The Winds of Change

National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia (NIYMA)
Paper to the National Treaty Conference Canberra, 29 August, 2002

Speaking Notes - Gregory Phillips

Please note that this is not the final version of this paper.
The final version will be available soon on the TreatyNow website

Respect and love are paid to the Ngunnawal for their custodianship of these lands. The National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia, or NIYMA, acknowledges your struggle and honours your spirit. ·

I dedicate this speech to a dear friend of mine, probably my first mentor in life, Mrs B, as she was affectionately known. She has recently crossed over, and I acknowledge her place in my life and in the place of many other young Indigenous peoples - we cannot underestimate the role played by Community Education Counsellors and those who seek to help their peoples with personal issues. ·

NIYMA and I would like to talk with you today about story, about dreams, about love, about hope, and mostly about vision. We believe these things underpin everything we do in life, and we in the Movement use these cultural tools as ways to look back and pay respects, of seeing and feeling the world now, and as ways to move forward.

Briefly, NIYMA was set up by five young Black people because we didn't have the support we needed when we were growing and developing. There was no space where we could voice our opinions and not have our dreams and hopes dashed as soon as the conference or meeting was over. We're sick of being advisory members to government, and we strongly believe we have to do it for ourselves, on our own terms, in our own way. In this way, we are sovereign.

We work with respected Elders and men and women who can support and respect our place in the cycle of life. They teach us about their times, and we share with them our knowledges of these times. In this way, we choose to move forward and believe in a better day for our mob.

NIYMA does not have all the answers, it does not purport to represent all young Indigenous peoples, nor does it require or need government funding.

What we do have is vision, dreams, hopes, story, love and most importantly and refreshingly, respect for each other.

If you wish to find out more about NIYMA, let's talk afterwards, there are a few of us here.

In that vein, I also acknowledge and respect the contributions here of all the young blackfullas at this conference - isn't it good to have among us young women and men of such talent and style?

In this paper, however, we are not talking about just young Indigenous people, because we believe we have a much bigger contribution to make than that.

We all know the statistics and situation of our young Brothers and Sisters. NIYMA is committed to making a difference in this area, though we certainly don't claim that it is our responsibility alone.

We are here with you for two simple reasons:

• two-thirds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island People in this country are under 25 years of age - if we do not engage with these young people today, we run the risk of another lost generation to drugs and alcohol, suicide, and most disastorously, loss of dreams, vision, and love.
  
• we will be the ones who implement and perhaps finally negotiate any treaty. We have a serious stake here, and thus, we in NIYMA take our responsibility equally as seriously to engage and include Indigenous young peoples.

James Bay Cree young people are now saying why negotiate a treaty for us when we don't agree with it. Important lessons for us in that. So let's start with STORY. Aunty Lilla Watson, respected Elder from the Brisbane Black community, and clever woman, has shared with us this story which we believe guides all of us in our deliberations on a treaty.

"…See the impact of colonialism has been huge…we Aboriginal people are spiritual people and we are still recovering because of colonialism… There's not a lot of understanding about that on the part of white Australia because they have this misguided belief that colonialism doesn't affect them. Of course it does! It's made them into the people they are today, which means they cannot hear what Aboriginal people are telling them… Many are trying to run away from their own history… As they get older and more mature [chuckles], hopefully they'll have a better understanding… You see, that mouth of the snake… our people are in pathological grieving. Our people have retreated into the belly of the snake… it's our consolidation of our Aboriginality, a renewing of our identity. Only recently have we begun emerging from the mouth of the snake with renewal and consolidation of who we are…"

This story tells us about who we are, about conceptualizing ourselves as part of a great renewal and emergence, and about our survival and strength.

It tells us that we are spiritually free to live according to our own story, agenda and understanding of the world.

In this story, we are free, and we are sovereign because we choose our own destiny and we live it out. We do it in an innate and instinctive way, regardless of what the white people do or do not do.

In this story, we are reminded that sometimes in our planning and efforts to help our Peoples, we minimize the spiritual, we minimize the fact that we are not alone, and we forget that there is a broader process of life and creation happening here that we should quiet ourselves and listen to every so often.

Yes indeed we believe there is hope. We believe there is vision, we believe there is purpose in our culture that translates into today's political, social and economic environment. We are not alone in this struggle, Ancestors are with us, and all we must do is listen to their wisdom through our stories and quiet time.

As Aunty Mary Graham says in her paper on the Application of the Oslo Model for Relations between States and Indigenous People ", a sovereign people do not plead their cause. They affirm it and they live by it".

Other speakers have said:

• "Vincent Lingiari' said we can wait.
• Larissa and George said don't compromise too soon for too little and that gradual change was sensible; he also said the Process was important.
• Kev Carmody said there was power and change in the wind.
• Bill Jonas said it doen't have to be one be sovereignty vs state sov - why not dual sovereignty?
• Michael Mansell said we should not cede sovereignty in a treaty and we agree.
• Darren Bloomfield said a treaty must come from the grassroots people, which is all of us here.
• David Ervine said we are engaged ina process of looking into a mirror when we engage with our seeming enemies.
• Dick Estens reminded us things can change when working together.
• Jon Altman said a treaty must be flexible to allow for intergenerational equity/change.
• Kerryn Phelps told us where treaties are in place, Indigenous health flourishes.
• Lester Rigney reminded us about the power of language.
• And Michael Horsbourugh confirmed for us that at the heart of the matter is white Australia's insecure and untenable grasp on sovereignty.

