Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statement
"To us health is so much more than simply not being sick. It’s about getting a balance between physical, mental, emotional, cultural and spiritual health. Health and healing are interwoven, which means that one can’t be separated from the other."
Dr Tamara Mackean, Chair
RACP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Committee
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the First Peoples of this country and have been for millennia prior to the arrival of European peoples. At the time of first contact, there were between 300,000 to 950,000 First Peoples, and approximately 260 distinct language groups and 500 dialects. First People’s societies are founded on highly developed and complex social, cultural and spiritual beliefs with ecosystems created by 'Dreaming’ energy and creation ancestors who travelled across the land to create living and non-living entities. To First Peoples the land is both deeply symbolic and spiritual, and inextricably linked to First peoples collective and individual identity.
From 1788, Australia was regarded as a British Colony which utilised the fiction of ‘terra nullius’. Even though the governors and managers of the first settlements were aware of a significant First peoples’ population they did not amend the terms of British sovereignty or attempt to negotiate treaties with the people. This remains the case today despite the express wish of Indigenous peoples, in the Uluru Statement of 2017, for a treaty to recognise sovereignty and for constitutional reform. This wish has its roots in the strength and tenacity of First Peoples to continue to survive and evolve in the face of prejudice and oppression. The call for a Makarrata in the Uluru Statement embodies the aspirations by Indigenous peoples for collaborative and structural reforms to create a more fair and equitable society in which the rights of Indigenous peoples are realised.
Our country’s shared history is critical to understanding the contemporary status of our national health and well-being. Australia has the privilege of being a part of the cradle of humanity with our First Peoples being the oldest, continuous living cultures in the world, however, the impact of colonisation and resultant dispossession and exclusion continues with disparities in health and social outcomes for First Peoples. Our nation’s health inequities are closely related to powerlessness, racism and a slow process of reconciliation alongside limited recognition of human, land and sovereign rights. This is of deep concern to health professionals and health organisations who strive for healing and contentment in the families and communities they serve as well as their own families and communities. It is this common goal of wellness that provides a way forward to actively redress disparities and do so in a manner that upholds social justice and firm nation building.
Uluru Statement from the Heart (excerpt)
“Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than
60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished.
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
Makarrata* is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.”
First Nations National Constitutional Convention
Uluru, Australia, 2017
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