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"WALK WITH US"
Understanding the Uluru Statement from the Heart and what it means for Australia.
BY NATHAN BROWN
When Black Lives Matter protests spread around the world in June last year after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, and other such tragedies, many in Australia joined the call for more work to confront and dismantle racism in its many forms.
But these Australian voices and protests were not merely echoing what was happening half a world away.
While issues of systemic racism in the United States continue to receive attention in our news feeds, Australia’s Indigenous people are incarcerated at almost 12 times the rate of our non-Indigenous people and at an even higher rate than that of the muchdiscussed mass incarceration of the Black population in the United States. And now, 30 years after the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were released, more than 470 Indigenous people have died in custody. Tragically, Black Lives Matter seems an even more urgent cry in the experiences of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
During the protests, I noticed a recurring theme among the various interviews and panel discussions featuring Indigenous leaders, activists and artists—and recognised my ignorance about much of what they were talking about. The Uluru Statement from the Heart and its three-part invitation to the Australian nation was repeatedly referenced. I remembered hearing reports of the government’s summary dismissal of the suggestion of an Indigenous
“Voice to Parliament” that might have been somehow added to the mechanisms set out in the constitution. But I realised that I knew little of the background or larger content of this statement—or of the other two reforms outlined in the statement.
The voices I heard talking about this statement seemed to think it was a significant opportunity for our nation to do better in its relationship with its Indigenous people. So I started to do some research—online searches, news reports and a book telling the story of the Uluru Statement—beginning with the simply task of finding and reading the statement itself.
the story of the Uluru Statement
The Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued on May 26, 2017, at a conference of Indigenous representatives gathered at Uluru to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that, by the strongest vote in Australia’s constitutional history, first recognised Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as citizens of the nation. While a significant—and long-overdue—step, the continuing failure to recognise the pre-existence of the land’s original inhabitants and traditional custodians, as well as the chronic disadvantage suffered by these peoples, demonstrate the work still to be done by the Australian nation in this regard.
In the lead up to the Uluru gathering, a series of 13 regional dialogues sought to hear the voices and collect input from the diverse groups of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. This was a government-supported process, seeking recommendations for further constitutional reform for greater recognition of First Nations peoples.
We are tempted by our language and limited experiences to consider Aboriginal people as a single people group. Adding to this impression is their sadly common experiences of disruption and dispossession, which destroyed some of the distinct culture and languages. But the original inhabitants of the lands now known as Australia were made up of more than 400 nations or clans, with diverse languages, cultures, lifestyles and beliefs. As such, a national consultation process has its inevitable challenges. I have talked with Indigenous people who expressed their reservations about the process that led to the Uluru Statement—feeling that their people were not sufficiently included or represented in the process or in making the final statement—but who yet see the value and opportunity that the statement offers.
the three reforms
The first reform called for by the Uluru Statement was the most widely known, primarily for its quick dismissal by the government and prime minister at the time. No, we were told, Indigenous people were not going to be empowered to set themselves up as a third chamber of Australia’s parliament—even though this was not what they are asking for. What they seek instead is a constitutionally protected body that would represent Australia’s Indigenous people to the Australian government that cannot be abrogated or even disbanded at the whim of
the government of the day—as has happened in the past. The process and nature of this body is yet to be determined but this work will not begin without better leadership from the Australian government, including a more accurate portrayal of the proposal itself.
The other two proposed reforms would come under the auspices of a proposed Makarrata Commission— the name coming from the Yolngu language, meaning “a coming together after a struggle”—which would oversee a process of agreementmaking or treaty between the Australian government and its First Nations peoples, and a process of truth-telling about the dispossession, massacres, policies of systemic racism, exploitation, incarceration and continuing disadvantage that have blighted the European history of Australia. These are processes that have been pursued in places like Canada and South Africa. There is work to be done in formulating and establishing these processes, but it begins with a common will to do this important national work of truth, justice, confession and healing.
Makarrata lived
Earlier this year, my ongoing journey of learning and reflecting on the invitation and opportunities of the Uluru Statement from the Heart took me to a hillside just outside Geelong on a pleasant Saturday evening in mid-March. The sunset was burning away to twilight when
THE ULURU
STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
"We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or “mother nature”, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.
How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future."
the lights went up on Midnight Oil’s “Makarrata Live” show. The veteran Australian band’s mini-album of last October—The Makarrata Project—featured collaborations with an array of Indigenous musicians and a reading of the Uluru Statement by notable voices, including Stan Grant, Pat Anderson, Adam Goodes and Ursula Yovich. Now Midnight Oil had brought a number of these Indigenous musicians with them to a series of performances, giving them a larger stage and demonstrating the potential for working and walking together.
On this last night of the tour, the 13,000-strong crowd was the largest crowd for a music event in Australia in the 12 months of pandemic restrictions and, for me and many others, our first outing with such a crowd since the lockdowns of 2020. It was a night of celebration and possibility, informed by videos that told the story of the Uluru Statement and the contributions of collaborators including Troy Cassar-Daley, Dan Sultan and Alice Skye. The final encore culminated in an all-hands-on-stage performance of the iconic “Beds Are Burning” with lead vocals by Cassar-Daley, Sultan and Tasman Keith. These are voices that we needed to hear—and it was significant that Midnight Oil gave them back their song.
While “Black Lives Matter” might feel like an imported slogan, our Indigenous leaders and voices, as well as artists like Midnight Oil and so many others, offer us our own language for the urgent tasks of confronting our historical and systemic racism, and working for recognition, justice and national healing. But the Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation into processes that can move beyond slogans, songs and good intentions. We must hear, listen and respond—and work together to learn together how to walk together.
