WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.440 Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. 2 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:06.780 We have a slight problem, 3 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:11.380 and that is that the advertised guest is not with us. 4 00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:15.180 The aforementioned problems with aeroplanes have defeated us. 5 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:19.940 But we have someone of comparable qualities. 6 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:21.840 Her name is Linda Burney, 7 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:27.860 and Linda has kindly volunteered to step in at the last moment, 8 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:29.700 and I don't think you'll be disappointed. 9 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.520 She will be talking on Aboriginal identity, 10 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:35.360 practical approaches to reconciliation, 11 00:00:36.580 --> 00:00:40.400 having the advantage of an enormous amount of experience. 12 00:00:42.440 --> 00:00:46.000 She's from the Wiradjuri Nation of southwest New South Wales, 13 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:49.520 and let me rattle through some of her titles. 14 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:51.520 She's currently the Director-General 15 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:55.160 of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in New South Wales, 16 00:00:55.360 --> 00:00:59.000 which I have to tell you is one very hot seat. 17 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:05.220 She's worked most of her life in the NGO sector as a lobbyist 18 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:08.420 and representative of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 19 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:14.180 And in the past, she's been on the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board, 20 00:01:14.300 --> 00:01:17.920 the National Council of Aboriginal Reconciliation. 21 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:22.760 She was familiar to those of us who admire SBS, 22 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:25.660 the New South Wales Board of Studies. 23 00:01:25.860 --> 00:01:28.980 She was the President of the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Board, 24 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:55.360 the wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't wouldn 25 00:01:55.360 --> 00:01:57.080 ladies and gentlemen, Linda Burney. 26 00:01:57.220 --> 00:01:58.340 Oh, I should mention... 27 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.120 Don't keep clapping, I'll tell you a bit later. 28 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:10.720 I don't know whether this is another credential, 29 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:16.160 but she's also a Torvald and Dean double act with a... 30 00:02:16.160 --> 00:02:17.780 Pretty sexy guy. 31 00:02:17.980 --> 00:02:18.520 Pretty sexy guy. 32 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:20.200 You can tell him who he is. 33 00:02:21.380 --> 00:02:24.740 No, it's Rick Farley, who's also on the program here. 34 00:02:24.740 --> 00:02:27.700 Thank you very much for that introduction. 35 00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:29.040 And I hope I... 36 00:02:29.620 --> 00:02:30.700 You're probably thinking now, 37 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.080 would it be bad manners to get up and walk out 38 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.660 because it's not the person I expected I was going to hear. 39 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:38.580 It would be terrible manners to get up and walk out. 40 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:44.200 But I think that probably what I have to say 41 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.440 you'll find very interesting anyhow. 42 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:52.780 The thing I'd like to spend probably about 20 minutes doing 43 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:54.260 is telling you some stories. 44 00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:57.600 And they're stories, as all stories are, 45 00:02:57.760 --> 00:02:59.200 with some sort of purpose. 46 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:03.340 And really what I wanted to share with you this afternoon 47 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:05.860 as an Indigenous woman 48 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:08.360 is a little bit about identity 49 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:13.480 and how our identity has survived 50 00:03:13.480 --> 00:03:17.900 despite some very, very rigorous attempts 51 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:20.480 to do away with our identity. 52 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:22.360 And these things are kind of... 53 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:23.640 I think I'll do that. 54 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:24.640 But... 55 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:25.140 Is that better? 56 00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:25.940 Great. 57 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:29.980 And this is a really quite serious issue. 