Indigenous Recognition is Long Overdue

The Voice Referendum on October 14 in Australia, will be a historical event. Independent of the result, it will be a big step in recognising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

To include the Voice in the Constitution is crucial, especially because Australia is probably the only country in the developed world that does not recognise their first peoples in the Constitution.

I am very optimistic about the ‘YES’ result, even though this Australian proposal will likely be much less than the rights of the first peoples in other countries. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders deserve much more than a voice in Parliament.

However, considering the history of the country, we could easily spend another 50 years or so trying to find the right way to recognise our first peoples and to include it in the Constitution.

In any country the recognition of the first people in the Constitution is vital because it represents how we see our past, live our present and project our future as a society. It is the way to live all together knowing the value and culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who have been living in this land for over 65.000 years.

Before I settled in Australia, I couldn’t believe that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not acknowledged. It is hard to understand how a wealthy, ‘first world’ and visionary country can be advanced in many ways, but have a big gap in recognising and taking care of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I have always asked myself: why doesn’t Australia recognise the first peoples as occurs in other countries such as Mexico, Bolivia or Colombia? In this aspect, these countries are more advanced than Australia.

“The Mexican nation has a pluricultural composition based mainly on its indigenous peoples”, says its Constitution. Bolivia recognises itself as a plurinational state and its Political Constitution recognises “36 original nations and indigenous peoples, with their own territory, population and language”.

In Colombia, the case that I know best, the process to change the constitution was long. It took years, but in the end, the new Constitution gave to all ethnic groups, rights that they never had before. Some indigenous leaders contribuited to re-writing the Constitution. Whether or not those rights are fully fulfilled is another story.

Colombia is a country known for its rich cultural and ethnic diversity, and an important part of this diversity is found in its indigenous peoples. The Colombian Constitution recognised the different ethnic groups such as the Afro-Colombian, raizal Palenquera, Afro-anglo-antilles, Indigenous people and the Rom community.

After the Colombian Political Constitution was released on July 7 of 1991, a new era began for the country’s indigenous people. Before that year, indigenous people were not recognised as having rights, nor were they even considered as part of the population.

The indigenous people in Colombia have the right to dignity, collective property, territory and land. This is something that in Australia generates panic for different reasons such as fear of Aboriginal people having private property and acquired rights.

The right to dignity, honor and a good name are one of the main, essential and obvious rights granted to indigenous people in Colombia. Aligning with this right it is understood, that their culture is different, and they carry different values and goals to Western ones. It is acknowledge that they deserve respect and equal treatment.

This is very important, because to recognise it doesn’t mean, as some people believe, it will divide Australia. It is quite the opposite, as it will help us to recognise cultural differences, this doesn’t mean that some people are more or less than others, it mean that we can see and understand each other better and accept other worldview.

The Colombian State recognises and has the duty to protect and guarantee the ethnic, cultural and natural diversity of the nation. Therefore, it is fundamental that people have the right to use their language, exercise their cultural practices and their traditional ways of managing the territory, and mainly to enjoy freedom of conscience, that is, to live in accordance with their thought, their values and their idea of the world.

This was an important recognition at the time the new Constitution was written in Colombia. This is why in the article 7 it said: “The State recognises and protects the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Colombian Nation.”

The Colombia Constitution gave legal rights to the Indigenous peoples. Indigenous authorities are recognised as public authorities. They perform certain administrative and judicial functions in accordance with their thinking and procedures, provided that these are not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the Republic. In this sense, each indigenous community elects its representatives and authorities, for example, captains and councils.

While Spanish is the official language of Colombia, the languages and dialects of ethnic groups are also official in their territories. Therefore, the State must ensure that the teachers are bilingual.  There are 65 indigenous languages, 2 creole and one Romani language.

The Constitution was translated into 7 of the biggest indigenous languages in the country. The indigenous parliamentarians can speak in their own language in the Parliament.

There are cultural rights, where each indigenous person has the right to exercise their own forms of education, health, religion and traditional medicine while still have access to the services provided by the State. In many cases, traditional practices are combined with state delivery models. There are also important developments in the creation of indigenous educational institutions such as schools and universities.

It would be wonderful if the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander have at least some of these rights in the Australian Constitution, even though it sounds like utopia right now. Unfortunately, the reality is very different here. Having a voice in the Australian Parliament will be good start.

As the Colombian Arahuac indigenous call non indigenous people, ‘little brothers and sisters’, in Australia, as little brothers and sisters, of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, we have a lot to learn from them. The first step is recognition.

Sonia Parra is a Colombian migrant now resident in Hobart, and the founder/organiser of the Hobart Language Day festival.