Page 4719 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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(b) ACT has an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, to enable the community to have a strong democratically elected voice;
(c) Speaker makes a formal recognition that the Assembly is meeting on the lands of the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians each sitting day; and
(d) ACT is the only jurisdiction to hold a public holiday for Reconciliation Day;
(3) further notes the:
(a) ACT Greens MLAs also have a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which commits them to lodging this motion in the Assembly;
(b) Australian Labor Party has a national RAP, launched in December 2018; and
(c) Canberra Liberals have developed a policy document titled Improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of the ACT; and
(4) calls on the ACT Legislative Assembly to:
(a) use a Ngunnawal language introduction at the beginning of each Assembly sitting day;
(b) consult with members of the UNEC and other Ngunnawal Elders in order to agree on the appropriate use of words;
(c) make cultural awareness training available to all Members of the Assembly, including in the correct pronunciation of the agreed words;
(d) use these Ngunnawal words to formally recognise that the Assembly is meeting on the lands of the Ngunnawal traditional custodians each sitting day, by the end of the Ninth Assembly; and
(e) amend the standing orders accordingly and ensure that the words are accurately reflected in the daily Minutes of Proceedings and Hansard.
It is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak to this item of Assembly business. Firstly, I, too acknowledge the elders present in the chamber, and I say yumalundi—welcome. As a member of this Legislative Assembly I pay my respects to you and to the elders who have come before you. I thank you for your ongoing contributions to our community and your nurturing of emerging elders. I thank you for the ongoing education that you provide regarding your language and your culture, and I look forward to learning more over the coming years as more knowledge is recovered and shared.
The other reason I have great pleasure in speaking about this item today is that I know that there is tripartisan support and agreement to introduce a Ngunnawal language acknowledgement of country on sitting days across the Assembly. I thank the co-sponsors of this motion for joining me in bringing it forward. This is the first time in the history of this Assembly that a motion has been co-sponsored by all three parties. This signifies that in spite of our political differences on the issue of recognition of our local Aboriginal people, the Ngunnawal people, we are united, as we should be.
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