58 00:03:30.040 --> 00:03:31.540 And I used to have... 59 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:33.820 Well, I've had lots of fantasies, 60 00:03:33.820 --> 00:03:36.220 but I used to have a fantasy a while back 61 00:03:36.220 --> 00:03:38.640 when I first started working in education. 62 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:40.880 My background's teaching, by the way. 63 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:41.980 I was one of the very... 64 00:03:41.980 --> 00:03:43.880 In fact, I was the first Aboriginal person 65 00:03:43.880 --> 00:03:46.900 that ever graduated from Charles Sturt University. 66 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:50.220 And that was back in 1970... 67 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:52.600 something or other. 68 00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:54.680 Late 1970s. 69 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:55.040 1970. 70 00:03:55.420 --> 00:04:00.320 And it's given me a lot of... 71 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:02.760 There's a lot of reason for us as Australians 72 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:05.420 to think about our identity. 73 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.600 And I know that that's not been a popular thing to do in the past. 74 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:11.840 But I suppose the first thing I'd like to share with you 75 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:16.100 is that up until probably four or five years ago, 76 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:20.500 I literally could not say to myself, 77 00:04:21.400 --> 00:04:24.120 either in my head or out loud, 78 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:25.660 that I'm an Australian. 79 00:04:26.820 --> 00:04:30.420 I just could not physically or intellectually 80 00:04:31.640 --> 00:04:33.700 or emotionally do it. 81 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:36.900 And I think it's important for us to think about, 82 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:38.560 well, why was that? 83 00:04:38.580 --> 00:04:40.040 It certainly was important for me. 84 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.480 I now very proudly and very solidly 85 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.400 can stand up and say I'm an Australian. 86 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:48.880 And I'm very proud of being an Australian. 87 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:52.040 But my Australian-ness and my identity 88 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:54.720 is perhaps drawn from a very different place. 89 00:04:54.740 --> 00:04:57.400 It's a very different place for most of you in this room. 90 00:04:58.440 --> 00:05:01.940 And wrapped around this is the issue of leadership for me 91 00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:05.480 because I've found myself to be in a position of leadership. 92 00:05:05.640 --> 00:05:09.140 And I never, ever claim to be an Aboriginal leader. 93 00:05:10.260 --> 00:05:13.160 But I do claim to be an Aboriginal person 94 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:15.380 that holds a leadership position. 95 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:19.680 And I want to tell you the story of me when I was a little girl. 96 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:22.360 I was born in 1957. 97 00:05:23.380 --> 00:05:24.720 And as I'm telling you, 98 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:32.000 I want you to think about the disgusting, repulsive notion 99 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.040 of the early 20s in this country 100 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:40.120 where there was an absolute determined and legislated policy 101 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.320 of breeding out the colour. 102 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:45.620 Now, this happened at a time 103 00:05:45.620 --> 00:05:49.180 when children were being taken or separated 104 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:50.860 or whatever you want the debate to be. 105 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:53.520 As far as I'm concerned, they were stolen. 106 00:05:54.020 --> 00:05:54.720 They were stolen. 107 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:55.820 And it also happened at a time 108 00:05:55.820 --> 00:05:59.060 when that policy was really getting a steam on. 109 00:05:59.460 --> 00:06:03.240 And at the same time, there was a policy of encouraging marriage 110 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.640 between Aboriginal women and white men. 111 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.140 Or as they used that dreadful term, 112 00:06:10.440 --> 00:06:12.820 half-caste women with half-caste men. 113 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.880 And there was government policy at this time of taking kids 114 00:06:18.440 --> 00:06:19.500 and breeding out the colour. 115 00:06:20.620 --> 00:06:24.660 And the thing I want to get across this afternoon is 116 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.900 that's one of the dumbest things that white fellas can think 117 00:06:27.900 --> 00:06:28.840 about black fellas. 118 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:33.140 Because our identity does not come from the way that we look. 119 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.760 Our identity does not come from the colour of your skin 120 00:06:36.760 --> 00:06:38.660 or whether you've got a flat nose 121 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:42.980 or whether you've got black curly hair and white shiny teeth 122 00:06:42.980 --> 00:06:43.860 or the rest of it. 123 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:47.280 So think about that as I tell you my story. 