The point I am making is we have what we need to proceed now. Let's go.

NIYMA believes instead of starting at a Treaty, we must first ask what have we already got, and what do we really need.

Lester Irabinna-Rigney mentioned this morning we should acknowledge and pay tribute to how far we have already come, and we agree. Thank you to all our People who have struggled this far to bring us here.

Young Indigenous peoples have amazing talent, energy, humour and truth inside of themselves. Just bring a group of young people together and scratch the surface of their spirit, and an amazing thing happens: that explosion is creativity, passion, and an unstoppable passion for justice and freedom. This is the energy we must harness. That is NIYMA's work: to engage young people and harness those energies for good.

When we do this in harmony with our Elders, then a powerful Movement for freedom emerges.

We've got all those good things we know we have, and we've got deadly skills and humour too. Let's not forget those. We've got Elders, culture, language, love, respect, hope, humour, style and guts. That's all we need - that's all we've ever needed.

This emergence has the capacity to overcome legal injustice, low self-esteem, violence, suicide and addictions, to mention a few.

Of course, these feel-good things by themselves cannot change our situation, but they must underpin it. Young Indigenous people have got passion, style, ability.

There a few things in our way of course.

What we don't have enough of is Indigenous leaders willing to support us and bring us through with them rather than stifling our voices. We are not here to usurp or ignore your positions or place - but we have had enough of people saying they support young people and doing nothing about it.

We are also sick of victimhood. We want to focus on what we've got and build from there. As has already been noted, we need a new language - we need a language based on respect for each other's opinions and experiences. We are heartened that at this conference, young people have been somewhat included, and that there is a genuine desire among all participants to believe in what we are trying to do, regardless of whether you believe in a treaty or not. It is great that people simply do not attack each other, but begin to listen.

NIYMA believes we must focus on what we need, rather than what we want. We should do this first free of the limitations of discussing a treaty.

We realize a lot of young people may not even want a treaty, or believe that it can deliver practical change, binding agreements, and above all, a new relationship of respect and love in this country.

Above all, we are concerned that we might be asking for something they haven't got. We're asking them for respect and love. Maybe they haven't got it. They might have it deep inside, but if they're not ready, why ask?

We might be setting ourselves up for failure if we ask for something they haven't got.

So before we can ask them for what we need, we gotta know what we need so that we're sticking to our agenda, and being pro-active, not reactive.

We're excited! We believe we are at a turning point in history - both in the way Black people treat each other

True unity is eminent and critical if we are to succeed - [Billy Diamond/Cree story about constitutional change]

What do we really need for freedom? Let our minds wander. Let us imagine a future for ourselves free of oppressors. Let us not use language which only defines us as slave to a white master.

NIYMA sat down and did a simple brainstorming exercise to answer this question. ·

Phase 1 - Healing and Basic Equality of Outcomes

1. truth and reconciliation commissions,
2. healing and trauma recovery centers for Black Australia,
3. general education and awareness circles for whites,
4. Proportional spending on Black affairs in health, eduction, infrastructure etc,
5. repeals of mandatory sentencing and other racist legislation.

Phase 2 - Foundation Building

1. preparing Black and white Australia for Black self-governance - [Ramphele quote]
2. establishment of Black self-governance structures,
3. Appointment of independent arbiter between parties,
4. Legislative changes,
5. training and skill building,
6. education and public relations exercises (public, private, church, community, education)

Phase 3 - Realisation

1. Black self-governance
2. Dual national governance (including resources 2% GDP)
3. Treaty to guarantee equality and respect
4. Implementation and guarantees enshrined in constitution and international law

Features:

• Over-arching national framework document, with regional and local agreements
• Implemented by all levels of society

PROCESS

Preparation - do what we can now and don't wait and Phase One
Timeframe - ten-twenty years
Process - Do what we can now by ourselves, why wait?
Getting parties to the table - must not only be a dialogue with government but all sectors and the People
Parties - Blacks led by independent Indigenous organization/commission Whites represented by independent commission
Guarantee of effectiveness - independent arbiters with UN representation; All parties locked in including government and other sectors.

VISION

[Read from last page of paper.]
Brothers and Sisters,
Ghandi has reminded us about non-violence
Martin Luther King Jr has reminded us about unconditional love
Malcolm X has reminded us about about truth
Muhammed Ali has reminded us about courage in the face of fear
Nelson Mandela has reminded us about patience
The Kalkadoons and Pemulwuy have reminded us about being warriors
Vincent Lingiari has reminded us about patience
Uncle Joe McGinness, Aunty Faith Bandler, Aunty Evelyn Scott and those in FCAATSI have reminded us about dignity and resolve
The leaders and fighters of the 60s 70s and 80s have reminded us about guts
All of our mob have reminded us about truth, feeling, love and honesty

And all of us here are poised to truly create a new chapter in world history. We must prepare to govern, Black People!
We must prepare for freedom if we want it.
We must be sovereign now if we truly believe in it.
Black Australia, it is you and me who make the difference, along with our good friends and supporters.
We are emerging, we are here, we are free.

NOTE: All the papers from the National Treaty Conference will be available soon on the Treaty Now website: http://www.treatynow.org