Jacqueline Phillips, National Director of ANTaR, a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's rights and reconciliation advocacy organisation, highlights the importance of International Day of the World's Indigenous People for the Australian Constitution.
The Australian Constitution forms the basis of our laws and political system. In fact, it has been described as the ‘fabric’ of our nation. Given this, most Australians would be surprised to learn that our Constitution permits racial discrimination. They might also think that its silence regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, status and rights reflects an outdated (and racist) blindness from which we have matured as a nation.
Despite the fact that Australia’s social, cultural, and political landscape has changed considerably since 1901, our founding document still fails to reflect the unique status of our original inhabitants and the diversity and richness of modern Australia.
Reflecting the times in which it was drafted, the Constitution contemplates state governments lawfully excluding Aboriginal people from voting and empowers the Commonwealth Government to make laws that disadvantage Aboriginal people.
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International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is celebrated annually, on 9 August. It provides us with a timely opportunity to acknowledge the important contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people across the cultural, social, political and legal life of this country. However, it also reminds us of the need to address ongoing discrimination against Australia’s First Peoples, including in our nation’s founding document.
In this vein, the Gillard government has proposed a national referendum on Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by December 2013. To begin the process, an Expert Panel has been appointed to facilitate a nationwide conversation on the issue. The Panel is due to report to the government by the end of this year about the options available. These range from a largely symbolic statement of recognition through to substantive reforms to the body of the Constitution, for example by including a racial equality guarantee.
Changing the Australian Constitution has been described as a ‘labour of Hercules’. But the overwhelming success of the 1967 referendum concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples shows it can be done.
Of course, the proposed referendum should not be seen as a panacea. It will not address the many inequalities and injustices our First Peoples face, and many people will want to see reform go much further than the options being considered by Government. Nonetheless, it presents us with an historic opportunity to take a step forward in our reconciliation journey. By addressing the omissions and prejudices in our Constitution together, we can build trust, hope, respect and a shared vision for a modern Australia.
Jacqueline Phillips has been the National Director of ANTaR, a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's rights and reconciliation advocacy organisation since April 2010. She has previously worked as a Policy Officer at the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), on social security, housing and Indigenous policy issues. Jacqeline has a First Class Arts/Law degree from the University of Sydney and a Masters in Law from McGill Unversity, Canada. Her Masters Thesis was on native title law.
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