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RECONCILIATION AND NATIVE TITLE A SPEECH BY
KERRY BLACKMAN
MEMBER
AT ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PLANNERS NATIONAL PLANNING CONGRESS
WESTIN HOTEL, MARTIN PLACE SYDNEY
MONDAY 4 OCTOBER 2000 Ladies and gentlemen. I would like to start by recognising that we are meeting on the lands of the Eora people, the traditional owners of this region, and through them, respect the land. Recognition of country at the start of public meetings and ceremonies such as this is one of the most important contributions the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation has made to improved relationships between the Indigenous and wider community in this country. It is a simple way of recognising the truth of our shared history, and respecting Indigenous continuing culture and survival. Today I would like to talk a bit about the role reconciliation can and should play in Native Title negotiations. I will also speak more broadly about reconciliation, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation’s documents of reconciliation and the future of the process beyond the life of the Council. I am pleased to be speaking of reconciliation at an event at the Royal Australian Institute of Planners (RAPI). Earlier this year, Royal Australian Planning Institute made a commitment to put into practice the aims of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation’s reconciliation documents. RAPI wanted to help improve communication between planners and Indigenous people and to encourage planners to respect Indigenous rights and values in the decision making process. RAPI aimed to hold workshops in cooperation with Indigenous communities to increase understanding of and participation in the planning process. My Chairperson, Dr. Evelyn Scott, talked with RAPI President Barbara Norman about ways that the Institute can encourage more Indigenous people to become planners. I know we will all be interested in the advances that have been made in that direction. Planning affects so many people’s lives – and in regional and remote communities in particular, Indigenous people have a lot to gain from understanding the process better. On the other hand, planners have a lot to gain from understanding Indigenous relationships to land and respecting customary laws, traditions and beliefs. The Institute should be commended for understanding the importance of Aboriginal interests in land management and economic development in communities, as well as cultural heritage and consultation over planning and development. These kinds of commitments from peak bodies such as RAPI are very encouraging. They are just what the Council wants to see in the final months of this year as we ask all community groups, peak bodies, governments and sectors to put the Council’s reconciliation documents into practice. Partnerships between such groups and Indigenous people lead to benefits for all involved. But I will talk more of that later. I am here to talk about reconciliation and Native Title – two matters that are closely related. I would like to share with you the ways that reconciliation can help the whole Native Title process. Reconciliation provides the foundation for improved communication and understanding - qualities that are important in all exchanges, though especially useful during Native Title negotiations. When the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation began in 1991, it identified "Understanding Country" as it’s first Key Issue. The Council wanted the wider community to understand the unique relationship Indigenous peoples have with their land and waters. This sacred relationship is a fact of life, it always has been. For reconciliation to occur, the wider community needs to understand and accept Indigenous Australians’ relationship with the land and waters. Our land and waters are the basis of our existence – they hold the spirit of our people. In 1997, after the Wik judgement, then Council Chairman Patrick Dodson recognised that highest authority in the land made a ruling that was in the spirit of reconciliation, stressing the importance of co-existence and mutual respect. The Council called on people to recognise the rule of law and respect people’s rights under that rule. Reconciliation is based on the idea of sitting down together to find acceptable compromises and consensus to lead to sustainable outcomes. In order to achieve those outcomes, you need to establish the ground rules which incorporate an understanding of each other’s values and beliefs. To establish a relationship of trust, you must recognise the basis for the differences between Indigenous peoples and the wider community. Native Title must add to the lives of Indigenous peoples. It has to allow for the informed participation of Indigenous people to ensure maximum protection of their land, their culture and their heritage. Those of you who work in Native Title or who have been involved in claimant groups would know the distress the process can cause elders and communities. You might also know of the distress it causes barristers who are negotiating agreements on claimants’ behalf. On the one hand you might find barristers who don’t understand how to deal with Aboriginal people. On the other hand, you might see the resentment and anger of Indigenous people who feel alienated and marginalised in a process about their rights to land. We at the Council believe that the wider community needs to recognise important matters such as understanding country, improving relationships, valuing culture, shaping history and addressing disadvantage if we are to progress reconciliation. All people involved in the Native Title process, and indeed all Australians need to understand these issues. The future is a reassuring sign for all of us committed to the goal of genuine reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians. There is no doubt that there were times in the 1990s when conflict over native title issues posed a serious threat to the nation’s momentum towards reconciliation. There is, however, no time to waste. We must focus on the huge positive effects, for all Australians, of the Common Law recognition of native title. We must work in partnership. Even the mining industry, not 20 years ago blatantly contemptuous of Indigenous cultural and economic interests, is now negotiating partnerships which protect the cultures of Indigenous communities