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ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
SA First Nations communities ‘waiting, prepared' to restart treaty process
South Australian First Nations leaders say their communities are waiting to restart treaty talks with the state government after an election promise, but the minister in charge says he is "not keen to rush" the process. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher told ABC News that the state government was still committed to restarting treaty negotiations in SA, but it was unlikely any agreements would be signed before the next election in nine months' time. "We're not keen to rush it," he said. "I don't want to put a time on it, but one thing I am quite certain: We won't see treaties concluded before the next state election. SA Labor entered government in 2022 promising to spend more than $2 million to restart the treaty process over its "first four years". The pledge formed part of a broader policy commitment to implement the three requests of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — Voice, Treaty and Truth. While SA became the first jurisdiction in the country to legislate a state-based Voice to Parliament in 2023, the government is yet to announce how or when it will establish treaty or a truth-telling process. "We've started work on what that (treaty and truth) might look like, what's happened both in Australia and overseas, and we will continue with that," Mr Maher said. "I have had some discussions with the South Australian state First Nations Voice and we will continue those discussions. "The elected Voice won't be the body we'll negotiate with, but (we're) certainly keen to get a perspective about, in the current environment, how we continue with both truth and treaty and sequencing those." It has not been a smooth journey towards treaty in SA. Discussions officially started in 2016, when the state government set aside $4.4 million over five years towards the treaty process, as well as the appointment of an independent commissioner to consult communities. Two years later, the state government and Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation signed the Buthera Agreement, which committed both parties to negotiate on a treaty. But the former Liberal government halted treaty discussions just months later, with then premier Steven Marshall describing the agreements as "more divisive than helpful". One of the South Australian signatories to the Uluru Statement, Melissa Clarke, disagreed, and said treaties could benefit everyone. "It is about, as Aboriginal people, being Aboriginal people on our own land, in our rightful place with our unique, precious strengths and views and values," the Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Wirangu woman said. "We share, we give, we don't take away. "Treaty is about restoring balance in this country for everybody." Ms Clarke said she believed the time was right to restart treaty talks with communities, describing the government's "lack of progress" on negotiations as "disappointing". "What we need is for governments to listen and act, to provide a safe and welcoming space for us to be able to have those conversations. "We are sitting here waiting, prepared to commence these negotiations." SA Native Title Services CEO Keith Thomas said he believed the government had taken a "cautious" approach to treaty after South Australians overwhelmingly rejected a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament at the 2023 referendum. He said while many members of the Aboriginal community were "surprised" by the referendum result, he believed the community was now "ready" to restart treaty discussions, citing stronger native title, heritage and water rights as potential outcomes. "I think there has to be recognition from the state government about the growth in native title bodies in South Australia," he said. "We have legislation from the 1960s around the Aboriginal Lands Trust, which is keeping land safe for Aboriginal people. "That legislation has done its job, they (the government) should be giving those lands back to Traditional Owners now, and that could be part of a treaty process." Mr Thomas said South Australia could take inspiration from Victoria's nation-leading treaty model. The eastern state has, under legislation, allowed Aboriginal Victorians to negotiate statewide or local treaties with the government, with Dja Dja Wurrung traditional owners already notifying the state's independent treaty authority of their intention to do so. Mr Thomas said he believed a statewide treaty was the best path forward for SA. "It should be a state treaty between the Aboriginal nations and the state, looking at all the groups involved (and) not separating or having one against another," he said. But Ms Clarke said she believed individual nations should also have the option of negotiating their own treaties. "Each nation has different customs, beliefs, worldviews, languages," she said. "Each nation has their own unique needs for their own families and communities." Mr Maher said the government was considering the Victorian model, as well as treaties in Canada and New Zealand.
