PVC- Indigenous Strategy UNSWIS_Final_SIGN OFF_18 October 2018 low res for | Page 20

Our Story
Over 2016 and 2017 the Prime Minister’s Referendum
Council conducted dialogues with First Nations people
on constitutional recognition.
These were historic dialogues and the first time since
1901 constitutional conventions have been held for
Indigenous Peoples. The First Nations Regional
Dialogues were convened in Hobart, Broome, Dubbo,
Darwin, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, Ross River,
Adelaide, Brisbane, Thursday Island, Canberra.
A National Constitutional Convention was then held
at Uluru (23–26 May 2017).
At the national convention at Uluru, the First Nations
groups present adopted “Our Story”, an Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander version of Australian history.
“Our Story” was drawn from the testimonies and
stories shared at each of the dialogues across
the country. “Our Story” forms a part of the Uluru
Statement from the Heart.
Our First Nations are extraordinarily diverse cultures,
living in an astounding array of environments, and
multi-lingual across many hundreds of languages and
dialects. The continent was occupied by our people
and the footprints of our ancestors traversed the entire
landscape. Our songlines covered vast distances,
uniting peoples in shared stories and religion. The
entire land and seascape is named, and the cultural
memory of our old people is written there.
This rich diversity of our origins was eventually ruptured
by colonisation. Violent dispossession and the struggle
to survive a relentless inhumanity has marked our
common history. The First Nations Regional Dialogues
on constitutional reform bore witness to our shared
stories.
All stories start with our Law.
THE LAW
We have coexisted as First Nations on this land for at
least 60,000 years. Our sovereignty pre-existed the
Australian state and has survived it.
‘We have never, ever ceded our sovereignty.’ (Sydney)
The unfinished business of Australia’s nationhood
includes recognising the ancient jurisdictions of First
Nations law.
‘The connection between language, the culture, the
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land and the enduring nature of Aboriginal law is
fundamental to any consideration of constitutional
recognition.’ (Ross River)
Every First Nation has its own word for The Law.
Tjukurrpa is the Anangu word for The Law. The Meriam
people of Mer refer to Malo’s Law. With substantive
constitutional change and structural reform, we believe
this surviving and underlying First Nation sovereignty
can more effectively and powerfully shine through as a
fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
The Law was violated by the coming of the Europeans
to Australia. This truth needs to be told.
INVASION
Australia was not a settlement and it was not a
discovery. It was an invasion.
‘Cook did not discover us, because we saw him. We
were telling each other with smoke, yet in his diary, he
said “discovered”.’ (Torres Strait)
‘Australia must acknowledge its history, its true history.
Not Captain Cook. What happened all across Australia:
the massacres and the wars. If that were taught in
schools, we might have one nation, where we are all
together.’ (Darwin)
The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of
the fundamental grievance between the old and new