Latest news with #Baxter-Edwards
West Australian
27-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Tremane Baxter-Edwards is ready to pick up the baton and fight for reconciliation
WA First Nations youth leader Tremane Baxter-Edwards can see the future of reconciliation and it looks like economic empowerment, education and the respect. It is a future free from culture wars and a world in which more Indigenous Australians learn to 'walk in two worlds', as Mr Baxter-Edwards has done as a Kimberley ranger at El Questro Wilderness Park, student and youth political adviser. And at just 18, the Ngarinyin-Walmajarri man thinks the future of reconciliation also means that young leaders like himself must be prepared to take the baton from the generation of Indigenous elders who have spent their lives fighting for it. Speaking to The West Australian, Mr Baxter-Edwards said he was immensely grateful for the work of elders like Patrick Dodson, who urged him to step into the spotlight for this year's National Reconciliation Week, the theme of which is Bridging Now to Next. 'Our elders and Aboriginal leaders like Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton and Patrick Dodson, we're now in this phase where these people who have been fighting their whole life for Aboriginal people and the reconciliation movement need to pass the baton on to the next generation,' he said. 'Because they grew up in a generation where it was really difficult to be an Aboriginal person, and let me please use this as an opportunity to thank these leaders. 'But now we're in a phase where we operate differently. The young people of today are becoming a bit more progressive so they're not going to have to fight tooth and nail with this particular subject. I think people today. . . their spirit is switched on and I think with the right practical view we will be able to advance the reconciliation movement a bit more.' Mr Baxter-Edwards, who grew up in the Kimberley town of Wyndham, said the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum had 'changed the course of the reconciliation journey' but had not defeated it. He said empowering Aboriginal people to have economic power, equal access to education and work and the potential for intergenerational wealth were key to achieving reconciliation. 'My grandmother was paid in rations for her hard work for 30 years,' he said. 'I don't think a lot of people know how disheartening that is for me, as a young person, to hear my grandmother say that. 'Reconciliation in 2025, for me personally, I would like to see young people and their families put in the best position possible and what does that mean? Essentially self-determination: economic empowerment, economic development. 'How do we, as the next generation, work with our elders to empower us and simultaneously empower our elders to walk in two worlds? 'To walk in those two worlds successfully is a fine line: to be able to negotiate at the table with, for example, politicians and business people you're successfully walking in the western world, but to be able to go back to country and talk about country and culture as I have the opportunity to do, it's incredible.' He said he believed most people wanted Indigenous people to succeed but did not know how to make that happen. 'It's economic empowerment — how do we put the Aboriginal people in the driver's seat is something people should be talking about today and every day,' he said. 'It's things like, for example, how do we utilise and sell carbon credits to companies who want to buy carbon credits? That's economic empowerment: we are using our country and our knowledge of the country… so when we sell carbon credits we're making the most of those carbon credits. 'Also a big one for me is jobs in education. Young people, no matter who they are, should have the same opportunities afforded to them — doesn't matter if they're from the bush, like myself, or the city. 'For people to be able to have the opportunity to work so that government and communities invest in remote communities — there are people who lived off the stations 50 years ago, they moved into town and haven't had a job since — to make sure everyone wakes up having something to do. . . and having hope, for people in government and business to entrust in these people.' Julianne Wade is the Whadjuk Nyungar woman behind The West Australian's front page, reconciliation-inspired artwork, which uses the colours of the changing season to represent 'change and growth'. 'The blue resembles our places of water stemming from the swampland,' she said. 'The white represents the paths that people take with integrity, into reconciliation, with their own stories and knowledge and actions in the people symbols. 'I have taken inspiration with the hands holding plant materials to emphasise the movement of people coming together to dance and move around on country, and the boomerangs to emphasise the movement of sound and vibrations as we make change.' She said reconciliation 'means more than words' and was 'more than an apology or promises that fall short to bridge a gap'. 'It's about truth, respect, actions and integrity,' she said.
Perth Now
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Don't forget the name Tremane Baxter-Edwards
One of the great privileges of being a journalist, beyond commanding universal adoration and preposterously high wages, is the chance to meet people with power, influence and fame. But for my job, the likelihood I would ever have enjoyed a sit-down chat with WA Premier Roger Cook, singer Delta Goodrem or — a career highlight, sorry Rog — legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is slim to none. Less often, journalists have the chance to meet someone who is not a household name but who seems so clearly destined for big things that the temptation to snap a selfie — if only to one day impress the grandkids — almost overwhelms professional decorum. First Nations youth leader Tremane Baxter-Edwards is just such a person. Before interviewing the Ngarinyin-Walmajarri man for today's Reconciliation Week edition, all I knew about Mr Baxter-Edwards was that he had once talked, at 17, about his ambition to be the first Indigenous prime minister. Tremane Baxter-Edwards. Credit: Don Lindsay / The West Australian Like many cynical adults who read that story, I suspect, I smiled indulgently and filed it alongside my daughter's vow to be a singer when she grows up 'but more famous than Taylor Swift'. Then I interviewed Mr Baxter-Edwards, now 18, and took it all back. Elders like Patrick Dodson are rightly held in huge regard for the work they have achieved towards reconciliation. But if the reconciliation movement is to have a future — and it does — it needs a new generation of leaders like Mr Baxter-Edwards to take the baton from the trailblazers who have come before them. Mr Baxter-Edwards may have grown up in a different Australia to the Indigenous elders who came before him but he is not so far removed from this country's many historic injustices: his grandmother worked all her life not for wages but for rations. He sees in the younger generation a more progressive Australia, with strong spirits and a desire for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to flourish alongside each other. And his views on the so-called culture wars and the way in which Indigenous people have been politically weaponised, should be read closely by any political party that wants to capture the next generation of increasingly-powerful young voters. 