Published: 5 Oct 2023
Thomas Mayo
Assistant National Secretary
Maritime Union of Australia
Speech to the Wheeler Centre
Melbourne Town Hall
4 October 2023
Prior to colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in the valley of peace and abundance.
Throughout more than 60,000 years, many unique languages evolved. Our kinship structure kept us strong and harmonious with one another and with the lands and waters that we cared for.
But when colonisation visited that bountiful valley, they took it from us. They removed us to a chasm of hopelessness and despair.
We were left there to die out. But we did not disappear. My ancestors looked above and beyond. They began to climb the mountain between us, the custodians and the colonisers.
We have had many obstacles to overcome. Peaks in the mountains on the way to the summit.
Since the colony became Australia we have climbed.
When we reached the peak that was equal wages, we climbed. We were working for mere rations, building modern Australia for scraps of food. Just the sustenance for 16 hour days.
The climb was difficult, the shadow of doubt, sitting on our shoulder, whispered words to confuse and to cause fear, telling us we could not do it. Saying the stations we worked on would fail and Australians would bare the cost.
They said No and we said Yes. Yes makes it possible.
When we reached the peak that is being counted as citizens, in 1967, the climb was difficult. It took decades of campaigning. The shadow of doubt said No, this should be a white Australia. Without black or even a strain of brown.
They said No and we said Yes. Yes makes it possible.
When we reached the peak that was a Voice, back in 1988, from the Barunga Statement - the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
That little shade of a doubt was there whispering again - he said, if ATSIC is established in legislation, it’ll divide Australia; if ATSIC is established in legislation, it will create a Black Parliament; if ATSIC is established in legislation, it’ll lead to a seperate Government.
Familiar fear mongering, is it not?
That Voice was established by Parliament, and none of those things came to pass.
They said No and we said Yes. Yes makes it possible.
For a few years, the climb became a bit easier, but then that Voice was taken away by that little shadow of a doubt.
The climb has been hard since then. Yet still we climb.
Do you remember when we climbed that peak, Native Title?
Now that was a struggle. A slippery slope. The shadow of doubt returned.
It whispered in our ears - you will lose your backyard; you will lose your farm; they will charge you a fee to go to the beach, they will demand we pay the rent, they will veto the parliament.
As always, none of those things came to pass. We overcame that great challenge.
They said No and we said Yes. Only Yes makes it possible.
When we went to Uluru, in the heart of the nation, with that unique opportunity to come together. That shadow of a doubt said we would not reach a consensus. They said that many Blackfellas, from all across the country would not reach an agreement. But we did the hard work. We made the Uluru Statement from the Heart calling for a Voice. We got it done and then we refused to take No for an answer.
And now, we are almost at the summit. And the summit is constitutional recognition. A Voice that cannot be taken away at a political whim.
This part of the mountain between us is the steepest part of the climb.
Tomorrow, there is only nine days to go. And this is the steepest part of the climb.
I have only been home 24 days and more than 490 campaign events just this year. I’ve been climbing this mountain with you for 6 long years.
Our Elders paved the way. Your Elders, our allies, have paved the way.
How can we quit now? How can we waste the work of our Elders. How can we waste the hundreds of pages, written by eminent constitutional experts and brilliant academics, aimed at moulding this constitutional proposition into one both safe and powerful, symbolic and practical — true to its intent to just give Indigenous peoples the decency of a say.
On this final, steepest climb, that shadow of a doubt is screaming in your ears. Clawing at your face. It is louder than ever before. But we have heard it all before.
Keep climbing, my brothers and sisters, my fellow Australians. Keep climbing.
When we meet on the summit of the mountain between us, we will see the full vista of who we can be.
We will walk in to the valley of peace and abundance, hand in hand, together, if we say YES.
ENDS
