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‘Voiceless and powerless’, a plea for Aboriginal recognition: Q&A

Pat Anderson pleas for "meaningful recognition" for Australia's Indigenous population.

Pat Anderson pleas for "meaningful recognition" for Australia's Indigenous population. Photo: ABC

“In ’67 we asked to be counted. In 2017 we’re asking to be heard.”

These were the words of Pat Anderson, the chairperson of the Lowitja Institute, in her plea for “meaningful recognition” for Australia’s Indigenous population.

Ms Anderson sat with a panel of other prominent Aboriginal Australians in the halls of Federal Parliament on Monday night for a special episode of the ABC’s Q&A program, which following a national meeting of Indigenous Australians at Uluru which set an ambition agenda for constitutional reform.

“On the Uluru statement, we ask for the Australian public, all of you and everybody listening, to join us on a trek,” Ms Anderson said.

“We are voiceless and powerless in our own lands.

“This is our country. We have been here for 60,000 years. There has to be substantive change, structural change that will make a difference.

“I’m hopeful this is an opportunity. I think Australia is ready for it.

“I think we’re mature enough and sophisticated enough to have this what might be a difficult conversation, but for goodness sake let’s have it and be done with it.”

Another panellist, Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson, reflected on his memory of the watershed 1967 referendum on Indigenous recognition.

“I was two years old … so I spent two years as a non-citizen,” he said.

“We made progress in the last 50 years but some of the profound indicators of our problems, children and from parents, the most incarcerated people on the planet earth and youths in great numbers in detention, obviously speak to a structural problem.

“It can’t be just because we are poorly behaved … I think we have an opportunity with constitutional reform to finally tackle the thing that old Bill Stenner wrote about 50 to 70 years ago about the torment of our powerlessness.”

Q&A Aboriginal Noel Pearson

Noel Pearson reflected on the impact of the referendum on him and his family. Photo: ABC

While making a documentary about the referendum, ABC Indigenous affairs editor Stan Grant said he asked his father about his feelings towards becoming a citizen.

In his own words Mr Grant’s father told him: “We were never Australians, we were outcasts.”

Mr Grant expressed concern over the state of the current political landscape, claiming he believes it will be “much more difficult” to reach a consensus.

“He [his father] may have technically been a citizen of Australia, [but] he certainly did not enjoy the full benefits of that citizenship — barred from being served in hotels, living on the outskirts of town [and] denied education,” he said.

“We have made progress … We have more university graduates today than ever before. We’re here on this stage tonight, an Indigenous voice, in our Parliament, on national television …”

Playwright, performer and commentator Nakkiah Lui said she feared that the government was setting up a narrative that Aboriginal people are “asking for the impossible” from a colonial majority.

“I think Australians are capable of great change and as an Australian, that’s something that makes me very very proud,” Ms Lui said.

“So I think this idea that Australians don’t want what’s best for other people — that we don’t want to give other people a fair go — I think, we’re kind of, I don’t know, making the omelette before we crack the eggs.”

University of New South Wales law professor Megan Davis said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of young people participating at Uluru, following a question from an Indigenous girl who had been elected captain of her school.

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