'Australia is a country for everybody and the ugliness that occurred during the last window of the Federal election should never in a million years be tolerated,' Mr Baxter-Edwards said of the debate around Welcome to Country after a prominent neo-nazi heckled the traditional ceremony on Anzac Day. 'There's a fine line between having a disagreement on something and having no respect. 'Young people are not into culture wars. Young people are not into leaders who won't stand in front of all three flags — the Australian flag, the WA flag and the Aboriginal flag. I think young people don't want disingenuous leaders who say they're here to unite the country and represent all but who put down Aboriginal people.' He is a reminder to older generations not to underestimate the young. Raised in Wyndham and educated at Aquinas College, Mr Baxter-Edwards is big on the value of education and the need to give anyone who wants it the opportunity for work. He sees the value in — and difficulty of — 'walking in two worlds': the high-wire act of an Indigenous person who exists in both the Western world and on country. He also thinks there is scope for the State Government to be doing more, in parallel to the work being done at a national level. 'For example, the Heritage Act that the State introduced in Parliament, got passed and then within two weeks shelved the legislation — that's not working with all parties,' he said. 'They worked with the Aboriginal people but you need to work with everyone. What everyone tends to forget is reconciliation is not just about us. We need the non-Indigenous folks to come with us, we need the farmers and the pastoralists and the mining people to come with us. 'It's not a journey we should be walking alone.' One of the great pitfalls of being a journalist is the requirement of the job to reduce complex people to a simple one-line description. Mr Baxter-Edwards is a proud Ngarinyin-Walmajarri man but he is other things too. He is a childhood cancer survivor. A big brother. A scholarship student. A federal adviser to the First Nations Reference Group and the Australian Government First Nations Education Youth Advisory Group. He is a TAFE student, studying tourism. He is a ranger at the El Questro Wilderness Park. He is a reminder to older generations not to underestimate the young. And if he winds up being Australia's first Indigenous prime minister, well, then I'll really regret not getting that selfie.
West Australian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Kate Emery: It might be the first time you have heard of Tremane Baxter-Edwards, but it won't be the last
One of the great privileges of being a journalist, beyond commanding universal adoration and preposterously high wages, is the chance to meet people with power, influence and fame. But for my job, the likelihood I would ever have enjoyed a sit-down chat with WA Premier Roger Cook, singer Delta Goodrem or — a career highlight, sorry Rog — legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is slim to none. Less often, journalists have the chance to meet someone who is not a household name but who seems so clearly destined for big things that the temptation to snap a selfie — if only to one day impress the grandkids — almost overwhelms professional decorum. First Nations youth leader Tremane Baxter-Edwards is just such a person. Before interviewing the Ngarinyin-Walmajarri man for today's Reconciliation Week edition, all I knew about Mr Baxter-Edwards was that he had once talked, at 17, about his ambition to be the first Indigenous prime minister. Like many cynical adults who read that story, I suspect, I smiled indulgently and filed it alongside my daughter's vow to be a singer when she grows up 'but more famous than Taylor Swift'. Then I interviewed Mr Baxter-Edwards, now 18, and took it all back. Elders like Patrick Dodson are rightly held in huge regard for the work they have achieved towards reconciliation. But if the reconciliation movement is to have a future — and it does — it needs a new generation of leaders like Mr Baxter-Edwards to take the baton from the trailblazers who have come before them. Mr Baxter-Edwards may have grown up in a different Australia to the Indigenous elders who came before him but he is not so far removed from this country's many historic injustices: his grandmother worked all her life not for wages but for rations. He sees in the younger generation a more progressive Australia, with strong spirits and a desire for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to flourish alongside each other. And his views on the so-called culture wars and the way in which Indigenous people have been politically weaponised, should be read closely by any political party that wants to capture the next generation of increasingly-powerful young voters. 'Australia is a country for everybody and the ugliness that occurred during the last window of the Federal election should never in a million years be tolerated,' Mr Baxter-Edwards said of the debate around Welcome to Country after a prominent neo-nazi heckled the traditional ceremony on Anzac Day. 'There's a fine line between having a disagreement on something and having no respect. 'Young people are not into culture wars. Young people are not into leaders who won't stand in front of all three flags — the Australian flag, the WA flag and the Aboriginal flag. I think young people don't want disingenuous leaders who say they're here to unite the country and represent all but who put down Aboriginal people.' Raised in Wyndham and educated at Aquinas College, Mr Baxter-Edwards is big on the value of education and the need to give anyone who wants it the opportunity for work. He sees the value in — and difficulty of — 'walking in two worlds': the high-wire act of an Indigenous person who exists in both the Western world and on country. He also thinks there is scope for the State Government to be doing more, in parallel to the work being done at a national level. 'For example, the Heritage Act that the State introduced in Parliament, got passed and then within two weeks shelved the legislation — that's not working with all parties,' he said. 'They worked with the Aboriginal people but you need to work with everyone. What everyone tends to forget is reconciliation is not just about us. We need the non-Indigenous folks to come with us, we need the farmers and the pastoralists and the mining people to come with us. 'It's not a journey we should be walking alone.' One of the great pitfalls of being a journalist is the requirement of the job to reduce complex people to a simple one-line description. Mr Baxter-Edwards is a proud Ngarinyin-Walmajarri man but he is other things too. He is a childhood cancer survivor. A big brother. A scholarship student. A federal adviser to the First Nations Reference Group and the Australian Government First Nations Education Youth Advisory Group. He is a TAFE student, studying tourism. He is a ranger at the El Questro Wilderness Park. He is a reminder to older generations not to underestimate the young. And if he winds up being Australia's first Indigenous prime minister, well, then I'll really regret not getting that selfie.