124 00:06:48.380 --> 00:06:50.060 I was born in 1957. 125 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:54.460 I'm 45 next birthday in a tiny little country town, 126 00:06:54.460 --> 00:06:57.640 called Witton, which is in southwestern New South Wales, 127 00:06:57.820 --> 00:06:59.160 down near Leeton and Griffith. 128 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:05.260 And in 1957, to be born to a white woman illegitimately 129 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:10.260 and obviously be a black kid was a pretty solid thing 130 00:07:10.260 --> 00:07:11.060 that happened to you. 131 00:07:12.260 --> 00:07:17.520 And at that time, being illegitimate was bad enough, 132 00:07:17.880 --> 00:07:20.580 let alone being black and illegitimate. 133 00:07:21.460 --> 00:07:23.960 And I'm not quite sure what really happened at the time, 134 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:24.440 but I do know that there was a time when I was born to a white woman. 135 00:07:24.440 --> 00:07:27.720 And I do know that my mother left the hospital before I did. 136 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:32.760 And I've never known the whole story, but I ended up being raised 137 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:38.900 by my mother, who was white, my mother's great auntie and uncle, 138 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:41.260 which were my great aunt and uncle who were spinsters. 139 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:44.760 And they were in their late 60s when they took 140 00:07:44.760 --> 00:07:48.060 on this little black baby in this little backwater town. 141 00:07:49.080 --> 00:07:53.960 And there are four events in my life that I think have made me the person 142 00:07:53.960 --> 00:07:54.420 that I am. 143 00:07:54.440 --> 00:07:57.040 And they all happened before I was 15 years old. 144 00:07:57.940 --> 00:08:01.320 The first is that I spent the first 10 years of my life 145 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:05.000 under the Flora and Fauna Act of New South Wales. 146 00:08:05.960 --> 00:08:11.940 And at the age of 10, like my other Aboriginal relatives, 147 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:17.920 I became recognised by this country at the age of 10. 148 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:23.480 At the age of 11, I remember really clearly having 149 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:24.420 to go to school. 150 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:25.820 I remember having this non-Aboriginal woman 151 00:08:25.820 --> 00:08:30.380 in this tiny town scream into my face for some reason. 152 00:08:30.520 --> 00:08:32.560 I don't even know what the reason was. 153 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:33.220 I didn't then. 154 00:08:33.660 --> 00:08:37.260 Scream into my face, you will never amount to anything. 155 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:40.260 I didn't understand it then. 156 00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:46.520 At the age of 13, I remember really clearly, 157 00:08:46.540 --> 00:08:50.920 and it was a physical thing almost, sitting on the front verandah 158 00:08:50.920 --> 00:08:53.140 of this old weatherboard house I was raised in. 159 00:08:54.420 --> 00:08:58.080 And in my mind, there was a road that had a fork in it. 160 00:08:59.060 --> 00:09:02.820 And at that stage, I knew I had a big decision to make 161 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:04.280 about who and what I was. 162 00:09:05.140 --> 00:09:09.880 And I physically saw myself walking down this road 163 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:16.020 and being able to take a very broad and a very well-paved road 164 00:09:16.020 --> 00:09:19.280 that had the street sign, not true. 165 00:09:21.060 --> 00:09:22.520 Because in those days, 166 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:24.300 it makes me sound, 167 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:24.560 I don't know if it's true or not, 168 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:27.440 But in those days, a lot of Aboriginal people pretended 169 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.120 that we were something else, that we were Maori 170 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.500 or that we were Indian, because it was easier. 171 00:09:36.300 --> 00:09:40.300 And there was another road off to the left, I hope, 172 00:09:42.040 --> 00:09:47.200 definitely off to the left, that had the sign truth. 173 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.420 But it wasn't well lit, and it wasn't paved, 174 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:54.400 and it was very, very hard to walk down. 175 00:09:54.400 --> 00:09:54.980 It was a very potholed. 176 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:58.940 And obviously, that was the only road that I could take. 177 00:10:00.560 --> 00:10:03.900 And that was the road of who and what I truly was, 178 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:04.900 an Aboriginal person. 179 00:10:06.380 --> 00:10:09.780 And about at the same time, I think I was maybe a few months older, 180 00:10:10.420 --> 00:10:12.620 I remember being in a classroom, 181 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:17.640 the most humiliating experience I had in my whole education career. 