 Ngai Ngai Nilawal, Michael Jallari, Janbaru Rwbibi. Good evening everyone, my name is Michael Jallari and I come from Brun. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners on his ancestral lands we gather and pay my respects to the elders past and present of the Nunawal and Nambri peoples. I must say I'm a little nervous about what I'm going to say tonight because it in part deals with the legacy of our country and also I may be repeating some of the things Gareth alluded to. Folks, what I see is the heart of our legitimate grievance as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, First Nations peoples of this country is that in 1788 the British came to these lands and purported to take possession of them in the name of the British monarchy. This is done without the consent of the First Nations of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The taking of the land and the exploitation of its resources has preceded for 230 years and that taking was and is unjust and I dare say unlawful but certainly devastating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and added to our dispossession is the unceasing attempts to destroy our law, our culture and our language. We not only lost the land, thousands of our ancestors lost their lives in the frontier wars and in the wake of that the survivors, our ancestors, the remnants were gathered up and placed in prisons that were the government settlements and mission stations. We even lost our children who were forcibly removed and placed in white institutions and homes for their own good and we the First Nations peoples of this country have been left to pick up the wreckage. What the British and their descendants did and what continued under colonial and post-colonial governments was wrong and we have never addressed this wrong and what flowed from it has never been adequately redressed. Our institutions of democracy and power continue to fail us in freeing us all Australians. This is our history, not Blackfella history, this is Australian history but freeing us from this legacy and these institutions both arise from and are underpinned by the brutal dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from our lands because they are an integral part of the western judicial and liberal tradition and we continue to fail today to imagine, just like the earlier colonial imagination failed to imagine a relationship of equality and coexistence with all its variations. That folks is the fundamental source of our problem today. Apologies to Tully and it's perhaps this failure of imagination and it's associated failure of courage that we ought to be addressing. The unresolved issues of dispossession and our inability to deal with all problems in a new world demands we do things differently and the one indisputable thread running through the many tragedies in our shared history is that we fail to learn from our past or maybe it's just that we don't want to learn from our past. As Fitz Morris obliquely observes and I quote, the justice of dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their lands has become one of the most important political questions of the post-colonial world and that we cannot pursue reconciliation without the key historical question of whether and how colonisation was justified. Now if we crave reconciliation and social justice we need to come up with an answer to that question collectively and a key question we need to address in the coming days I believe is in the governance of Australia where do the First Nations stand? In the 1967 referendum 90% of Australian electors voted for what they believed was going to be a change for improved race relations between Indigenous peoples and others but sadly as we know this was not the outcome while the realism of our leaders of the time such as Menzies Hulp, Dr. Everett and Beasley Senior among others with their genuine, thoughtful, profound and knowledgeable reflections of the Constitution warned that the legal changes to the Constitution were not reflective of the public aspirations our aspirations, they would and could not temper our expectations and the tsunami of goodwill of the time prevailed and history since then has proved our leaders right in law and that 1967 did not achieve racial equality and that history has been often discussed and I won't repeat it here Friends, at the ANU for our part we contend that universities are places for robust and respectful debate a place to both celebrate and challenge ideas that will enhance our community and our nation and importantly in this vein the ANU has made reconciliation a strategic priority making it central to the national issues that the ANU considers vital for our national wellbeing so consequently our role as individuals, as citizens, as part of our national university is to once again focus on how our university can facilitate and promote critical but constructive dialogue and conversations on this crucial topic to help us navigate through to what Stan Grant refers to as the soft guardrails of our democracy the events following the recommendations on constitutional recognition made by the expert panel appointed by the parliament and the several widespread consulted process that followed has perhaps focused our nation's attention or sharpened and I guess we could argue that we're still debating several strands of thought and a contribution by the ANU to use its good officers and resources to assemble you guys here a range of community members, scholars, members of the general public to have this forum is arguably a useful and timely