As Australians reflect this National Reconciliation Week, Dubbo’s Rod Towney has reflected on his time at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in Uluru.
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“That gathering of the First Nations was historical. Each of the assembled delegates were chosen by our own people in our own communities to represent their views at the convention.
We often talk about ‘bottom up’ approaches being what is needed to advance our lot and the convention was an unprecedented example of a national effort being driven from the communities across Australia.
You may have read the resulting Uluru Statement from the Heart. It’s a powerful and historic document. It’s important because it was adopted unanimously. Every Australian should respect that the statement carries authority as the precise answer to the big question we faced – how do we want to be recognised in the Constitution.
We want a voice to Parliament ensured in the Constitution. A representative body of our leaders that has the moral, cultural and intellectual authority to inspect and advise Parliament on laws that impact on us. Outside of the Constitution, we want a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
We don’t want flowery words … a very dry statement that we are Australia’s First People. We all already know that. It’s all we would get as acknowledgement, as it is all that the conservatives who seek to uphold the Constitution would allow us.
Many words will be written about the above. Today, I want to pause and make a very important point about the convention. A point that is central to us here in Dubbo and surrounds.
Being regional mob, we struggle to have a voice. Understandably, our brothers and sisters living in remote communities are, generally, a focus of media and political attention. It also makes sense that our brothers and sisters in urban areas receive some level of attention, being that they are larger in number and often better organised.
It is a very good thing that our remote and urban colleagues are afforded any attention, scant as it is. But for us in regional areas, there is a sense that we are almost invisible. As all of us know, the challenges we face have more in common than differences. The same things break our hearts.
The convention was unique in that the assembled delegates were a perfectly balanced representation of First People living in remote, regional, and urban places. I can’t remember a forum in my lifetime that got this so right. We all stood as equals. We all learnt so much from each other. And, we all stood united behind the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The question I have been asked the most is how Constitutional Recognition will help us in our region. How will it help us overcome the many practical problems we face? It’s a very good question and now that we have the Uluru Statement, I can answer with much more clarity than previously.
The voice to Parliament is the key. Just as the delegates for Uluru were representative of all regions of Australia … our collective vision is that the representative body will likewise be made up. So, us in the regions will have a constitutionally required voice directly to the decision makers in Parliament.
For too long, policies and programs have been foisted on us, from the top. So many have failed. So many that were working have been dropped. All have been formulated without any real input from the … people that the policies and programs are designed to help. That has been the central reason we have not closed the gap.
I voted for the Uluru Statement because it will give my people specifically, the Indigenous people living in regional areas, a strong and equal voice to Parliament. I voted yes because this is what has been lacking for so long.”
- Rod Towney
