Australian treaty with Aboriginal people is a first step towards reconciliation

Advocates for rights for Australia’s indigenous people have faced many setbacks. But this week there is a bright spot: a treaty between the Australian state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, and the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population will come into effect on Friday. “It shows that perseverance and courage pay off,” said Thomas Mayo, a prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activist, by phone.

Unlike countries such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand, Australia has never before concluded a treaty with the indigenous population. This first official treaty between a local government and the indigenous population has been in the works for almost a decade. “It marks the beginning of a new era in which the 60,000-year-old knowledge and culture of the indigenous peoples is respected and valued,” said Ngarra Murray, chairman of the group that led the negotiations with the state government, via email. “It is an opportunity for all Victorians to acknowledge our shared history, heal together and move forward.”

The treaty means that Victoria’s indigenous people will now have a say in the policies that affect their lives. A new democratic body, the Gellung Warl Commission, which means ‘pointed spear’ in the local Gunaikurnai language, will now be consulted on this matter.

Genocide

In addition, the so-called Yoorrook Commission, which means ‘truth’ in the local Wemba Wemba Aboriginal language, continues to investigate the history of colonization and its consequences for the original population. Earlier this year, that committee concluded after a four-year investigation that a genocide had been committed against the indigenous population. During the colonization of Victoria, more than three-quarters of the indigenous population was killed in about twenty years. “The original population of Victoria has been almost completely destroyed,” is stated in the report.

Uncovering that history is of great importance to the indigenous people of Australia. In 1788, the continent was incorporated as a penal colony by the British crown. The current state of Victoria was colonized from 1830. The original population was exterminated, deprived and oppressed. The ‘White Australia’ policy applied throughout Australia until the early 1970s, with the aim of giving the country as white and Western an identity as possible. Indigenous children were widely taken from their parents and placed in homes or with white families for forced assimilation. For a long time there was silence about this pitch-black past.

In the run-up to the coming into force, Victoria State Premier Jacinta Allan issued an official apology earlier this week for the suffering caused since the area was colonized. “Decisions made in this parliament have long denied indigenous peoples their land, their rights and self-determination,” she said during her speech. “The colonization of what we now call Victoria was not peaceful. It was rapid and violent.” She apologized for “the damage that has been done and damage that continues today.”

Life expectancy

Because even now the original population is still disadvantaged. Indigenous people of Australia are very vulnerable. Life expectancy is ten years lower than that of the rest of the population. Suicide is twice as common, including among children.

Moreover, a disproportionate share of the indigenous population is in prison. An equally disproportionately large number of them die in custody. This week a report revealed that a record number of Aboriginal people have died in detention over the past year. Of the 113 people who have died in prison, 33 are of indigenous descent, the highest number since tracking began in 1979. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just 3.8 percent of the entire population, but represent more than a third of the country’s prison population.

Zoom in

“This is a national crisis that requires leadership and political action,” Amanda Porter, professor of criminal justice at the University of Melbourne, told the newspaper. Australian public broadcaster ABC. Porter regularly conducts research into the causes of death of deceased prisoners. “It is extremely frustrating that the situation is only getting worse,” she says.

The treaty must close these enormous gaps between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population. The hope is that policy will be more effective if they can participate in the decision-making process themselves. But not everyone is convinced of that. For example, a law was recently passed in Victoria that makes it possible to give children the same punishment as adults for serious crimes.

According to Nerita Waight, director of the Aboriginal legal consultancy in Victoria, this means that the indigenous population is once again disproportionately affected. “This law allows children between the ages of 14 and 17 to be given life sentences. Aboriginal people and other children of color will, as always, be hardest hit by these harmful laws,” Waight wrote on the progressive political Cheek website.

Referendum

The treaty comes two years after the failed national referendum on the recognition of the indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the original inhabitants of the continent. A large majority of Australian voters rejected that proposal and saw no point in setting up a parliamentary advisory committee to safeguard their interests.

Mayo was one of the leaders of the campaign at the time and devoted six years of his life to it. In the year before the referendum he was only home for 25 days, the rest of the year he campaigned. “When the referendum ultimately failed, it was a huge disappointment. I talked to older people who reminded me that we are often told ‘no’ before we finally take a step forward. That moment is now finally here.”

Mayo wrote the book ‘Always was, always will be’ about the campaign, and about what should happen next. “I realized that we should not let hope die. We needed new energy after the terrible loss of the referendum,” he says. He is in close contact with the indigenous leaders who spearheaded the treaty in Victoria. “They didn’t stop either, they continued to believe that their hard work would pay off.”

Unfortunately, progress is slow, but the success of this treaty proves that it can be done

Murray agrees, although she states that it has been a complicated process. “As with any population group, there are different views among First Peoples,” she writes. “We achieved it because we spoke to tribal representatives across the state.”

Reparations

The local conservative opposition party is strongly against the treaty, and has promised to abolish it immediately if they come to power after the next elections. They fear that the treaty will lead to claims for reparations, which could potentially cost the state millions.

According to Mayo, it is scaremongering. “The opposition party, both in Victoria and nationally, is moving further and further to the right. They are waging an ideological culture war,” he says. He fears that they will throw away all investments if the treaty is revoked in the future. “That is the absolute waste, because we will never stop fighting for our rights and recognition.”

Still, indigenous leaders like Mayo remain optimistic. “I am confident that this treaty will succeed,” he said. He draws hope from the fact that reconciliation is also being worked on in other parts of the country. For example, in the state of South Australia, a committee has been appointed to represent an Aboriginal voice and provide advice to the local government. “Unfortunately, progress is slow, but the success of this treaty proves that it can be done.”

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