Uluru Dialogue Co-Chair, Dr Pat Anderson AO, calls on future generations to stand up as the key to ensuring the mandate of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is fulfilled.

Dr Pat Anderson AO spoke directly to the youth audience at a NAIDOC Week event hosted by the University of Queensland recently. During her speech, Dr Pat Anderson AO expressed concerns about the state of Australian politics and that those in powerful positions are continuing to promote ignorance at the expense of Aboriginal people.

“During the Referendum, we saw how easy it was for those in power to promote ignorance, but what was more shocking was the ease with which the Australian public allowed that ignorance to play out.

“Voting no was the easy option… We know that. But what we are witnessing today is a direction I do not recognise. We are going backwards, and our kids are paying the price.

“It seems to me our organisations have decided to become corporatised rather than work directly with their community and families. We are not as community-driven as we have been in the past, and this is a big loss for our nation. We need to go back and do it our way, become community-driven, like we used to be. We know that works.

“This corporate road we’re on is a first. Even in the hardest of times, we’ve never walked away from each other like this. Even when we disagreed, we still walked together.

“We aren’t the world’s oldest living corporations or land councils; we are the world’s oldest living culture… Now more than ever, we can’t afford to go our own way and stop working together.

“Australia today is lacking a heart. We need everyone to find it again.”

Dr Pat Anderson AO spoke directly to the Voice Referendum and the importance of constitutional recognition for Australia’s First peoples.

“I stand by the calls made in the Uluru Statement. These calls are still alive. Our firm belief is that the way forward is to change the Constitution, to change the Big Law. The Constitution sets the rules for what a society is going to be. When everyone else doesn’t accept us. There is no time to waste, and we will not walk away. Why would we? Republicans don’t quit, so why should we? The expectation that we have to live with the permanency of that vote forever goes directly against what is inherently Australian… Giving everyone a fair go.”

The Uluru Dialogue represents the cultural authority of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and leads community education on the Uluru Statement’s reforms of voice, treaty and truth.

The Uluru Dialogue is based out of the Indigenous Law Centre (ILC), UNSW Sydney. The ILC has worked exclusively on the right to self-determination for First Peoples for 40 years.