KEYNOTE
ADDRESS BY
EVELYN
SCOTT
CHAIRPERSON
COUNCIL
FOR ABORIGINAL RECONCILIATION
AT
THE
RECONCILIATION
AND RACISM CONFERENCE
HOSTED
BY THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BRANCH OF THE
AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION UNION
PARKSIDE,
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
SATURDAY
17 JUNE 2000
Thank you Haydyn.
Charles Perkins, ladies and gentlemen.
Right at the start, I want to congratulate the Education Union for
taking the initiative and arranging this conference.
It's timing, and the content of yesterday's program, remind us all
that there'll still be plenty to do for reconciliation after my Council
goes out of existence on January the first.
And all of you here give us yet more proof that there are plenty of
hands on deck to see that the remaining goals are achieved.
Before I go on, I want to acknowledge that we're meeting on the country
of the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of this land.
As we always do at the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, I acknowledge
the living culture of the Kaurna people, and the unique contribution
they make to the life of this region.
I'm very glad to see that you've asked two older people like Charles
and myself to offer our perspectives on where things stand on reconciliation
and racism.
Charles and I have both been active for many years, in our different
ways and different arenas, in the battle for recognition of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander rights.
My starting point is Corroboree 2000 - how it came about, what it
means, and where it will take the nation.
As you know, Corroboree 2000 was an amazing event - a great moment
in Australia's history.
On Saturday June the 27th, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
presented to the nation, the Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation
and a Roadmap for Reconciliation.
The biggest gathering ever of Australia's political, community and
business leadership was on hand at the Sydney Opera House to receive
our proposals.
Those documents brought together the results of a decade of work by
the Council. Importantly, a very large part of all that work consisted
of talking and listening to people.
The Council has always gone to great lengths to test the opinions
and the mood of the Australian people.
After we issued our Draft Document a year ago, we tackled one of the
most comprehensive rounds of public consultation ever attempted in Australia.
We commissioned social research as well, to get a hold on what the
general public was thinking.
As you know, the results of that research triggered quite a reaction
when we released them a few weeks ago. Some of its less positive results
were used by the media and others to write down our chances of achieving
agreement on a National Document Towards Reconciliation in time for
the Centenary of Federation next year.
As you also know by now, my Council was not deterred by the research,
or by the public reaction to parts of it, from pushing ahead with our
plan to produce a National Document.
We knew we needed to take account of the views and concerns of all
sections of our society. That includes, of course, Indigenous people
- some of whom have expressed reservations about what a document can
achieve in the current political climate.
But at the same time we had to come up with proposals which actually
take the nation forward.
Australia wouldn't get anywhere if we just tried to find the lowest
common denominator of public opinion. We'd find ourselves with a document
so bland it would be meaningless.
We had to try to provide a bit of leadership on this, because we believe
very strongly that tangible reconciliation outcomes by December 2000
are needed for Australia's future as a harmonious, inclusive nation
- one that lives out its ethos of a fair go for all.
It's now history that, as a result of our consultations and despite
the clear signals from the government of the day, we made some important
changes to our Draft Document before presenting the final form to the
people.
Obviously the most significant of those changes was to make the apology
for past injustices to Indigenous peoples more direct and unequivocal.
Equally obviously, that issue is still on the table, and we believe
it should be.
The arguments for an apology must surely be clear to this audience.
They relate, in the popular mind, to the tragic results of past policies
among what we now know as the Stolen Generations.
But the need for an apology goes further - to the original dispossession
of Indigenous peoples without negotiation or consent, to the wholesale
removal of communities from their traditional lands, and to the awful
consequences of colonisation on the health and well-being of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.
I am quite confident that, sooner rather than later, the majority
of Australians will subscribe to - and demand - the kind of apology
that we put in our document.
Ladies and gentlemen, the apology issue is one of many that our Declaration
Towards Reconciliation and Roadmap for Reconciliation have placed on
the national agenda.
The documents are a celebration of what this country has achieved
on the path to reconciliation since the Council started work nine years
ago. And they provide a fresh and more powerful focus on what still
needs to be done to reach the point of genuine reconciliation.
It was these documents that we formally presented to the nation on
Saturday, May the 27th.
It was these documents that inspired such vast numbers of Australians
to walk for reconciliation the next day and over the following two weeks.
I for one was truly uplifted by the huge display of support for the
whole notion of reconciliation when that mass of humanity - those tens
of thousands of Australians of good will and serious commitment - surged
across the Harbour Bridge on Sunday, the 28th of May.
These were real people, people aware of the issues of the spirit and
the practical issues that still lie ahead of us on the path to long
term reconciliation.
