Non-Aboriginal people occupying positions of power have always thought that they know what is best for Aboriginal people.
From the earliest days of colonisation to the present, the decisions that shape the lives of Aboriginal people have largely been made by non-Aboriginal people stifling voice and negating opportunities for self-determination and sovereignty.
At a time when Australia is envied for its abundance of material riches, most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to struggle to survive and overcome the ravages of poverty, the contamination of our cultures and traditions, the impact of dispossession and colonialism, and the ongoing effects of racism and socio-political alienation.
All these elements are determinants that, in part, explains the debilitating health and spiritual wellbeing status, including youth suicide, of our people that manifests as what I have labelled 'Spiritual Fatigue'.
Under such circumstances we must ask ourselves why non-Aboriginal Australia and our political leaders remain unable, or unwilling, to accept what is increasingly acknowledged as an essential truth. This reluctance appears to be wedded to another truth moored in white privilege and entitlement, a form of collective cognitive dissonance... and so the suffering continues.
Aboriginal people in Australia have been surviving ill-informed government policies and programs since 1883 when the Board for the Protection of Aborigines was established and later reconstituted as the Aborigines Protection Act in 1909.
Successive generations of Aboriginal people have been forced to endure the tensions around what I refer to as the 80-20 divide ever since. The 80-20 divide, to me, explains the dynamic whereby 80 per cent of the time Aboriginal people are forced to struggle for Aboriginal rights and freedoms and the rest of the time, the 20 per cent, we are forced to defend and/or justify our inherent rights and freedoms as the First Australians.
No binding treaty recognising Aboriginal rights and freedoms exists in Australia as they do in other countries where indigenous people lived before colonisation. These treaties are never perfect and are often dishonoured by the state, but they do aid the quest for Indigenous rights and freedoms.
The COVID-19 global pandemic, the drought, water insecurity and other life-changing challenges are forcing governments, institutions and countries around the world to rethink and re-evaluate age-old, tried and often failed public and social policies. So perhaps the time is right for governments in Australia, and their agencies, to consider a new model that would empower the voices of our people.
Of course, Australia had a unique opportunity to at least begin the process of genuinely listening to indigenous voices with the release of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but poor political leadership and unfounded and disruptive 'third chamber' wedge politics, plus other fear-mongering, got in the way of real progress.
Education and a strong moral foundation are critical to truth telling and the creation of a more just and equitable world.
The incidents that drive the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in Australia and across the world serves as a call for the world to reimagine and to relocate its moral compass.
Transformative education processes emphasise that it is not only important to learn but to unlearn timeworn assumptions and 'truths' that are mired in racism, privilege and oppression.
Equally important is the need for an education of the heart and soul - because it is this form of education, perhaps more than anything else, that liberates silence and empowers voices to challenge human suffering through a newly focused and energised call to action.
Truth telling is pivotal to positive change, but it must be viewed as a process in pursuit of the larger issue of social and racial justice for real and lasting change to occur.
Schools and universities are sites of knowledge creation and of ideas. The University of Newcastle's vice-chancellor and senior leadership have publicly demonstrated their commitment to elevating knowledge about BLM and other associated matters signalling that more needs to be done before the levels of racial injustice and social inequalities are effectively addressed.
So what does culturally grounded education look like and what could its role be in bringing about change?
For Aboriginal people it involves knowledge and skills to live life in safety and with dignity. To embrace, through language and knowledge systems, the teachings embedded in Country. To heed the lessons derived from timeless song-lines, oral traditions and cultures. To know, appreciate and celebrate the interconnected symmetry of all creation and the teachings that have sustained Aboriginal peoples since the beginning of time.
This, coupled with the knowledge and skills derived from non-Aboriginal systems of knowledge, must be the basis upon which growth and development occurs for Aboriginal people and those we share life's journey with.
Nothing more - nothing less.
Professor Bob Morgan, a proud Gumilaroi man and chair of the board of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Research at the University of Newcastle.
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