The annual Sunrise Ceremony kicked off January 26 with powerful conversations on the Gold Coast.
Speakers included Professor Chelsea Watego, Thomas Mayor, Rhoda Roberts, Erfan Daliri, Kerry O'Brien, Patrick 'Mau Power' Mau, Nyadol Nyuon and Azmeena Hussain for the event at Coolangatta on Yugambeh Country.
After the panel discussed how they felt about January 26, co-host John Paul Janke shifted the conversation to asking how to challenge the national identity of the country, and asking Professor Watego if the annual marches are one way of changing the conversation.
"Black power has been at the heart of anything that we've achieved," the Munanjali and South Sea Islander woman replied.
"But I think it's important as mob, though, to think less about appealing to this nation to change this story. Because it knows the story. It contests the story. What I'm interested in is the stories that we tell ourselves about each other, and this current climate of Indigenous affairs under Closing the Gap suggests that black lack is the problem here.
"When in fact, we know that black power is the solution to emancipation, irrespective of whether or not the settlers recognise us in any substantive way."
Mununjahli and South Sea Islander woman Professor Chelsea Watego. Source: NITV
"We don't need to close the gap"
Kaurareg, Kalkalgal and Erubamle man and Uluru Statement from The Heart advocate Thomas Mayor agreed.
"The politicians in Parliament definitely know the truth. Because they have the Royal Commission reports on their desks. They do a Closing the Gap report every year that fails. They know the truth," he said.
"It's a matter of ignorance in this country. And the only way that we're going to change that is fundamentally change the structure of this nation, to constitutionalise power for us so that they're forced to listen to us.
"I think that that is the way forward."
Social change consultant Erfan Daliri said to change the conversation "we need to change the language."
"Some of the discourse around closing gaps and reconciliation, it's jumping the gun and it's also setting a false goal and reinforcing the fact that Aboriginals need to be better citizens - which is not what we mean, right. We don't need to close the gap," he said.
But we have to change how we talk about this as well and ensure that it is unmitigated blackness as is touched on in Chelsea's book. We don't need to subsume Indigenous cultures into Australian culture so they can be a success. It's about acknowledging that no, the state is founded on Aboriginal principles and First Nations principles have to plant their sovereignty."
Professor Watego elaborated on the term 'unmitigated blackness', a term coined by African-American author Paul Beatty, which she references in her new book Another Day In the Colony.
Kaurareg, Kalkalgal, and Erubamle man Thomas Mayor. Source: NITV
"He talks about the freedom and no longer being dependant on the validation," she said.
"It appealed to me and for me, in my own life, has given me a sense of freedom of no longer trying to be ten times better - to adhere to the norms that we try to adhere to, because when you do it, it doesn't matter anyway.
"And doing things on our way as we talk about our own terms of reference. And that, to me, on this day, is returning to what are our terms of reference? How do we operate? How do we conceptualise winning as freedom, as success? And it can never be against the settler standards, because we know that they have such a poor moral compass.
Tent Embassy 'sovereignty was never ceded'
Wik and Solomon Islander musician Ziggy Ramo, who approaches important conversations within his powerful songwriting, said understanding the day's history is key.
"Australia Day to me is a symptom of a root issue, that occupancy was acknowledged but ownership wasn't. And when that happened, it removed our humanity," he said.
And so, changing a date - that goes towards a symptom of an occupancy, but we don't want occupancy. We want ownership. We want humanity. We don't want to be dehumanised and to no longer be dehumanised is to give us our rights as humans.
The root of the problem is that even in 2022, we are not acknowledged as humans in our own country, because humans have ownership of ancestral land."
Tribute was then paid to the efforts of all involved in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy throughout its 50 years of resistance, the longest continuing protest for Land Rights in the world, with Bundajung woman Rhoda Roberts detailing her family experience.
"[It was] one of the few times being on our television screens in our everyday lounge rooms, all of a sudden, we heard this new black voice from the Tent Embassy, and I am so proud that my father [Frank Roberts] was there. And some of the words that he spoke with Gough Whitlam actually resonate today," she said.
"Possibly more so than when we think of the past, and he talked about our moral ascendency. But he said - I'm
not asking Aboriginals to be better citizens. I'm asking Aboriginals to be better Aboriginals."
Veteran journalist Kerry O'Brien also remembered the moment.
"What still sticks with me today was the way those various attempts to move them. I can remember at one point, I think even the sprinklers were turned on around them to try to shift them. And back they came. The police move them. They would come back. They're still there today," he said.
"If ever there was a symbol of endurance, of a stubbornness, and of a reminder of that sovereignty was never ceded by first Australians, there it is and still is."
Veteran journalist Kerry O'Brien. Source: NITV
Three decades since the Mabo decision
Patrick Mau, a Maluilgal man from Thursday Island, performed a spoken word tribute to Meriam Man Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo, with 2022 being the 30 year anniversary of the historic Mabo decision.
"The messenger breathes the truth, for the journey, an important one, History was one about birthright,
History will remember this great fight, the moment Terra Nulius abolished, the seat for our people to be acknowledged,
Inspire minds, embrace our heritage, embrace our identity, a warrior stands for his briefs, what is a chief if he never learns to lead,
Carry the flag, that was created for us, and tell our stories to our children,
Believe Koiki said we deserve the best, stand proud and show your strength, and in this moment where you never forget,
Those who fought the battles for us to get respect. Koiki."
Patrick Mau performed a tribute to Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo. Source: NITV
Constitutional voice
Thomas Mayor then articulated how the country can embrace the Uluru Statement.