182 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:20.000 And perhaps this is why I became a teacher. 183 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:23.740 I remember sitting in a classroom, 184 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:27.820 in year seven, or it was first form back then, 185 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.780 and Miss Rigney was my social studies teacher. 186 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:33.000 And she came in, and she said, 187 00:10:33.020 --> 00:10:34.380 we're going to do a new topic today. 188 00:10:34.420 --> 00:10:36.320 It's the exotic people of the world. 189 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:38.960 Well, here we go. 190 00:10:40.140 --> 00:10:42.220 Firstly, we did the Bedouins, and then, 191 00:10:42.260 --> 00:10:45.720 as the terminology was used then, the Eskimos. 192 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:48.400 And then we did the Aborigines. 193 00:10:50.300 --> 00:10:53.520 And I just wanted to turn into a piece of paper. 194 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:59.480 And fall between the cracks in the floorboards of that classroom. 195 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:04.720 Because I was taught that this is when I'm going through this thing about identity. 196 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.380 This is where I'm trying to work out who I am in the cosmos. 197 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:14.560 Being taught that Aboriginal people had no culture, had no technology. 198 00:11:14.560 --> 00:11:17.480 And I think that's probably the thing that stuck in my mind the most. 199 00:11:19.560 --> 00:11:20.520 Were savages. 200 00:11:22.260 --> 00:11:22.740 And 201 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:25.580 No, I think this stuck in my mind the most. 202 00:11:25.780 --> 00:11:30.460 That we were the closest example on Earth today of Stone Age man. 203 00:11:33.060 --> 00:11:36.100 Now, think back to the policy of breeding out the color. 204 00:11:39.560 --> 00:11:43.260 And this is a kid that had never met her father. 205 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.480 Because he was black, and it was just such a shameful thing to have happen. 206 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:53.620 And having this done, 207 00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:55.440 done to you by the system. 208 00:11:55.800 --> 00:11:59.660 And trying to be honest with yourself is extremely difficult. 209 00:12:02.740 --> 00:12:08.400 I think that probably, and this is a very hackney phrase now, but it's the best I can think of. 210 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:17.100 That the first 27 years of my life were basically like a jigsaw with an incredibly important big piece missing. 211 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:22.900 And because of the shame of me being a black kid growing up in this white town. 212 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:26.320 I spent seven years searching for my father. 213 00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:29.540 And I got, wrote to people. 214 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:33.960 Interestingly, the nurse that was there when I was born. 215 00:12:34.260 --> 00:12:37.700 That delivered me, remembered me very well. 216 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:42.180 And she wouldn't tell me. 217 00:12:42.780 --> 00:12:45.900 And then I wrote to some of the other older white people in the town. 218 00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:48.040 And one letter I got back. 219 00:12:48.920 --> 00:12:50.260 I've kept it. 220 00:12:50.300 --> 00:12:53.180 Said, you shouldn't, you know, you've done well Linda. 221 00:12:53.620 --> 00:12:55.200 Why do you want to know this stuff? 222 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:05.220 And I had to know it because for us as Aboriginal people, family is the most important thing. 223 00:13:05.640 --> 00:13:07.060 We're a family people. 224 00:13:08.520 --> 00:13:15.240 And where you fit is where your family, where you fit is about your family. 225 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:23.600 Well the nice end of this story about this little girl is that on the 18th of April in 1921, 226 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:31.700 1984, as pregnant as hell, and I'm talking pregnant, after seven years I met my father. 227 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:36.640 And I remember seeing this man come across the road. 228 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:37.860 I was sitting in the back of a car. 229 00:13:38.380 --> 00:13:41.080 And I knew immediately who he was. 230 00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:46.020 And I had a photograph of my mother at about the time he would have known her. 231 00:13:46.100 --> 00:13:49.760 And he got in the back of the car and I said, I think I'm your daughter. 232 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.620 Did you know a woman named Rita Burney? 233 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:54.060 And he said no. 234 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.080 And I thought my world had come to an end. 235 00:13:58.680 --> 00:14:01.380 And this is the important part of the story. 236 00:14:01.560 --> 00:14:06.760 And this is why our culture and who we are and our identity has survived. 