PM walks ‘new path’ in tackling Indigenous disadvantage

The federal government has been urged not to throw the baby out with the bathwater after defeat in the Indigenous voice referendum.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken of a new focus for Indigenous affairs and economic empowerment, and a “new path” for tackling dispossession and disadvantage.

“We are living with what’s been tried before,” he told the Garma Festival audience in remote Arnhem Land on Saturday.

“We know where the old models take us, we know where the old road leads.

“We have to make a new path, and walk it together.”

It was important the prime minister had upheld his promise of the referendum, former Yes23 campaign manager Dean Parkin said, but the government has a responsibility to the Indigenous communities who asked for a voice.

“The choice we have here is to brush over and throw the baby out with the bathwater and say too bad you mob, even though you exercised your democratic right and voted ‘yes’, that’s just too bad because everyone else voted ‘no’, “he said.

“I don’t think that’s acceptable and I think there’s a responsibility to think about this differently, and at the least to work out what representative structures look like.”

Mr Albanese also announced a First Nations Economic Partnership with the Coalition of Peaks, and a $20 million investment to build the Garma Institute, a tertiary education center owned and run by Yolngu people.

Coalition of Peaks lead convener Pat Turner welcomed the partnership, saying Indigenous people must have a seat at the table for decisions that will affect their lives.

“Creating jobs and fair and sustainable income streams is key to closing the gap and doing so requires a continued focus on the health, education and well-being of our people, alongside the creation of economic opportunities,” she said.

“All of this must be done in a way that centers on the knowledge and experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – governments can not assume they know what’s best for us.”

Yothu Yindi chair Djawa Yunupingu reflected on the referendum during his speech at Gulkula in northeast Arnhem Land, but said Yolngu people are choosing to look to the future.

“Yolngu people are not dismissed for a single event,” he said.

“The land is timeless and powerful, it remains and we remain and I stand here today to tell you we will renew ourselves, not tomorrow, but today.”

“We sought a path to unity and we still seek it, we know that after the fire comes renewal and that goodness rises in the country after the fire has burned through the country.”