Excerpt from Djawa Yunupingu’s speech
Garma 2018 Key Forum, 4 August 2018
So how long do we have to wait to get this right?
Another Committee? Another Hearing? Another Meeting? Another Prime Minister?
Galarrwuy has dealt with eight Prime Ministers, if you can believe it.
So can we blame him for crying when the Uluru Statement is read to him and he knows it has been rejected? After all he has done?
Do we blame him for being frustrated?
I understand because I know how it feels and it feels no good.
But in the Gumatj world we have a saying that is Look UP to the Future and that saying was given to us by Murayana and by Mungurrawuy.
So we are going to believe in ourselves and work to get fairness and justice for all Aboriginal people?
When you think about these issues yourself, try and think about my Aboriginal and Islander brothers and sisters who have had so much taken from them.
Please think about those people who, for no fault of their own, but by the hands of the nation that has been built on their soil, find themselves without LAND, without LANGUAGE and without CEREMONY.
It is the Truth that these things were forcibly taken from them, without their agreement or their consent.
Think about that Truth, when you hear the yidaki tonight and you watch the perfect movements of the dancers, and listen to the songs of my people, as you witness our Constitution in action.
And please think about what is fair to them.
And let’s see if together we can find a pathway where we can all be included in the nation’s Constitution.
Let there be a person who puts up a light and says, 'here, come with me, there is a better way'. This is how it must be now and forever.
Let there be a Prime Minister who does that!
Garma 2018 Key Forum. Source: NITV News