237 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:10.360 He thought for what seemed like ages. 238 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:12.580 And then he just leant across. 239 00:14:13.060 --> 00:14:14.260 He'd never met me before. 240 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:17.940 He'd seen a photograph and that was the only evidence I could give him. 241 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:21.260 He leant across and he put his arms around me. 242 00:14:21.380 --> 00:14:22.600 And he said, I love you. 243 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:23.700 I don't want to disappoint you. 244 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:30.480 And there was a place for me immediately and I discovered ten brothers and sisters. 245 00:14:31.220 --> 00:14:36.480 And all my whole school life I'd gone to school with my cousins and didn't know it. 246 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:42.160 And this is what our survival is. 247 00:14:43.380 --> 00:14:45.200 And this is what our culture is. 248 00:14:47.280 --> 00:14:51.520 It's an amazing, amazing thing to be part of. 249 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:52.600 Because it's a part of our life. 250 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:59.500 Because so many of our people have been taken away that we are very good at making places for people. 251 00:15:01.520 --> 00:15:09.860 And the issue about blood content, which is the way in which children were determined of who was going to get taken away. 252 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:22.600 And if you see any of the old certificates of exemption that our people had to get so we could go to school and get a job and have a drink and all those other things through the 30s, 40s, 50s. 253 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:23.860 And early 60s. 254 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:30.140 Have written on them and they look very much like the past books of the apartheid era of South Africa. 255 00:15:30.420 --> 00:15:31.440 In fact, they're also brown. 256 00:15:32.760 --> 00:15:37.560 They've got your photograph and how much Aboriginal blood you've got in your veins. 257 00:15:41.560 --> 00:15:44.960 And I'm a quarter, wait there, I think I was determined. 258 00:15:45.140 --> 00:15:51.220 I didn't have one of those but I would have been, let me figure this out, a octoroon or something. 259 00:15:51.300 --> 00:15:52.120 Some dreadful. 260 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:53.320 Horrible term. 261 00:15:54.880 --> 00:16:05.540 And this is why it's so stupid for governments to think that they could ever or will ever make us cease to exist as a people. 262 00:16:07.420 --> 00:16:08.980 Because it's not about colour. 263 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:10.620 It's about where you are. 264 00:16:11.040 --> 00:16:14.680 And it's about where you've been placed in the Aboriginal story. 265 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:17.100 I speak none of my language. 266 00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:22.100 And I had to go to the diction, and thank heavens for this story. 267 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:25.880 It was a German missionary, Thickold, who recorded the Wiradjuri language. 268 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:31.100 So I was able to name my children in Wiradjuri names. 269 00:16:31.700 --> 00:16:34.820 Now that might sound like a cool groovy thing to do to people. 270 00:16:35.260 --> 00:16:36.920 But it was very important for me. 271 00:16:37.280 --> 00:16:43.480 And the other funny bit about meeting my father is that I was so shocked that I had my son the next day. 272 00:16:44.980 --> 00:16:50.880 And, but the nice thing about that was that he, when I met my father, 273 00:16:50.880 --> 00:16:54.640 it was one of the most brilliant, beautiful red sunsets you could ever imagine. 274 00:16:55.380 --> 00:16:57.840 And so my son's name is Bini Dirinbarong. 275 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.040 And Bini means the strength like the shaft of a spear. 276 00:17:01.140 --> 00:17:03.560 But Dirinbarong means the red colour and the setting sun. 277 00:17:04.120 --> 00:17:05.960 So we've all joined that up together. 278 00:17:06.660 --> 00:17:08.300 And that's what survival is. 279 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:09.600 And that's what identity is. 280 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:17.520 And the other story I wanted to tell, so in me telling you that, I just want you to understand that that's who we are. 281 00:17:17.840 --> 00:17:20.860 And that's why non-Aboriginal people have such an important role. 282 00:17:20.860 --> 00:17:22.720 And that's why we're such an important place in our community as well. 283 00:17:23.280 --> 00:17:32.220 Because if we rejected people that had white blood or white people into Aboriginal society and Aboriginal families, 284 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:34.220 then we'd be only half of what we are. 285 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:36.740 In fact, I heard something funny the other day. 286 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:38.640 And please don't take this wrongly. 287 00:17:39.040 --> 00:17:42.860 Someone said to me, it was an old black woman from out west in New South Wales. 288 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:43.660 She said, you know what? 289 00:17:45.100 --> 00:17:47.200 There's, no wait there, make sure I get this straight. 290 00:17:47.260 --> 00:17:50.840 There's more white fellas that have got black blood. 