the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people. While Rio has apologised for the destruction, it claimed the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation representatives had failed to make clear concerns about preserving the site during years of consultation between the two parties. Spokesman Burchell Hayes labelled the claim 'outrageous', saying Rio was told in October about the significance of the rock shelters, and the high significance of the site was further relayed to Rio Tinto by the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation as recently as March.

While the WA state government hopes to pass its new Aboriginal cultural heritage bill this year, the COVID-19 delay to the consultation process has proven costly. Peter Stone, UNESCO's Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, said the archaeological destruction at Juukan Gorge was among the worst seen in recent history, likening it to the Taliban blowing up the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan and ISIS annihilating sites in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

It is hard for us, who have never seen these now lost precious links to Aboriginal heritage, or perhaps any Aboriginal art in the place where it was created so many thousands of years ago, to understand the terrible loss the PKKP people are experiencing, and nothing can change this great sadness or replace it.

Traditional life on the remote lands of our continent presents many difficulties for Aboriginal people. Perhaps the greatest is maintaining their health in the face of their traditional way of life being changed so dramatically, almost beyond recognition. I want to speak further about the health, accommodation, educational, social and cultural disruption that many of our South Australian Aboriginal people face as a result of Adelaide-centric essential health care for elders, particularly women of the APY lands.

I was privileged to accompany a delegation comprising Bill Denny, David Wright, Reverend Dean Whittaker, John Lochowiak and Melissa Thompson to meet with the Premier and thank him for receiving us on 23 January this year. So much has happened since then and we now have to continue the dialogue started that day.

What the delegation sought was an audit to identify the benefits of the provision of kidney dialysis services in situ in remote Aboriginal communities following the establishment of the new Purple House dialysis centre at Pukatja, which we understand is underutilised. The new dialysis chairs will allow elders in Pukatja to remain on country to continue their essential traditional and non-traditional roles in an uninterrupted manner. It is believed that a comparison of facilitated and non-facilitated communities will reveal the far-reaching disadvantages and advantages of the Pukatja facility, where elders from Pukatja will not be required to leave country with a flow-on of positive benefits for the entire community.

By comparison, an audit of other communities without a dialysis service will show elders are often required to be displaced to Adelaide, thus breaking down important cultural systems and traditions. If a grandmother elder from APY is relocated for essential medical treatment, her influence is lost in the community. Relocation often sees an extended Aboriginal family of adult children, grandchildren, and those that people of non-Aboriginal culture would see as more distant relatives accompanying the elder off country.

This places an unnecessary burden on the elder, the temporary accommodation providers in Adelaide, the neighbours of the host family and law enforcement agencies. It is not uncommon for host elders in Adelaide to face eviction and be called before SATAC or other tribunals. Police and court action against other relatives is also not uncommon. All these responses are expensive and can be avoided.

The delegation remains hopeful that the audit has already been conducted, and if the above and other related issues are found to exist a program can be commenced as a matter of urgency to provide the immediate rollout of dialysis clinics for all communities on the APY lands and other remote Aboriginal communities.

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