Emma Garlett: Strength is at the heart of existing as an Aboriginal person
The theme of this year's NAIDOC Week — the event's 50th anniversary — is 'the next generation: strength, vision and legacy'.
In our culture, we place a great weight on our elders and the invaluable guidance that they provide.
But we also need to make sure we are cultivating our next generation of young leaders, so they can be the elders of the future. Our elders have a role in this, and are encouraging these new leaders to pick up the baton.
This year's NAIDOC theme brings attention to the challenges faced by First Nations people in Australia. This past week has put a bright spotlight on those challenges, with Australia's first Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, finding that genocide and crimes against humanity were committed against Victoria's First Nations people.
Hopefully other States will be inspired to follow Victoria's example in setting down the truth of colonisation and the ongoing impact it is having on Indigenous people.
It is crucial that we acknowledge these truths. But we cannot be held back by them.
We cannot be defined by crimes and injustices that have been done to us.
That brings me to the first pillar of the NAIDOC theme: strength.
Strength isn't just how we react to episodes of adversity or hardship. It is the way we think and behave. It's the story we tell ourselves about our place in society. It takes strength to be an Indigenous person in Australia, to exist and thrive in a system that has historically perpetrated injustices against our people.
I am a strong advocate of strength-based language in telling our story.
We need to break through the walls of deficit discourse. Most of what we hear in the media about Aboriginal people is rooted in this deficit discourse: the poor outcomes, the life expectancy gap. Those conversations are important, but they are only one part of our story.
We must tell the good stories as well; the stories about our grit and resilience and the everyday excellence that so many Aboriginal people exhibit.
That will lead us to the vision needed to have the energy to fight for policy and legislative reforms to empower First Nations communities, to provide the next generation with the tools to think in innovative ways.
And that will enable us to leave a new legacy for those who come after us. One which encourages Australia to have the courage to face up to the ugly truths of the past but also provides a new, positive path for those who come after us. Legacy is not just we as First Nations leave behind for our kin, but what we leave behind for all Australians to see.
Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nylyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman
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