Page 4962 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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celebrations in 2019, could the minister please inform the Assembly about the NAIDOC Committee’s recent announcement?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Pettersson for his question. I am very pleased that Canberra will host the national NAIDOC Week celebrations in 2019. The National NAIDOC Committee recently announced the theme for next year’s NAIDOC celebrations. It will be “Voice, treaty, truth—let’s work together for a shared future”. This theme will bring focus to topics of great importance to the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and the ACT government, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities around the country.
NAIDOC Week 2019 will be marked from 7 to 14 July. At the very heart of NAIDOC Week is the spirit of self-determination: a recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the answers.
The impact of this year’s NAIDOC Week theme is still being felt. The theme “Because of her, we can” resonated throughout communities here and across the nation.
Witnessing the profound impact of this year’s NAIDOC Week theme has made the response from some regarding next year’s theme even more disappointing. As Australians have come to expect from the reactionary federal Liberal Party, members of that party have called the 2019 theme divisive. I say to the national NAIDOC Committee: You are welcome in Canberra. Your theme is important to us, and we will listen to and engage with you. We will continue to advocate for the Uluru statement from the heart to be respected and to be acted upon.
The ACT is unique in having an Indigenous voice to parliament, through the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. Australia has much to learn from our experience of an Indigenous voice. I will do what I can to demonstrate how important that voice is to the Assembly and the ACT government, including during NAIDOC Week next year. I look forward to further announcements from the national and ACT NAIDOC committees in relation to next year’s activities.
MR PETTERSSON: Minister, how do this event and theme tie in to the government’s ongoing work with Canberra’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Pettersson for his supplementary. The government is embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions into policy and services across the board. One example of this is the new ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement. Self-determination is the underlying principle of the current agreement and, based on community feedback, will be even more prominent in the new agreement to be established early next year.
For those who are interested in the progress made in developing the new agreement, I would like to take this opportunity to inform both Assembly members and members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that members of the elected body and ACT government officials will be at the AIATSIS market day on 7 and
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