Hello and welcome men, women and children, relatives, families, friends to the Wadani country.
The journey that I've come on and most Aboriginal people of my age and older,
they've gone through all that time of not even being recognised as human beings in their own country.
I was still a foreign foreigner.
Constitutional recognition is very important.
It's starting a conversation and an important conversation that all Australians need to have.
One about truth and justice and a lot of healing will come from it as well.
We've got the longest lasting culture here in Australia
and we've got the longest lasting culture here in Australia.
And we've been put in that really unique position and I think we're obligated to be able to recognise the first Australians
and their contributions to our history.
If we're serious about creating a country we really want to be proud of,
then we need to start unifying this and it has to happen from the top.
It's absolutely wonderful to be down here today on Wadani Noongar country to celebrate the Dunsborough Arts Festival.
Reconciliation WA is really pleased to be part of the Dunsborough District's Progress Association and working to make this weekend happen.
They were interested in doing the campaign down in Dunsborough.
I thought, hey, we've got this great festival, it's on the beach, there's great exposure and it's a beautiful time of the year
and we can bring in performers, musicians that are noongar or aboriginals from all over the place.
Reconciliation WA has really provided me an opportunity to learn more about the first Australians
and where the gaps exist still for how we can help build better relationships between the first Australians and non-indigenous Australians.
At the moment our constitution doesn't recognise our first peoples and their long and rich connection to country and their culture
to see that finally recognised in our constitution is really important to me as an aboriginal person
but all Australians should be proud of that too.
The recognised campaign isn't only about recognising the history in the 60,000 years our first Australians have claimed to this wonderful country
but also realising that our constitution still contains discriminatory clauses.
From that standpoint, it's a no-brainer, we need to get rid of it, we need to change it.
Constitutional recognition is going to be one of the last steps in the reconciliation process for me
and I think that will be the beginning of something really different in this country where we're treated as part of the community
and I think that's what lots of non-indigenous Australians want
and I think that's what lots of aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Australians want as well.
When you look at the document itself, the constitution, it was formulated in the late 1800s and implemented when Australia became federated in 1901
I guess people back then had a different point of view, a different outlook
and I don't think they share the same values as the Australians do today.
Tonight we're going to talk to you a little bit about reconciliation, we're going to talk to you about what this R means and why we all feel it's so important.
If we can go back to 1938, the 26th of January, while Australia was celebrating 150 years,
William Ferguson, William Cooper and Jack Patton met in Sydney
and they put together a declaration asking for equal rights, the same as the white people
and we're undertaking a campaign of an awareness about why we see this as important.
Why does it matter? Well you don't make progress by ignoring the identity of aboriginal people,
you make progress by embracing the identity of aboriginal people.
And I think people will feel a bit free to come and say, look we're really proud to have the oldest culture in the world
and the other side will be aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people saying, well welcome aboard, we know you're not going anywhere,
we've just got to get on in this country.
My family have been on this country and I'm very proud of it since the first days of the colony.
So I can claim six generations of connection to this country, but it pales into insignificance
compared to people like Jason who can claim 2,000 generations.
Their connection to this country is significant, it is unique and this country needs to have the heart and the spirit
to acknowledge that in the Constitution.
With both sides of parliament on board, they're looking at 27th of May 2017.
It's a fairly significant date because that celebrates 50 years since the 1967 referendum.
If that does come to fruition, it presents a great opportunity to celebrate two major occasions for Indigenous people in this country.
It's not an obscure thing we're talking about here, if you respect them the community, you feel better about yourself
and you look after yourself better.
You're more likely to close those gaps in health and education and employment.
Recognition is really a practical step towards bringing us together.
We're more, I think, to close the gap than almost any other thing we do.
With any national campaign and anything you're doing politically, there's always risks.
If we're not out there doing our job and preparing and informing people, they won't know what they're voting for, therefore could vote no.
The political stumbling blocks are not in our parliaments, they're in the hearts and minds of every Australian that's going to have to vote
and we need them to say yes.
This is our generation's opportunity to change this country forever and I think we've got to realise how lucky we are to have that opportunity to do it
and I think this is a generation that's going to do it.
I'm calling on you because you're just like me.
I'm calling because God will set us free.
I just hope that people being exposed to different cultural activities and seeing that we're all people,
it doesn't matter if they're black or white, as they say.
If you're a musician or a performer or an artist, you give your heart to whatever it is that you do.
People are listening and learning more about constitution recognition.
It's a positive step and something concrete that we can work towards.
So we are all here to continue the traditions of the past and to celebrate the similarities of our differences in our cultures,
to extend food and stories so that singing and dancing as we catch up with our friends, friends and family.
So please take a few minutes this evening to think about how lucky we are to live here.
To Jennings Mill, look with your eyes, listen with your trunks, your ears and feel your cordage anger, your hearts and spirits
and take home your kind of longer new memories.
