Why would an old white guy support an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament? On the surface, this is a simple question, but on reflection it became complex and multi-layered. I don’t have the answers to the many problems Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still face in Australia. They have experienced too many “old white guys” presuming to have the answers over too many decades. I’ve learned from experience relatively late in life that if we listen to them, the answers will come.
I grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with an idyllic, “traditional” Aussie lifestyle. I didn’t know any First Nations people. I wasn’t even aware of any living locally. I know now that this wasn’t strictly the case, but most had been re-located to places like the Cherbourg mission near Murgon. When we occasionally visited relatives who lived in Murgon, the Aboriginal people were seen as separate, and to me, a little mysterious. The language used about them was, at best, condescending. Like the vast majority of Australians I had never personally met an Aboriginal person.
I grew up, went to university and embarked on a career with the Queensland government. At times I worked in areas where there were large Aboriginal communities, like Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Doomadgee, Normanton and Mornington Island. Yet, I continued to stay separate, and I can’t recall ever having a meaningful conversation with a local person apart from relatively superficial chats about fishing and the like. I didn’t consider myself racist, but perhaps I was. If anything, I think I was fearful of the unknown.
Throughout my life I would hear condescending stories and comments about Aboriginal people. I don’t need to repeat any – you’ve all heard them. There was (and probably still is) a deep, underlying racist attitude in Australia. A common theme in everyday discourse centred around the notion of “why don’t they better themselves?”
This never sat well with me, particularly the simplistic views espoused on “solutions” to the obvious disadvantages First Nations people experienced. However, throughout my career I never personally did anything to change these attitudes. Like most Australians, I observed passively.
The period since 2016 has been life-changing for me. During this time, I’ve made 15 or so consultancy trips to Torres Strait and the Northern Peninsula Area of Cape York. Initially I was asked to review why some government responses to recent plant pest incursions had not been successful. But very quickly the work became much broader. It’s amazing how the direction of our work can change when you listen to what people have to say.
When I first went to Torres Strait, I knew very little about the local culture. So, I did what I’d done many times before with farmers and asked them about how they operate. An issue that came up very early was that they understood the need for restrictions on moving things between communities, but the pests that affected them mostly came from mainland Australia. This was a lightbulb moment for me. We spend all this time and money protecting Australia from outside threats, but virtually nothing protecting these remote, pristine islands from ourselves. There were no controls on the very extensive movements of goods from the south. Now we have a biosecurity strategy for Torres Strait that has a heavy emphasis on making biosecurity more meaningful to communities.
On a more personal note, I’ve made some great friends and learned so much from listening and working with some wonderful people. I shared stories about our late fathers with a good friend from Masig Island. We talked about how white Australians and Torres Strait communities manage their funerals differently. I liked their way better.
Early on, I spent a couple of days driving around the Northern Peninsula Area of Cape York with a local quarantine officer for the Australian government. This man’s knowledge about ecosystems, pests and diseases was admirable. One thing that really stuck with me, being a solely English speaker myself, was that he spoke at least four languages, one of them English. The others were the rich and living languages of this land we were driving around – languages I’d never heard before. One thing Australia has done right in recent years is to directly employ Indigenous rangers and quarantine officers, who use their intimate knowledge of people and country to achieve a much better result in protecting these lands, as they have for millennia.
Indigenous people not only need to be listened to, but also have a fair say in how future policies affect them. Not only is this respectful but it will probably lead to a better result.
So, there’s the logic, but for me there is also a less tangible side to this. I am deeply ashamed about the horrendous atrocities inflicted by our society on traditional custodians. I guess we are all in some small way responsible for inadvertently displacing them. Given what has occurred, I think that the Uluru statement is incredibly generous, not seeking retribution, but reconciliation.
The Uluru statement doesn’t ask a lot from us; primarily that we listen and own our truth. This is what any decent society should do. To really grow as a nation, I believe that we need to get to the point where we are proud of the Indigenous peoples of this land and our relationship with them; where we embrace their many cultures and are richer for it. As the Uluru statement says, “They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country”.
I think public attitudes are changing but we still have a long way to go. Voting yes to the referendum on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament will be a small step in showing that we care and are committed to a more equitable future for all Australians. It is the decent thing to do.
• Dr Ron Glanville is former chief veterinary officer of Queensland
