We are committed to walking alongside First Nations People.This article from ABC News Indigenous Affairs Team’s editor, Stephanie Boltje, describes how the three Treaty Commissioners, Naomi Moran, Todd Fernando and Aden Ridgeway, will be engaging with First Nations people in NSW this year.
BJ Cruse, a Yuin elder and the long-serving chairman of the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council, supports a treaty with the NSW government. He explains that, “Treaty means a formal agreement reached between Aboriginal people and governments to redress the outstanding matter of a proper and just settlement relating to Aboriginal birthrights to this country.”
“Since colonisation, our people haven’t left our Country, even when missions were established.”
In a couple of months, treaty conversations will begin in New South Wales, and the Yuin elder says he will be having his say.
While he knows not all would agree, he suggests that treaties could be negotiated based on land council and native title boundaries.
“I think there need to be treaties in different areas based on how the people relate to each other, how they can work together … and what opportunities are already existing.”
Three appointed commissioners
Last year, Todd Fernando was appointed, along with former Koori Mail CEO Naomi Moran and ex-senator Aden Ridgeway, as NSW’s first treaty commissioners.
Todd Fernando from the rural town of Condobolin and the Sydney suburbs of Mount Druitt and the former Victorian LGBTIQ+ communities commissioner, said he never dreamed he could be leading treaty discussions.
“What’s happening now in New South Wales isn’t a talkfest,” the Wiradjuri and Gomeroi man said.
“This is the first time Aboriginal people across this state are being asked, not told, what kind of relationship do you want with the government and how we structure that moving forward.”
While the exact locations and dates have not been publicised, Mr Fernando said there will be 27 regional hubs set up for five days each in the bigger cities, with an additional 50 day-long sessions in communities within a two-hour drive of those hubs. That is when the year-long consultation begins.
He said the question Aboriginal people will be asked is: “Do they want a treaty or formal agreement-making processes? And if so, what does that look like?”
“We are not here for symbolism, and this consultation will not be safe for the status quo,” he told the Indigenous Affairs Team.
For the past seven months, he said, they have been setting up their commission and “establishing relationships with community leaders, grassroots organisers [and] cultural authorities”, such as Stolen Generations organisations and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, who have helped shape how consultation will proceed.
The commissioner wants to hear from as many Aboriginal people as possible — including those for and against treaty.
“We will meet people where they’re at, whether that’s at the kitchen table, in the front yard or backyard, large town hall gatherings, dedicated targeted sessions with young people, LGBTIQ+ folk and elder discussions. We’ll go into high schools and correctional facilities.”
Still in the dark
In Moree, on Kamilaroi Country, land rights activist Lyall Munro Junior said he is in the dark about the New South Wales treaty plans.
“We don’t know anything about it … I don’t agree with impositions from government ideologies,” he said from his town in northern NSW.
“Non-Indigenous people will control the debate anyway.”
While this consultation aims to gather the sentiments from First Peoples about whether they want a treaty to progress, the elder is concerned who will speak on behalf of his nation.
“I don’t agree with appointees, I come from the old system … where our elected voices are elected by the people. It’s about the Aboriginal ways of doing things.”
Uncle Lyall was 13 years old when a bus led by Charles Perkins arrived in town, known as the Freedom Ride. It was a moment that sparked a “fire” in Uncle Lyall’s belly.
He said he would rather attention on the high cancer rates and youth incarceration than state treaty discussions.
“We’re expecting to reconcile a sad state of affairs at the moment,” he said.
“How can we negotiate treaties if we’re a landless people? What about the question of sovereignty?
“That’s why 50 years of the struggle for land rights was more of an issue that we can relate to than this issue of reconciliation and now treaties,” he said.
In Orange, Todd Fernando admits there hasn’t been a lot publicly available about the NSW treaty process, but that will soon change — with a website to be launched, as well as social media campaigns and fact sheets.
He said the commissioners had been staying “quiet” and “under the radar”, waiting for the right political climate after the federal election.
“The nature and the turbulence of that political environment at the time didn’t afford us a strong attitude around wanting to introduce language like treaty into a national framework pre-consultation, in part that the Voice referendum had a role to play in that decision.”
New South Wales consultation process
Uncle Lyall Munro wants the commissioners to “come over the mountain” and discuss the plans in person.
“[Treaty] means sweet f*** all at the moment, simply because we haven’t been contacted and we know nothing about it.”
Uncle BJ Cruse would like to see agreements that include compensation royalties, without penalising pensions, and that land under the treaty agreement isn’t subject to strict zoning laws restricting social and economic development.
The Yuin elder fears any agreement could be overturned by the whims of new governments and so would want assurances “underwritten”.
“I think if a trade is given, that needs to be given in a way that it can’t be amended and regulated, and things taken away without the prior, free and informed consent of the Aboriginal people.”
But he said non-Indigenous people shouldn’t be concerned about treaty.
“This country is big enough and there’s enough resources and enough wealth for Aboriginal people to receive a proper and just settlement without taking away from other people.”
When asked what the NSW government’s commitment to treaty was, Treaty Minister David Harris said in a statement that the government will await the commissioners’ findings.
“We will not pre-empt the wishes of Aboriginal peoples in NSW.”
Commissioner Fernando said treaty was about “a shared understanding of who’s responsible for what and what happens when those responsibilities aren’t met.”
“I think mob need to understand that this isn’t about having a say in someone else’s system. It’s about deciding whether we want to change the terms of the relationship entirely,” he said.
“That means asking ourselves a lot of hard questions. Do we want to negotiate? Who has authority to do that? What’s the threshold for consent? What does cultural legitimacy look like?
“We’re not building a treaty for 1788. We are building a treaty for the future.”
What is the treaty situation nationally?
Across Australia there have been major changes to treaty discussions during the past year.
In Victoria, elected representatives of the First Peoples Assembly are continuing talks with Indigenous communities amid negotiations with the Allan government for a statewide treaty by the end of this year.
Last week, Dja Dja Wurrung launch treaty negotiation Aboriginal Corporation (DJAARA) became the first group to register with the Treaty Authority for a local treaty with the Victorian government.
It came as the Tasmanian government said it was dropping its treaty process to prioritise truth-telling and fund commissioners to lead that work.
South Australia’s Aboriginal affairs minister told the ABC they were still committed to restart treaty discussions in this term, but with just nine months until the election they “we’re not keen to rush it”.
Last year, the Northern Territory’s new CLP government scrapped the long-running treaty process.
Queensland this year repealed the Path to Treaty Act and dismantled their truth inquiry process.
The Western Australian government said they are instead focussed on native title settlements, such as the South West Native Title Settlement.
“Our focus is delivering nation-leading native title settlements across Western Australia, which deliver strong economic, social and cultural outcomes for Aboriginal people.
“Native Title determinations in Western Australia now cover more than 2 million square kilometres, which equates to around 90 percent of the State’s landmass,” a spokesperson for the state government said.