Page 2606 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 August 2019
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The ACT was again represented among the national award winners, with this year’s female elder of the year being Aunty Thelma Weston. Aunty Thelma has worked as a health worker at Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal health and community service for the past 10 years and, at 83 years of age, continues to work on the needle exchange program, supporting some of the most vulnerable people in her community. Aunty Thelma has been a dedicated advocate for improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes and is doing Canberra proud as well as her people, the Meriam people of the Torres Strait. Congratulations to Aunty Thelma on this well-deserved recognition for her work in the community.
It was a real privilege to be in the room with so many people making such valuable contributions to the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
MS CODY: Minister, how did the ACT community respond to the 2019 theme, “Voice. Treaty. Truth”?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Cody for the supplementary question. The 2019 NAIDOC theme invites us all to engage in an important conversation about recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s unique place in Australian history and society, both in the past and today, and a desire for meaningful agreements such as treaties and truthful telling of our shared history.
This theme was embraced by the Canberra community and prompted many important conversations, including about treaty for the ACT. The government believes that the path towards a treaty must be guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and particularly the traditional custodians of the land. We will work with the traditional custodians and the broader ACT community on treaty and support a joint understanding of the opportunity for and implications of a treaty process for the ACT.
During NAIDOC Week I had the pleasure of attending an ACT NAIDOC luncheon co-hosted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, the elected voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Canberra. At the luncheon Jeff McMullen AM, award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker, hosted a conversation about recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their aspirations for self-determination.
This conversation with Aunty Roslyn Brown, co-chair of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, and Richard Frankland, singer-songwriter, playwright and filmmaker, provided an insight into what treaty means, drawing on the example of Victoria’s journey in establishing a treaty and offering some reflections on what our own path to a treaty might look like.
This year’s theme and the events held across the week enabled celebration as well as conversations, and importantly enabled truth telling led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the community.
I note as an example the NAIDOC event at Dickson College which has been reported on today. As part of a school assembly a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
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