Sarah Sparks is a communications consultant, and works with wāhine toa across Aotearoa.
OPINION: Despite luring media headlines about a better lifestyle across the Tasman, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side if you look at it through the filter of indigenous rights.
I was struck by both the contrasts and the commonalities in this area between Australia and New Zealand when visiting Darwin – Garramilla recently.
First, a disclaimer: No, I am not an academic, or legal counsel practising in the realm of constitutional law, however I am tangata whenua and serve as an advocate with a heart that beats for justice.
How nations transform State systems to value and uphold indigenous rights is of utmost personal interest to me both here in Aotearoa and beyond our shores globally.
My enduring connection to Australia has spanned decades. My first job at 18 was there. Some of my whānau have married and settled down there for over 50 years.
I’ve always revered the occupation of their First Nations people, who after 60 millennia are the oldest continuous surviving civilisation on Earth.
Out of respect for such an enduring provenance steeped in ancient wisdom, what happens in Australia for our indigenous brothers and sisters constitutionally matters to us all.
Hard to fathom that the Australian Census never counted indigenous Australians until the 1967 referendum when 91.8% said “yes” to inclusion, which thankfully changed that part of the Constitution. Before that, they were not in the government statistics, invisible in their own land.
Then imagine that after living there for more than 40,000 years, the Anangu people had to wait until 1979 before they were recognised as traditional owners of Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock).
Watch poignant doco Putuparri and the Rainmakers to see what dispossession and dislocation does for an indigenous soul. Then how reclamation through reconnecting back to ancestral roots magically restores.
But while there have been triumphs in land rights legislation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes, they continue to be excluded from the power structures of post-colonial Australia.
As I flew into the Northern Territory this fact weighed heavily on my mind. Then there was a spark of optimism.
“We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging,” flashed across the seatback screen on Qantas. It’s part of the national carrier’s commitment to reconciliation in its First Nations strategy.
During my five-day visit, this formal acknowledgement was everywhere. It was relayed in speeches. Displayed on signs. Printed in tourist marketing material. Visible in shop windows.
Walking down the main street of Darwin I discovered NAAJA, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. Provider of free criminal and civil law services and the largest in the Northern Territory.
Access to justice should be a right, not a luxury. It felt like a community law centre intersected with legal aid on steroids. Progressive and self-determining to close gaps and inequities.
But then I looked deeper to what’s currently playing out in more substantial matters relating to power structures and governing foundations of the Australian nation.
The Australian newspapers canvas it. Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton rejects it. Indigenous people embrace it. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promotes it, saying “if not now, when?”
I’m referring to ‘The Voice’. Read the Uluru Statement of the Heart as it’s a historic seed for change.
Here, we have our covenant of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, upheld in the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal that elevates breaches, enables transparent truth-telling, and empowers recommendations.
Over there our indigenous cousins are still advocating for a fundamental right – to have a voice.
To amend the Constitution recognising indigenous peoples as the first peoples of Australia, and most importantly, when decisions are made about them, that they have an opportunity to have a say in laws and policies that affect them.
Currently there is no formal mechanism like an enshrined advisory body for consultation on matters that impact their rights, interests, and well-being.
While over here in election season a political party is calling for a referendum on co-governance challenging the rights of our indigenous to a seat at the table.
Over there they’re calling for a referendum on the right of their indigenous to even have a seat at the table.
For such constitutional change to be invoked it requires a double majority – a “yes” nationally and “yes” in four out of six states. Opinion polls say 84% of 18-35 year olds agree, compared to 40% of those over 55 years.
On this trip I had the privilege to be welcomed by Dr Bilawara Lee (Aunty B), a senior elder of the Larrakia nation, the traditional custodians of the land.
As an indigenous woman, I connected with her welcoming words from the heart. “Because as First Nations people, I know the dreaming still runs strong in our mind, body, and spirits.”
Her view on the Voice was relaxed with an innate knowingness of an indigenous elder. It will happen she believes, it’s only a matter of time.