They were there to tell the whole world that the spirit of reconciliation
is alive - it is strong - in Australian society. Theirs was a magnificent
statement.
They were strengthened in it by many more thousands of people in other
centres around the nation.
Some 70-thousand walked the bridge in Brisbane the following weekend.
Here in Adelaide last weekend, 50-thousand - an incredible proportion
of the region's population - added their voices.
There were similar unprecedented turnouts in much smaller places,
from Roeburne to Wagga Wagga, from Townsville to Moree and onwards around
the country.
I know that television and other reports of Corroboree 2000 have been
seen, heard and read in many other countries.
I believe those reports have added a new dimension to the world's
understanding of the Olympic host city - and the Olympic host nation.
The world is now aware that Australia is in the midst of a nation-defining
process of reconciliation between its First Peoples and the rest of
our society.
The world is now aware that the issues built in to that reconciliation
process are, and should be, above the realm of partisan, short-term
politics.
In that regard I'd like to pay heartfelt tribute to the Governor-General
of this country.
Sir William Deane recognised from the time he took office that this
was a basic issue for the nation. It was not about the politics of race,
or the politics of resource allocation, or the politics of guilt, or
the politics of feel-good compassion.
He knew that this was - and is - an issue of fundamental justice,
an issue going to the heart of this nation's identity.
Sir William had the courage and integrity to act and speak out according
to this enlightened - and correct - view of what reconciliation means.
At Corroboree 2000, Sir William repeated his consistent view that
until such reconciliation is achieved our nation is diminished - it's
a nation unable to fulfil its potential.
His words were very apt, because Corroboree 2000 has set a new agenda
for those, in all sections of Australian society, who want genuine reconciliation
between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider
community.
Those good people who walked across bridges around the country have
sent powerful messages to all parts of Australia and to the rest of
the world.
They told our governments, our institutions, organisations and communities,
as well as individuals, about the work we still have to do, both on
the symbolic and the practical side of reconciliation.
In doing so, they resoundingly reinforced the messages that my Council
itself delivered when we presented our documents to the nation at the
Sydney Opera House on 27 May.
The agenda of unfinished business will not go away, but I want to
say a few words about what's really on that agenda.
As you know, some leading people in Australian society chose the moment
of Corroboree 2000 to renew calls for a formal treaty between Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the broad Australian community.
In my Council's view, it is quite likely that ultimately, some form
of compact will be put in place to settle the outstanding issues from
the shared history of this land.
We believe, however, that there are serious risks in jumping too far
ahead of the agenda we put to the people in our documents.
The people knew what was in our proposals when they came out in such
huge numbers to support us.
They knew that our proposals include a solid legislative basis to
encourage negotiated outcomes on key issues, such as Indigenous rights,
self-determination, traditional law and constitutional reform.
They did not know that talk of a treaty would suddenly be added to
the agenda. There is a danger that those who still resist the imperative
for reconciliation will use this situation to muddy waters that are
otherwise so very clear after Corroboree 2000.
Council will therefore spend its remaining six months in office pursuing
the agenda as we put it to the people.
I'd just remind you that under the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
Act of 1991, we're required to report our final recommendations - on
the documents and all other matters we were asked to deal with - to
the responsible Minister.
The Minister is required to table our report promptly in both Houses
of Federal Parliament.
That means that before the end of this year, the ball will be in the
court of our national Parliament.
The Parliament, therefore, will have time to decide whether next year's
celebrations of the Centenary of Federation can include a genuine, uplifting
celebration of our progress towards reconciliation.
The Parliament will have an opportunity to inspire all Australians
with a fresh vision for our second century as a federated nation.
But whether or not our national leadership grasps this wonderful opportunity,
our journey towards genuine reconciliation will continue.
It will continue at the grassroots of our society, among individuals
and organisations in local communities and in the regions.
It will continue in the many institutions within Australia's structure
that have grasped the meaning of reconciliation and what it can do to
take the nation forward.
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation wants to make sure that
this great People's Movement continues to be supported and given focus
after we go out of existence on January the first.
The Federal Government has offered to support an independently created
foundation to carry out that task. We're now working on the detailed
options, and I very much hope that plans for a new foundation will be
part of our final recommendations to Parliament.
Whatever way it's achieved, and whichever way our Roadmap for Reconciliation
is implemented, Corroboree 2000 has ensured that this nation must go
forward.
The remaining pockets of racism in our society will be increasingly
isolated. Mutual understanding, and knowledge of the full richness of
Australia's heritage, will continue to grow.
I believe this is already a triumph for the Australian people. We
now must see that the unfinished business is properly concluded.
Thank you.
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