Buraadja: the Liberal Case for National Reconciliation by Andrew Bragg (2021)

21 November 2021

Buraadja: the Liberal Case for National Reconciliation by Andrew Bragg (2021)

In 2018 I made a submission to The Joint Select Committee on Constitutional recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples.  

In October 2018 I attended the public hearing at the Aboriginal Centre for Excellence in Redfern where I was given the opportunity to speak at the hearing because my local member and Co-Chair Julian Leeser saw me in the audience, knew I made a submission (number 400) and asked me if I wanted to address the hearing. I took up the offer and a few months later I saw what I said being written up in Hansard and the final report.

In November this year I replied to a package I received from Senator Andrew Brag celebrating his two years in parliament and after a couple of emails he sent me a copy of his book which is the focus of these thoughts.

Six things I learnt from Buraadja.

1. It is a long time since we have had a successful referendum and it was concerning aboriginal peoples. I have a greater appreciation of the effort of Harold Holt and others, prior to and after 1967.
2. There are so many names that I have heard about over the years like Charlie Perkins, Neville Bonner and Noel Pearson, Stan Grant to name a few, that I know a lot more about and the context in which they operated. So many insights such as: Charles Perkins – “We don’t live in the past but our past lives with us.”
3. Clearly the message is – doing with rather than doing to. Moreover, aboriginal people working for themselves.”It is about us, and anything’s about us needs to be shaped by us”. Finally, progress needs to be localised and regionalised.
4. I am not alone in struggling with the fact that I am not aboriginal, want to assist/ be involved but don’t know how to go about helping. It is a complex web when we bring in native title and land rights in the context of the Baranga and Uluru statements, potential treaty and the process of Makarrata, Closing the Gap, Truth Telling,The Voice, Co-Design and the Constitution. More recently there is confirmation of the #NgurraPrecinct and the #NationalRestingPlace
5. The Australian Day debate is complex bringing into focus three patterns of thought: Indigeneous heritage, British institutions and our multicultural gift.
6. I have a long way to go, I don’t know where I am going but it is a journey of awareness, knowledge understanding, and hopefully some sort appropriate involvement on my behalf.