291 00:17:50.840 --> 00:17:52.840 Then black fellas that have got white blood. 292 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:55.880 So I thought that was kind of good. 293 00:17:56.580 --> 00:18:02.040 Can I just, I don't want to talk for too much longer, but tell you another story and very quickly wrap it up. 294 00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:09.240 The capacity for me to be able to survive, you might think, well that's pretty good. 295 00:18:09.760 --> 00:18:10.900 But that's what we do. 296 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:12.600 And that's what you hold on to. 297 00:18:12.820 --> 00:18:15.600 So if you haven't got your identity, what have you got? 298 00:18:16.580 --> 00:18:18.960 And particularly as an Aboriginal person in this country. 299 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:20.820 But I saw one of the most important things. 300 00:18:20.840 --> 00:18:23.900 One of the most remarkable acts of reconciliation I'd like to share with you. 301 00:18:24.840 --> 00:18:30.620 And it was at a place called Mile Creek in north west New South Wales near a place called Bingra. 302 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:37.140 And in 1846, this horrid massacre took place on Mile Creek Station. 303 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:44.520 And 28 old men, women and children were tied together, beheaded and burnt. 304 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:49.340 And it's the only time in colonial history 305 00:18:49.340 --> 00:18:52.920 where the perpetrators were punished. 306 00:18:54.180 --> 00:18:57.980 Seven of the 12 men that undertook that massacre were hung. 307 00:19:00.120 --> 00:19:04.780 The downside of that was that after that, no one reported massacres anymore. 308 00:19:05.020 --> 00:19:08.980 They just went on and that's when the water hole poisoning and stuff started out that way. 309 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:18.600 But this fantastic community that have had this Mile Creek Station sitting there for a couple of, 120 years or whatever. 310 00:19:19.340 --> 00:19:21.960 And Aboriginal people out there would never stop on that road. 311 00:19:22.040 --> 00:19:23.880 They'd just drive straight through no matter what. 312 00:19:24.380 --> 00:19:26.600 And avoid it at night because of that place. 313 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:38.380 For 10 years, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people out on that plain worked to put that history to bed 314 00:19:39.340 --> 00:19:41.780 and tell the truth and commemorate it. 315 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:47.160 And after 10 years, last year in June and the anniversary, 316 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:50.160 the Aboriginal descendants of those massacred, 317 00:19:51.320 --> 00:19:54.600 the white people of those that did the massacring, 318 00:19:55.200 --> 00:20:00.580 and the great, great grandson of the station hand that raised the alarm, 319 00:20:00.780 --> 00:20:06.320 came together and erected a beautiful, simple memorial. 320 00:20:06.980 --> 00:20:12.040 Not on Mile Creek because the owners still won't allow black people on there. 321 00:20:12.560 --> 00:20:14.740 But just off over the ridge. 322 00:20:15.520 --> 00:20:17.140 And for me, that day was a day of joy. 323 00:20:17.140 --> 00:20:19.160 And that day wasn't necessarily about the Aboriginal people. 324 00:20:19.300 --> 00:20:24.500 It was about an old white woman who has the best name I've ever heard, Tallulah. 325 00:20:25.760 --> 00:20:32.780 And her great, great, great uncle was a very significant player in the massacre. 326 00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:43.900 And I just saw her across the, I saw her across the ground that the massacre was on. 327 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:46.460 And for some reason, I just felt really drawn to her. 328 00:20:47.220 --> 00:20:49.640 And I just went up to her and I just started crying. 329 00:20:49.760 --> 00:20:52.780 And I just took her hand and I said, I think you're so brave. 330 00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:55.140 And thank you. 331 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:00.540 And I think if people have that capacity in a little place like Bingra, 332 00:21:01.840 --> 00:21:03.400 which is steeped in racism, 333 00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:07.880 why can't we have the capacity in broader ways? 334 00:21:08.700 --> 00:21:13.400 And it also taught me the lesson that reconciliation isn't necessarily about big deeds. 335 00:21:14.440 --> 00:21:17.120 It's about what people do in their own lives. 336 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:17.660 It's about what people do in their own communities. 337 00:21:18.420 --> 00:21:21.940 It's about what people do together at a local level. 338 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:26.620 So that Mile Creek place is now a place that we can go to and feel safe. 339 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:36.020 And the Aboriginal women that really pushed that go and sit there often because now they can. 340 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:38.860 And in fact, it's become more than that. 341 00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:45.760 The Moree Local Land Council was successful in getting the head of a woman 342 00:21:45.760 --> 00:21:49.840 that was in Edinburgh University that was taken over there in the 1800s. 343 00:21:49.900 --> 00:21:52.460 And she's been buried there. 