Stand Up, Speak Up, Demand Better
Julie Tongs, OAM
Chief Executive Officer, Winnunga

Sisters and Brothers, family and friends, Acknowledging Ngunnawal and Ngambri elders, and community for their efforts to care for country, to care for the spirit that nourishes us and the messages from our culture that we must take care of each of us. Just over eighteen months ago, the referendum to establish an advisory voice to the Australian Parliament for Aboriginal people was defeated. Fifteen moths ago the prime Minister presented the 17th Close the Gap Report to the parliament, hear me clearly, the 17th report, but despite the annual acknowledgement of the unequal status of too many Aboriginal lives in Australia, the Gap of inequality and poverty remains. Seventeen years ago the cathartic ‘National Apology to the Stolen Generation’ brought the Australian Parliament to tears and to its feet as a signal that Australian was turning a new page, one where the past should never, never happen again. Twenty Five years ago, almost to the day, more than 250,000 Australians demonstrated their support for reconciliation by joining the Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Almost 40 years ago to the day, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established and more than 34 years ago its 10,000 page final report shook Australians awake to the shame and pain of the 99 deaths of Aboriginal people in police custody it investigated. Fifty-three years ago, Gough Whitlam declared that “all of us as Australians are diminished while the Aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation’. Almost 60 years ago Australian voted to end the discrimination in the Australian constitution that prevented me and more than 101,000 of my Indigenous sisters and brothers across the nation from been seen as equal to other Australian citizens. And just this year the tragic deaths of 2 Aboriginal men in custody at AMC has painfully, too painfully reminded us that the track we walk to a fair, to a better future, is not yet ended. And today we together walk the bridges to say loudly together, that hope for a better future, while battered and bruised is still alive in the ACT. This track we walk still, reminds us, sorely that the end is not yet in sight. It seems that heart-breaking events and missed opportunities that too frequently slow our progress, block our path or that sneak up on us in darkness, continue. The wave of hope that washed over the continent from the national apology and the promise of never, never again is made doubtful by the unbelievable numbers of Aboriginal children removed from their families today. The promise to Close the Gap fades into the past the more reports are presented to the Parliament that declare to Australia we failed to reach our targets. There is a story that we must not lose, that the long series of signposts tells us of this struggle for a more equal place for Aboriginal people in a fairer Australia. This story can sometimes fade into the background, but it must brought out into the light and told again and again and again across the generations till we succeed. That story is that when we relentlessly Stand up, Speak up and Demand that we do better, together again and again we can make a real difference, we can move closer to equality for Aboriginal people and to a fairer Australia. We must Stand Up, Speak up and Demand of our political leaders and of ourselves that the slow progress stretched over far too many years will not cut it anymore. We need to do better. This story reminds us that we must confront the twisted misrepresentations, lame excuses, stereotypes and racism that are used by those that seek to hide or those that oppose equality and fairness. We must equip ourselves with the facts, with an understanding of the reality of Aboriginal inequality and the knowledge of the harm inaction causes. Every person here today cannot be a champion for everything, but each of us can find and commit ourselves to eradicating inequality in one area, in one place in one community. You can choose eradicating inequality in:

• The criminal justice system
• In health and wellbeing
• The poverty Aboriginal families face
• the removal of Aboriginal children from their families.

These are issues that are present in Aboriginal communities across Australia, but they are also very present in the lives of too many Aboriginal people in the ACT. Write to community leaders, introduce yourself, pledge your support, act. Find out the facts, discuss them and write, call or humbug ACT or Australian Government politicians and business and community leaders. As you leave this Bridge walk today decide which area you are most passionate about and standup, speak up and demand that we do better!