Voice, Treaty, Truth: The pathway to a better Australia

VOICE. TREATY, TRUTH : The Pathway to a Better Australia with Senator Pat Dodson, Dr Jackie Huggins & Minister Leeanne Enoch Nearly 250 years after European Settlement, Australia stands at a profound turning point in the relationship between First Nations people and non-indigenous Australia. The Uluru Statement from the Heart, released in 2017 following a lengthy process of consideration by indigenous people offers a way forward through a Makarrata process of truth telling and treaty making and through a proposal for an indigenous voice to Parliament. The McKell Institute event Voice, Treaty, Truth will bring three of the country’s most outstanding indigenous leaders together, asking them what is the way forward in Queensland and Australia’s treaty processes and what, in their view, a genuinely reconciled Australia would look like. The speakers - Pat Dodson is a great Australian. Known as “the father of reconciliation,” he has spent a lifetime bridging the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, first as a Catholic priest, Director of the Kimberley and Central Land Councils, Royal Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Now a Labor Senator for Western Australia, Dodson supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. His recent motion for a Joint Select Committee to enquire into the truth telling and treaty making components of Makarrata was voted down in the Senate along party lines. Dr Jackie Huggins AM FAHA is Bidjara and Birri-Gubba Juru from central and north Queensland and is one of Queenslands most respected indigenous leaders. Currently the Co-Chair of Queensland’s Treaty Advancement Committee, Jackie is leading discussions on truth and treaty in this state. Dr Huggins is a former Co-Chair, Reconciliation Australia, Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples (a role to which she was elected by First Nations people across Australia) and has chaired the Queensland Domestic Violence Council. An academic and author, Dr Huggins’ life’s work has been in ensuring a just and equitable outcome for her people and to reconcile a just and fair Australia in which we all enjoy the benefits. Leeanne Enoch is a Quandamooka woman from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) who has spent her working life in the education and social justice sectors. Initially a high school teacher, Leeanne moved to working for the Red Cross in leadership roles guiding humanitarian programs and policy. In 2015, she entered the Queensland Parliament as the Member for Algester and became the first Aboriginal woman ever elected to the Queensland Parliament and the first Indigenous person to ever serve as a Minister in the Queensland Cabinet. She now serves as Minister for Communities and Housing, Minister for Digital Economy and Minister for the Arts.