344 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:57.140 So it's become this incredible place of healing and truth telling. 345 00:21:58.560 --> 00:22:00.100 I'm head of a government agency. 346 00:22:00.860 --> 00:22:03.940 That's just saying to Philip that it is a hard job. 347 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:08.460 And what I've learnt and what Aboriginal people have told me 348 00:22:08.460 --> 00:22:11.840 is that there's five things that we want to concentrate on. 349 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:15.600 And the biggest thing is capacity. 350 00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:17.500 And we need capacity and leadership within our communities. 351 00:22:18.300 --> 00:22:24.980 Because there is such dysfunction and there is such a breakdown of the traditional structures 352 00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:31.780 that our communities in many cases are just disintegrating or have disintegrated. 353 00:22:32.780 --> 00:22:39.720 But if there's any way in which any of you or anyone can think about what's possible, 354 00:22:39.860 --> 00:22:44.540 the biggest challenge and the most profitable thing we could do 355 00:22:44.540 --> 00:22:47.520 is work in terms of capacity and leadership 356 00:22:48.800 --> 00:22:52.400 and reinventing or re-energising some of those places. 357 00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:55.440 The second thing is family and youth. 358 00:22:55.580 --> 00:22:58.100 And I know that that whole issue of domestic violence, 359 00:22:58.200 --> 00:23:03.340 which is just so endemic in our communities, is sitting there. 360 00:23:03.600 --> 00:23:07.440 But the great thing about this horrid debate that's gone on in this country 361 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:10.940 for the last two months, two weeks if it was, out of the country, thank heavens, 362 00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:12.680 because I just couldn't cope with it anymore, 363 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:18.180 is that this is the first time in my 25 years in Aboriginal affairs 364 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:22.780 where I am hearing really loudly Aboriginal people saying, 365 00:23:22.980 --> 00:23:25.040 we've got to take responsibility. 366 00:23:26.740 --> 00:23:28.860 And I think that's absolutely fantastic. 367 00:23:29.800 --> 00:23:32.080 And I think that over the next five years, 368 00:23:32.280 --> 00:23:35.060 you'll see that responsibility being taken even more. 369 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:37.700 The third thing is economic development. 370 00:23:37.900 --> 00:23:39.720 Now that mightn't sound much for whitefellas, 371 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:41.820 but for blackfellas it's brand new stuff. 372 00:23:43.360 --> 00:23:45.420 And that's probably going to be one of the hardest. 373 00:23:46.660 --> 00:23:49.480 Because most of the great Aboriginal businesses out there 374 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:54.220 are very different to white businesses in the sense that the supply of labour 375 00:23:54.220 --> 00:24:00.140 almost always is through CDEP programs or Work for the Dole. 376 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:02.480 I don't know why John Howard thinks Work for the Dole's so new. 377 00:24:03.040 --> 00:24:04.820 He's been doing it for about 25 years. 378 00:24:05.520 --> 00:24:07.980 So there's this challenge of an economic base 379 00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:10.540 where most of our labour and our economic base 380 00:24:10.540 --> 00:24:12.660 comes from people who have traded for the dole. 381 00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:13.740 And they've given their right to the dole 382 00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:15.380 to work for their communities. 383 00:24:16.260 --> 00:24:18.420 The fourth thing, and I've almost finished, Philip. 384 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:22.120 The fourth thing that I'd like you to take away with you 385 00:24:22.120 --> 00:24:23.440 that's really important for us 386 00:24:23.980 --> 00:24:25.980 is the issue around culture and heritage. 387 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:33.080 And I am just so upset and worried 388 00:24:33.080 --> 00:24:35.500 about what's happening to our languages. 389 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:38.040 I mean, think about it. 390 00:24:38.220 --> 00:24:42.400 212 years ago, there were between 500 and 700 languages and dialects 391 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:43.240 across this country. 392 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:46.880 There are now about 100 left. 393 00:24:47.360 --> 00:24:50.440 And they're dying at the rate of one to two a year. 394 00:24:51.260 --> 00:24:54.180 My language, there are two or three old people, 395 00:24:54.300 --> 00:24:57.100 very old people, that still can speak sentences. 396 00:24:58.100 --> 00:25:00.820 So in the next five years, what does that mean? 397 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:05.360 And the final thing, and this sounds absolutely boring, 398 00:25:05.540 --> 00:25:08.520 but I am now convinced, having worked both in the non-government sector 399 00:25:08.520 --> 00:25:12.020 and having worked in the government sector as well, 400 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:15.720 is that the reason that social disadvantage 401 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:17.440