ABC News
4 days ago
- General
- ABC News
First Nations leaders hope Labor will use big majority to pursue national truth telling
Prominent Indigenous Australians are hopeful the federal government will use its significant majority in parliament to progress a national truth telling process. After declaring he would implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full — which includes establishing a Makarrata Commission to oversee truth telling — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed down from the commitment, after the decisive rejection of a Voice to Parliament. But this week, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy indicated she was still open to the concept, following a call from the so-called father of reconciliation, Pat Dodson. "We have an opportunity now to have a look, with our new parliament, with our second term of government, to see what we can do moving forward," Minister McCarthy said. "One of the things the prime minister and I have said with regards to the Uluru Statement from the Heart was that we supported the three principles: voice, treaty, truth, and we've never shied away from that." While she acknowledged truth telling can happen in various ways — such as at schools — she was "ready to listen to what possibilities there could be in going forward." First Nations leader and prominent Voice campaigner Thomas Mayo said that was a positive sign. Mr Mayo partly blamed the prime minister's decision to retreat on Makarrata on the opposition. "It was under some duress from an opposition party that were invigorated somewhat from their successful nastiness during the referendum campaign and…were feral anytime anything positive in Indigenous affairs was mentioned," he said. He also urged Labor to be "courageous" after its resounding win. "That majority was somewhat a repudiation on the Coalition's punching down on Indigenous Australians throughout their election campaign," he said. Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, who is now the Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister, has dismissed the idea the vote was a rejection by a large part of the electorate of so-called culture war issues. "I think most of the Australian public would think that it was pretty silly to suggest that it is a single issue that has resulted in the outcome that we've seen, " she told the ABC earlier this month. Mr Mayo also argued that the federal government should be encouraged by the Liberal government in Tasmania promising to set up truth telling commissioners. Former Labor senator Pat Dodson said he too felt hopeful that Labor seemed open to a national truth telling process. "I'm encouraged by the fact that the commitment that the Labor Party gave some time back, before this election, is still on the agenda," he said. "Obviously it's got to be committed to and then they've got to set up a process to enact it. "But it's a great thing because we've got to start listening to the different stories," he said. Mr Dodson said there were leaders across the country willing to be involved. "I'd encourage the minister to reach out to all these people and bring them together and start to map out a course in this term so that we can get on with it."
News.com.au
26-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Albanese government urged revive Indigenous Affairs agenda or risk ‘obliteration' for Aboriginal culture
Former senator Pat Dodson has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to revive his government's stalled Indigenous Affairs agenda, warning that Aboriginal people risk being culturally erased. 'If you don't participate, you'll end up being the subject and the property of the assimilationists,' Mr Dodson, long hailed as the father of reconciliation, told ABC's 7.30 on Monday night. 'That's what the new assimilation is about — completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. 'If you looked at what they were talking about in the opposition at the last election, getting rid of land councils, revising a whole range of symbolism, throw out the Welcome to Country, get rid of the flags, rescind the ambassador. 'Anything that indicates the presence of Aboriginal people would have gone. That's what the new assimilation is about, completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. 'Cultural heritage is another very important aspect of that. The more you smash and destroy the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people, the greater it is to say well there is no substantive argument to say that they had any presence here, because there's no evidence, they've blown it up.' Mr Dodson, a Yawuru man from Broome who retired from parliament in early 2024, urged the Albanese government to recommit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. While last year's Voice referendum failed, the other two pillars, treaty and truth-telling, remain on the table. It is now time for Labor to pursue this after claiming a landslide victory earlier this month, Mr Dodson says. 'They can do that because it doesn't require a constitutional referendum. It can be done by way of legislation,' he continued. He also called on Labor to revisit the Calma-Langton model — a network of regional Indigenous bodies proposed under the Morrison government — as a path forward for local decision-making. 'Whether they call it a Voice or whether they call it a regional assembly ... but an entity and that entity will have to be representative of the regional people,' he said. 'That way we can start to manage the awful incarceration rates of young people and the underlying circumstances that's given rise to that.' Mr Dodson admitted he was disappointed by the Prime Minister's decision to pull back from reconciliation efforts following the failed referendum, but understood it politically. 'I think Albanese was smart not to drink from the poisoned chalice,' he said. 'He had to do that.' Dodson's own role in the campaign was limited by cancer treatment. He left federal politics shortly after the referendum, a result he described as personally devastating. 'I felt the sadness,' he said. 'We saw a response at the poll that I think shocked many of us, many people felt gutted … I thought time will heal this.' He believes resistance to the Voice stemmed from a deeper discomfort in acknowledging Indigenous sovereignty. 'We don't know how to recognise Aboriginal peoples as sovereign peoples, because we fear this will undermine our own sovereignty,' he said. 'They think this is something about (Indigenous Australians) getting something better or more than they might be getting.' Dodson said constitutional reform via referendum will likely remain out of reach due to the requirement for a national majority and support in a majority of states. 'We're never going to see a provision put forward to support Aboriginal people be successful,' he said.