"We should continue not to take no for an answer and that's what we've done," he said.
"Turnbull tried to dismiss it in the first several months and we just kept organising. We kept organising until we built the power that we couldn't resist it anymore.
And the reason that they knocked back a Voice in the constitutional sense is because they know that that is real power. They know that a Parliament cannot just silence it like it did to ATSIC, like they did to all of the other voices that they've established in the past."
Bundjalung musician Troy Cassar-Daley was then introduced to the show by Narelda Jacobs and he performed 'Shadows on the Hill' from his latest album 'The World Today'.
Multicultural perspective
Lawyer and Human Rights Advocate Nyadol Nyuon and lawyer Azmeena Hussain OAM were introduced into the discussion to provide more multicultural perspectives and asked about their feelings on the day.
“I came to Australia as a refugee in 2005, and I think it's always a conflicting feeling because on the one hand you're grateful to have come to a country and begin a new life, and you know, having been born and raised in a refugee camp, but on the other hand, you came to a country with a conflicted history with its Indigenous peoples," Ms Nyuon said.
"I think there is a lot of responsibility on us as migrant communities to not only educate ourselves about the larger context about Australia history but also hold itself accountable in how we participate in perpetuating, I suppose, notions that continue to be detrimental for First Nations people. And I think that's a really complicated feeling to have."
Musician Ziggy Ramo wants self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Source: NITV
Ms Hussain said it's "quite a sad day."
"It most certainly is not a day that is inclusive of everyone," she told NITV.
"I remember growing up, participating in Australia day celebrations- never were we taught about the true history of Australia. It was only in my days at university that I began to learn about the confronting & brutal realities of our nation's story.
As a non-Indigenous woman, it’s important that I and my community are a strong ally with our Indigenous community if we are serious about our commitment to equality & reconciliation."
Gumbaynggirr and Yamatji singer/songwriter Emma Donovan and her brother Tommy then performed 'Yarian Mi Tji' - a song by the late Aunty Ruby Hunter which tells the story of how she was taken from her home at Coorong, and her return.
"I don't want survival - I want thrival!"
Narelda Jacobs then asked Rhoda Roberts about the phrase 'Welcome to Country' which she came up with.
"People have been doing it but we just gave it a name," she said.
"We know that many of our fellow countrymen and women come from other places where they too are First Nations people. So I think calling Country wherein the old ways people would walk that songline, announce themselves to enter that border country, and would be invited in.
"We have the capacity to continue that and indeed invite - you know, the newer Australians that are coming into this nation and to also acknowledge that they, too, come from a cultural heritage.
Professor Watego then elaborated on the notion of 'having to be polite' and whether that makes change.
"No, it doesn't. This tone for releasing the requirement to be palatable I find it - what it does is it
brutalises us," she said.
"There's not just the requirements of being polite but there is this refusal to allow us to occupy certain positions. So, as an Aboriginal woman and as an academic, every day I encounter this sense that I'm not meant to be there and that I have no authorised claim.
"So not only do we have to be polite but we're not even allowed into the same places to occupy those same positions."
Ziggy Ramo performed a rendition of 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' before revealing he was about to become a first-time father. He discussed what type of Australia he would want to bring a child into.
I want one where we're not... We're not responding from a place of trauma," he said.
"I want the full range of emotions allowed to be experienced and conveyed for each and every one of us. I don't think that we should have to constantly operate from a place of trauma.
"I don't want survival. I want thrival!"
The panellists were then asked for their final comments and calls to action.
Kerry O'Brien
Social change consultant Erfan Daliri. Source: NITV
"I think that the great tragedy of the Uluru Statement right now is that we have such dearth of political leadership, of real leadership in this country, that the wonderful document sits there as a way to a genuine reconciliation and a solution to a real embed structure for the future," said Kerry O'Brien
Thomas Mayor
"We need to get political. With the need to talk to the younger generations about being political. We've got an opportunity coming up. There's a Federal Election soon. And what are the party's commitments to holding a referendum in the next term? Because that's where the real transfer of power will happen - when we structurally change this country."
Rhoda Roberts
"I think that Uluru Statement from the Heart was written by doctors, lawyers, nurses, health workers, writers, filmmakers, artists, musicians, housewives. It was written by our people - the experts. And it needs to be heard."
Chelsea Watego
"I'm not really a great fan of hope. I'm not sure that I'm invested in solutions so much, because when we talk about solutions, inevitably, Blackfellas are framed as the problem. I'm not interested in mountain top moments.
What I'm interested in is strategising, particularly with Blackfellas ... we need to strategise in how we do not just survive, as Ziggy said, but thrive in this place. And central to that is the building back of our black collectives and our black communities.
And I think as blackfellas, on this day as we come together, is to think about the future, not appealing to whiteness, but building black power."
Ziggy Ramo
"I want self determination and ownership moving forward, and I also think that needs to happen with the wider Australia. Ownership of the truth. We know it and it's time to own it."
Erfan Daliri
I think all Australians need to own this movement towards sovereignty and justice for the First Nations Australians. And by all Australians, I mean those who identify as people of colour, as much as I dislike that phrase," he said.
"I think our existence on this earth, if we're not First Nations Australians, is still built on other people's suffering. So we need to come together and recognise that there is really no need for us to allow prejudice or fragility or shame or built to get in the way of us being able to build a cohesive society."
Troy Cassar-Daley and Emma Donovan closed the show with a rendition of 'Solid Rock'
"Standin' on sacred ground, livin' on borrowed time, and the winds of change, are blowin' down the line"