thing to do at this juncture using the old parliament house this is where the legislation was enacted to have the 1967 referendum using this places of venue is symbolic and we should explore these public deliberations and to move from the past to the future that appears entirely apt at this time now to this end we're hoping to promote healthy respectful but robust debate to help further sharpen our focus on possible changes and to a referendum shortly one that we will hope leads to positive and equal relations between our country's citizens also and while it's unlikely that every problem will be solved on this front at the next referendum it's essential that we make some strides crucially towards a comprehensive rapprochement I hope that in holding this forum we will open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to the ideas of others we've asked our friends from other parts of the world to bring their experience into the mix the issue of constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples has for a long time enjoyed the goodwill of the public and has multi-party support the difficulty has been to reducing the complex issues legal, political and social into a set of options that can be put to a single referendum however folks we should not be stymied by this critical but undoubtedly eminently solvable hurdle and if we are to have positive change we need to be taking significant steps along the proverbial 1,000 mile journey for our American friends we'd probably say 13 and 10 kilometres the question is whether Australia is willing to take the required steps forward in dealing with seemingly intractable about anachronistic aspects of our 19th century race-based constitution now High Court Judge Windier famously said that the law was in the rear of public opinion and limping a bit so we call on you 67ers annual decedence to once again rally to attain justice for Australia's first peoples the Uluru Statement eloquently articulated indigenous aspirations as it has stated from our hearts let's call upon the Parliament to correct the failings of 1967 to create racial equality by reflecting these heartfelt statements in law so that our laws and hearts will be together synchronised and for a change not limping in the rear the future is in our hands, let us put the door, let us put them together sorry I'm going to mention the door in a minute let us put them together to complete the unfinished business not just of 1967 but the last 230 years don't slam the door on us, invite us in, let's talk about things we never thought possible now we implore you in these next few days to come with open minds and a good heart Gallia thank you Professor Dodson that was very staring and very straight to the point I often wonder when I encounter those people who suggest that part of our problem as black followers is always banging on about the past and always complaining just like well if we address these issues we wouldn't keep talking about it we're very willing and wanting and waiting to move forward not that we ever leave our history behind but Mika feel like hearing that put together so eloquently was pretty special as many times as we've heard it and it just goes to show how important it is that we keep saying those things and it also just reminds me of that sense of hope that sometimes I feel like he's gone but you remind me of the reason to hold on to it and as Nelson Mandela said it always feels impossible until it is done so let's get it done people another round of applause for Professor Dodson so we're about to have some closing remarks and after that we're having petty fours I'm always perplexed as to why we use that term as far as I'm concerned it just means chocolate and tea and coffee and after that you'll be told that the buses are gathering to take you back to where you're staying this evening but we're about to hear from Darryl Carp Darryl is the director of the Museum of Australian Democracy she's worked as a senior executive in broadcast and cultural industries for many years she's on the board of SBS so hit her up for World Cup tickets see how you go the Children's Television Foundation she's South African born and Jewish and she's incredibly committed to the World Cup and soccer so that's the other form of football that I'm less familiar with and she goes for Australia so not sure that I was I'll just go for the team with the most black people in it but Darryl's main passion is civic engagement and this is a really important part of what we're here to do in the next few days and it's a real privilege when you think about it because it's not often enough that we do get to engage together on really important national nation building conversations so please join me in welcoming Darryl Carp and after that I'm not getting up again so you're right and we're just going to have tea and coffee and chocolate okay thanks What a tough call talking after Professor Mick Johnson wow Okay I too would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we're meeting the Nunawol and the Nambri people and to pay my respects to elders past present and emerging and to say what an honour it is to have such an extraordinary gathering of people here in the members dining room at Old Parliament House this building has a special place in the history of our nation it was built in 1927 as our first purpose built Parliament House in the newly created national capital and was the beating heart of the nation for just over 60 years it was designed by a single person which is quite unusual the chief architect of the Department of