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Pat Dodson wants Anthony Albanese to forge ahead with Indigenous treaty and truth telling
Father of Reconciliation Pat Dodson has challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to resume an ambitious Indigenous Affairs agenda in his second term, warning Indigenous people could otherwise face cultural annihilation. "If you don't participate, you'll end up being the subject and the property of the assimilationists ... that's what the new assimilation is about, completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape," Mr Dodson told 7.30. "We've got to build now, start now, the time has come; we can't keep kicking it down the road." The Yawuru Man from Broome, Western Australia served seven years in the Senate until early 2024 and has been a lifelong champion of Indigenous rights. He warned that the next reconciliation pathway must have a strong focus "otherwise it remains nebulous". Mr Dodson has called on the government to set up a national truth telling commission (Makarrata) and a treaty process, the remaining requests of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart after the voice referendum. "They can do that because it doesn't require constitutional referendum, it can be done by way of legislation," he said. The former senator argued the government should also adopt the system of local and regional Indigenous advisory bodies recommended by Indigenous leaders Tom Calma and Marcia Langton in their 2021 report to the Morrison government. "Whether they call it a voice or whether they call it a regional assembly ... but an entity and that entity will have to be representative of the regional people. That way we can start to manage the awful incarceration rates of young people and the underlying circumstances that's given rise to that," he said Mr Dodson says he was disappointed when Mr Albanese took a step back from Indigenous reconciliation efforts following the failed voice referendum. "He had to do that." Mr Dodson's ongoing cancer treatment meant he was unable to play more than a small role in the voice referendum campaign. He left federal politics in November 2023, disappointed by the defeat of the voice. "I felt the sadness," he told 730. "We saw a response at the poll that I think shocked many of us, many people felt gutted … I thought time will heal this." He believes underlying the resistance to the voice was a failure to see Indigenous people as sovereign people. "We don't know how to recognise Aboriginal peoples as sovereign peoples, because we fear this will undermine our own sovereignty," he said. "They think this is something about (Indigenous Australians) getting something better or more than they might be getting." Mr Dodson said the bar for reconciliation via a referendum vote was too high due to the double majority required for constitutional change. "We're never going to see a provision put forward to support Aboriginal people be successful," he said. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price also made a name for herself during the referendum as the opposition spokesperson for Indigenous affairs and the face of the 'No' campaign. In a press club address she claimed colonisation was not bad for Australia, angering many Indigenous leaders. Senator Nampijinpa Price criticised Indigenous organisations, claiming they sought to "demonise colonial settlement in its entirety and nurture a national self-loathing about the foundations of modern Australian achievement". When asked to clarify whether she thought any Indigenous people were suffering negative impacts of colonisation, she at the time responded: "No, there are no ongoing negative impacts of colonisation." Mr Dodson said those assertions when made by an Indigenous person would mean "one would have to question their loyalties". "I don't know how that view could be sustained in the light of the historical truth," he said. Mr Dodson spent his early years running from Western Australian police, when mixed-race families were illegal. Mr Dodson says he has continued to see the effects of colonisation on his people. "It's not as blatant as it was back in their day, you were cajoled, put in chains or you're whipped or you're just denied and refused," he said "it's a lot more subtle (now) and its long-term intent isn't clear." After a lifetime of attempting to take the richness of Indigenous culture and translate it into Western law and politics, Mr Dodson said there is more to be done. "It's a path worth travelling on, even though it's with its troubles," he said. "Now is a time for listening more closely to the waves, to the wind, to the environment, to see how the leaves move and don't move … to discern what is it that's happening? He believes Mr Albanese has a responsibility to Aboriginal leaders. "Yunupingu entrusted (him) to carry that fire stick, to bring about the kind of reconciliation and healing this nation needs — he can't drop that." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
