Voice, Treaty, Truth – 2020 NAIDOC theme
The first treaty was a failure in 1835. It was opposed by the capitalist state. The signed treaty was between squatters recently arrived in Port Phillip district from Van Diemen’s Land during the Tasmanian Wars and the Kulin Nation who had lived on country for thousands of years.
Treaty now
Where is Treaty at in 2023? Firstly it is a land deal with the capitalist state, should it decide to come to the negotiation table which it hasn’t since 1835; and, even then, it opposed John Batman’s treaty with Wurundjeri elders on the banks of Merri Creek. But by whom: Individual nations? A bureaucracy like ATSIC? A collective of all the tribes?
How does treaty by a capitalist state, hell bent on mining, resolve clashes inside aboriginal cultural areas and the destruction of the ecosystem?
What about the white and black gatekeepers who find their way into bureaucracies like this?
Truth telling
And how does this sit with truth telling? Even my comrades on the left seem unconcerned about the importance of truth telling, never once has a single comrade commented publicly on my family’s truth telling about its part in the aboriginal genocide. ‘A child can’t say who its father is with any certainty‘ an academic told me. I certainly knew who my father was even though he died over 50 years ago. Liberal academics, government and media have failed to acknowledge the 1881 massacre identified by my brother and myself where a family member was the main perpetrator in the murder of at least 5 aboriginal people in far north Queensand [see The Curr Family in Far North Queensland 1862-1925 for my own attempt at truth telling].
Collective
Only twice in my lifetime have I seen tribes come together in any meaningful way. I missed the tent embassy protests in 1972 organised by the back power movement. The first was an attempt at a second treaty was led by Michael Mansell in the ( I think it was) 1990s in Alice Springs and the second was the Statement from the Heart, from which the referendum on the Voice has come, also in Alice Springs. Even the opponents of the Statement from the Heart turned up to show their opposition.
Leaders
Sadly where I come from, Meanjin/Brisbane on Yuggera and Torubu land, some of the best leaders, from local language groups, have sadly passed away – Sam Watson Jnr being the most prominent of these; we miss him on a personal level and, importantly, on a political level. This was apparent at this year’s invasion day.
Why Sam Watson, a socialist, was not the leader of the Left in Australia I’ll never know.
Anyway here is some vintage Michael Mansell talking about treaty and truth telling. I respect his radical position because he is right about The Voice as proposed is not enough. Nevertheless I will also be voting for the Voice because it is the only positive proposal on offer.
Ian Curr
27 Jan 2023