A Rightful Place; A Road Map To Recognition: Book Review

A Rightful Place; A Road Map To Recognition: Book Review

A Rightful Place; A Road Map To Recognition.

Authors; Noel Person, Megan Davis, Jackie Huggins & Rod Little, Damien Freeman & Nolan Hunter, Warren Mundine, Stan Grant.

Edited by Shireen Morris, Foreword by Galarrwuy Yunupingu.

​“Australia is a nation of three parts: its ancient pre-colonial heritage, its inherited British institutions and its multicultural achievement. The Uluru Statement affords a unique opportunity to embrace the most Australian part of ourselves, and do it so in a way that upholds our successful constitutional system. This would be a belated recognition of the most ancient part of our nation.”

A rightful place is a collection of essays from esteemed Indigenous activists and academics, discussing the impact of the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. This document was put together by 250 Indigenous representatives at a constitutional convention convened in 2017, calling for the establishment of a voice for representatives of Australia’s First Nations in the constitution. It also calls for a Makarrata Commission to provide a mechanism for truth-telling, agreement-making and ultimately reconciliation between the government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This collection of essays is wonderfully written. Each writer brings an eloquent and considered discussion of objections, solutions and pathways forward on the subject of formal Indigenous recognition in the Constitution of Australia.

A makarrata is a Yolngu concept that essentially outlines a process and principles for dispute resolution between aggrieved parties. The resolution, however, is not only in name, Galarrwuy Yunupingu writes “This settlement is also a symbolic reckoning – an action that says to the world that from now on and forever the dispute is settled; the that dispute no longer exists; it is finished…. In past times a man came forward and accepted a punishment, and this man once punished was then immediately taken into the heart of the aggrieved clan”.

At stark odds to the current system of incarceration that we have in Australia, where one is the stigma of ones sins remains long after punishment or rehabilitation, the makarrata is a process in which moving on, forgiveness and genuine acceptance are part and parcel.

First, disputing parties must come together and speak their grievances. If someone speaks out of turn, or wildly, they are sent away to no longer be part of the process. The makarrata starts with a calm laying out of the issues, it is not a place for vengeance or anger. The leaders then seek to understand all the issues involved, and to find a middle ground upon which all parties can settle.              

 ​“Australia is a nation of three parts: its ancient pre-colonial heritage, its inherited British institutions and its multicultural achievement. The Uluru Statement affords a unique opportunity to embrace the most Australian part of ourselves, and do it so in a way that upholds our successful constitutional system. This would be a belated recognition of the most ancient part of our nation.” 

The essays contained in this volume, discuss the challenges surrounding a representative voice for Australia’s first peoples. They seek permanent, indelible recognition as part of the history of this great country, not to re-write history, but to be acknowledged alongside the British institutions and multicultural achievements.

​They seek a voice in Indigenous affairs. Currently there is no mandated, representative voice of Indigenous interests in Parliament. While other countries (Norway, Canada, NZ) have representative bodies for their first nations to parliament, Australia still lacks this formal function. Those of indigenous descent that are in Parliament, are elected to represent their constituencies, not Indigenous outcomes. The Uluru Statement from the Heart seeks indigenous representation for law making that affects indigenous Australians.

Given that Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders only make up around three percent of the population of Australia, it is difficult for them as a group to force the hand of the democracy as a vehicle for change in their own affairs.

Overwhelmingly the rhetoric in each of these pieces is about overcoming objections to a proposal that is, at its very core, about bringing together a country, not separating it. That through a process of truth-telling, acknowledgement and empowerment, Indigenous Australians are able to more actively participate in crafting a better future for themselves, alongside and within the liberal democratic constitutional monarchy that currently exists.

Noel Pearson, who is an amazingly articulate and learned writer (I had to look up about 20 words from his essay), speaks to a possible future of bi-culturalism for Indigenous Australians. Where being Aboriginal is not separate to being Australian, but an element of ones’ complete identity. That they are not asking for a separate identity, but simply a better acknowledgement of the identities that indigenous Australians are trying to reconcile within themselves every day.

​It often pains me personally to hear people labour the point that Indigenous Australia needs to sort itself out, and that we have been here for hundreds of years so it’s not our fault etc. I think that it can be easy to forget for my generation, that until 1967 Aboriginal Australians were not citizens, unable to vote and had zero parliamentary representation. At the time of the referendum to recognise them Noel notes;

“Back when the referendum was crafted and overwhelmingly endorsed by the Australian people – 90 per cent of the country voted in favour of it – there was not one Indigenous lawyer in the country, let alone an Indigenous constitutional lawyer involved in the drafting of the amendment.”

I found this fact to be an absolutely mind boggling (albeit obvious if you think about it). It was only in 1967 that special provisions were made in the constitution to finally count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as citizens of the continent that they have inhabited continuously for some 60,000 years.

At the time, a considered and united amendment, coming from Indigenous Australians was not wholly possible, and in the 51 years since that recognition, the stark facts remain that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have among the highest incarceration rates and lowest life expectancies of the first world.

I recommend anyone who currently holds views for or against Indigenous constitutional recognition and mandated representation, to read this book. It addresses issues for both conservative and liberal arguments, for those who argue from Constitutional law and those who have cultural and self-determination as the forefront of their arguments. It is eye opening to hear the processes available to the first-nations of other sovereign countries, and encouraging to think that we could adopt those measures here to better look after our own Indigenous population.

I read this and feel hope, hope for a truth telling, hope that we can save the songs and stories of these peoples, hope for unity and prosperity, and hope for a future Australia that embraces all parts of its make-up. From the first inhabitants to the last, from the dreamtime to the present, and all that has come and gone in between. If we are to aspire to be a nation with a clear identity, there is no moral ambiguity in the empowerment of our First Nations.

Shout-out to Readings St Kilda for being a marvellous bookshop and allowing me to come across this gem late on a sunny afternoon.

Keep reading, keep sharing these posts (I really appreciate it), keep reconciling, keep working on a common language with which we can discuss these issues, and as always, Just Be Nice.

​- J

Share