ABC News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Aboriginal king honoured in NSW truth-telling launch
Walking across an unassuming pedestrian bridge covered in graffiti in Sydney's south, you'd never know the riverbanks beneath were the centre of the Aboriginal civil rights movement 100 years ago. Salt Pan Creek, on Bidjigal Country between Peakhurst and Padstow about 30 minutes from Sydney's CBD, was a place where political radicals preached ideas that would ultimately lead to the foundational concepts of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — which asked for formal recognition of First Nations Australians. "This is not something that's new to us or our country, this is an ask that's been going on for many, many decades through many iterations," Wiradjuri woman Bridget Cama told the ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team. This unfinished business, documents and photographs from Salt Pan Creek, has been curated by Ms Cama who is the co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue — part of a group of First Nations representatives who mandated the Uluru Statement. "It was very rare at this time for Aboriginal people in New South Wales to own freehold land," said Ms Cama. Escaping the tightly-controlled Aboriginal Mission system, dispossessed First Nations people used Salt Pan Creek as a refuge, including Dharawal woman Ellen Anderson who bought a block of land on the banks of the Georges River site in the early 1900s. "It was very rare at this time for Aboriginal people in New South Wales to own freehold land," said Ms Cama. "Ellen Anderson definitely deserves to be recognised for having that foresight in understanding how these systems were at play at that particular time, how she would protect her children and keep her family and her mob out of the gaze of the Aborigines Protection Board." The Aborigines Protection Act 1909 surveilled and controlled many aspects of Aboriginal people in New South Wales. Mark Davidson, MLA for Cobar, told the NSW Parliament on May 2, 1940 "it was not right" that the bill gives the NSW Aborigines Protection Board "power to take control of Aborigines without consent of the parents." "Girls of 12, 14, 15 years of age have been hired out to stations and have become pregnant," Mr Davidson said. "Young male Aborigines who have been sent to stations have received no payment for their services." In these early decades of the 20th Century, six dwellings were established on neighbouring residential properties at Salt Pan Creek. Ellen Anderson and her family gathered shellfish, wildflowers, swamp wallabies and other river produce to make a living. "That is self-determination," Ms Cama said. "At one point in time there was up to 30 people living there and 14 children." The Aboriginal royal promised the duke he would be greeted with 'a royal welcome' to show that his people were 'loyal to the British throne". Anderson told the paper that Prince Henry would be showered in gifts including a boomerang made by his great-grandfather, who Anderson says witnessed Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay. That same year, King Burraga was filmed on the banks of Salt Pan Creek advocating for New South Wales mob to petition King George V for better conditions, rights and recognition. "All the Black man wants is representation in federal parliament," Mr Anderson said in his appeal filmed by Cinesound. "This is obviously an ongoing issue for us as First Nations people in this country that ask still to be recognised, for us to have a say on the issues that effect us," Ms Cama said. The little-known history of Salt Pan Creek features in a truth-telling exhibition at Sydney's Hurstville Library. It's part of Towards Truth — the truth-telling project by Uluru Dialogue — one of the groups that mandated the Uluru Statement, which was delivered at a historic 2017 conference in the red centre after 12 regional dialogue meetings across the country. The statement called for three major reforms: an Indigenous Voice to Parliament enshrined in the constitution, Treaty and Truth-telling. On the eighth anniversary of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, its authors including Professor Megan Davis AC, Uluru Dialogue Co-Chair, say Towards Truth is being launched with the aim of mapping laws and policies that have affected First Nations since 1788, starting in New South Wales. "It provides a factual, politics-free compilation of historical legislation and policy in NSW as it impacted Aboriginal people," Professor Davis said in a statement. "Towards Truth was conceived after our first-hand, on-the-ground work of listening to mob talk about Aboriginal history and Australian history during the Referendum Council process, which lasted for more than two years." You can see the Towards Truth Exhibition until June 1 at Hurstville Library, Corner Queens Road & Dora Street, Hurstville, Sydney.