and create opportunities for those communities to control their own role in the economics of proposed projects. These agreements represent progress towards self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. At the local level, an increasing number of local government authorities have negotiated agreements with their Indigenous populations covering a range of social and economic issues. The changed attitudes behind this development, including an inclination to work with Indigenous communities instead of for them, are an important model for governance at the local level, and a foundation for the longer term completion of the reconciliation process. Participants in this congress need hardly be told that the performance of State and Federal Governments on native title issues has been patchy. But here again there are some encouraging signs of progress: Some State Governments have recognised that they can play a constructive role in facilitating agreements and/or becoming party to settlements which recognise legitimate Indigenous rights. We must learn, from present and past experiences like these, that it is possible to restore and maintain the momentum towards universal recognition of the rights and of the unique contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the Australian polity. We can maintain the momentum for reconciliation. I would like to speak more specifically now about the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, of which I am a member. It is worth noting that the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act was approved by federal Parliament almost a year before Mabo. The Parliament’s reasons for establishing the Council as outlined in the Preamble to the Act, were: (a) Australia was occupied by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who had settled for thousands of years before British settlement at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788; and (b) many Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders suffered dispossession and dispersal from their traditional lands by the British Crown; and (c) to date, there has been no formal process of reconciliation between Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians; and (d) by the year 2001, the centenary of Federation, it is most desirable that there be such a reconciliation; and (e) as part of the reconciliation process, the Commonwealth will seek an ongoing national commitment from governments at all levels to co-operate and to co-ordinate with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission as appropriate to address progressively Aboriginal disadvantage and aspirations in relation to land, housing, law and justice, cultural heritage, education, employment, health, infrastructure, economic development and any other relevant matters in the decade leading to the centenary of Federation, 2001. Those sentiments, with their clear emphasis on rights and Indigenous aspirations, were endorsed by all political parties in the Parliament; the vote for the legislation was unanimous. Back in 1991, Parliament also asked the Council to look into the idea of a formal document or documents of reconciliation. The idea was to find out if Australians supported the idea of a reconciliation document, and then to advise Parliament on its form and content. After years of consultation, we concluded that reconciliation documents could truly uplift and unify the nation. They could lay down an agenda for what still needs to be done to complete the journey to lasting reconciliation. When we produced draft documents in June last year, we subjected them to probably the biggest round of public consultation ever attempted in this country. Guided by a huge amount of feedback from the consultations, we produced the final documents that were formally presented to the nation at Corroboree 2000 in Sydney on May 27. The people knew what was in our documents – we deliberately published the text some weeks before the event. They also knew the difficult political climate in which we produced the final documents. Yet they turned out in their hundreds of thousands to support our work as well as the ultimate goal of reconciliation itself. During National Reconciliation Week this year, right after the launch of the Council’s documents, a quarter of a million people in Sydney, 70,000 in Brisbane, 40,000 in Adelaide, 20,000 or more in Hobart joined people’s walks for reconciliation. There were more walks in other regional towns in the States and Territories. All those people who supported Corroboree 2000 were no doubt making a general statement of commitment. But they also knew in advance what the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was proposing in its Declaration Towards Reconciliation and the associated Roadmap for Reconciliation. With the Council ending its term on December 31 this year, we wanted to leave an agreed document that would give direction to that enthusiastic people’s movement. The Council’s documents consist of a Declaration Towards Reconciliation and a Roadmap for Reconciliation. We believe that both documents provide a clear sense of what needs to be done to achieve reconciliation in Australia. For the next few months, the Council will seek commitments from governments, businesses, organisations, communities and individuals to take some or all of the steps outlined in the Roadmap. Those of you who are interested in making positive steps in your own organisations can also use the Council’s Roadmap as a guide. As I mentioned before, RAPI has already told us about the practical steps that it will take to do things differently. I would encourage similar peak bodies to follow their lead. If you only come up with one change that might help to address Indigenous disadvantage, encourage economic independence or respect Indigenous rights in your organisation, it is still reconciliation. Reconciliation is the triumph of tolerance over racism, of understanding and respect over mistrust. It is also a triumph of knowledge over ignorance. That, I believe, is one of the most significant achievements of the Council– and Australian society – in this past decade. Knowledge, understanding and trust are basic building blocks for the success of reconciliation and the creation of a truly just Australian society. I believe we’ll get there, and Australia will be a richer country for our success. Thank you.
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