Works John Smith Murdoch and this national heritage building is now one of the most loved and recognised buildings in the country but what many of you don't know and certainly those of you who've come here from overseas is that when the building was opened in 1927 Canberra was a dry city so we're really lucky to have the members bar and despite women's suffrage in 1902 women were not seriously considered as political participants and how do I know this there were no female toilets when the building was built and Canberra was chosen specifically for its cold climate because it was thought to be conducive to effective work by public servants today today we're no longer Parliament House where the Museum of Australian Democracy hosting up to half a million visitors a year and providing learning programmes for 90,000 students and teachers and through a mix of exhibitions, participatory experiences, research programmes our new strategic plan aims to celebrate the spirit of Australian democracy and the power of your voice in it and we set ourselves the goal of changing conversations and influencing outcomes we're looking to provide multiple entry points for Australia's civic conversations and find new ways of exploring new ways of advancing our unique democracy so I couldn't think of a better place for a constructive discussion about our future and the kind of nation we want to be than the one we're going to have over the next few days here at Old Parliament House the history of Indigenous rights is inextricably linked to this building and not always in a positive way the debates, the meetings, the decisions on the protests that took place within these walls and nearby at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy has started some of the conversations but on the positive note this is a place where the law's securing voting rights for Indigenous Australians were passed in 1962 where Prime Minister Harold Holt announced the results of the 67 referendum that delivered Indigenous Australians equality under Commonwealth law for the first time in 1974 Prime Minister Goff Whitlam introduced the Land Rights Act for the first time and those were passed by the Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser the following year it's where the Yacala Bark petitions were officially tabled on behalf of the Yolngu people in East Arnhem Land in 1963 and later was the scene of fervent debate over the Wave Hill strike and the Gorinji demands for freehold title of their land and where in 1971 Neville Bonner made the first maiden speech for an Indigenous Parliamentarian in Australia's history I've decided to take two short stories from our current exhibitions to capture the emotion, bravery and strength needed as we grow into a more tolerant, principled and values-led nation The first is from our exhibition Opening Day which commemorates the opening of this building on the 9th of May 1927 It was a cold autumn day in May and three elders arrived at Parliament House in the newly minted capital of Canberra Jimmy Clements and John Noble, both almost 80 had walked nearly a week to attend the opening of this our first purpose built federal Parliament no Indigenous people had been invited The police deciding that their demeanor wasn't fit for royalty they had after all walked, you know, 1500 kilometres decided to move them on The crowd, however, would have none of it The Argus paper reported that when onlookers saw Jimmy Clements wasn't getting a fair go there were choruses of advice and encouragement to him to do as he pleased A well-known clergyman stood up and called out that the Aboriginae had a better right than any man present to a place on the steps of the House of Parliament and in the Senate during the ceremony The old man's persistence and the sympathy of the crowd won him an excellent position in the front row and a shower of small change The second is drawn from our Keepers Collector's exhibition and the Neville Bonner collection Neville Bonner is for most of us a well-recognised figure as Australia's first Indigenous Parliamentarian Born in 1922, he grew up poor moving around a lot He was a devout Christian but also had a strong belief in Aboriginal spirituality and he was introduced to the Liberal Party through the family of his second wife, Heather Ryan He entered federal politics, as I said, in 1971 A few years later he was one of several Senators who filled in for the role of President of the Senate when the President was absent which was pretty impressive for somebody who had only received third grade education But the story that really strikes a chord with me is my favourite object in the collection It's Neville Bonner's Pillow Despite all of his achievements, later in the years here's what he said about the loneliness of his time at Old Parliament House It was worse than being outdroving I was treated like an equal on the floor of the chamber neither giving nor asking quarter but there were hours just sitting in my office and I went home alone to my unit at night There was never one night when anyone said let's go out And that pillow for me represents the extraordinary story and bravery of a remarkable individual So tomorrow, when you meet in the historic House of Repres- Repres- let's try that one again When you meet in the House of Reps Chamber having heard all of these fabulous speakers I have great hopes for a fabulous outcome for an outstanding forum wise, thoughtful, experienced, passionate and to quote Mac Dodson driving a relationship of equality and co-existence I hope it's a fabulous couple of days Thank you