A Time for Reconciliation

Bob Hawke

The Hon. R.J.L. Hawke, AC, MP is Prime Minister of Australia.

The Prime Minister here sets out the thinking that underlies his support for a treaty or compact with Aboriginal Australians, outlines the broad scope of issues a treaty will address and responds to some of the criticisms made of the proposal.

IN 1988 Australians celebrated the 200th anniversary of European settlement of this continent.  As well as building our pride in the achievements of the last two centuries, those celebrations have made us keenly aware of the Aboriginal people, who had settled this land for more than 40,000 years before the arrival of the First Fleet.

Now is an appropriate time to consider how we can enter our third century with a fairer basis for the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

It is not too broad a generalisation to say that up until relatively recently, many of those concerned with Aboriginal issues believed in what might be called "technical" remedies to alleviate the manifest disadvantage of Aborigines in Australia.  That is, it was believed Aboriginal needs could be met through physical improvements such as housing, sanitation and health services.  Such measures remain essential;  my Government is proud of its record of increasing real funding for Aboriginal advancement programs by more than 80 per cent since we came to office.

RECOGNITION OF ABORIGINAL CULTURE

But physical remedies for the physical needs of the Aboriginal people should also be accompanied by proper recognition of the Aboriginal cultural tradition and history.  There is developing a broader acceptance of the need to address the facts of the prior Aboriginal occupation of Australia and the destructive effects of European settlement on Aboriginal society, customs and dignity.

The Government believes it is not sufficient only to provide equal opportunity and access to comparable physical facilities.

The harsh truth of European settlement in Australia is that it took place despite Aboriginal uprisings and bloody repressions, that Aboriginal culture was deliberately destroyed and the Aboriginal identity subjugated, that Aborigines were subject to apartheid-like pass-laws.  With the publication of works by Aboriginal authors, such as Sally Morgan's My Place, we are vividly reminded of that which some would gladly, but which we must never, forget -- that until very recent times it was common practice forcibly to separate Aboriginal children from their parents.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have suffered, and continue to suffer, injustice, and in the Australian experience it is injustice of a unique sort.  It demands a unique remedy.

RECONCILIATION

The Government, as the elected representatives of the Australian people, must express its utmost determination to promote reconciliation within our community.  The Government is committed to a real and lasting reconciliation, achieved through full consultation and honest negotiation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal citizens of this nation, leading to an agreement with the Aboriginal people -- a treaty, a compact, call it what you will.  Without this overall approach, without a proper settlement and proper recognition, there can be no real lasting improvement for the Aboriginal and Islander people.

A treaty between the Aboriginal people, as owners of this land for tens of thousands of years, and the Australian Government, could address the fundamental issues and be an umbrella document providing direction and perspective to all areas of policy, including land rights, self-management, customary laws and recognition of Aboriginal culture and religion.  Programs to meet the physical needs of the Aboriginal people, to which I referred earlier, would not lose their priority;  nor would the objectives of accountability and efficiency be reduced in importance.

As long ago as 1975 the Senate adopted a motion which recognised that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were in possession of Australia before 1788 and urged the Australian Government to compensate Aborigines for the dispossession.  In 1979 the Aboriginal Treaty Committee, chaired by Dr H.C. Coombs, was formed to promote public support for a treaty which might be included in the Australian Constitution.

So the idea of a treaty or compact is not new.  When I met in June with Aboriginal leaders at Barunga in Central Australia we agreed to negotiate a treaty through a process of consultation.

TIMETABLE

We laid down at Barunga a timetable for this negotiation.  First, the Aboriginal people are to decide what it is that they wish to see in the treaty.  To this end a great deal of consultation will be required which is to be the responsibility of a group of seven representative Aboriginal leaders and which could culminate in an Australia-wide convention.  In the second stage the Government will consider the outcome of these consultations and any necessary negotiation would follow.  Finally, we set ourselves the target of concluding these processes within the life of the current Parliament.

Since Barunga, the Government has provided assistance for initial Aboriginal consultations to take place, and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Hand, and I have held a number of fruitful discussions with Aboriginal communities and organisations.

Given the history of the concept, a treaty must contain these main elements:  an acknowledgement of the historical facts of European occupation of Australia including the fact of prior ownership by Aboriginal people;  an affirmation of the value of Aboriginal culture and customs and a commitment to their protection;  and, perhaps most difficult to resolve, it must take us further in reconciling the special relationship of Aborigines to their land with the reality of European settlement in Australia for 200 years.

At the end of the process of negotiation the treaty must be accepted as a valued and significant statement by all Australians.  It must be, and it must be seen to be, a reciprocal statement of obligation and reconciliation between the first occupants of Australia and those who have arrived since 1788.  On this basis, Aboriginal people must be sure that they can sign the treaty and accept and live with its contents -- that they will at its conclusion, have at last a secure foundation for living in modern Australia in peace and with equal standing.

Even though these treaty consultations are in their infancy, there have been those who refuse even to contemplate such an idea.  It has been written off as a means of entrenching division in the community -- of creating a nation within a nation.  That is nonsense.  The treaty will be negotiated by people who share the one nation and the one future -- it will be a treaty between Australians and for Australians.  It will be a joint document, a national declaration of shared principles and common commitments.  The treaty is to end division, not create it.  It can never be divisive to end injustice.

A treaty would not, as some at one extreme fear, sign away the Government's responsibilities, nor, at the other extreme, be an empty exercise and an excuse for inaction.  It could be, rather, a formal recognition of the facts of human settlement of this continent so as to safeguard the dignity and position of Aboriginal people as the first settlers of Australia.