STOP PRESS: the date for lodging submissions to the inquiry has been extended to 1 June. At 19 May, 136 submissions had been received.
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The parliamentary inquiry (Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs - JSCATSIA) held its first public hearing on 1 May in Sydney and the transcript of the hearing has been released. There was also a hearing in Adelaide on 8 May and further hearings around Australia are tentatively planned for dates between 26 June and 5 August.
Here are some highlights from the 1 May transcript (Proof Hansard). The speakers were Pastor Dr Ray Minniecon of Scarred Tree Indigenous Ministries, Glebe, Brigadier Vincent Williams (Ret'd), Acting President, RSL, NSW Branch, Senator Lidia Thorpe (Independent, Victoria), and Senator Ellie Whiteaker (ALP, WA). As well as the material extracted below, the transcript contains commentary on the Anzac Day booing episodes and on Indigenous service in uniform.
Dr Minniecon: Racism is a part of my life. I'm born under a colonised sun. I go to sleep under a colonised moon. So it's just there every day before you. I was born before the 1967 referendum. I was brought up on a mission up in Far North Queensland as well as on cane fields and all that kind of stuff. It's always been a part of the mystery of our people. As my father would have asked if he were here today, why do these white people hate us so much? That's his question. Why? What did we do to deserve this kind of hate? We just can't seem to figure out what kind of crime or thing we've done to deserve this kind of stuff. (page 36)
Dr Minniecon: In our observation or in our experiences as Indigenous Australians we can see that there is a power there or a structure that is protected that we can't seem to break into or break out of or shatter. I'm inside one of the most powerful racist organisations in the country, and that's the church. It's a constant, everyday battle to try to move these kinds of institutions to try to see Indigenous people, including myself, as human and as people who are from this land. It always was, always will be our country. All we're asking is that people acknowledge that and respect that and do their thing to do that ... I was taught by my mother and parents that racism is a white man's problem. It's not my problem, even though we're the ones who are the recipients of this hate and this racism. We've got to deal with it anyway, but we can't solve it because we're not the creators of it. (page 36)
Senator THORPE: Are you going to stick with that decision and keep welcomes as part of Anzac Day going forward, and would you ever consider acknowledging the Frontier Wars given that's the first war that ever happened on the shores of this land and there were thousands of massacres?
Brig. Williams: They are two very interesting questions. My answer to the first question is that the RSL's policy—that is, RSL Australia—is that we do an acknowledgement of country rather than a welcome to country. The RSL website says: Commemorative activities are carried out on lands across Australia that Traditional Owners and First Nation Peoples hold a deep connection with. The RSL recognises the invaluable contributions made by Indigenous soldiers, sailors, and aviators of the Australian Defence Force … who served, and still serve, alongside the many other cultures that together form our ADF. In recognition of Indigenous Australians as the First Peoples of Australia, the RSL supports the acknowledgement of country before the commencement of official services on Anzac Day. And I see no reason why that would change. As far as your second question is concerned, my understanding is that the Australian War Memorial is going to acknowledge that the Frontier Wars took place, and I don't have any problems with that. I think that's a perfectly reasonable step for the Australian War Memorial to take as part of the reconciliation process.
Senator THORPE: Would the RSL consider including it on Anzac Day, because our people also died fighting the colonisers? They came with guns, they rounded us up and they shot us and threw us off cliffs. Is there any future discussion that could happen that could acknowledge that our people died fighting for this country first?
Brig. Williams: RSL New South Wales is only a branch of RSL Australia. All the states and territories have their own branches, so that would be a discussion that would have to be led from RSL Australia. (pages 37-38)
Senator WHITEAKER: You have a long history of sharing the stories of First Nations veterans and the contribution that you and many others have made in protecting our country. I wonder if you could talk about why sharing those stories is so important, particularly in the context of preventing what happened on Anzac Day this year and in previous years from occurring and also broadly why that education is really important for us to hear.
Dr Minniecon: It's important for a whole host of reasons, but I think two of them are to make sure that our next generation, our younger generation, realise and understand that many of our veterans have fought overseas, and we need to make sure that we bring that story out for them to understand. Our focus is on trying to instil in those young children the warrior spirit that our ancestors have had throughout 60,000 years or so. I was brought up with that warrior spirit. Even though, on the mish that we lived on and other places, racism was quite blatant and quite open, the incredible integrity and dignity of our men and our women were always a part of the ways in which I saw them deal with that. What we're trying to do is present to our younger generation this opportunity for them to see that they do also need to develop their own understanding and their respect for our own contributions to every war, including the Frontier Wars. (page 38)
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